vcsTogether – Achieving together, Ludham January 2007

The day's events

Chair: Leigh Vallance, Chief Executive, BREAK

A lively blend of inspirational and directly practical discussions and debates. Theme was the achievements of the sector and the reasons why it needs to communicate them clearly.

A brief summary of the Forum’s activities since the previous meeting in Wells, followed by a humorous and impressive run-through of The Benjamin Foundation’s rapid development from start up organisation to major player on the North Norfolk scene.

Brian Horner explained the recent research data that has quantified the size and economic impact of the sector in the county - 3,994 voluntary and community organisations, contributing an economic value of at least £28 million; 91,470 volunteers giving 5.5 million hours a year.

Ann Blackmore from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations gave the national perspective and re-emphasised the value of the sector stressing its economic value – a larger employer than agriculture; its social value – its inclusiveness and ability to reach ‘the hard to reach’; its political value – volunteers are more likely to vote; and its added value – its ability to innovate and deliver imaginative solutions. A discussion and question and answer session followed.

Getting these values across – and raising the profile of the sector – by using the news media was discussed by Richard Batson, of the North Norfolk News. He gave a very focused and practical set of steps to follow to improve the chances of getting media coverage.
The day concluded with a description of the District Council’s Active Communities Team and its support for community development in the area from Maureen Clarke.

Full Report of the day

Who was there - contact list - Word   pdf

Andrew Campbell, Norwich and Norfolk Voluntary Services (NVS)
Forum Update –

Forum is actively:

• Identifying practical support needs
and
• Helping to improve the operating climate

Over 300 organisations on its database - strength from coming together.

New ways of developing support are being explored:

• A Big Lottery bid through the BASIS programme is still waiting to be determined (announcement due by end of January 07?). If successful would enable two development workers to be employed in the area to provide one to one and other support for organisations.

• Some one to one support is currently being provided with funds through Capacity Builders and Investing in Communities.

• Funding Circles - being tried in Cromer and Holt in collaboration with the area partnerships of those towns.

• Polly Hind, Volunteering Development Worker, , is working with organisations to develop good practice in volunteer management across the district.

• The Forum is represented on the North Norfolk Community Partnership (the LSP for the area) and has representatives on the grants panel and the scrutiny panel.

• Separately we are represented on the district council’s Play Partnership

• We’re also developing the way the Forum functions facilitating a re-launch of a forum for community transport operators.

• Promoting an accessibility event in North Walsham on March 26 to draw attention to the Disability Equality Duty and explore ways that the sector wants to gather - and feed its views and those of the people it supports - into the monitoring of Disability Equality Schemes

• A research exercise to provide more North Norfolk specific information about the sector will complement the county-wide exercise ‘The Sector Counts’

The steering group for the Forum is currently being re-formed following its first year of operation. Nominations are invited from any Forum members, to fill the 20 places on the group. Nominations close on Friday 19 January.

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Richard Butler, The Benjamin Foundation
From Little Acorns.... with faith and hard work – developing a small local charity

The Benjamin Foundation recognizes the need to promote itself in order to communicate with its various audiences - not just what it does but also its vision. Its brand is an essential asset.

The organization has experienced rapid growth in the period since its start in 1994. It now delivers services for people way beyond providing accommodation for homeless young people.

Its visions is to be recognized as a growing organization, focused, relevant to the local community and diverse.

The Foundation has a strong focus on partnership working and continues to work with a cross-section of the voluntary sector. It believes the sector is stronger together than as individual organizations and the benefits of being heard will be greater if the voice is co-ordinated.

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Brian Horner, Norwich and Norfolk Voluntary Services (NVS)
The Sector Counts – but what does it do?

NVS is the largest organisation in the county providing support for organisations in the voluntary and community sector. It has volunteers centres in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Thetford. It delivers a range of services using volunteers and provides advice and support for voluntary and community organisations. These include running several forums and representing the sector viewpoint on boards.

There are a range of current national initiatives that are impacting on the sector:
Government white paper on local government
Third Sector review
Change Up programme
Local Area Agreements.

It was to provide base-line information for the Local Area Agreement targets that the research exercise ‘The Sector Counts’ was commissioned. The research found that – throughout Norfolk – there are 3,994 voluntary and community organisations, 58% of which have an income of less than £5,000. There are 91,470 volunteers, contribute 5.5 million hours a year. This has an economic value of at least £28 million. Furthermore 88% of voluntary organisations in the county rely on volunteers.

Voluntary organisations in the county employ 13,800 people - more than there are employed in agriculture.

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Ann Blackmore, National Council for Voluntary Organisations
The value of the voluntary sector: Recognition Is Strength

Values are fundamental to the sector. They are what makes the sector different, but do we know what those values are and what the sector is? Does it matter?

It does matter if we are trying to explain to others what we do. When we have a better understanding, we can communicate it to the public.

And the Treasury wants it – but there is a danger that the pressure to define what we do comes from government.

Funders want to know – and they are important. Need to be clear whether we are accountable to our funders or our service users?

Donors and volunteers need to know. There is a consistent 70-75% public confidence rating for the sector (journalists about 15%) – but it would not take much to undermine this.

The general public need to know that we have values. And there is ample evidence to show that the more people know about an organisation, the more ‘buy-in’ they get. So tell people what you do.

Vol orgs are vital to local papers. But when you use the media, be professional and always remember it’s the values and motivation for what you do that drives your actions.

If we talk about values we need to be clear about what values it is we are measuring. Is the economic value? We are an important sector providing more employment than the agricultural sector.

Is it our social value? We are very good at involving people and engaging with those that other groups find it hard to reach.

But beware – it can’t be assumed that a voluntary organisation will actually do the things it says it will. Some are very good, others …….

Is it political value? We have political value. Government talks about public service delivery – we talk about advocacy. We are good at arguing for a service. People who volunteer are also more likely to vote. We must use these things for our advantage; it’s not what we are here for, but it is a by-product. The government wants a 5% increase in volunteering. We are not here to deliver the political agenda.

The role of elected representatives – whether in government or at a local level is to balance competing voices. The job of the voluntary sector is to be heard.

The voluntary sector brings a different way of delivering a service. Are we valued as a skilled and professional service? If so people are prepared to pay; if not we are just well-meaning amateurs.

We don’t do equity – we target services for people most in need. We can’t provide universal services. We don’t do democratic accountability, but we are accountable.

We need to demonstrate out value. It’s not enough to say we the voluntary sector therefore we are good. We must be able to provide evidence. But this does not always need to be onerous. Pictures are valuable

We must not lose our ability ot be flexible and to innovate.

General discussion about the issues raised:
Branding needs to be appropriate to the locality. Do we have the capacity to build brand and deliver the service?

Necessary to know your audience.
There is a requirement for service sharing – publicity, fundraising, recruitment, payroll.
Need to change the perception of the sector as amateur. We need to be accepted as professional. Need professional development to do this.
We need to include more than health and social care organisations, and include sport and recreation too.
We need sustainability of funding – 3-5 years is essential. But we need to be aware that there is not enough money to go round and it is going to get tighter.
Yes the forum works – especially for networking.
The Forum can be motivational as a network.

Communication is multi-faceted and among other things we need to be sure that we communicate the value of the voluntary sector back to the sector. Out messages must differentiate between organisations, but beware of commonalities and we must know about the opportunities we have to talk with each other.

Media is not the only answer to becoming better known – in fact in some service areas it is difficult. Word of mouth will always be strong.

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Richard Batson – Chief Reporter, North Norfolk News
Good Works, Good News?

You've all got stories to tell. You just need to realise what they are, and tell the journalists about them.

1 Have you got a story?
+New initiative being launched? (new campaign or money raising appeal, support scheme, transport link)
+ An update on an earlier initiative (year on - success?)
+ Preview of major event or initiative coming up
+ money raising event - preview it, cover it live - don't wait for cheque presentation!
+ human interest angle - success story of a client or a volunteer
+ New research/ survey
+ get the backing of a local MP or celebrity
+ is there a link into national stories - a new report child poverty / funding cutbacks

Case studies and pictures always help.

2 Who are the local media?

Newspapers - from EDP and EEN plus all our sister weeklies - with their related websites - to the more localised freesheets - Town and Country/ various town's Times, Independents, Crab Line etc

TV - Anglia / BBC Look east.
Radio - BBC Radio Norfolk/ growing range of commercials - Broadland / North Norfolk Radio

3 Know who their audiences/ readers are:
Look at which ones might suit your target market best. If you are aiming at pensioners, concentrate any radio coverage on Radio Norfolk rather than Broadland,
National papers have different followings - EDP tends to be an older reader, who is interested in their community.

4 How we operate?
EDP local news needs to be of a certain "grade" to get in the limited space available. There are edition pages - four (west, Waveney, nch, the rest) - which are changed to allow more localised news.
In district offices like the one I run at Cromer we try to balance the local news agenda with the wider regional one - a local angle on national story is a boon for the EDP.

Key is to give the material an angle which is of interest to the whole county, so it goes through the whole paper - good human interest story, or an issue which affects not just north Norfolk.

Other freesheets use contributed material

5 Our needs / deadlines?
EDP Daily paper has daily deadlines. Sooner you get stuff to us the better. If you miss the opportunity and it loses its newsworthiness it is useless.
Earlier the day the better - before the team is immersed in breaking events and other commitments.

NNN - comes out on Thursday, printed on a Wednesday, finished on Tuesday tea time, routine stuff by Tuesday morning - but even earlier the better.

Events columns - send info 10 days beforehand.
If it might make a feature for the magazine sections or something like Let's Talk (an over 50s market), we need to work several weeks ahead.

Radio needs talking voices and noise. They will happily have a chat with someone before or during an event - and does not have to wait for it to happen to provide images to go with the words.
Telly needs picture packages - stuff that moves, has action, emotion, an event or demonstration, and strong interviewees who are comfortable with a TV camera pointing at them.

6 How to keep in touch?
Make yourself known - identify the media around you - so you know them and they know you and your cause
Send your routine newsletters to keep the media in touch with your work - they may see a potential story you have not spotted.
Again - If you know a relevant announcement is coming up flag it up in advance and offer the suggestion of a case study
Look for media specialist reporters –
And if you have experts in their field, let the media know - they will be grateful to have an authoritative local voice they can tap into.

Check if your contact prefers faxes or e-mails, or just a quick chat on the phone.

If we ring up seeking a comment and you are not sure of the facts - simply offer to phone back in a few minutes when you have collected your thoughts or sought some advice

Just because a journalist has covered you once, with a sympathetic positive bent, doesn't mean they are a lifelong supporter.
However - that story means the journalist understands more about your cause than when he started.

Press releases should have:

Press release at the top
Immediate release or embargoed
Simple facts
Clearly set out
Short sentences
No flowery language.
No jargon
One side of A4 max
W's - who, what, where, when and why

Some advice says don't try to write the story (that's the journalist's job) - but if you have got the skills to do an oven ready release it can score with the freesheets, who often use them verbatim.

Put in a quote from a spokesman

Don't assume they know about your organisation - spell out briefly what it does
Add some extra facts / statistics/ history about your cause - and where people can contact it (and or donate money) through a phone number or website

Pick spokespeople who know their stuff and can explain it with clarity and enthusiasm - particularly for radio and TV
Make sure there is a contact to answer any queries, or be available for follow up interviews - preferably a mobile and ensure the person is not on holiday (pet hate of mine, happens regularly).

Are you media savvy?

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Maureen Clarke, North Norfolk District Council
Your Community .. Your SHOUT! -

To get your message out, you need to start internally so that your organisation understands what it is about and agrees the vision.

The Active Communities Team covers, Community Safety, Community Development, Health, Local Strategic Partnerships, Youth engagement.

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