Suppor ng and Developing a Vibrant Voluntary Sector Annual Impact Report 2015 - 2016 Findagroup 650 £5,736,672 546 groups supported raised for community and voluntary organisa ons RCT groups and 187 Merthyr groups uploaded onto Findagroup Community Coordinators 100% 262 increase in the knowledge volunteers placed of services off ered by voluntary sector organisa ons and community groups Involve 2 Evolve Community Voice 52 involvement hours grew to over The number of people that report that services are better training courses 1,000 meeting their needs 572 at the Living Wage that equates to 1535 £8,250 learners but it is worth much more than that! Abundant Communi es The Diff erence We Make Together Welcome We believe listening to people and communi es is OUR OUTCOMES at the core of tackling poverty and improving Individuals, communi es and organisa ons wellbeing. Interlink works with community and voluntary organisa ons to involve people in • Promote wellbeing due to increased addressing the challenges they face. Due to volunteering, community connec vity and ongoing austerity and a reduc on in community community ac on. services, we are faced with providing more support • Are resilient as a result of building social to those most in need of help. Community and capital and strong and sustainable community voluntary organisa ons are expected to deal with and voluntary groups. • Have the informa on, advice, support and an endless number of challenges, to con nue to do training to be eff ec ve. more with less, to be resilient. • Are well connected. However, Rhondda Cynon Taf has an abundance of • Contribu on to local decision making is excep onal community and voluntary organisa ons meaningful, recognised and valued. that constantly rise to these challenges. We are constantly amazed by how much is achieved Plans for the Year were set out in the Strategic with very li le money. We do have assets and Delivery Plan 2014-15. The Plan was tled Building resources, they are the people and the communi es Stronger Communi es ‘suppor ng and connec ng of RCT. The contribu on of volunteers is people and communi es in RCT.’ immeasurable. We believe that we can tackle poverty and improve Our Collec ve Impact Report is not about Interlink, wellbeing by working together and harnessing the as we can achieve nothing without the support of huge amount of knowledge and skills held by community and voluntary organisa ons and our individuals, communi es and organisa ons in RCT. partners. The support we get is truly excep onal. Interlink provides informa on, advice and support We thank each and every one of you. to individuals and community and voluntary groups in Rhondda Cynon Taff . Interlink is a charity with over 450 members and is called a County Voluntary Jean Harrington Simon James Council. Chair, Interlink Chief Execu ve Offi cer Our three main areas of work are: Community Advice - ‘Giving communi es all the informa on and support they need’ Community Volunteering - ‘Suppor ng Interlink has volunteering to happen’ Community Voice - ‘Suppor ng people and 482 communi es to be involved’ members 1 Impact Collec ve Impact Report 2015/16 How we supported volunteers, community groups and voluntary organisa on in 2015/16 ‘We put people and communi es at the 100 centre of everything new services and we do.’ organisa ons supported 650 52 groups supported training courses 572 learners 2 Every Li le Bit Helps We helped provide 32 organisa ons in small grants in 2015/16 Community Advice The Team provide an incredible amount of in depth support and training in areas such as se ng up new groups and legal structures, business planning, reaching out to the wider community, and funding. Taff Ely Wind Farm Fund £2,500 194 Interlink people a ending Development funding events Fund £5,000 £5,736,672 raised for community and voluntary organisa ons £3,500 RCT Together CommunityComm Ac on Fund 296 £8,400 Trustee Enquiries Gwirvol Youth Grant 3 Volunteering and Voice Our Achievements Volunteering Community Voice We had great success placing volunteers through the Over 6,000 people of all ages and abili es have Volunteer Centre and working with the University been involved, suppor ng people to have a VOICE of South Wales to place students with member and take ac on on things that ma er to them. organisa ons. Interlink RCT coordinates 8 organisa ons to work together to deliver 8 projects to engage people and communi es in public service design and delivery. The programme is all about coproduc on between public services and people who use these services. The lessons learnt from this approach will inform 262 the Local Service Board and all partners about volunteers placed meaningful engagement in designing and developing public services. The number of people that report that services are better 187 meeting their needs enquiries on good 1535 prac ce in managing volunteers Over 100 ‘Thank you for the opportunity and valuing ons my views.’ Young Person Glyncoch student volunteers placed in community organisa ‘Volunteering is fun and enjoyable, it helps you to build confi dence and feel posi ve about ge ng back into work.’ 4 Findagroup and Listening Findagroup - community and voluntary sector The Listening Project - trained organisa ons in RCT and Merthyr can now promote collectors and captured the experiences from older who they are and what they do through our people and changed the experiences into data. Findagroup. This means we can listen, learn and act on evidence to tackle the concerns of older people. The key issues iden fi ed were loneliness, transport and informa on and advice. 43 volunteer listeners 546 were trained from over 25 organisa ons. RCT groups and 187 Within 3 months of the Merthyr groups training over uploaded onto Findagroup 120 stories had been collected from Older People across Cwm Taf ‘Really good to see so many dedicated people interested in listening to older people and trying to minimise peoples isola on and loneliness.’ ‘This is brilliant! I’ve asked my staff to input all our services and loca ons!’ Upon presen ng the fi ndings, 77% of respondents in a post event survey Membership reported that it had impacted upon or changed 482 their subsequent work ‘What I learned is that a lot of older people are not just concerned about themselves. They are concerned about younger people and the community at large.’ 5 Community Wellbeing A wide range of support took place to engage the Mental Health - Involve 2 Evolve third sector in health, mental health and wellbeing in service development and delivery. INFORM - involved service users working with GP surgeries to raise awareness of how to support pa ents experiencing issues with their mental Community Coordinators - health. We have been able to employ some support have been an overwhelming success, enabling for the project to involve more people and reach out older people to fi nd out about and take part in a further into the community. huge range ac vi es and services in the community to address isola on and loneliness. 97% Statutory partners (UHB, of par cipants at Local Authority, PCSO’s) INFORM reported: training sessions felt the training had increased their 80% awareness of poor mental health reported an increase in the number of referrals made to voluntary organisa ons and community groups Involvement hours grew to over 1,000 at the Living Wage that equates to • 100% increase in the knowledge of services off ered by voluntary sector organisa ons and community groups £8,250 • 73% of respondents reported an increased but it is worth much confi dence in the quality of services delivered by more than that! voluntary organisa ons and community groups Third Sector partners reported: • Number of referrals from Local Authority has increased by 23% ‘I like being involved because we make a diff erence to everyone we meet be it a li le or a • Number of referrals from GP Surgeries has lot we are INFORM us, you, them, everybody. All increased by 30% you need is someone to listen and hear the words • A 27% increase in referrals from social housing that you say.’ Nigel Benne , Volunteer trainer 6 Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Neighbourhoods Men in Sheds - Telecare A place where he feels at Neighbourhood Community Capacity Scheme and Business School home and pursues prac cal (Intermediate Care Fund) of £65,000 was distributed and independent interests between 13 projects has supported 1000’s of older Memories - Merthyr Tydfi l A programme of Music people get help from befriending schemes, demen a Leisure Trust Memories, Dance and services and community ac vi es for older people. Exercise Event and the crea on and launch of a It has helped connect services provided by the Memory Box service voluntary sector, GP’s, nurses and social services. It Doesn’t Have to be Like It Doesn’t Have to be Like The independent evalua on has been extremely This - Valleys Kids This’ is a programme of posi ve, leading to the Community and Voluntary weekly ac vi es engaging Sector being highly valued with addi onal £100,000 65+ in social ac vi es, being secured for 2016/17. excercise and arts and culture Demen a Care Rhondda This project in the Rhondda Fach - Alzheimer’s Fach provide a service for Society people aff ected by demen a ‘Thank you for informing me volunteers were A ernoon Tea - This intergenera onal project needed on Christmas Day at St Fagan’s Church. Troedyrhiw Youth Forum will provide chair exercises, I volunteered with my friend.