Time to give The City Bridge Trust Annual Review 2008 Registered Charity 1035628 Diversity and Volunteering The changing face of volunteering Building Community Cohesion Timebanking for mutual benefit Business and Passion Don’t Mix? The Pilotlight Scheme Eco-Volunteering Helping London’s environment Victims and Vengeance Tackling violence and its roots a Contents 01 Introduction 02 Overview of our grant-making 04 Why Volunteering? 06 Releasing the value of volunteering 08 Diversity and Volunteering 10 A Volunteer, but not an Amateur 12 Building Community Cohesion 14 Business and Passion Don’t Mix? 16 Eco-Volunteering 18 Volunteers in the Criminal Justice System 20 Victims and Vengeance 22 Leadership and Reconciliation 24 and finally… 26 Total grants spend by London borough 27 List of grants approved 2007/08 31 Overview of grant-making 32 The City Bridge Trust b Introduction Mission Bridge House Estates The City Bridge Trust aims to address The City of London Corporation is the sole trustee of Bridge disadvantage by supporting charitable House Estates which reaches out across London in many activity across Greater London through quality grant-making and related important and diverse ways. This review concentrates on its grant- activities within clearly defined priorities. making operation, the City Bridge Trust, but the core business Our values of the Estates, for many centuries, has been looking after its Independence bridges. Bridge House Estates in some cases built, and now As an independent trust we have maintains, five of the bridges that cross the Thames into the City an important role to play in a of London – London Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge, pluralist society. Tower Bridge and the Millennium Bridge. The maintenance and Inclusion replacement of these bridges remains the prime objective of this We value diversity. ancient charity. Fairness We are committed to fairness and The City Bridge Trust transparency in our grant-making. This review looks at the Trust’s grant-making and ancillary activities We believe in consulting widely and in 2007/08. Also available is the Trustee’s Annual Report and regularly so that we can respond Financial Statements which contains the full annual statement to changing needs. We value of accounts and auditor’s report. user involvement in the delivery of services. We know that more can A detailed account of our structure, governance and management be achieved through collaboration is also found in the Trustee’s Annual Report. Our risk management with other funders and with the third sector. We aim to treat applicants statement, reserves policy and other requirements of SORP 2005 with courtesy, respect and offer are in the same document. a speedy and efficient service. Copies and further information are available from: The City Bridge Trust City of London PO Box 270 Guildhall London EC2P 2EJ 020 7332 3710 [email protected] www.citybridgetrust.org.uk 1 Overview of our grant-making 319 grants awarded £16.9m total value 2 Message from the Chairman of the City Bridge Trust Committee It is with more than a tinge of sadness ‘Opening Doors Across London’ reviewed that I write my last foreword as the outcomes of twelve years of grant- Chairman of the City Bridge Trust as making on our ‘Access to Buildings’ my term of office ends in April 2008. programme. The starting point was that In July, we commenced our Quinquennial refurbishing a building to create access for Policy Review. The Review looked back at disabled people, was likely to be one of the lessons learnt from the work undertaken by most difficult things that an organisation the 2,153 organisations funded over the last attempts to do. Based on the experience five years. We also scanned the horizon with of organisations which we have funded, a ‘futures’ exercise looking at what might we shared the practical steps which happen and also what we would want to can improve the outcomes and reduce happen to improve life for Londoners. the stress. The changing face of London’s social This year we have developed the landscape made it essential to refine and ‘magazine-style’ of our annual review. re-focus our programmes in the light of new Our theme is ‘Volunteering’, vital to all our needs. The terrible events of 7 July 2005 grant programmes and essential for a have left an indelible shadow over London. healthy, civil society. I hope you will enjoy it. How best to promote community cohesion Finally, we are fortunate in having a was a major deliberation in our review. highly professional and committed staff Online consultation, a half-day team. I thank them and the members of the conference and numerous meetings with Grants Committee for all their hard work. third sector leaders, other grant-makers and It is with great confidence that I hand over policy makers have guided us. We thank all the Chairmanship to Deputy Joyce Nash in of you who gave so generously of your time. April 2008. I am delighted to say I will serve The outcomes are programmes building as Deputy Chairman and that we all look on your and our experience but also include forward to rolling out our new programmes new themes. These will be launched in next year. July 2008. The review took nine months to complete and whilst we closed for new applications on 1st October 2007, we still awarded 319 grants (£16.9 million), rather more than William Fraser, OBE in 2006 (307). This is consistent with the Chairman number of grants awarded in previous years. The City Bridge Trust Committee 2007 was a landmark year in many respects. We are committed to sharing our learning and this year produced two editions of ‘The Knowledge – Learning from London’. ‘Greening the Third Sector’ re-cycled findings from our pilot study of environmental audits of a dozen different charities across the Capital. The result was practical tips on how organisations can reduce their carbon footprint. 3 Below and right: The City Bridge Trust team doing its bit. COMMISSION ON THE FUTURE OF VOLUNTEERING OUR VISION Our vision is of a society in which we will be united by our common concern for the well being of others; a society in which we enrich our own lives by enriching the lives of others through the giving of time. This may be through offering services to individuals, or it may be through working for a better society in other ways. Our vision, ultimately, is that volunteering becomes part of the DNA of our society – it becomes integral to the way we think of ourselves and live our lives, and we are inspired to contribute in this way. Our aim is for a culture change in society so that helping others and benefiting from a culture of mutual dependence becomes a way of life, from which the whole of society benefits. We would like to see a society where not volunteering would be seen as missing out on something that was life enhancing, enjoyable and useful. Being able to make a contribution by giving time, and deriving satisfaction and enjoyment from doing so, makes volunteering truly a ‘win-win’ situation... Baroness Neuberger DBE, Chair of the Commission 4 Why Volunteering? Our previous Annual Reviews, inevitably, have been written from a grant-making perspective. We have discussed how best to add value, to share our knowledge and how to distribute funding wisely, efficiently and with maximum impact. In the heat of the debate about what is the the Voluntary and Community Sector’, most appropriate role for a grant-making we awarded 6 grants totalling £600,000 trust, it is easy to forget that grant-making specifically to infrastructure organisations, is not an end in itself. This review is about supporting volunteering. our grant-making and volunteering – too Ordinary people doing extra-ordinary often overlooked, undervalued or taken things for granted. Volunteering opportunities, like volunteers, Why volunteering now? come in all shapes and sizes. The range The Commission on the Future of and breadth of the volunteering work which Volunteering, chaired by Baroness we have funded is staggering. The work Neuberger DBE, reported in January 2008. described bears testament to the value of We want to do our bit, as funders, to raise volunteering. It helps individuals, bridges the profile of volunteering and its value. Next communities and is a powerful expression year we will take this further and put valuing of good citizenship. I hope you will enjoy volunteering as a cornerstone of ‘good reading more. practice’ in all of our programmes. What motivates volunteers? Altruism – of course. But it can be fun. It can also help your CV if you are a young person aspiring to go to ‘uni’. It can be a route into Clare Thomas, MBE employment. It develops your skills. It can Chief Grants Officer help provide structure and meaning for older retirees. There is no single ‘right or wrong’ motivation and the work described later illustrates this. This year we have funded hundreds of Detailed policies, overall strategy and projects involving thousands of volunteers. achievements of the City Bridge Trust We know that volunteers need to be valued, are found in Bridge House Estates trained and properly supervised. That’s Annual Report 2008. why, on our programme ‘Strengthening 5 6 Releasing the value of volunteering Volunteering is big news. Over 20 million people get involved each year, giving 100 million hours of time a week, with a notional economic value to the economy of some £40 billion per annum. Volunteering is increasingly recognised as being good for society in building strong, cohesive communities, and good for the individual in building skills and confidence and improved physical and mental well-being.