Voscur Annual Report 2013/14

1. Supporting Voluntary Action
Celebrating our support for your achievements
Annual review 2013-14
SupportingDevelopingRepresenting

2. Welcome
and Introduction
The year April 2013 – March 2014 has been
another of significant change for Bristol’s
voluntary and community sector.
Bristol City Council proposed budget savings
of £90m. Welfare reform has impacted our
communities and increased demand on
frontline organisations. Mental health, hate
crime, and home care services have been
re-commissioned with greater expectations
from commissioners of collaboration and
partnership working. Our Local Enterprise
Partnership has been developing its plans to
secure investment for economic growth.
Against this background, Voscur has
been changing the way it supports local
organisations practically and strategically.
On a practical level, our Kick Start course for
new groups has helped many of our city’s
new communities help themselves and find a
voice. A wide range of organisations are now
stronger and more sustainable as a result of
one-to-one sessions with our Support Hub
team. Our training programme has evolved to
reflect the changing needs of members and
the wider sector. We have supported groups
through decommissioning processes, and
helped them to identify alternative income
streams.
Strategically, we continued to use Compact
principles to improve local commissioning
by influencing key decision-makers. Ex-
Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, attended
our round table in July, and Bristol’s Mayor
addressed our conference ‘Commissioning
from the VCS.’ Now we’re following-up these
events to ensure public bodies make their
procurement processes inclusive for smaller
organisations, and prove George Ferguson
right when speaking about commissioning
from the VCS: “Let’s get rid of the idea that
big is safe and small is risky.”
Working with the Council’s Equalities team,
Voscur designed and delivered a budget
consultation event for equalities groups
and VCS organisations, and incorporated
the results into a constructive response to
the Mayor’s initial draft budget. This helped
to improve the final budget by reinstating
proposed cuts to community investment
and community transport grants, deferring
As a result of this work,
Voscur, Bristol City Council
and Bristol Compact were
shortlisted for the national
Compact Impact Award
for working in partnership
to resolve commissioning
issues.

3. 1
and better targeting reductions in health and social care, and preserving support for equalities and older people.
The impact and achievements of the sector were celebrated at our Annual Conference in November, when the Lord Mayor presented the Voscur awards. Our merger with Volunteer Bristol in December signalled the start of a new chapter in developing and championing voluntary action for the whole city’s benefit.
Of course our work would not be possible without the investment and commitment of Bristol City Council. We would like to thank them, and our skilled and resourceful team of staff, volunteers and trustees. Finally, thanks to you, our members, for continuing to support us to support you. We’re stronger together.
Wendy Stephenson, Chief Executive
Richard Pendlebury, Chair
Wendy Stephenson, Chief Executive
Richard Pendlebury, Chair
@bcfm
@voscur Great people doing great work supporting #voluntary and #community action in #Bristol. #OneLove.

4. Proving our
Value
2
How do you prove the value of an
infrastructure organisation like Voscur?
We worked with the University of Bristol,
as part of a South West Forum research
project, to answer that question. This year the
University completed gathering and analysing
independent evidence of the economic and
social value and impact of our work.
The University’s final report stated:
“The research produced strong qualitative
evidence of Voscur’s practical and strategic
value to both Voluntary, Community and
Social Enterprise organisations and
commissioners/funders.
The VCS organisations considered Voscur
services were effective and believed that
they had made a substantial contribution
to the development of their organisations.
Respondents cited the importance of Voscur
providing a central support for frontline
groups, their role in championing the sector,
their ability to connect groups with each other
and specific agencies, their responsiveness
and their independence. All of these were
perceived to help groups maintain and
increase their impact.”
Interviewed as part of the study, VCS
organisations commented:
“Voscur do seem able to open doors and get
in front of people that others are not able to.”
“The advocacy and campaigning that Voscur
does to show our value is really important.”
To estimate the economic impact of Voscur’s
activities we carried out a study incorporating
social return on investment methodology. This
analysis indicates that Voscur’s social return
on investment is £1: £11.82, meaning that
for every pound invested in the organisation,
Voscur creates £11.82 of social value.”
The research concluded that:
“We need to recognise that an investment in
infrastructure saves expenditure later: it saves
government spending on a range of services,
from health to policing, and it increases the
capacity of frontline organisations to do more
with less i.e. increasing social impact without
increasing resources.”
93%
31%
of participants said they
thought Voscur had
contributed to improvements
in their organisation’s
impact or performance.
of respondents would
not know where to go for
support services if Voscur
did not exist.
?

5. 3
Information and
Communcation
Communication underpins all of Voscur’s
activities, and as the way we share
information gradually changes, our services
have utilised new formats to remain timely
and effective: from a quarterly magazine to
websites, from weekly bulletins to Tweets.
These figures illustrate not only changes in
the way we find and use information, but
also Voscur reaching out to new groups
and communities, and utilising new ways of
representing and influencing on behalf of our
members.
These changes are continuous. For example,
following last year’s information survey, we
changed the way our e-bulletin looks and, as
this year’s survey showed, the changes made
it clearer and more usable:
Our quarterly magazine Thrive! is circulated
widely: to local groups, Bristol City
Councillors, public sector partners, all Bristol
public libraries, and on our website. Our
survey showed us that people appreciate the
magazine, and use it as a resource with both
colleagues and clients.
E-bulletin
“Good range of
information, lay out easy to
follow, links very useful.”
“The Voscur jobs area is a
fantastic resource for my
work. I use it to support all
my clients.”
Thrive! magazine
“I share it with others
– hard copies can aid
discussions at meetings.”
“The quality is excellent
and the articles are
interesting.”
For example:
Over 103,000 unique visitors
accessed the Voscur website this
year.
Clocking up over 1.8 million
page-views, and subscriptions to our
weekly email bulletins have risen to
over 2,500.
Our Twitter followers reached over
1,800 this year.

6. Growing your
Influence
4
Voscur’s Voice and Influence team works
to ensure Voluntary and Community Sector
organisations have a strong and influential
voice, and strategic involvement in policy-making.
Through networks, citywide events,
media campaigns and engaging with decision
makers, the team has had a productive year.
VCS advocates
The reach of our Voice and Influence team is
significantly extended by our VCS advocates
who are elected to provide a voice for the
wider sector at strategic partnerships. Our
team helps VCS advocates to ensure that
they reflect the views, knowledge and
expertise of the sector. Find out more about
our Voice and Influence work here:
www.voscur.org/reports
Representing Voluntary Action
Assembly
In July we experimented with the ‘Open
Space’ format at our Assembly conference to
give participants control over the issues that
would be the focus of Voscur’s sector-wide
work plan for the following twelve months.
Among the priorities that emerged were:
• Reducing the Poverty Gap – Vulnerable
Communities
• Commissioning and procurement
• Reclaiming open spaces
The first topic led to an exploration of new
investment models and further work to
increase social investment in the city that will
continue in our 2014-15 work programme.
The second resulted in a number of radio
programmes, using public media to hold
decision-makers to account, and February’s
major conference, ‘Commissioning and the
VCS - One Year On’, designed to make council
commissioning more open to smaller VCS
providers.
The third theme led to Painting the Town Green,
an event focused on creating opportunities
for the VCS to participate in Bristol’s year as
European Green Capital in 2015, and work
to influence investment in new volunteering
opportunities as part of this.
The results of continued work on all three
themes will feature in next year’s achievements.
Widening our reach: community
radio
Although networking and consultation
events have been effective, we decided
that broadcasting discussions and debates
would significantly widen our reach. Close
to 30,000 people listened to a debate on the
Mayor’s budget proposals, and procurement
and commissioning was made real for a radio
audience when VCS groups debated ‘How the
City buys its services’ with Assistant Mayor,
Councillor Gus Hoyt. New approaches such as
this are crucial, we believe, if local democracy
is to engage new generations of citizen.
Representing Action

7. 5
Networks
Child and Young People (CYP): our CYP
network has informed and represented
the VCS in relation to issues including:
Extended Services; Children First; Bristol
Youth Links; community asset transfer; Young
Healthwatch; Raising the Participation Age
and the impact of a growing child population
on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
The network continues to work with the
Raising the Participation Age strategy group,
and gathered VCS intelligence to inform
future developments of the First Response
and Early Help Services.
Health and Social Care (HSC): as public
health services continue to change
significantly, our network has worked to
inform and advocate in relation to the newly
formed Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group,
self-directed support (personalised budgets),
quality assurance, Bristol as a dementia
friendly city and commissioning intentions in
health and social care. It has supported the
sector in influencing the Health and Wellbeing
Strategy, ensuring the views of equalities
groups were heard and acted upon. Concerns
raised within the network led Voscur to
proactively engage with the planning of Home
Care Commissioning to ensure the process
was accessible to smaller providers.
Neighbourhoods and Communities (NC):
priorities for our NC network this year include
improving health providers’ engagement
with Neighbourhood Partnerships, the
City Council’s review of Neighbourhood
Partnerships, the Mayor’s Budget and new
approaches to neighbourhood funding.
Strategic engagement with the
Local Enterprise Partnership
In 2013 eight West of England VCS
infrastructure organisations came together to
discuss the importance of Local Enterprise
Partnership (LEP) investment in social
inclusion as well as economic growth. The
group garnered support from members and
influenced the LEP’s two strategic priorities:
a European Union Structural Investment
Framework and a Strategic Economic Plan.
Local VCS organisations are now recognised
as an important part of the delivery of these
priorities. Voscur has played a key role by
working with partners to combine Big Lottery
and European Union Social Inclusion Funding
into £6m being made available to tackle the
economic consequences of social exclusion
in the West of England.

8. Developing
Voluntary Action
Supporting
the Sector
6
Voscur’s Support Hub helps organisations to
grow and develop in response to changing
need and increased demand for their
services. We offer one- to-one support
sessions, in-depth capacity building support,
practical tools, information and training.
Intensive capacity building
This year the Support Hub team provided
intensive support over several months to
39 organisations. The following examples
demonstrate the diversity of the city’s
voluntary sector, and their range of support
needs, underlining the breadth and depth of
Voscur’s impact.
Aspiration Creation Elevation (ACE)
ACE provides creative educational activities,
targeting young people who are socially and
economically challenged.
ACE completed our Kick Start Your
Organisation course, were matched with a
marketing volunteer, and helped to develop
a three-year business plan. Following our
support, ACE adopted CIC status.
“The support from Voscur gave us tools and
knowledge to really understand our business
and ourselves, resulting in ACE being in a
strong position to be a successful enterprise
for years to come. We hold our work with
Voscur in high regard, and hope to see their
brilliant work continue.”
Women’s Independent Alcohol Support
(WIAS)
WIAS is a new group set up to offer a women-only
environment for women to talk about
their alcohol problems and to improve their
mental, social and emotional health and
wellbeing.
As a result of Voscur’s support, WIAS
became a registered charity and developed a
three-year business plan.
“We learnt an awful lot. If you have access
to an organisation like Voscur, you are able
to gain knowledge about the things you don’t
know and need to know, and where to access
that information, which is invaluable.”
One off support
With the right approach and expertise, many
problems can be solved effectively and
efficiently in one-off sessions, or through
telephone consultation. Our Support Hub
team provided 560 support sessions in this
way.
What people said about our Support Hub
team:
“After a session with a member of staff from
the Support Hub I always feel a real sense of
achievement.”
“It was helpful as it got everyone active and
taking on actions. Before the meeting we
weren’t facing the reality of the situation.”

9. 7
Training
Voscur offers a comprehensive training and events programme providing training at basic, intermediate and advanced levels, designed in response to sector need, identified through a survey, analysis of course feedback and listening to our members. We offer the Kick Start course for new and emerging groups, bespoke training to groups of staff with common needs and our new Mind the Gap lunchtime sessions as bite-sized introductions to timely topics.
Over 750 people took advantage of our training programme this year.
Examples of training courses
Mind the Gap - Policies and procedures
“The information is incredibly relevant and well thought out. The delivery was excellent.”
Writing small fundraising bids
“A very empowering day that has given me an invaluable set of new tools to support the sustainability of my organisation.”
£
Managing an organisation: Leadership skills, Managing for managers, Being a Good Trustee, Recruiting and managing Volunteers, Having difficult conversations, Community Interest Companies
Funding and Financial Stability: Sustainable funding, Writing small funding bids, Business Planning, Commercial Skills for Public Service Delivery, Fund It conference
Marketing and Communication: Presentation skills, Good Practice in Social Media, Communicate! Conference

10. 8
Volunteer Bristol and Voscur formally merged
on 31 December 2013.
Having worked together on numerous
projects, day-to-day operations have changed
relatively little since our merger, but the
integration of volunteer management support
with broader organisational development will
continue as we grow together.
Before our merger, Volunteer Bristol had
developed expertise and experience in
supporting people too often excluded from
volunteering opportunities, such as those in
recovery from substance use or managing
mental health issues. Two new projects are
continuing to develop this organisational
expertise:
Sustain is part of Bristol Drugs Project’s
ROADS initiative and will help people
completing recovery into supported
volunteering.
The Dementia Support Project is an
innovative pilot that aims to understand and
help people with dementia overcome the
barriers they face in terms of volunteering.
The results of this pilot will inform future
support and targeted services for people with
dementia.
The Volunteer Centre’s core service of
matching volunteers to suitable placements
has continued to grow. This year 573
volunteers were matched with volunteer-involving
organisations across Bristol. We
saw an increase in the number of unemployed
people using the service, and many more with
an interest in skills development, enhancing
their CVs and improving their English.
To measure the impact of our work, and
understand the benefits of volunteering for
volunteers, we have tracked a sample over
time.
Volunteer Bristol
and Voscur
38%
44%
reported an increase in motivation
to find work
33%expressed an increase in feeling
part of something they would call a
‘community’
were more confident attending job
interviews
@LinkAge Bristol
Enjoying the
LinkAge Big Thank
You event today in
Bristol@VolBristol
#volunteersweek #v30

11. 9
In order to ensure volunteers reflect
the diversity of the city, we promoted
opportunities at events such as Action on
Disability at Work’s conference and Filwood
Opportunities Fair. We also delivered
‘Introduction to Volunteering’ sessions at
the City of Bristol College, the Prince’s Trust
and the Barton Hill Women’s Group, to give
people who don’t normally volunteer the
knowledge and confidence they need to do
so.
Finally, Boost! - our programme placing
volunteers with professional skills into
organisations in need of particular expertise -
recruited 56 new professionals and arranged
30 placements with local groups. One Boost
volunteer said:
“Boost! was an opportunity to use my skills
and professional knowledge and experience
in some different settings, and make a
difference in areas which really needed my
help. It really helped with my self-esteem at
a point when I was looking for a permanent
job. And it worked, because I now have a
permanent job in Cornwall.’
CarersSupportCentre
Volunteer Bristol @
Voscur enable people
with dementia to lead
active lives by launching
mentored volunteer
scheme

12. BME Voice
and Influence
10
The BME Voice and Influence project aims to
support people from Black and Minority Ethnic
communities to become involved in decision
making in the city. It is guided by an advisory
group that meets quarterly and employs a
BME Community Connector who has been
based within Ujima Radio CIC.
Recognising the need to build and cement
relationships, the Community Connector
visited 46 groups in the first half of the year.
The groups were asked what kind of support
they would need to get involved in decision
making, which led to 21 people attending
Leadership and Presentation skills courses
and 14 people attending Conflict Resolution
and Negotiation skills training.
The Journey from Grants to Contracts, a
meeting attended by 16 organisations raised
awareness of the need to establish dialogue
with BME led organisations about how they
can influence and benefit from commissioning
processes. A special consultation event
was organised for BME elders on Bristol
City Council’s proposals for residential and
day care services and a radio programme
discussing transport issues for BME elders
led to talks with Community Transport
commissioners.
Initiated by the advisory group, a working
group has been established to develop a
Bristol Manifesto for Race Equality. The
Manifesto will include recommendations for
public bodies and help agencies to review
policy and practice.
Through the Local Enterprise Partnership’s
Diversity group we have pressed for an
Equality Impact Assessment to be carried
out on the LEP’s plans to help ensure that all
communities benefit from resources coming
into the city through the LEP.
We will also work with the Green Capital
Inclusion group to ensure that Bristol’s Green
Capital plans are inclusive and reflect Bristol’s
diverse communities.
In partnership with Bristol City Council and
SARI (Stand Against Racism and Inequality)
we planned and organised the BME Fair and
inaugural BME community awards, which
were presented by the Mayor during Black
History Month. The Fair enabled groups to
showcase their impact through presentations
and stalls, to an audience of 200 people.
The year culminated in a conference, ‘Feeling
Bristolian and Thriving Together’, held at the
Rose Green Centre delivered in partnership
with Bristol Multi Faith Forum and Bristol
Somali Forum. Themed workshops offered
discussions on Neighbourhoods, Education,
Health and Employment. Issues and concerns
raised at the conference will inform our next
year’s work programme.

13. Making
Connections
11
Mutually beneficial collaboration and co-design,
both between the voluntary, public
and private sectors, and among voluntary
organisations themselves, is an important
part of the environment in which we work.
It is part of Voscur’s strategic purpose to
help establish relevant partnerships, and to
support VCS organisations to get the most
out of them. This has been particularly the
case at a time when new bodies, such as
the Local Enterprise Partnership (see page
5) and Clinical Commissioning Group, have
been grappling with their own roles, and how
best to work with voluntary organisations.
This year we have started to see the fruits of
brokering and nurturing these relationships,
and we’ll continue to support their growth into
the future.
Modernising mental health
Voscur supported the commissioning of a
new generation of mental health services
and helped in the formation of delivery
partnerships. Nilaari, SARI, the Somali
Resource Centre and Windmill Hill City
Farm are now among a range of smaller
organisations providing mental health
services for Bristol Clinical Commissioning
Group.
Building health partnerships
Voscur’s partnership project; working
with NHS England, Navca, Bristol Clinical
Commissioning Group and Social Enterprise
UK, has helped local organisations to
work with NHS staff on various initiatives:
reducing falls among older people, better
managing diabetes among communities that
are particularly susceptible to the condition and
increasing their ability to bid collaboratively for
NHS service contracts.
Our many connections and their commitment
to Bristol’s voluntary and community sector
have strengthened our support offer this year.
We thank Avon and Bristol Law Centre, ACTA,
Alcohol Recovery Agency, Brewin Dolphin,
BBC, BCFM, Big Lottery, Bristol City Council,
Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group, Bristol
Health Partners, Bristol Healthwatch, Bristol
Together, Business in the Community, Calling
the Shots, Chartered Institute of Marketing,
Children In Need, Ecomedia Collective, CVS
South Gloucestershire, DAC Beachcroft,
Ethical Property Foundation, First Born
Creatives, Foot Anstey, Fundraising Training
Limited, Gerrard Financial Consulting Limited,
Hubbub, Knowle West Media Centre, Navca,
NCVO, NHS England, One25 Project, Quartet
Community Foundation, West of England
Rural Network, St Monica’s Trust, Smith And
Williamson, Social Enterprise Works, South
West Forum, Stephenie Linham, The Care
Forum, University of Bristol, University of the
West of England, Ujima Radio CIC, Unseen,
Viper Marketing and Communications Group,
Voluntary Action North Somerset, Wallace and
Gromit Grand Appeal and Wesport.

14. Acknowledgements
12
Thank You
Trustees:
Richard Pendlebury Chair
Steph Mustoe Treasurer
Paul Hazelden Vice-Chair
until 06 November 2013
Anna Smith Vice-Chair
until 16 July 2014
Joanna Holmes
Frances Fox
Abdullahi Farah
Poku Osei
Philip Parry
Mike Zeidler
Steve Sayers
from 06 November 2013
Marissa Eliss
from 15 January 2014
Jonathan Cruthchlow
from 15 January 2014
Heather Pugh
from 06 November 2013
Nura Aabe
from 06 November 2013
Rita Gupta
from 06 November 2013
Funders:
Bristol City Council
Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group
Bristol Drugs Project
Digital Outreach
Navca – Building Health Partnerships
Sporting Memories Network
Avon Fire & Rescue Service
University of Bristol
Other donors/contributions:
Charity Commission
Cornhill HR
NCVO
Quartet Community Foundation
South West Forum
The Care Forum
University of the West of England
Volunteers:
Carol Walker
Louise Wender
Helen Price
Abigail Haidenmenos
Chris Maddix
Andy Waitt
Yasmin Jennings
Lauren Gatting
Margaret Maine

15. Barbara Chamberlain
Jess Wheeler
Evelyn Hutchon
Jon Boulton
Kurda Yar-Ahmad
Sharon Hughes
Phil Timmins
John Green
Darren Park
Jack Munia
Julia Vallejo
Lisa Dunkley
Debbie Grosvenor
Alero Ojiemen
Staff employed during the year:
Asma Ahmad
Subitha Baghirathan
Frances Bainbridge
Emily Bonney
Catherine Bowen
Sue Brazendale
Yasmine Brien
Paula Cannings
Elena D’Orso
Grace Deathridge (maternity cover)
Eva Fielding Jackson to 30 April 2013
Lucy Fletcher
Elizabeth Gorman
Paul Hassan
Mark Hubbard
Jennifer Idle to 21 February 2014
Sean Kenny
Jessica Langton
Charlene Lawrence
Jessica Lewin
Denise Martin to 15 November 2013
Rebecca McDougall
Ruth Pitter
Wendy Stephenson
Emuobosan Timi-Bui to 31 March 2013
Steve Watters
David Whittaker
Voluntary and Community Sector Advocates:
Alex Raikes - SARI
Cheri Wilkins - WECIL
Graham England - Addiction Recovery Agency
Jackie Boyce - Rethink
Judith Davis - Princes Trust
Katie-Jane MacVean - Shelter
Katherine Piper - Shelter
Poku Pipim Osei - Babbasa Youth Empowerment Projects
Sarah Renshaw - Easton Learning Centre
Simon Hankins - Southville Community Development Association
Steve Sayers - Windmill Hill City Farm
Tim Lloyd Yates - Alive!
Zehra Haq - Dhek Bhal
Alistair Dale - Youth Moves
Dom Wood - 1625 Independent People
Fiona Castle - Imayla
Fuad Mahamed - Ashley Housing
Paul Hale - 1625 Independent People
Peter Walker - Addiction Recovery Agency
Vicki Morris - Knowle West Health Park
Karen MacVean - Shelter
BME Voice and Influence Advisory Group:
Zaheer Shabir
Shelagh Hetreed
Rosa Hui
Roger Griffith
Patsy Newton
Marvin Rees

16. Voscur
Royal Oak House
Royal Oak Avenue
Bristol
BS1 4GB
www.voscur.org
t: 0117 909 9949
St George West
twitter.com/voscur
facebook.com/voscur
youtube.com/voscur
Stockwood
Stoke Bishop
Westbury- on-Trym
Whitchurch Park
Windmill Hill
Avonmouth
Bedminster
Bishopston
Bishopsworth
Brislington East
Brislington West
Cabot
Clifton
Clifton East
Cotham
Easton
Eastville
Filwood
Frome Vale
Hartcliffe
Henbury
Henleaze
Hillfields
Horfield
Kingsweston
Knowle
Lawrence Hill
Lockleaze
Redland
Southmead
Southville
St George East
Ashley
Voscur’s Area of Impact
51 - 60+
41 - 50
31 - 40
21 - 30
11 - 20
6 - 10
1 - 5
Number of Members