ChangeUp
Change-up is a national initiative which provided funding to develop the voluntary sector at national, regional and local levels. KCSC co-ordinates the local Change-Up partnership, which includes all 'second-tier' organisations in the borough.
In addition to KCSC, the borough Change-Up partnership includes: Age Concern, CASH, Volunteer Centre, Migrant and Refugee Community Forum (MRCF), Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust (PCT), RBKC and Westway Development Trust.
Change-Up partners work together to deliver key projects to support the future development of the voluntary sector in the borough. These included:
- a survey of the capacity building needs of black and ethnic minority groups
- training on full cost recovery
- training on volunteer recruitment and retention
- a baseline study of the governance knowledge among staff and trustees
- a premises strategy for voluntary organisations for the borough.
- a new forum for advisors from all of the 'second-tier' organisations.
Local Infrastructure Plans have been developed which set out the support which the local infrastructure organisations need in order to enable frontline organisations to work more effectively and to take on future challenges.
The plan's vision of infrastructure provision in Kensington and Chelsea is that by 2014:
- infrastructure support will be provided from a resource centre in the Notting Hill area, housing all infrastructure organisations with a shop front, cyber café, meeting rooms, training facilities and resource library
- there will be sufficient human resources to provide infrastructure support to all sizes of organisations (small, medium, large)
- there will be affordable office space - a `Canalside House' in the south of the borough
- the voluntary and community sector will have better communication and partnership arrangement with statutory organisations
- there are accessible resource centres in the south and centre of the borough, pooling resources and staff , enabling them to access and give peer support
- there will be a common standard of performance for infrastructure organisations
- infrastructure support and the frontline work of voluntary and community organisations will be more securely funded.
The Kensington and Chelsea ChangeUp partnership plans to raise funds for further work in the coming years to make this vision possible.