Examples of past visits and events supported by this programme: - In November 2007, the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme supported two workshops on social enterprise in Cambridge. The Kings Hedges Neighbourhood Partnership and RISE Community Development Trust attended both workshops which explored a range of issues around social enterprise business models and franchising with a group of local community organisations (6 local organisations). One of the options explored was around setting up a computer franchise as a social enterprise – a model which RISE successfully developed in Southampton. The workshop gave Kings Hedges and other local organisations an insight into potential social enterprise models, and RISE will provide some follow up support.
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In November 2007, the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme supported staff and trustees of the Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST) half day visit to St Luke's Community Centre at Canning Town to tour the facilities and talk in detail with the Centre Manager about the income generation achieved there, design and management implications, and the social benefits achieved. This detailed information was used to inform BOST’s business plan and decision making process as to what to include in the plan for their proposed new centre.Trustees obtained a clearer picture of the reality of running such a building and this will assist with informed decision making through the planning process. In November 2007, West Harton Churches Action Station Limited visited Maltby Community Development Trust to look at their ‘Care and Repair Service’, their community newspaper enterprise and their asset development plans. Greater Dogsthorpe Partnership is an emerging development trust, and in October 2007 they received support from the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme to visit a more established member, Acumen Development Trust and learn from their experience. Highfields Community Association (HCA) is currently in the process of negotiating the transfer of a local asset (the Highfields Centre) from Leicester City Council. In October 2007, the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme supported a group of trustees and employees of HCA together with members of the Interim Strategic Management Board (the body overseeing the transfer process) and key Officers from Leicester City Council for a visit to the Burton Street Project to look at how they recently managed their own asset transfer. Learning from the best: Running a successful community café - In September 2007, four Directors and two employees of the Beighton Villages Development Trust (BVDT) received support from the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme to visit the Sunlight Development Trust and learn how to set up and run a successful community café.They hoped to acquire practical skills as they plan to open their own café in December 2007. The Café will be part of a bigger project aiming to improve the health and well-being of the Beighton and Sothall communities. The visit gave BVDT a good understanding of the wider benefits of a community café and the added value it can bring to the Trust’s community action. The programme has helped them learn from Sunlight’s successes and avoid some of the pitfalls.
Getting to grips with sustainability - In June 2007, Dalgarno Neighbourhood Trust (DNT) received support from the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme to organise an away day in order for Trustees and core staff (13 Trustees and 5 staff members) to develop a common understanding of how to become a sustainable trust. The event included a visit to Custom House & Canning Town Community Renewal Project in East London, to understand how it had evolved over a period of time, what problems it had faced and how it overcame them. With help from an experienced development trust consultant, participants then had an opportunity to explore how their trust could evolve in the future and how to maximise the use of community assets. As a result of the away day, the Trustees and core staff of DNT were able to construct a shared understanding of what sustainability might look like for the Trust. This process will feed into the Trust’s strategic development path and ensure that there is a strong and effective management structure for years to come.
Sharing experiences of setting up a Community Newspaper - In September 2006, with support from the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme, RISE Community Development Trust in Southampton visited the Maltby Community Development Trust (MCDT) in Rotherham to explore issues around setting up a sustainable monthly community magazine. RISE had plans to develop such a magazine in Southampton and MCDT had already achieved this in Rotheram. The purpose of the visit was for RISE to gain knowledge and insight into editorial work and content, distribution practices, and issues around building a business plan for the production of the newspaper. Further to this visit RISE submitted a funding application to the Lankelly Chase Foundation for start up funding to launch monthly community magazine in Southampton. In April 2007, RISE Community Development Trust launched ‘Local to You’, a tabloid sized monthly newspaper delivered free to 12,000 households in the SO16 area of Southampton.
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Then in June 2007, strong of their recent success, RISE received support from the Knowledge & Skills Exchange Programme to organise a learning event around setting up a community newspaper as a social enterprise. The event was attended by West Itchen Development Trust (WICT) and Community Vision for HP16. The aim was to pass on some of RISE’s lessons and provide the community trusts with a business model to support their development of a newspaper. The workshop explored the community-based social enterprise model for a community newspaper including issues around distribution, print, design, sales & marketing, finance, franchise models, levels of investment and branding. The result of the exchange was that each organisation has taken forward a plan for their own paper.WICT has used the information from the workshop to prepare a business plan and they are hoping to set up a newspaper in the near future. One of the big lessons they learned was the importance of testing that there is strong support for it within the local community. Community Vision for HP16 launched the first edition of ‘The Source’ (the community newspaper for HP16) in October. (see http://www.hp16.org.uk/resources/TheSourceweb2.pdf). |
