Community First Yorkshire is at the early thinking and concept development stage of creating a new hub that will support existing and emerging VCS leaders to enhance their skills and develop new ways of working. The aim is to create a culture of generous leadership and provide new, local opportunities for chief executives and others to learn together and work collaboratively. We hope that over time the Hub will have a wide range of resources from training, blogs, reading resources, coaching, mentoring, and networking opportunities – some digital and some face-to-face. We also have an opportunity to work with the Clore Social Foundation and potentially the Open University to deliver new leadership programmes and want to maximise the potential impact of their work, as well as signpost to other VCS-focused training programmes and providers. Some of our ambition is dependent upon securing additional funding, but we want to make a start and see how far we can get.
Following a short research phase working with a few key partners to explore what already exists and how we might avoid duplication, we are now keen to appoint a project steering group. We are seeking a further 3 voluntary and community sector leaders to join the group. You will need to be: working at chief executive or similar level in North Yorkshire; prepared to commit time to regularly attend steering groups (initially monthly); able to participate in a service design process; open minded about the form and content of the Hub; generous in sharing and offering your knowledge and expertise. If you would like to be considered as a new steering group member please contact Louise Ennis to arrange an initial conversation to find out more about our ambitions for the Hub and how to apply.
If you are more interested in supporting the wider skills development of all staff in the VCS (not just the leaders) as well as organisational development, then don’t worry – we will have something for you in the new year. We have plans to start work on our enhanced Training Hub (working title) for the VCS across North Yorkshire. This Hub will provide support to ensure VCS organisations have access to new training and support resources in all areas covered by the current organisational diagnostic used by our Development Officers, the Stronger Communities Team and others. This includes funding and income generation; marketing and communications; strategy, plans and partnerships; workforce management and training; quality and impact; governance, financial management and legal compliance; service delivery and achieving results. Community First Yorkshire’s current support and training/networking offer picks up the most urgent areas of need, but we have plans to extend this over the coming few years to provide a comprehensive package of training, blogs, online resources, peer support networks, etc. Again, we will be seeking VCS reps to join a project steering group in the coming months. And again, some of this work is dependent upon available resources. Please do keep an eye on our newsletter and twitter account for further information.