social circles sustainable volunteering model

alexandra clarke

social circles

The thinking behind my model focuses on the idea of improving what is already in place; in relation to current initiatives, models and also Uscreates practice. I wanted to generate something simple and organic, that had the freedom to develop naturally and be shaped by the participants.

The main aim of the model is to generate a Community Exchange Collective, by encouraging active engagement within the local communities relevant to the campaign. The hope is that by creating a sense of co-ownership and community spirit, the co-operation within the community will continue for the duration of the campaign, and beyond.

community exchange collective

Looking at possible ways to best finance the volunteering model, and coupled with the issue of funding that has been created by the current economic climate, has led the model to focus on the idea of colloboration and co-operation as a vital aspect of sustaining the volunteering model.

social circles community exchange collective

Client & Brief.

Uscreates & numerous variety of partners; including local charities, local groups, local schools and businesses. National partners are also possible.

Community Exchange Collective is created through a co-design event to engage the local community in co-operative thinking.

Interested volunteers co-develop and run the client’s campaign.

Community Exchange Collective, having considered how it will proceed, continues to develop and meet.

Campaign can continue to run, either monitored by the CEC or by one or more charity partners.

Members of the CEC generate new campaigns related to issues important to them/the local area.

Initial campaign involving Uscreates.Further campaigns by the Community Exchange Collective.

the model

social circles community exchange collective

partners

Uscreates & numerous variety of partners; including local charities, local groups, local schools and businesses. National partners are also a possibility.

Local businesses: these could be hardware stores, estate agencies, bakers, pubs etc. but likely independent. In the current economic climate, it is important to show support for their local community. As partner, they could offer their services instead of money, e.g. provide catering for an event, but should see this as an opportunity to promote their business. The idea of a compulsory ‘employee volunteer scheme’ could be proposed.

Local charities: these can be small charities from the local area, or national charities. It is likely that they will be relevant to the current campaign, though they could just be interested in becoming more involved in the community. Also, similar charities can also create a relationship and collaborate together, potentially pooling their funding for relevant campaigns.

Local groups:such as a Rotary Club, WI or sports teams. These local groups could potentially assist in creating some engaging activities, whilst groups like Rotary Clubs, are formed for charitable donations and could assist with funding. If youth groups were involved too, Brownies, etc. you could help influence a generation to be more involved with their communities.

Local schools:similar to groups, involving schools has the potential to influence the younger generations but to also generate activities, interests and experience that could maybe have a positive affect on their future.

social circles

The Big Society: With the government cutting spending to numerous sectors, the idea of creating a Community Exchange Collective could potentially allow for funding in relation to assisting the creation of the Big Society; the Big Society Network would offer incentives such as awards, and the Big Society Capital could be behind potential funding of the Community Exchange Collective campaign.

community exchange collective

the big society

“The Big Society is about helping people to come together to improve their own lives. It’s about putting more power in people’s hands – a massive transfer of power from Whitehall to local communities.”

– Big Society. n.d

social circles

Why? This event is a chance to get the communit y together, along with the partners and/or local government. It allows the locals to decide what issues are important to them, what they want from the CEC, how they see it moving foward, the level of volunteering they are able to do etc. It is basically time to research for the campaign, time to engage with the community and inspire them to play an active role.

community exchange collective

community event

Community Exchange Collective is created through a co-design event to engage the local community in co-operative thinking.

How: Having looked at a variety of Uscreates case studies, the idea is to use a number of their existing strategies to assist the community in co-designing their CEC. For example, this could be done through similar activities to the breastfeeding online ‘peer network’, or a step-by-step guide (as in personalising social care) or a care and share toolkit, as developed in a cancer awareness campaign.

Inspiration? One source of inspiration for this model was interning at Uscreates and generating workshops for the Community of Practice. The idea of the community of practice is similar to the idea of the Community Exchange Collective, but the workshops created for CoP (future visioning, personal input, marketing) could also be applied at the CEC event.

social circles community exchange collective

community event

Summer of Wellbeing Event: The co-designed model included engagement workshops, branding and communications, an outreach hub and evaluation tools, applied through the co-creation of a community event.

How: I found the community led principle most relevant for my volunteering model was; “The Summer of Wellbeing model is a resource available for NHS Trafford, Trafford Council, local organisations and community groups to use, adopt and adapt to place the focus on wellbeing with their initiatives.” (Uscreates. 2012) and feel that Uscreates could play a similar role in creating an event, and developing a resource for the community to further continue.

social circles community exchange collective

lambeth co-op council

Made in Lambeth Lambeth is the first council to be a ‘co-operative council’ and was inspirational for the CEC model. The council has a variety of projects and ways for the community to get involved and contribute to the co-operative, which could be really useful for the CEC.

Being the first of it’s kind in the UK, could potentially be the start of more collaborative communities, “putting more power in people’s hands – a massive transfer of power from Whitehall to local communities.” (Big Society. n.d) and, with the support of the Big Society Network, including awards, there is much incentive for society to become more involved with big decisions related to their communities.

social circles community exchange collective

Interested volunteers co-develop and run the client’s campaign.

Community Exchange Collective, having considered how it will proceed, continues to develop and meet.

Campaign can continue to run, either monitored by the CEC or by one or more charity partners.

Members of the CEC generate new campaigns related to issues important to them/the local area.

the model

An example of the management continuing by another partner is the Uscreates lung cancer campaign in Brighton, which is continued by Albion in the Community, Brighton football club’s community charity.

Or, once the initial campaign has completed, the CEC decide what their next campaign could be, related to what is important to them as a local society. They then would use their network of partners to gather support, or potentially find new support as well, to co-create the next campaign – with or without Uscreates assistance, as knowledge of co-creation should have been developed whilst working on the previous campaign.