Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations

Areas that the organisations cover:

North East London: Waltham Forest, Hackney, Newham, Redbridge and Enfield.

Main activities of the group:

The ACC aims to promote understanding and awareness of African heritage through informal education and activities. ACC aim to enable young people to develop self-esteem and confidence through the celebration of their identity. The club meets up twice a week to undertake drama workshops, drumming and dancing, story telling, creative writing and song writing.

Background:

The African Children’s Club, commonly known as ACC was started in May 2000.It was born out of a desire to provide young people, mainly of African decent, with a voice to help their confidence and self esteem. Started in the sitting room of Christine Borsah.

ACC has grown from strength to strength, having started with only three children, the numbers have soared to an overwhelming three hundred and its activities have been oversubscribed.

In its development the ACC has drawn a wide audience and tremendous support, notably from parents, schools, staff, the public and volunteers. Also prominent figures, local businesses, government agencies both local and national.

CEMVO has assisted in this development via its capacity building programme. The programme assisted in strengthening structure, ensuring sustainability and improving service delivery.

The improvements were implemented by the capacity building officer who identified the organisations needs by using a specifically designed diagnostic tool kit, which analysed 9 key areas of development.

• Constitution and legal structure.
• Governance structure and process.
• Business and action planning.
• Management systems.
• Financial systems.
• Funding.
• Communication and marketing.
• Partnership and networking.
• Information and communication technology.

Completion of the DTK resulted in producing an action plan, which identified and recommended changes required with the organisation.

Following recommendations, the CBO in collaboration with ACC staff, mainly Christine and in some cases volunteers implemented recommended changes. Over the duration of a year regular meetings were arranged so that strategies, policies, procedures, networking and training could all be developed.

The CBO also monitored progress by collecting evidence on a regular basis, so it could be compiled in a portfolio that would be accredited by the University of East London showing that the organisation had been efficiently capacity built.

Finally The ACC was assisted in funding advice and funding application strategies. Ideas on perspective projects were developed by the CBO to distinguish whether they were feasible, and if the organisation had the capacity to deliver. If the project showed potential relevant funders were approached to provide funding.

Amount Raised:

• Bridge House Trust
• Lloyds TSB
• BBC Children in need

Exceeded - 35,000

Case Study 2: Funding Surgery

Venue:

Waltham Forest Voluntary Fundraising Service.
Epicentre,
West Street,
Leytonstone,
E11 4LJ.

Purpose: Advice for Voluntary organisations

How it was organised:

Waltham Forest Fundraising forum discussed the possibility of organising an event which aimed at developing fundraising capacity of the voluntary sector within Waltham forest and develop a fundraising service.

Partners: Waltham Forest Council

Funders:

• Macmillan Cancer Relief
• O-regen
• Neighbourhood renewal community chest and learning chest
• Neighbourhood small grants
• Big Lottery Fund
• RHEMA- SRB small grant
• Waltham Forest Council
• VAWF- Voluntary action
• Waltham Forest arts council
• Church Urban fund

Organisations Attended: 30 Groups