Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations

Background

Wrightchoice Community Sports Association (Wrightchoice) has been in existence for one year. The organization was set up to raise the attainment and achievement of disadvantaged children and young people, mainly from BME communities, by providing quality sports training and skills development, and promoting education and healthy living.

Wrightchoice works with 70-80 children from the community each week. It is project managed by an ex-Chelsea footballer and is the realization of a dream to “give something back to the community”. The “Wright” in Wrightchoice derives from the Arsenal player, Ian Wright, who is seen as a positive role model and also the club Arsenal who have established best practice in their youth development programmes.

When I first became involved with Wrightchoice they were a loosely assembled group of friends, relatives, and supporters. They had funded activities themselves at a cost of £15000, and had tried to develop a partnership with Reading Football Club (FC) but their ethos of wanting any child to receive coaching conflicted with Reading FC’s ethos of supporting only talented players. Their funds had dried up and they didn’t even realize they were part of a thriving voluntary and community sector with over 500 organisations in the Reading district.

When the Cemvo Capacity Building Programme was introduced to them, and thesy understood it to be free of charge, they became one of the most enthusiastic participants.

The issue of governance

The organisation was led by the project manager who was passionate about football and the benefits it could bring to young BME people who were failing to achieve. There was no governance structure in place and because the group had functioned like this for a year they did not realize the risks to the organisation of relying solely on one person.

I recommended that the group participate in a Strategic Planning Programme which they did over one and half days.

The Strategic Planning Programme enabled the group to develop their vision and mission, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and develop an implementation to plan to take the organisation forward. In 9 months the group has subsequently achieved the following:

• Formally organized with a Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and non ex-officio members and holding regular Trustee meetings.
• Developed a constitution and applied for registration to the Charity Commission.
• Developed a funding profile.
• Become a part of the wider voluntary and community sector network in Reading.
• Raised £40,000 in grant funding.
• Developed policies and reporting processes.
• Developed marketing tools.
• Engaged with strategic partners such as the Council, the PCT, Reading FC, Chelsea FC, the CVS, and local funders.
• Is currently applying for the Football Association’s quality standard.

The group is increasingly beginning to understand the importance of the Trustees in terms of their role, liability and accountability. It has been difficult for the project manager to cede control and for the volunteers to adapt to the new structure and processes. At the last meeting with me the project manager asked me to arrange a training day for all volunteers.