Triangles

We had possibly the best ever Celebration of Youth last Saturday evening at an excellent venue - Jubilee High School, Addlestone which has its own theatre. We had a distinguished audience of guests - the Lord Lieutenant, the High Sheriff(s), the Chairman and the Chief Executive of Surrey CC and 9 out of the eleven “Mayors and Chairs” and we had a good audience of parents and friends supporting some great performances by young people, and with loads of exhibition stands. We printed 200 programmes which were all used up. There are pictures of the event on our website and Facebook.

In different vein, I met up with the Head of Youth Services for West Sussex CC on Monday evening and she explained that her restructuring had resulted in some 87 redundancies…so this is a tough time for youth workers everywhere.

On Tuesday evening, I met with our members from our uniformed organisations; amazingly the Girl Guides in Surrey East have a waiting list of 450 young people to join the Guides- the impediment is the lack of volunteer leaders.

I co-presented with the Head of Surrey Youth Service at an important meeting with those of our member organisations working with young offenders about the possibility of deploying social finance (ie from corporates or social philanthropists), recognising that there is a minus 30% in public expenditure and likely to be ever increasing challenges for young people. I confess to being a keen advocate of social finance, and of what I call a new “triangular model “ or relationships between the public sector – voluntary sector – corporates/social philanthropy. The experts on this are the charity called Social Finance, but I have about 20 papers on the subject which will go up on our website in a week or two. It was a good first meeting and the agreement was to meet a second time once work has taken place outside the meeting.

I am gradually clearing my decks of completed projects so that I can concentrate on the key task, as for everyone else in the VCFS, of getting in income for 2012/13, but meanwhile, I’m taking the afternoon off to enjoy (and work in) the garden!

Enjoy a beautiful week-end!
Mike

Lessons

Really interesting if demanding week….

Last Sunday I did the “Y toY” 26 mile marathon charity walk from Guildford Y to RedhillY, in aid of the work of Redhill Y with children and young people with disabilities. We started at 9.00 am and got in at 6.30 pm which is pretty good going, though the CEO of RedhillY ran it in 4.5 hours! I did not have any blisters or aches, and raised £450 so was pleased, - a big thank you to my sponsors.

I then met up with the County Council’s Head for Services to Young People at 8.30 am on Monday morning for a private chat, which has to be...private.

I went to the induction session for the new Lord Lieutenant’s cadets, both civil and military on Tuesday evening at County Hall, and was struck by the maturity and assurance of these young people, aged 16-18.

Our incorporation as a company has come through this week in the nick of time for our intended 1 April start, so having both this and our Pqasso award we are well placed to present ourselves as a well organized charity that is focused on Innovation and Impact in 2011/12.

I went to a late afternoon NCVYS session in London on leadership featuring Charlie Mayfield, the CEO of the John Lewis Partnership. He gave a very interesting talk. Famously the JLP is a mutual founded some 75 years ago and owned by the 75,000 staff.
There were some key learning points:

• The importance of values in setting culture 
• That culture was about staff (“partner” in JLP terms) Rights –to information, accountability of managers, transparency, and Responsibility – meaning constant self criticism and improvement
• Famously all “partners” benefit from the company profits, and all got 18% this year…..from top to bottom
• Pay is set (in the original Trust documents) so that the maximum the CEO can get is 75 times that of the lowest pay grade

Lots  of lessons for banks. I was very impressed by his matter of fact style, and lack of bravado.

In different vein, there have been several useful reports from New Philanthropy Capital recently which we’ll put up on our website next week, including one on Preparing for Cuts, which we discussed at yesterday’s Community Foundation, Surrey policy committee. I am constantly arguing that there needs to be a “new settlement” which sees a close triangular relationship between: Central and local government – the voluntary sector- corporates/ social finance/ philanthropists.

And tomorrow, Saturday,  is our Celebration of Youth and Volunteering, so more about that next week.

Mike

Spring Progress

Hi everyone,

What great weather this week, and I am looking forward to my personal challenge of doing the YtoY  Marathon (26 mile) charity walk on Sunday, in aid of the disabled children with whom Redhill Y do great work.

If you’d like to sponsor me please submit any amount to: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MikeAbbot.  All the money raised will go to the YMCA.

I ran a business planning session last (Wednesday) evening for a charity that does great work in running an Easter and Summer playscheme for children in a high need ward. They have over 1,000 children through the door, and charge just £7 a day , and therein lies the problem for when their Lottery funding ends. They also get “perfect scores” in their Oftsted inspection. Just another example of great voluntary sector work with a mix of paid and voluntary staff, and trustees.

I had a progress meeting today about the social finance projects we’re working on, and also to shape the session on the potential for social finance to support a project on reducing the risk of offending, and re-offending. Tomorrow, Friday, I am at a conference down in Sussex, my home patch,  for the students on the CWDC funded apprenticeships, foundation degree and MA when I am presenting on …Social enterprises and social finance! There is no escape from social finance at present!

Personal: We don’t talk about England rugby now…the focus is more on the availablity of Compeed for potentially blistered feet this weekend ..and then on Saturday 2 April we have the wonderful Celebration of Youth and Volunteering event to which all are welcome as an audience . The acts and market stalls are fully booked now – do come. Details on website ..but please tell Kate Peters if you’re coming to watch.

Enjoy a sunny weekend!
Mike

Potential

A very busy and interesting week.

Today I’m running a CPD session for the MA Youth and Community students funded by the CWDC. They are a great group to work with, and I hope to provide some “after care” as  this very valuable funding stream now comes to an end. I was on leave on Wednesday, catching up with my MA (Theology). So the week has sped by.

I want to concentrate on the workshop in London yesterday (Thurs) about Social Finance. This was one of three such workshops run by the national experts – Social Finance, and The Young Foundation. Each one was evidently attended by about 150 people, and were sold out immediately. It’s true they were free, but there is a massive interest in social impact bonds nationally. The London event was attended by funders - social entrepreneurs(Sir Ronald Cohen), bankers and equity fund managers, commissioners – from central, not local government interestingly, and the voluntary sector. So who doesn’t get it?

The Ministry of Justice and Social Finance gave detailed briefings on the Peterborough prison sib (3,000 prisoners, £5 mill of support to them, and an analysis over six years of the impact of the sustained pre and post release support to the prisoners with the aim of reducing re- offending rates (65% reoffend within one year currently).

There was much talk of scaling up pilot projects once it was known “what works”. There is Big Lottery and social investment fund interest in this. The significant change is to “payment by results”, in other words to outcome based commissioning and delivery that is shown to make a difference.

My abiding impression is that there is a potentially huge amount of capital out there to invest in social projects that will make a proven difference. It is easy to be cynical about corporate social responsibility, but I detect a sea change.

Personal disclosure: Did a 21 mile South Downs walk last Saturday in “benchmark time” of 7.5 hours in preparation for my Y to Y Charity Marathon (26 mile) Walk on Sunday 27 March. The finds raised will go to Redhill YMCA for their project of working with disabled young people. You can sponsor me on http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MikeAbbot

Thank you!

Enjoy the week- end! Saturday 5.00pm. -The last match.
Mike

Snags

The week has been dominated by a final trip to the Brighton Consortium steering group that successfully bid for some £400,00 of CWDC funding  to enable youth workers to attend three programmes : an Apprenticeship, a Foundation degree and an MA course . Some 60 young people have been through the programmes and so we have felt pleased with our efforts, although our satisfaction this has been tainted by recent stories of young people in each category losing their jobs.

I also went to a RAISE (Regional Action and Involvement South East ) Board meeting and strategy day over two days where there was a shared experience amongst the voluntary sector representatives of setting deficit budgets, and yet seeking to re-frame new opportunities. The snag is that everyone is doing the same things.

For the rest of the week it has been “just ordinary”,  though I have received an invitation to a (Archbishop)Tutu Foundation event soon in London to be attended by the great man whose infectious laugh is unforgettable.

Personal disclosure: Saturday – 20 mile South Downs walk in preparation for 26 mile Y to Y Charity Marathon walk on 27 March -  see my Just Giving site at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MikeAbbot  Please DONATE to good cause – Redhill YMCA ‘s work with disabled young people. And then Sunday: Twickenham – Scotland !!

Trivial Pursuits: Next week: run out of time!”

Mike

Social Accounting

Really interesting week in which the social finance work has progressed, with a lot of interest in a joint meeting between the Youth Justice Board and our member organizations aimed at reducing offending / re-offending. Timely, as Barnados have just released a report pointing to the cost to society of a young offender having to go into care (£115,000 over 3 years). Great phone call and meeting with Ruth from Jobmatch (matching offenders to jobs) – it’s not rocket science – folk need a job and housing on release, otherwise how long can you make the prison leaver’s £40 quid  last?

Really positive meeting last evening with some philanthropists advising on how we might access funding for a particular social impact bond project.

Attended a Social accounting/ Social Return on Investment course on Wednesday and was pleased to realise that we are in practice well advanced with social accounting, if not SRoI.

Last Friday evening I went to the Surrey Business Awards celebration dinner (think Oscars) and it was really instructive how many businesses are involved in their communities. So it is timely that we are soft launching our doyouthwork.com website this month, and I have given a copy of a job profile for a volunteer, Volunteer Broker to a visitor today from Proctor and Gamble, and also sent it to Business in the Community with whom  I made links some months back.

Personal disclosure: On Sunday 27 March I could be in my church, OR at an Elmbridge multi- faith event to which I have been invited , OR at a charity lunch at Magdalen, Tooley St. London (middle son’s restaurant) as he is fund raising a minimum of £2,500 for his London Marathon run in aid of The Railway Children (of India) BUT I am in fact doing a 26 mile charity walk for Redhill YMCA (Yto Y walk) . Be warned …I too am looking for sponsors!!

Trivial pursuit:
a)      Last week’s answer: There isn’t a marathon walk in the Olympics, but the closest is a 50 K road walk (31 miles) in…..3 hrs 34 mins. !! Ouch!
b)     This week’s question: As the Olympic cycle race is going through Surrey in 2012, what is the Olympic record?

Best wishes
Mike

Blank

Bit of a roller coaster week with ups and downs.

I met with the Chief Executive of Surrey CC on Monday morning about the social finance proposals generated by colleagues, and about which two secondees from SCC have been working to assist us. David McNulty had some questions and challenges, but we agreed to go forward with all the projects, which is encouraging.

That same afternoon there was a meeting of the various umbrella support service organizations in Surrey – SCA, CVs and us, with Susie Kemp the ACX from the County Council. The core issue is what organisation structure for support services  to the voluntary sector in Surrey would you put in place if designing with the a blank sheet of paper? The answer is NOT the current structure. So there will be a workshop with a blank sheet of paper, minus 30% funding and a facilitator to guide us through a process. This will be a challenge for SYF, but also an opportunity.

Met with the Surrey Youth Crime Prevention Group colleagues to receive a concluding report on the value of the PAYP and YoF funded projects. Short version is that crime and NEETs do seem to have gone down in the areas where investment and projects have taken place.

I have drafted an end of year, looking back/ looking forward letter to our Patrons to go out next week. I am highlighting our good work, but the (terminal) financial challenge for 2012/13, unless we raise income successfully in 2011.

Visited a new member organisation- the Amber Foundation – that has a beautiful residential establishment just south of Ockley where they provide accommodation for homeless and unemployed young people who may also have an offending background. Brilliant work …and a 9% re-offending rate compared to a national rate of about 75% + . Also had a great chat with a youth worker wanting to set up a social enterprise…it is the way to go, for some.

I’m at the Toast of Surrey Business Awards dinner this evening (thank you SATRO)

Personal disclosure: Sat. 5.00pm Twickenham- Les Bleus!
 Knocked out a 10 mile walk in the cold, rain and mist on the South Downs last Saturday in exactly 3 hours, my benchmark time. Preparing for the charity 26 mile marathon walk on 27 March.

Trivial pursuits:
a)      Last week’s answer; The single alternative vote is best described at the BBC News / Politics / Alternative Vote/ Q&A web page
b)      This week’s question: What is the record time for an Olympic marathon walk (26 miles)? 

Have a restorative week – end – getting lighter, and enjoy the ( England ) rugby!
Mike