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The second meeting of the Macc Policy Network was held yesterday and it was absolutely fascinating. The range of issues that participants spoke about demonstrates again (as if it that was actually required), the richness, diversity and passion in the VCSE sector.
These are some of the issues discussed leaving out my contribution which you can read in our recent policy bulletin:
- The work of Greater Manchester Poverty Action on food poverty and the links with local growing and with diversity.
- Research into hidden young people who are unable...
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"Community development work is a huge force for good that could, if done well, transform the lives of people ,,,,,, if done poorly community development work can cause serious damage to communities."
Following the first publication by The Manchester Community Development Work Practice Group, "...
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This week is Refugee Week, a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and community events, which brings people together to learn more about each other and recognise the massive contribution refugees make to society in the UK....
I like stats and I like stories and I like it even better when the two are put together, because that’s where real richness is found.Numbers without stories are often, in my experience, misinterpreted or misunderstood, whereas stories without numbers can lack force and are dismissed as anecdotal.
What I don’t like is when people prioritise stats over stories, and that happens all too often. People believe, erroneously, that numbers are “harder”, more reliable, safer, less open to criticism, provide more truth. Often, this seems to me a way of making numbers mean what...
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360Giving supports organisations to publish their grants data in an open, standardised way and helps people to understand and use the data to support decision-making and learning across the charitable giving sector.
On GrantNav: http://grantnav.threesixtygiving.org/ you can search, explore and download UK grant data from funders publishing open data to the 360Giving Standard, all for free.
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I went to Young Manchester’s Welcome Event a couple of evenings ago held at HOME. It was a positive and celebratory event with performances by a number of young people including beat boxing, singing and dancing, as well as the usual heartfelt speeches, the best of which (sorry to other speakers) was one by Saeed Atcha, founder of the magazine Xplode (an invitee to the royal wedding!). He is definitely one to watch.
Young Manchester is an independent trust that has been set up and funded, to a large extent, by Manchester City Council to do some of the roles that the council used to...
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I attended some interesting training last week looking at new approaches and perspectives around volunteer retention.
There were seven key things that were identified as being important to do in order to engage with a volunteer (and hopefully retain them):
• Be flexible
Eg: Have more than one volunteering role. Make it easier for people to come back and volunteer again if they have to take some time out.
• Focus on meaning and impact
Include the impact of the role in the volunteer description. Talk...
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About a year ago, I wrote a blog which focused on the development of the Manchester Local Care Organisation. Its subtitle was Episode IV: A New Hope. Now that the LCO is officially launching on 1st April, I’m finding myself wondering what this moment actually means? And which bit of Star Wars is it?
Certainly it doesn’t signify the completion of a transformation programme and nobody would claim it does. That’s a long time in the future. So we havent yet destroyed the...
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ICYMI: A little bit about the Active Communities Team at Macc:
The Active Communities work of Macc emerged in October 2017, and will develop the organisations approach to volunteering, active citizenship and asset based community development by being an enabler and partner to the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise sector through a...
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Have you heard about the new GPDR legislation that everyone is busy coming to terms with, coming into place on 25th May 2018? I thought I’d tell you a bit about how the new rules fit into the marketing and communication world and the practical things you can be implementing 
I was quite taken...
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