Community Matters Consultancy Road Show - Birmingham and Taunton

Improving the operation of your organisation can be complex and time-consuming. Training and workforce development are costly, while recruiting the services of a consultant to provide the expertise you lack is often a confusing and expensive process. However, Community Matters is here to help! If you work with, or are developing work with children, young people and families, our free Consultancy Roadshow can offer you a day of free in-house support.

Whether you have hit a stumbling-block, need a critical eye cast over your organisational strategies, or have a specific project you’d like to get off the ground, the Community Matters team will be in a town near you in early 2012.

We are currently taking bookings for in house, face-to-face support through our Consultancy Roadshow, running from Jan 23rd to Feb 25th.

Here’s how it works:

• Contact us, giving details of your organisation and the specific areas or issues you would like support with. Email kierra.box@communitymatters.org.uk with the subject line ‘Roadshow’.
•  The Community Matters Youth team will reply to your query within 48 hours, offering advice, resources and suggestions on where to go next.
• We will put you in touch with one or more members of the consultancy team, who will discuss further how you might proceed. This might include registering you onto a free training, discussing your problems or ideas over email, or speaking to you on the phone.
• While you are in contact with the consultancy team, we will identify a suitable time for an organisation visit. Priority will be given to those interested in participating in the Roadshow, although there may be opportunities to arrange support outside of this.
• We will request relevant documents from you (i.e. annual reports, organisational structure charts, needs analyses or business plans) to inform our consultants and help them to familiarise themselves with your organisation.
•  The consultant will visit your offices for between one hour and one day to offer bespoke support to yourself, the wider staff team, trustees or volunteers. If you only require a short session initially we may be able to offer a ‘top-up’ opportunity at a later date.
• We will follow up from this visit with further information and on-going support.

Roadshow Locations

The roadshow will be visiting five areas over January and February 2012. These are:

• 23^rd – 27^th Jan:          London/South East
•  30^th Jan - 3^rd Feb:      Leicester
•  6^th – 10^th Feb^:            Leeds
• 13^th – 17^th Feb:          Manchester/Liverpool
•  20^th – 24^th Feb:          Birmingham/Taunton

If you are interested in getting involved but are not located in one of the areas listed we will be able to offer free 1-2-1 consultancy support to a limited number of organisations from early 2012. Please contact Kierra Box (Kierra.box@communitymatters.org.uk) to discuss this further.

Subjects covered by the Consultancy Roadshow:

• Engaging young people
• Safeguarding
• Intergenerational Practice
• Commissioning and procurement
• Community Buildings
• Business Planning
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Partnership brokerage and consortia
• Services for children and young people (includes co-location, influencing local service provision, monitoring & evaluation and much more)
•  Demonstrating social value and visible quality standard