by Anne Laing (Partnerships Manager, RVA)
4 October 2011
This is the final news item from Stronger Together after three and a half years of serving the different fora across the voluntary and community sector (VCS) through the partnership consortium, led by Reading Voluntary Action and including:
* The Forum
* Reading Faith Forum (RFF)
* Sakoma (supporting the Black & Minority Ethnic Communities)
* Reading Children & Voluntary Youth Services (RCVYS)
The staff team has done a terrific job throughout putting on events that have enabled your VCS voice to be heard and understood, sharing knowledge and keeping networks engaged and active with common initiatives. I cannot thank them enough and wish Anna Fowler, Yasmin Bador and Jan Hearn well for the future. I know from feedback provided throughout the project how much many of you have appreciated their work.
Two Resource Guides will shortly be available as an ongoing legacy:
* Tackling Redundancy & Unemployment: An inspired resource guide available for Reading
* Voluntary Services Resource for Children & Young People in Reading
Jan and Yasmin have been the key workers on these projects that have harnessed the work of clusters of VCS groups to ensure that vital information is made accessible to serve cross sector needs, as well those of vulnerable individuals.
Anna too has been involved in developing the way forward following the Beyond Boundaries Conference and has recently worked on the Drugs and Alcohol Cluster Group which is vital to linking up cross sector projects for the future.
Forum Voices/Representatives
Thanks too to the team of Forum Voices who continue to represent the VCS voice on cross sector strategic and operational groups. Whilst change is afoot for The Forum, final decisions on the future structure/s has yet to be agreed. As Partnership Manager at RVA I will continue to keep Forum Voices in the loop and harness their expertise in many areas of work. I will ensure that the other forum representatives know how to access the new collective networks.
RFF, Sakoma and RCVYS each have a Development Worker currently who will ensure that some basic support is available to their forum, although these officers cannot provide Co-ordinator roles.
So what is happening with the ST Newsletter?
You will have noticed that a number of Local Strategic Partnership issues have been repeated into the RVA E-bulletin in recent times. This has been deliberate to ensure that the VCS agencies engage through that link for the longer term. As the RVA E-bulletin is now a weekly production the articles will be spread over periods and be highlighted as Partnership Issues.
You can
link to the RVA homepage here for details of all our services and staff.
Do contact me by email if you have queries.
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