Welcome to the Forth Valley Third Sector Conference 2022 “Sustainable Places”!
We’re delighted to bring you our first multi-day event, full of workshops and speakers chosen to help our Forth Valley third sector become even stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable.
Below is the text-only version of the programme, which is also available to view or download as a pdf (linked for your convenience).
Monday 21st February
10am – 12pm
“Welcome and Introduction” from our three CEOs, leading straight into…
Workshop 1: “Community Wealth Building” by Neil McInroy (The Democracy Collaborative)
Neil McInroy is The Democracy Collaborative’s senior global adviser and community wealth building fellow. He has been involved in progressive economic and public policy for more than 25 years. Named as one of the most influential people in local government in the UK, Neil has collaborated with a range of local, regional, state and national governments across Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. He is presently a community wealth building adviser to Scottish Government.
1pm – 2pm
Workshop 2: “What does the Community Planning Outcomes Profile (CPOP) tell us about Sustainable Places?” by Emily Lynch (The Improvement Service)
The CPOP is a tool for Community Planning partners and partnerships to assess if the lives of people in their community are improving. It is designed to support planning and decision making activity, and brings together measures of outcomes and inequality for all 32 CPPs within one profile – and shows how they change over time. The profile considers outcomes “in the round” as well as individually, encouraging a focus on vulnerable communities where negative outcomes are clustered. This helps to identify which communities are faring well below average for your areas and for similar communities across Scotland.
This session will introduce the CPOP and support participants to explore how the resource could be used in their work to identify, target, and support progress for the most vulnerable communities.
2:30pm – 3:30pm
Workshop 3: “Financial Sustainability” by Anne Knox (SVE)
If concerns about your organisation’s financial sustainability arise, it is important to act as soon as possible as there can be a number of factors that can upset the smooth running of a charity’s operations.
Aims:
This workshop will help you understand what is meant by financial sustainability and enable you to recognise the importance of good financial management to ensure the continuation of the organisation to meet your charity’s objectives.
Outcomes:
At the end of the session the delegates will be able to
- identify the issues that can upset the smooth running of a charity’s operations.
- understand the importance of good financial planning tools to assist with decision making and meeting the objectives of the organisation.
Tuesday 22nd February
10:30am – 1pm
Workshop 4: “How to Convince Someone to Give You Money!” by Beverley Francis
This interactive workshop is a real beginners guide on how to take an idea and turn it into something that can be pitched to a funder. How do you turn your ideas into things that might be attractive? Are you confused about full cost recovery, restricted, unrestricted, outcomes and outputs? The workshop will touch on some of the key things you need to be aware of, help you get to grips with some of the mystery and jargon around funding. It will also provide some tips on how to stay at the front of the queue in a very competitive funding scene for charities and community groups in Scotland. Come along and ask all the questions you were frightened to ask, and help others to gain from your experience too.
2:30pm – 3:30pm
Workshop 5: “Foundations of Branding” by Adam Piggot (Red Empire Ltd)
This workshop has been specially developed for common good organisations such as social enterprises, charities, voluntary associations and community groups. It’s designed to help you stand out, engage and connect with the people you need to reach.
Aims of the Workshop
The workshop will:
- Introduce participants to two simple principles of branding – Brand Themes and Brand Traits.
- Explain how they can be used to develop a clear, distinctive and engaging brand voice across all communication channels.
Outcomes
On completion of the workshop, participants will understand:
- How to identify the Brand Themes and Brand Traits for their organisation.
- How Brand Themes and Brand Traits can help them assess the effectiveness of their communication materials.
- How to use them to ensure their message is told clearly, consistently and correctly across all platforms.
- How they can be used to guide strategic decisions, align thinking and solve problems in all areas of their organisation.
Wednesday 23rd February
10am – 11am
Workshop 6: “Scotland’s Census—Why It Matters to You” by Heather Woods (National Records for Scotland)
Aims: To show the importance of census to individuals, community, and all of Scotland.
Included in the hour may be a quiz on past censuses, discussion on how support can be given to this census, why the census matters, and discussion on what people think will be different this time around compared to the results of the last census – population in their area etc.
11:30am – 12:30pm
Workshop 7: “Local Place Plans” by David Wood (Planning Aid for Scotland (PAS))
Community Led Plans & Having a Voice in the Future of Your Place
Find out more about the options available for local community groups who would like to get involved, or increase their involvement and leadership, in the planning system/placemaking, and in an in producing community-led plans of all types. You’ll learn more about a range of opportunities available to the third sector, including the relatively new right to create Local Place Plans that will be recognised by Local Authorities.
1pm – 2pm
Workshop 8: “Sustainable Minds” by Iweta Baran (CSREC)
The global COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the mental health crisis all around the world. With the healthcare providers struggling to cope with the growing number of service users, which results in extended waiting times to access mental health services, the importance of developing self-care tools and habits becomes more important than ever. While the theme of this conference is “Sustainability”, in addition to looking outwards (at the structure of our communities, organizations and environment, etc.), this workshop proposes we also dedicate time to focus inwards – into our minds, hearts and bodies. Refreshed and rejuvenated, we are better able to tackle any challenges and improve our decision-making and the quality of our lives. In addition to taking care of our environment, communities, friends and families, we must take care of ourselves first and foremost, to be able to dedicate time to others. This is what it means to have a “sustainable mind” – it means to pay attention to how we live, how we connect with others, how we think and how we rest.
2:30pm – 3:30pm
Workshop 9: “Volunteer Friendly Award and Investing in Volunteers” by Angela McHale
(Volunteer Scotland)
Volunteer Scotland will discuss the Quality Standards and the Quality Pipeline, to provide you with more information on each product, the standards, process and the difference this can make to the volunteer’s experience. This session will help you make the right development step for your volunteer programme.
6pm – 7pm
Workshop 10: “Sustainable Food Pathways” by Simon Kenton Lake (Nourish)
Join this interactive workshop to have your say on local food plans. Simon will give an overview on on the regional work, followed by breakout rooms to hear about what is happening at a local level. Followed by a Q&A Session.
Thursday 24th February
9:30am – 11:30am
Workshop 11: “How to Develop a Social Enterprise that Creates a Net Positive Impact on People and the Planet ” by Ciaran Armstrong (Sustainable Pathways)
The bad news? Our ecological support systems are breaking down, as a direct result of how we are doing business.
The good news? We can avoid ecological collapse by designing and developing circular and regenerative businesses. The even better news is, social enterprises are well-ahead of the curve.
What is a Net Positive Enterprise? A Net Positive Enterprise is one that takes accountability for all its social and environmental impacts and through its products, services and operations aims to improve the well-being of people and the planet.
How will this workshop help me? You will leave this two-hour workshop with a clear understanding of the problems that led us here and the steps you can take to create an even better enterprise that has a net positive impact on people and the world.
1pm – 2:30pm
Closing Remarks from Deputy First Minister John Swinney, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for COVID Recovery (Scottish Government)
We are very pleased to be joined by this year by the Deputy First Minister John Swinney, who will deliver our conference’s closing remarks. We anticipate that the Deputy First Minister will cover the COVID-19 Recovery Strategy at National level, setting out the vision for recovery as a response to the pandemic.
Panel Discussion: Council leaders from each of the Forth Valley Councils.
Mr Swinney’s presentation will be followed by a deeper look at COVID-19 recovery and sustainability at local level, as we are joined by council leaders from each local authority: Falkirk Council, Stirling Council, and Clackmannanshire Council.
There will also be opportunity for questions from attendees.
Thank you for joining us this week!
A special thank you all our speakers and facilitators this year, especially John Swinney and our local authority representatives.
Recordings from each workshop and session will be available for all ticket holders – a link will be sent to the email address tickets were booked under.
Contact Us
CVS Falkirk:
- 01324 692000
- info@cvsfalkirk.org.uk
CTSI:
- 01259 213840
- admin@ctsi.org.uk
SVE:
- 01786 430000
- info@sventerprise.org.uk
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