Element 3 - Extending Partnerships with the private sector

Phase 1 of the extending partnerships project is now complete.

IMPACT Consultancy will be producing a report full of reccomendations which will be carried in to phase two of the ten point plan.

Phase 1 highlights:

1. Step into my Shoes - The concept of 'Step into my Shoes' was simple - a voluntary and community organisation (vco) or social enterprise was paired up with a private business. A senior member of staff from each organisation commited to step into each other's shoes for a day and learn about how the 'other side' works.

The aim of 'Step into my Shoes' was to improve cross-sector understanding through finding out more about each others work, as well as the operational environments and wider contexts in which they work. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions, offer and take advice, and share ideas about how the vcs and the private sector can work together more effectively.

2. Dragon's Den event Members of the Shropshire Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly were offered a unique opportunity to secure a package of business support and services donated by individuals from some of the best private sector professional firms and companies in Shropshire. Our Dragon's included:

Keith Winter, Marketing Consultant at Dyke Yaxley

Felicity Wingrove, Founder & Director of Zen Communications

Justine Vauhgan, Founder & Director of Triangle HR

Mike Surzyn, Partner at PCB Solicitors

Nick Gilbert, Project Manager at Muller

To find out more about this project and the results of the Dragons Den, Please read our Blog: http://shropshiredragons.wordpress.com/

3. Lunch & Learn - These 1 hour interactive training sessions were intended to (i) help you develop your understanding of how to work with the Private Sector and why it could be beneficial to your organisation and (ii) demonstrate how you can incorporate a business perspective to your organisation. All training sessions were hosted by The Academy in Shrewsbury and were delivered by trainers from both the public and private sectors.

The workshops were a great success and details will be published in the phase 1 report shortly.

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As part of the element 3 work the consultants created a survey designed to look at how the VCS currently works/engages with the private sector, and if not, why not.

Please find below the survey results. It's a great read!

pdf Building Better Relationships Survey results (66.32KB)