Hello everyone.
Last week’s communication celebrating the role of charities and the work of 14,000 organisations across the area was a great read, and whilst an estimated social value of £5.18 billion is an incredible figure, I wasn’t surprised at all to see the value the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) adds to West Yorkshire. As a social enterprise with a clear mission to care for the people in the communities we work in, I feel proud that Local Care Direct (LCD) is in such great company.
Our social enterprise ethos is something that motivates many of us working at LCD. The ability to operate within a values-based culture and environment rather than one motivated by profit is inspiring. For those that aren’t clear what this means, here’s a definition of what a social enterprise is:
“Social enterprises are businesses that put the interests of people and planet ahead of shareholder gain. These businesses are driven by a social/environmental mission and reinvest profits into creating positive social change.”
Whilst we have supported our communities over many years, our recent work with community foundations is an important element of our social enterprise commitment, and a successful way to help people in the communities in which we live and serve beyond the services we provide. Doing the right thing is so important to us here at LCD, and we wanted to make sure that we help create community benefits in a meaningful way, so knowing where to start was a challenge. With nearly 14,000 VCSE organisations operating in West Yorkshire, all of whom are doing valuable work, we did have questions, and that is where the community foundations were really helpful.
We knew that we wanted to support organisations focused on health and wellbeing, but the definition of health and wellbeing is incredibly broad. Working with three community foundations we were able to learn more about the local organisations looking for help and speak to local experts about the communities’ health and wellbeing needs. We then engaged with our colleagues who provide health care in our areas to understand what they felt patients needed help with. Based on all this input, we focused on the following areas:
- dementia
- homelessness
- mental health
- reducing health inequalities
- tackling isolation.
Next year will be LCD’s 20th anniversary and this new approach working with the community foundations is a development that has enabled us to adopt a more cohesive and effective method to support local areas. Together with the community foundations, we set up a health and wellbeing fund in 2020-2021 for projects that address the issues above across the five “places” that we serve – Bradford and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.
The fund opened and the response from charities was overwhelming. Leeds Community Foundation and GiveBradford received 92 applications, One Community Foundation for Kirklees received 51 applications, and the Community Foundation for Calderdale received 46 applications - the biggest response they’ve had to a fund apart from emergencies like flooding.
All the organisations who applied for support provided in-depth applications, underwent rigorous assessments, and were committed to meeting their objectives to positively impact the people they are trying to support. I definitely had mixed emotions throughout this process: whilst it was fantastic that we were helping people, it was incredibly dis-heartening to know that so many need help and that our fund was nowhere near enough to support them all.
Since then, the community foundations have worked closely with the charity organisations to report on the impact of the support. We’ve seen some of the statistics but it’s the real-life stories and comments from people using the services that demonstrates the value. “You are my only window on the world” and “It’s great now I don’t have to worry about my mum and we don’t have to worry about food in the house now” are two comments from so many.
In health and social care, we are all feeling the financial pressures, and we all know the challenges of our environment at the moment. Grassroot VCSEs that are contributing to local health and people’s wellbeing are feeling the pressure even more, and yet we can clearly see the significant social benefits they are creating. I hope that we can start working closer with these organisations.
If anyone has any questions about our experience working with the community foundations, which has been a great experience and led to really positive relationships, I would be happy to answer them – please get in touch.
Thank you for reading,
Helen
Hello, my name is Charlotte.
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