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About

What we do:

We enable effective and accountable representation of the voluntary and community sector in South Gloucestershire.

We do this by sitting on various strategic bodies such as the South Gloucestershire Local Strategic Partnership, the Safer and Stronger Communities Partnership and the South West of England ChangeUp Consortium and by supporting other voluntary sector representatives. We take part in local consultations and surveys actively seek contribution from our members about local issues. We monitor the developments of statutory authorities and keep our members informed about the bigger picture and what might affect them.

We encourage networking and partnership building to share information, skills and knowledge.

We do this through the Voluntary Sector Forum events and various other networks We work in partnership with other infrastructure organisations and run the Voluntary Sector Steering Group and encourage our members to do the same where appropriate.

We provide a range of accessible and responsive services to local groups and organisations

We do this by signposting to our members when appropriate and by providing information about the range of services and voluntary and community organisations in South Gloucestershire. We are able to offer fundraising advice, advice on governance and management of organisations, bespoke and general training and sometimes financial assistance to members with costs of transport and fees in connection with relevant events. We also operate an equipment loan service and have a small meeting room available. We have a regular bi-monthly newsletter and, a fortnightly ebulletin.

We identify gaps in voluntary and community sector services and in the development of appropriate projects to meet the needs of communities in South Gloucestershire.

We do this through our networking and partnership working and from the response from our members. When possible we seek to fill these gaps through project development or by putting pressure on statutory services to provide these services.