Our plan

CVSF has developed successfully in recent years.

• We now have over 500 community and voluntary sector member organisations from the Brighton and Hove area
• We have 77 seats on 35 different city wide boards and partnerships (as at October 2009)
• We represent the third sector at a city-wide strategic level and succcessfully link the views of individuals to local policies

However, we are far from complacent since central, regional and local policies develop and change regularly, as do the issues that affect our local area and our collective quality of life.

Stronger Communities Programme

We'll be working hard to keep our members informed and ensuring that the views of the sector are fully presented to the correct boards/partnerships.

Planning our future ...

We'll follow our strategic plan, specifically be focussing on the following:

1. engaging local people and third sector organisations in working together
2. promoting the third sector and its value to the city
3. influencing decision making, delivery of local services and cross-sector partnership working
4. building our own capacity, developing our internal management and maintaining a robust fund-rasing strategy

Reaching out further ... 

Continuing to developWe estimate that there are over 1,000 additional community and voluntary groups that we could also assist as they serve their local communities. We'll be striving to increase our membership so that we can truly make the voice of the third sector speak for everyone actively involved in the Brighton and Hove area.

Sustaining our progress ...

Like most third sector organisations we face an ongoing challenge to secure the funding needed to fully support our ambitions and the achievement of our goals, particularly in the current economic climate. We therefore aim to continue:

• building a diverse funding base
• growing our level of self-generated income
• securing resources from statutory bodies, where possible

Measuring our success ... 

Measuring successIt's important that we track the extent to which we are achieving our objectives. We have a range of indicators calculated using information gathered from members and other stakeholders.

We routinely check our achievements through conducting:

• annual surveys
• evaluations at events and meetings
• evidence collation through our outreach programme

In 2011 we will demonstrate that in CVSF:

• third sector organisations are more involved
• individuals are increasingly active and more connected to the wider sector
• statutory partners and others have increase their engagement
• local communities are increasing their interaction with us

We will also continue implementing our quality improvement plan. It is based on a PQASSO assessment of our organisation and we are working towards achieving levels 2 and 3 during 2011-12.

Help us to help others ...

Working togetherBy becoming a member of CVSF, your organisation can develop a stonger influence over the issues that affect your group or local community. We have several different categories of membership to ensure that we are fully inclusive.

We would welcome seeing you at our next meeting and discussing the issues that affect you. Alternatively, if you prefer, we're always pleased to talk, directly whenever and wherever it's convenient for you. Please get in touch with us.