A day in Dacorum

By Victoria Griffiths
Stronger Communities Officer,
Herts County Council

On Monday 2nd March I spent the day in Dacorum, visiting both the local CVS, called Community Action Dacorum, and the Volunteer Centre. As a Hertfordshire County Council employee seconded to work on a review of our relationships with the Third Sector, this was an invaluable opportunity for me to experience the day-to-day workings of such organisations and to ask all the questions I could get into 7 hours!

I began the morning at the ‘Community Action Dacorum’ (CAD) building, located in the old town in Hemel Hempstead. When I arrived, Mark Mitchell, Chief Executive, was in a meeting regarding the proposed rental of a property in Tring for use as a charity shop that would give CAD a stronger presence on the High Street. It was interesting to hear that charity shops of this nature have an estimated income of £300 a day and to hear that all sorts of high quality things get brought in, including unwanted Christmas presents that have never been used.

Following the meeting, Mark talked to me about the history of the organisation, which originates from the 1940’s when Hemel was a new town. It has seen significant growth during the 1980’s- 90’s and now has a £1.5 million turnover per annum and a total of 180 part and full time staff on the payroll. As well as Hemel Hempstead, it has branches in Kings Langley, Berkhamstead and Tring.

CAD is what is called a local umbrella organisation which provides support to voluntary organisations, often in the form of governance advice and equipment. It is one of nine such organisations across the County, although they all vary in funding and size. In Dacorum, 270 organisations based in Dacorum, or serving the people of Dacorum are members of their local CVS and CAD engage regularly with their Members through community lunches, member surveys and their annual general meeting.

In addition to this work with VCS organisations, CAD also deliver a number of services that support identified needs within the community. This includes
Supporting private and voluntary sector providers of services to children and young people to improve the professional status of their workforce and volunteers
Provision of nine mini buses that are available for hire by community groups
A volunteer car scheme to help residents unable to use public transport or taxis
A project called ‘Connect Dacorum’ which enables private sector businesses to fulfil their Corporate Social Responsibility by linking with community good causes
Community based learning work targeted at black minority ethnic communities
Arranging work placements in socially worthwhile settings for people who have been out of work for 12 months.

CAD are also a registered exam centre for the Institute of Linguists and run an interpreting and translation service for a range of public authorities, a service which amounted to 5,500 assignments in 2008. On top of this their ‘Paradise Furniture and Training’ outfit operates a furniture reuse service as well as delivering a range of training courses aimed at improving employment and skills, while their ‘Shopmobility’ service hires electric scooters and wheelchairs to assist people with mobility difficulties to access town centre shops.

From a County Council perspective, it was exciting to hear about such a range of services provided in response to real needs across the community. It demonstrates how the voluntary and community sector plays an absolutely vital role in providing services that the Council cannot stretch to, often because of resources, and it highlights how we share some of the same ambitions, such as creating equal opportunities for people to access jobs and develop skills. It also struck me that the voluntary sector have important links to a wide range of individuals and groups, as well as to businesses in the private sector, the latter being an area that the statutory bodies have traditionally found difficult to engage. Mark also told me that CAD have been able to establish a number of links with European and trans-national work since 1997, including contributing to research into the impact of migration, exchange of good practice relating to management and the delivery of European Structural Funds and sharing of expertise relating to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Following our discussion, Mark showed me around the building so I could see some of the pictures of their work in action and meet some of the staff based there. I saw where their interpreting and translating team are based and met Loretta, who runs a lot of their key events throughout the year, including their annual Victorian Evening and Halloween event in Hemel. Loretta is also currently working hard to help smaller voluntary organisations access Grassroots funding. I was impressed by Loretta’s passion for the work and her commitment that leads her to go out to find groups, meeting them in the places in the community where they are based.

At lunchtime I walked into Hemel town centre with Helen, the Deputy CE, who has recently been working to help the organisation achieve its ‘Investors in Diversity’ standard. We headed for the Roundhouse, a building that lives up to its name, a round structure which used to be an information centre in the town until the Volunteer Centre took it over in March 2007 giving them a prime spot among the major high street shops in Hemel.

At the Volunteer Centre, we attended the Community Involvement Forum, one of 10 themed forums that support the Dacorum Sustainable Community Strategy. As part of this meeting I was able to give an update on some of the work we are doing at a countywide level to promote community cohesion and support the Third Sector and to receive some local feedback about the current impact of the recession. Receiving this sort of information from people living and working in local communities is critical in informing how we shape the strategic direction of the work of the council and other statutory partners. I was able to hear from agencies working with local residents such as Age Concern, Home Start and an Interfaith group.

Afterwards I concluded my day with a chat with Heather Allen, Manager of Volunteer Centre Dacorum and Chair of Volunteeting Herts. Heather and I are working together to organise a Volunteering Strategy Workshop on the 26th March to develop a Volunteering Strategy for Hertfordshire. It was good to visit Heather where she is based and to see the database, called V-Base, used by all the Volunteer Centres to match volunteers to appropriate volunteering placements within a wide range of organisations. Local versions feed into the National Volunteering database on www.do-it.org.uk. We will be using V-Base to access information about the activity going on across all 9 of the Volunteer Centres in Hertfordshire to inform the volunteering strategy. It will tell us how many enquiries the centres receive, the types of volunteering people do and the kind of people who are getting involved. Heather told me that part of the challenge for the Volunteer Centres is getting people to understand the broad variety of volunteering activities that they can take part in beyond the traditional ideas that volunteering conjures up.

This experience was of real use to me in understanding the sector better and how it supports some of the key agendas that my work covers at the County Council. Partnership working between the VCS and public sector is so important for building stronger and more cohesive communities, where people from different backgrounds get on well together (National Indicator 1) and where people feel they can influence local decisions (National Indicator 4). Not to mention other areas such as supporting people into jobs, and providing volunteering opportunities. We also need to work together to ensure that there is a continuing and improving environment in which the Third Sector can thrive (National Indicator 7) and go on playing their important role within communities.

I would like to particularly thank Mark and Heather for hosting me for the day and allowing me to gain a real insight into the valuable work that they do.


Websites containing lots of useful information:
Herts CVS Group- http://www.hertscvs.org.uk/
Herts Volunteering Strategy- http://www.volunteeringherts.org/valuing.htm
Dacorum CVS – http://www.communityactiondacorum.org.uk/
Volunteer Centre Dacorum- http://www.volunteerdacorum.org/
Connect Dacorum – http://www.connectdacorum.org.uk/
HITS – http://www.hertsinterpreting.org/
Paradise Furniture and Training - http://paradise-furnitureandtraining.co.uk/index.htm
Corporate Social Responsibility- http://www.championingcsr.co.uk/index.htm