Our vision for the Chase and Kings Forest area is for improved quality of life through the continued development of vibrant, influential and effective communities
Our accompanying mission is to engage with geographic communities and communities of interest by providing either the direct services they need or through the provision of support for organisations.
We are a developing Community Anchor organisation for south South Gloucestershire working in the communities of Kingswood, Soundwell, Staple Hill, Downend, Hanham, Emersons Green, Longwell Green, Oldland, Warmley, Syston and Bitton.
We provide infrastructure support and volunteering across the two wards of Chase and Kings Forest and focus our support to those who are most disadvantaged and from disadvantaged communities primarily in the Priority Neighbourhoods of Kingswood but also provide some services in Staple Hill and Cadbury Heath. We are working towards being the lead delivery group for the Kingswood Priority Neighbourhood work in partnership with Connecting Kingswood which is a partnership of the statutory and community voluntary sector organisations.
Our objectives are:
a. Support for the voluntary and community sector, including volunteering brokerage
b. Employment/employability support
c. Support for families
d. Support for older people to support independent living and prevent isolation
e. Kingswood Priority Neighbourhood projects around employment, family, health and wellbeing and community safety.
f. Community development work
a. Support for the voluntary and community sector in providing one to one development of a wide range of organisations through governance, sustainable fundraising, financial planning, business planning and volunteering. We signpost to resources and support and an information service through our regular e bulletins to 600+ local organisations and biannual newsletter. We also deliver training and fit for future organisational health checks.
b. Volunteering Kingswood is an online brokerage service for the Chase and Kings Forest wards which provides support for volunteer supporting organisations, places volunteers and delivers community outreach events.
c. Employment/employability support- we provide an employment drop-in service in Kingswood for those furthest from the employment market, one to one employment mentoring, volunteering for skills, courses to improve skills and boost confidence, CV writing, psychotherapy sessions and signposting to resources and information.
d. Support for families- presently cooking for families and parenting courses but we are in the process of developing a family support service and support group for BME families
e. Support for older people to prevent isolation and support independence - we are seeking funding for a new Welcome Scheme in Kingswood which will work to reduce isolation of older people, people who are unemployed and parents with young children, seeking to include BME groups in all of this work
e. Kingswood Priority Neighbourhood projects- developing and delivering projects around employment, health and wellbeing, family work and crime. We are currently delivering a community health champions scheme and recently ran therapeutic gardening
f. Community development - engaging local residents, carrying out consultations, advocating for residents, delivering community learning courses and developing work to engage with BME groups.
We also have some early stage enterprise ideas which we are seeking support to develop.