Civil Society Consulting CIC

🥁🥁🥁 Presenting…. A shared vision for building connection and community in Norfolk, co-produced by the VCS in Norfolk 🌍 🚀 We are thrilled to share the successful outcome of our Building Connections training in Norfolk last Summer, where we partnered with Norfolk County Council (NCC) and Community Action Norfolk (CAN) (Ella Firebrace Ellen Saw Caitlin Mackay Andrea Segura Ruiz Rik Martin) Over 35 VCS and statutory sector professionals came together to deepen their expertise about loneliness, build a shared understanding of the causes and consequences, and form lasting collaborative relationships with one another - facilitated by Natasha Ereira-Guyer. It was magical! ✨ Through these workshops, we co-produced a shared vision for a Norfolk-wide strategic approach to building connection and community, and, in so doing, mobilised a network of unstoppable, active change-makers in a unified effort to make a meaningful impact on the community. SHORT BLOG SUMMARY HERE: https://lnkd.in/eSNYu69E The vision? 1️⃣ A bottom-up approach, led by an empowered VCS 2️⃣ Getting on the front-foot with prevention, by re-framing loneliness and stimulating behavioural and cultural change. Interested? 👇👇👇 Read the full report and DM us or Natasha 🌟 As part of 32 Steps to Togetherness, we've delivered Building Connections Workshops in Rochdale (x2), Tameside, Tees Valley (x2) and Stoke-on-Trent, in partnership with local partners. And later this year we’ll be in West Suffolk and Lewisham. With huge appreciation to our partners - The Jo Cox Foundation, Action Together, Rochdale Borough Council, North Star Housing Group, Penny Vincent, Diocese of Lichfield, Age UK Lewisham and Southwark, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Rebecca Poz, West Norfolk Carers, MensCraft, UK Men's Sheds Association, Norfolk and Waveney Mind , The Shoebox Enterprises CIC, Age UK Norfolk, Age UK Norwich

🔶 Missed our last fundraising support? Join us on Wednesday for a FREE fundraising workshop 🔶 We’re thrilled to announce our second fundraising workshop, featuring fundraising experts Dee Brecker and Janelle Wright! They will be diving into individual giving, exploring its benefits, and sharing essential tools and insights to help you take your fundraising efforts to the next level. As part of our work with the Greater London Authority, we're providing tailored fundraising training and capacity-building support to over 30 organisations that have been funded via the Migrant Advice and Support Fund and their Food Roots Programme. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to enhance your fundraising skills! 📅 Wednesday 22 January 🕑 14.00 - 15.30 👉🏼 Secure your spot here: https://lnkd.in/dWdeUHVn

✨ Best. Day. Ever! ✨ We’re full of gratitude to be stepping into 2025 with many exciting projects with some outstanding organisations and we started the new year with a day out filming an inspirational organisation, which embodies 32 Steps to Togetherness principles - building connection, reducing isolation and tackling division within and between communities. 🥬 🥑 🌿 Spring Community Hub, based in Camberwell, celebrates, nurtures and supports diversity within their community. Its mission is to tackle food insecurity and hunger, supporting local people in or at risk of crisis to advocate for equality and drive lasting change in their communities. Inclusive and culturally-sensitive support is a strong thread that runs through their work, led by Felicia Boshorin and Linda Wood. We love you Spring Community Hub! Francesca Godfrey, Munashe Munyukwi and Mark Ereira-Guyer have been supporting the hub’s work, commissioned by the Greater London Authority via the Food Roots Programme. Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund funding via the 32 Steps to Togetherness initiative, we were able to take our support to the next level by supporting Spring Community Hub to create a short film documenting their work. We worked with our dear friends and trusted partners, ThroughFilm. 📽️ DM us if you’re interested to discuss how we can collaborate with you on something similar!

We kicked off 2025 with a whistle stop trip to London, filming with Civil Society Consulting CIC and Spring Community Hub💚 The right way to start the year! Lots of stories told in just one day, we can’t wait to share🫶🏼

Here’s some good news just before Christmas! 😃 We’re happy to be continuing our role in supporting LGBT+ Consortium to enhance the impact of the LGBT+ Futures: Equity Fund. 🏳️🌈✨ After working as Consortium's evaluators for three years, we (Civil Society Consulting CIC) have seen first-hand how this innovative participatory fund is making a real difference to people’s lives, by working closely with grant recipients, community panelists (who all have lived experiences) and those who are supported by the grantees. 🔥 But the Fund isn’t just about making sure money reaches LGBT+ communities; it's also about creating a stronger, more united, and empowered LGBT+ Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS). It’s about making bigger changes in the system! That’s why... we’re now evaluating Consortium’s impact in terms of #systemschange. Our findings already show that the Equity Fund’s participatory, inclusive grant-making model is one of the few effective ways to support these communities. Our initial evaluation has already helped secure additional funding, ensuring the Fund’s continued success. 💪 We’re proud to be moving on to the next chapter of evaluation, and excited to learn how the Fund is creating systems change. These insights will help shape future funding models and create more equity in the sector. 🌱 Paul Roberts Leyla Helvaci Tait Allen Sam Harvey Katrín Busk Christina Monk Tracey Bennett Simone Ivatts Francesca M. Jason Ball OAM

WHAT A DAY! 🎉✨🎇 We’re on a mission to build connections within and between commissions. Have you noticed that poetry helps us find our common humanity? 😍 We recently celebrated the Togetherness Poetry Challenge, which invited anyone and everyone to write a poem about Togetherness. Between March and September, we received over 450 poems from people from all walks of life - including 30 people currently in prison! When we first launched the challenge, we dreamt about having a day like this. And it happened thanks to you! 🌟 It was a truly magical and powerful afternoon: we brought together people that submitted a poem including the six winners, poetry amateurs, together with professional poets on our judging panel. ✨ A huge thank you to everyone who made it possible, including Cristina Guerrero at Southwark Cathedral, Brad Young, Jamilah Harris from Hidden Literature, Errol McGlashan, Elizabeth Cook, and Pascale Petit Keep an eye on our Instagram account, where we’ll be posting a poem a day! 📲 We can’t wait to plan our upcoming challenge 💛

Last week, I experienced something truly magical at Building #Solidarity_Through_Poetry, an event organized in London by Civil Society Consulting CIC. The gathering brought together #poets, activists, and #community members with a shared purpose: to celebrate unity and build connections across diverse backgrounds through the transformative power of poetry. There was something profound about sharing that space with people that I considered at first strangers, because after just few minutes together feeling each ones’ words, I felt I was with amazing friends that I have been knowing for a long time. That’s the power of poetry, art and community. At this event, poetry became a #bridge, an #opportunity to listen, to understand, and to #stand #together in our shared humanity. Every voice, whether from the stage or the audience, carried a story of connection, vulnerability, and hope. Thanks to my fellow poets and my girlfriend (she played a crucial role in finding such amazing event and allowing me to take an active spot), I had also the opportunity to share with everybody one of my own poems, publicly, a milestone that I will forever remember. What can I say? An amazing experience, a unique opportunity, a fantastic team, and a wonderful community.

Helen and I had an awe-inspiring two days in Stoke a few weeks ago! 🤩 I was immensely honoured to work with 30 incredible VCS professionals to deepen their expertise on loneliness and the concepts and theories behind 32 Steps to Togetherness: https://lnkd.in/ecxTvfx2 We built a shared understanding of how loneliness is caused and experienced, solutions, why it matters and therefore who it matters to (i.e. building connection and community isn’t just important for our health as individuals, it’s also about creating the conditions for unity and social change). 🌟 There were a few things that stood out to me about Stoke and surrounding areas, having now delivered these workshops in Rochdale (x2), Tameside, Tees Valley (x2) and Norfolk (x2). These were: 1️⃣ The impact of poverty 2️⃣ The harsh funding landscape puts pressure on the VCS to get creative and work together (and that’s exactly what we gonna do 💪) 3️⃣ Concerns about young people’s loneliness 4️⃣ The potential of intergenerational initiatives in Stoke, because of the complementary strengths between age groups (although we do see that everywhere) 5️⃣ Stoke has a distinctive cultural and political history, perhaps the VCS can collaborate on projects that bring people together through heritage, fostering shared experience and therefore unity/solidarity 6️⃣ [Perhaps because of its distinctive cultural and political history…] Our Stoke cohort really resonated with our concept of the vicious cycle of loneliness and capitalism: the current economic system —> creates disconnection —> creates division —> creates distrust, inequality and weakened democracy. Loneliness is something we all experience and first and foremost it’s a health issue, so talking about building connection and community is a good ‘way in’ to discussing different elements of the system that is not working (i.e. loneliness is a ‘golden thread’) 7️⃣ We can build connection through citizenship and local democracy - because shared experience and/or genuine shared purpose fosters community. The idea of shifting from consumer to citizen came up a lot, because many people in Stoke see themselves as passive recipients of support rather than active members of their community. Hence let’s use 32 Steps to Togetherness as a tool for nudging people be more active community members/citizens 👌🎥 Hugeee thanks to all the incredible participants and to our partners, Diocese of Lichfield and All The Small Things CIC (Penny Vincent) for making this happen! Great working with you all - Lisa Opatunde Maurice Greenham Patsy Corcoran Diana Hamilton Denise Atkins John Gibson Kelly Smith Adam Gratton Nnaeto Onwuzurumba Sarah Forshaw (and others!) In the workshops, consensus was built that the North Staffordshire Loneliness Partnership should evolve into a More in Common network, so we’ll be working with the The Jo Cox Foundation to continue to support you as a network. 😄 #loneliness #community #socialconnection #togetherness

We at Hidden Literature are thrilled to have partnered with Civil Society Consulting CIC and Natasha Ereira-Guyer on an incredibly successful Togetherness Poetry Challenge! This Saturday, we’re celebrating connection and community, and we can’t wait to announce the prize winners! If you’re free, we’d love for you to join us! Grab your free tickets here - https://lnkd.in/eit4r6GS

Whooo’s freeeee on Saturday afternooooon? I’m very excited for our ‘Building Solidarity Through Poetry’ event in London Bridge (3-6pm). Ovyuki is genuinely one of my favourite people I have ever met!! Because I love to see her in action 😎 With her holding the space, the topic of togetherness to play with, and extremely top notch poems and performances… it’s sure to be magical. 🧙 Also I will be reading my favourite poem ever - about motherhood, written by a prisoner from HMP Dumfries and submitted to our Togetherness Poetry Challenge earlier this year 🫶 We still have ten or so [free] tickets left due to some last-min cancellations (thanks for letting us know!) 👉👉https://lnkd.in/eZsnh8VQ Jamilah Harris James Everest Carl Gombrich Errol McGlashan Collet H. Ellen Sykes Ellen Horner London Plus Geethika Jayatilaka Tracey S Miller Tony Wong Daniel Acheampong Dee Brecker David Murray C.Env., FIEMA, FRGS