Community Survey: You said, we did
ELBA have recently welcomed new team members across the Community Works team and after a few busy summer months learning the ropes we were keen to review feedback from ELBA’s community partners. The Community Survey, sent out at the start of 2019, is a great piece of work looking at ELBA’s impact and direct feedback. Team Challenge and Connect are always very keen to learn, develop and grow and have taken all feedback on board. We are now in the process of responding back and some community partners would have already received emails addressing points mentioned within the survey.
Firstly, a big thank you to all the community partners who have contributed to the survey, without your feedback we couldn’t improve! Through this we have identified some key areas:
Communication
You said that you would like more contact with ELBA and for ELBA to reach out when there are volunteer requests.
ELBA reaches out to all its community partners at the start of the year to find out which projects you require volunteer support for. This year, we have also re-established connections with community partners in summer to make sure our list of volunteer opportunities is as up to date as possible and matches the need in the community. Due to the nature of our work we cannot always reach out to partners regularly but are always at the end of the phone or an email away if you have an idea or project that requires volunteer support.
The need for more volunteers
You said that you would like more teams to volunteer at your organisation.
This year we have reached out to more community partners to increase the number of organisations that we support. We have followed up over email to collect the information we need to advertise for volunteers. We do our very best to get volunteers out in the community but cannot promise them as the volunteers themselves choose where they volunteer. Last year, we piloted a winter programme to encourage people to volunteer in quieter months. This wasn’t as successful as anticipated so this year we will aim to improve this. If you want to advertise further projects and need please get in touch with your ELBA contact.
Request for further support from ELBA
You said you would like ELBA to provide further support to struggling charities and to assist in other ways.
We have offered a variety of support and made our offer easier to understand. Through programmes such as ‘Leaders in Partnership’ which creates mentoring relationships, to ‘BoardBuilders’ which places a corporate trustee on your board. This is in addition to facilitating and delivering workshops focused on beneficiaries, consultancy, capacity and skill building. As well as offering practical and social team challenges also. For more information on this, please contact your ELBA point of contact.
A shorter registration process
You said you would like to see a reduction in the amount of paperwork required by ELBA.
We have simplified the registration process as much as possible with an online version of the registration form. You can also submit documents online using the form. All the information that we request is essential for due diligence and contact purposes.
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With the festive season fast approaching, we are also encouraging community organisations to reach out if there is a need for volunteers for particular events/activities; whether that be a Halloween themed event, wrapping Christmas presents or needing volunteers for a festive party. If you need this kind of support or would like to volunteer with our festive programme please do get in touch with challengeelba@elba-1.org.uk
Lastly, ELBA would like to thank all the community partners whose feedback was very positive and we truly appreciate your appreciation – it certainly makes us more determined as an organisation to continue to support east London communities!
Written by Smera, smera.nadeem@elba-1.org.uk
