Projects, Processes, and Plenty of Discussion

Written by Stanley Shepherd, Community Development Senior Project Manager, Challenge:ELBA

In 2023, ELBA supported 136 East London community organisations across a wide variety of high impact projects and activities. With the various programmes and wide scope of activities offered by ELBA, we understand that it can be difficult for community partners to know which projects may suit their needs and how best to access and utilise the support on offer. To engage community partners further, ELBA invited them to our Community Partner Training Day, kindly hosted by Fight For Peace, a youth led charity that supports young people through the power of combat sport – also an ELBA community partner.

The Community Works team at ELBA is split into Challenge and Connect. Challenge focuses on recruiting corporate volunteer teams to take part in one-off volunteer days to support a community organisation with their practical needs. The day provided insight into how community organisations can effectively advertise their volunteering opportunities to corporate teams, what to include whilst briefing volunteer groups, and how to prepare for the volunteer day itself. We also went through our Cost of Living Response, with partners learning more about the ELBA Toy Appeal, essential items donations, and warm hub sessions.

Connect supports East London community organisations through capacity building and the facilitation of skills-based volunteering. The team runs a huge variety of programmes and workshops ranging from half day workshops to long term support such as mentoring and coaching opportunities. The four key areas of work are:

• Governance and Organisational Development
• Data Innovation
• Inclusion and Beneficiary Support
• Climate and Environment

The day was incredibly insightful as we not only discussed how community partners can get involved in our projects, but listened to what works best for them in terms of marketing these opportunities and ensuring volunteering is addressing their needs.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable and productive session that shone a light on the amazing work that our community partners are doing to support the East London community.

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