State of the Sector Research: resilience, value and impact of the VCSE sector in East Sussex

Colligo Labs, in partnership with Ideas Alliance have officially launched the State of the Sector research and July is an important phase of insight gathering and conversations with people working in the VCSE sector.

We are sharing this survey with you as part of the research we are doing around the state of the VCSE sector in East Sussex. The link to the survey is here.

It will take about 15 minutes to complete and will provide us with some crucial information which will help us all plan for the future. Please do take part and share throughout your networks; we really need your help to reach people we don’t normally reach

The survey will be available until Friday 1st August – the link again here. Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey and for telling us your story.

Helen from Ideas Alliance is hosting online focus groups, where she is really interested to hear your views on the state of the sector, the highlights and challenges and where you see the future lies.

Helen would like to invite you to an in-person event on 22^nd July, 2 – 4pm, at the Hampden Park Community Centre – this plays a crucial part in the State of the Sector research they’re undertaking.

This workshop will bring together as many people as possible to create a high-level theory of change for the sector – so we can understand the myriad of things the sector does and why. This will be obvious to many of you already and some of you will have your own theories of change, but in order to provide an overall picture for the research, we need something more overarching. And we can’t create a theory of change without you!

Your opinion is important to this research and in September you will have an opportunity to come together again to reflect on what we’ve heard and make sense of it for yourselves.

You can also join an online conversation with other colleagues in the sector at a focus group – these are designed to gather insight to understand your view of the current state of the sector and your priorities for the future.

You only need to attend one focus group so let Helen know which one works best and she’ll send you an invitation. All focus groups will be online – dates below.

The State of the Sector research is due to come to an end in September, and we want to make sure that any recommendations that emerge from this research are created with you. So we would like to invite you along to a sense making session on Tuesday 9th September, 11am-1pm, at Hampden Park Community Centre – the same location as the event on 22^nd July.

We believe that the best people to make sense of the insight gathered during the research are the very people involved in it. So this event will give you an opportunity to hear the findings from all the conversations and completed surveys and then to work together with VCSE colleagues to understand how this relates to your own experiences and what can and should be done in the future to change things, as needed.

For those who can’t attend these events, we’ll also be sending out a survey for you to complete. This will arrive in your inbox at the beginning of July so keep an eye out for it!

Any questions – do let Helen know. You can email her on helen@ideas-alliance.org.uk. She’s really looking forward to seeing you.

The East Sussex VCSE Alliance is delighted to announce it has commissioned Colligo Labs, in partnership with Ideas Alliance, to research and provide an up-to-date picture of the VCSE sector’s social, economic and environmental resilience, value and impact in East Sussex.

The project is being led by the Alliance on behalf of voluntary sector organisations, including Alliance members, East Sussex County Council and Sussex Community Foundation.

Aims of the research are to:

Provide an up-to-date snapshot of the scale and reach of the voluntary sector
Assess the value of the contribution made by the voluntary sector in East Sussex
Determine the effects of the current operating environment on the impact and resilience of the VCSE sector and their services, support and representation they deliver
Generate recommendations to inform policy, partnership working, service development

Colligo Labs in partnership with Ideas Alliance

Colligo Labs will lead on delivering the project, working in partnership with Ideas Alliance, who will be responsible for stakeholder engagement and primary data collection. Colligo Labs will lead on data capture, analysis and evaluation.

Activity will include:

Stakeholder engagement with VCSE and statutory partners
Participatory co-design, inquiry partners and multi-stakeholder meetings
Monetise outcomes, cost modelling for interventions and loss of VCSE provision
Structured data capture, collective analysis and rigorous evaluation

The research will generate a comprehensive and credible understanding of the social, economic and environmental value of the VCSE sector in East Sussex

Outputs include:

A literature review
Community & stakeholder engagement report
Maps and data visualisation
Theory of Change
Value for Money analysis
A full analytical report

Findings will be used to inform commissioning, policy and system development

Watch this space on how to take part…

We’re keen for voluntary organisations and public sector partners to get involved. If you’d like an informal chat, to attend a workshop or take part in a survey, email us esvcsealliance@escv.org.uk or follow activity on our website