Firmer Foundations, One Year On

The Firm Foundations project, funded by the John Lyon’s Charity, has completed its first year working with youth providers in Brent. The project was set up to support organisations to maximise their social impact, achieve financial sustainability and deliver high-impact cost effective services.

In 2014 Clear Thinking carried out twelve assessment audits, bespoke consultancy support with three organisations and facilitated three information, advice and training forums. We worked with a broad range of youth organisations, with income of between £0k and £600k, providing services from job and career development, early years play, to training in circus skills. The project revealed the wealth of local knowledge and dedication possessed by these community organisations to addressing grassroots problems and striving to improve young people’s chances in Brent.

Our audits consistently revealed difficulties around clearly and compellingly articulating objectives and impact to a wider audience, as well as a lack of full-cost recovery methodologies and clear evaluation frameworks. These development areas were the focus of forum meetings, which elicited much lively debate, provided a valuable opportunity to share ideas and facilitated discussions between youth providers and invited contributors including Erik Mesel from John Lyon’s Charity and CVS Brent.

At our last forum in 2014, a discussion developed around the ‘bubble’ that can isolate community organisations, too frequently under-staffed, struggling for funding and without the time or capacity to share their knowledge and impact to those who need to know. The Firm Foundations project was established to underpin the robustness of these organisations and to provide them with the practical skills and knowledge to become sustainable. However, in addition to tackling the challenges and shortfalls these organisations face, we hope that we have also enabled these community organisations to feel less cut-off, more secure and appreciated for the work they do.

Davis Williams, CEO of Under Konstruction: “I wanted to personally thank you for an uplifting workshop yesterday. I found it refreshing and a blatant reminder of the work that needs to be done within the third sector. I found your approach strategic, honest and you were able to manage the emotions and frustration in the room with ease and courtesy. People left feeling hopeful and inspired.”