The Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) in Cheshire East is a strong and vibrant sector, however, they have and will continue to face significant challenges which it will need advice support and guidance on to enable it to respond and thrive.
CVS Cheshire East exists to enable, develop, and empower the voluntary, community and faith sector in Cheshire East. As a charity we are owned and funded by the VCFS to work on activities that benefit them, enabling them to deliver their charitable aims supporting the whole community in Cheshire East and beyond.
CVS Cheshire East recognises that we need to be a responsive organisation that is aware of and reacts to local and national issues that arise to support its members and the wider sector.
At the start of 2020 CVS Cheshire East had the opportunity to reflect on our services and spend time, listening to our members and the wider VCFS to gain a clear understanding of what their current and future needs are. We wanted to take the opportunity to ensure that the services delivered from 2020 onwards were truly rooted in the needs of the sector. In total, we have actively consulted with an estimated 14% of VCFS organisations within Cheshire East (208) working from the Cheshire East Council figure of 1,482 charitable groups within the region. We also heard from 243 current and prospective volunteers through our volunteering survey.
CVS Cheshire East has robust output measurements in place however to ensure that we are making the biggest impact for our members we wanted to have a clearer theory of change that shows the difference we want to make. When reviewing what VCFS organisations told us we were able to identify four overarching outcomes that they wanted to achieve.
These were, that they are:
- Enabled to be viable and sustainable.
- Resilient and can effectively adapt to change.
- Connected to each other, learning, and sharing to improve and develop services/ partnerships.
- Part of a collective that they use to promote the strength and visibility of their organisation and the wider sector.
Through VCFS organisations achieving these outcomes, we will realise our vision of:
