open space by Faye Royle

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:45:35 UTC

Common thread - successful projects seem to have a key person who drives that success. Need and want in the community already.

Birmingham

2025-09-25 14:46:12 UTC

Committed in theory - but buy in not there at District Level.

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:47:45 UTC

Challenge has been around finding the team leader/driving force to move these groups forward and take ownership.

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:48:33 UTC

Working with new volunteers that don't feel confident with their skillset. Building that confidence is vital.

East Sussex

2025-09-25 14:48:52 UTC

Works well when County on board, and fully supportive.

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:49:49 UTC

When working with new communities, onboarding new volunteers needs support from districts/existing teams

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:50:30 UTC

Digital Deprivation

Scotland

2025-09-25 14:51:12 UTC

1 of 3 Counties/Regions still claims to be recovering from Covid and therefore unable to fully engage.

Scotland Delivery

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 14:51:44 UTC

LGO were responsible in giving the grant when they felt it was ready. Money at the start £250 -£400 depending on funding stream then a final stage receive remainder of grant when they appeared on CENSUS.

Taster session was spent in Start-up box /kit which was then given to them at the end of the session.

No report required, but adapted the Exit Check-list so LGO was capturing the detail which effectively built the report

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:52:03 UTC

Having challenging conversations with existing teams around their views on inclusion, perhaps more training to support LGOs with this.

2025-09-25 14:52:58 UTC

Local understanding of the purpose of the project was not always there. Some groups found it challenging to understand why they weren't eligible for support despite being in need.

Volunteer Sign-off

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 14:53:19 UTC

Too many people in the process of sign off.

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:55:11 UTC

Faith groups have varying appetites. Argument for and against managed at district/county level

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:56:09 UTC

Faith groups offer a sanctuary where people feel safe

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:57:14 UTC

Trust and perseverance. Transparent plans, clears expectations. Groups can get dependent on LGO

NI UCF Approach

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 14:58:26 UTC

Funds are managed centrally, comes out of one pot. - supply a programme for 6wks. Needs analysis was part of the development of the pipeline, so the district don't control the money.

LGO provides necessary resources for the 6wk start-up and then shares £500 for equipment pack (16 item list - basic stuff to run a section).

Sit down explore next steps and look at additional support in needed. With consistent review of processes

2025-09-25 14:58:59 UTC

Appreciate a steering group that was more representative of scouting than County roles.

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 14:59:19 UTC

Starting a group from scratch makes this harder as there isn't a team ready in place to offer support to new vols and sections

2025-09-25 14:59:36 UTC

Big opportunity for adult recruitment with adoption agencies and job centres.

Start-up grant

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 14:59:45 UTC

Grant is vital for start-up to support sustainability. Helpful hook for new sections.

Usage of funds

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 15:00:45 UTC

Rather than give them further funds, soften the impact of membership fee for first year

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 15:01:01 UTC

Scotland - 'still recovering from covid' at one point is that not a reason

District

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 15:01:12 UTC

Encourage the district to help to support financially

Differently - remain flexible

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 15:01:44 UTC

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 15:01:50 UTC

Support in the past parachuting in and out and sections closing after one or two years because they don't have the sustainability support

fayeroyle — 2025-09-25 15:02:21 UTC

What can scouts do for you vs what ca you do for scouts

Data Collection

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 15:02:26 UTC

Don't fully understand what happens with the data and how we communicate this impact back to the volunteers

Midlands

2025-09-25 15:03:02 UTC

Running pop up sessions in local libraries - a different take on assemblies/open days for recruitment of YP and adults.

Local volunteer councils have been really useful as well.

Local college initiative for community out reach proved to be an opportunity via the D of E awards scheme.

Funds held with district

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 15:03:16 UTC

Flexibility on bank accounts - if funds go to district ensuring they release the funds quickly to support the section

External delays - Banks

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 15:04:21 UTC

Set-up of new bank accounts when registering as a new charity can slow the process down

2025-09-25 15:04:59 UTC

Grants - positive. Form easy process straight forward.

Grants - what was tricky was setting up grants for new groups.

Smartsheets -mixed response. Good way of keeping up to date with projects (weekly updates)

Smartsheets - clunky - lots of replication when it comes to the 6/12/18 month report.

Smartsheets- way of bringing all reporting together (uploading videos, photos etc)

Case study -do we need to do them if we can sort Smartsheet (or equivalent ) out.

Case study - template not great. Too much info. Some staff adapt them anyway.

Case study- do we even read ‘em!?!

Case Study - new template much better.

Steering groups - monthly updates.

6/12/18 reports- good opportunity to provide a structured process to update stakeholders- now replicated across other funded projects. Really useful document.

Stuff that’s missing - created fact files for on processes (OSM) etc. starter pack

Membership system -still new so taking time

Central onboarding process for volunteers ?

Having a buddy (for new starters) makes such a difference.

Entry / exit checkilsits - really good.

New provision plan- so useful! Informs part of the initial meeting and useful stakeholder meeting.

Capacity in Grants Team

jemmashaw1 — 2025-09-25 15:05:26 UTC

With Alex for a long time being the only person supporting grants it was sometimes challenging to get a response on a query

Scotland

2025-09-25 15:05:27 UTC

Avoiding overwhelming any one area, so looked at spreading across Scotland. However it left a disconnect within the steering group as they were unable to be engaged with the local detail in the same way as a County based steering group might. The locals were of course only concerned with their area rather than the bigger picture of the project.