Developing Sustainable Organisations

The Muath Trust Development Agency and Fircroft College came together in 2006 to develop the Developing Sustainable Organisations Programme.

Part-funded by the European Community EQUAL fund, with 50% of the monies coming from Birmingham partners, the ASPIRE Programme offered an opportunity for the Muath Trust - an established Local Development Agency to work with Fircroft College, a specialist adult residential college which seeks to strengthen communities by empowering individuals.

The goal of formalising this partnership was to enhance capacity building and learning options for RCOs. This approach was particularly focussed on supporting and enabling participant organisations to improve the quality of the services they offer to asylum seekers.

Programme Components

The Programme was designed to have a number of components:

• An initial evaluation and health check leading to the development of an organisational action plan.
• Mentoring intended to support organisations to work through the action plan.
• 1 free place per participant organisation on a programme of 6 residential training sessions covering
  
   - You and Your Organisation
  -  Funding Programmes
  -  Funding Strategies
  -  Financial planning
  -  Strategic management
  -  Business planning
• Free places on a further 4 residentials of participants’ own choosing from the Fircroft Short Course Guide.
• Support to introduce an appropriate quality system.
  

Entry Criteria

As part of the criteria for entry into the Developing Sustainable Organisations Programme, each participant organisation was required to identify an ‘Agent of Change’ who would:

• Attend 4 network meetings
• Attend the programme of 6 residentials
• Attend a further 4 residentials
• Agree to volunteer for at least 6 hours per week
• Undertake and complete the paperwork required to evidence their participation
  

Each ‘Agent of Change’ would be eligible to receive a pack which included a briefcase, calculator, mouse mat, memory stick, folder, A4 pad and a pen.

Organisational Commitment

Each participant organisation also made a commitment to:

• Agree an action plan for the development of the organisation
• The introduction and implementation of an appropriate quality system
• Identify and sign up and least 1 Agent of Change
• Contribute to regular monitoring and evaluation of project activity
  

Recruitment for the Programme commenced in November 2006 with residentials commencing in December and ending in May 2007.

Find out more about this project by downloading the project evaluation report.