Reflections 02 — Third Sector Chief Exec-ing During Covid-19

I’m sure we have moved beyond crisis, into recovery — for now — but what does recovery look like for a community embedded / community anchor organisation?

And how do we — after a full-on few months — as staff and volunteers make sure we are looking after our own wellbeing? Can we take our ‘foot off the pedal’ for a short time before xmas to look back & look forward?

And funding (always!) — how do we get new money into the system? Can we look at some examples down south for genuine collaboration between funders and between orgs meeting in the middle?

We have been talking about these things as a team, with board, with residents and partner orgs in Wester Hailes, and our colleagues across SW Edinburgh through the Go Beyond network.

Questions , reflection, quick thoughts — hoping to trigger some thinking and conversation with others living and working in a similar context…

Reopening a Community Building to the Community:

• Inside: our building has been open for essential services since March however apart from staff and trustees who live locally, the majority of the people in the building have been non-local staff and volunteers. However this week marks the first week of some of our face to face groups starting back in the building, first up was our women's art group. Colleagues today told me how lovely it felt to see familiar faces back in the building again. We are doing this slowly, carefully, learning from others further ahead than us.
• Outside: our lovely community garden has been a god-send, our gardener Rob + garden volunteers have been back working in very small groups for some time. Amazing things are happening in the garden, food is being harvested, and ideas about enterprise and jobs linked to the garden and the meal are brewing. Some new creative groups have started outside (both ours and those of partners) including one funded by the police to combat some local vandalism, a new family group (think mud-pies, s’mores and more!) and an amazing sounding outdoor cooking class led by Starcatchers. More of this to come…

Wellbeing & Reflection:

• An ambitious plan to host a reflection event for staff, volunteers and freelancers has been parked now, twice. My colleagues Kirsty & Kate have been discussing a ‘taking the foot off the pedal’ week for staff to reflect back and consider how we can make sure we are well and balanced and able to keep going during winter and into spring. This is now looking like a week of facilitated reflection using zoom working with our recently retired Chair, Michelle, and possibly some small group meditation, yoga and outdoor cooking. I’d be really interested to know if other orgs are thinking about how to reflect and stay connected and well as a team.

Funding, Enterprise Income and 2021/22:

• This is on my mind. As an org that has not stopped since March, not furloughed any staff, employed new staff to help with adapted activities, kept paying all our freelance artists on the same contracts and have created some new opportunities for freelancers — what does the rest of the year look like financially? Although we will be around £40,000 down in enterprise income at the end of this year we were fortunate to be able to access funds to alleviate our loss of income. This means that financially we are now OK for 20/21. The next challenge is 21/22 both for core and projects. Although we are picking up room bookings again it’s not as clear how best to project our earned income for 21/22 so we err on the side of caution.
• Funding is feeling more competitive than ever — how can we move beyond this way of working? I’d like to look at bringing new money into the system. Certainly in Edinburgh it feels like we are squabbling over the same pots. I have started some interesting conversations with funders and local orgs about more genuine collaboration — both between funders and between place-based orgs and voluntary groups. Funds that are project based are challenging and don’t always strengthen the core of our organisations.

Challenging times for sure but looking at this positively, it feels like some new ideas are emerging.