Busy! Busy!

Where does all the time go? It just seems to zip past. Once again it has been far too long since we posted any updates.

All of the projects in our last news post have been completed and we are busy working on a new set of projects. In some cases these are with new clients, in other cases we are delighted to be working with established clients.

Autumn saw us start a three year evaluation of the Long Forest project on behalf of Keep Wales Tidy. That’s a fascinating HLF-funded project working in four areas of Wales to either re-establish historic hedges or to lay new hedges as part of a drive to conserve historic wildlife, such as red squirrels in Anglesey.

A very different project is the development of a bi-lingual volunteer coordinator toolkit for Sport Wales. The toolkit will be available soon on the Club Solutions website. The work builds on our evaluation of the work of volunteer coordinators last year. Although this project is a change from the various evaluation projects we undertake, in another sense it is familiar ground. So many of our evaluation projects are with the third sector and involve volunteers.

Another established client that we are pleased to support is Disability Wales. Their Citizen Directed Co-operatives Cymru project was supported by Big Lottery’s Innovation Fund to test a new model of social care support for disabled people, run by disabled people. It aims to mange and use direct payments for support services using a co-operative model led by the users of the services.

A final evaluation project receiving our attention for the next few years is the Big Lottery-funded Connected Carers project. So many Big Lottery-funded projects have worthwhile intentions, and this is no exception. GVS is managing this project, with delivery led by Cardiff & Vale Parents Federation and the Touch Trust. So often parent carers of children with lifelong or life limiting conditions are isolated and have no one with whom to discuss life’s ups and downs who can truly empathise. Connected Carers seeks to link such people in small, carer-directed social gatherings.

So that’s an update. It’s not all we are doing but gives a flavour of our current main projects. Let’s hope we get around to writing again soon.