Police at Birmingham Airport are urging travellers to Pakistan to protect any charity cash they may be taking with them. Travellers should take documentation to show where the money has come from due to unscrupulous criminals who could use the Pakistan floods tragedy as a cover for smuggling out money raised through illegal activity. People should also be aware of the dangers of carrying large sums of money. For more information see the press release.

I hope you will excuse me for writing about my summer holiday here, but I came across the most inspiring illustration of partnership working whilst I was away and, as partnership working becomes more important to our Sector, it is an example that has something to say to us.

I took the family, including a plane mad son, to the Visitor Centre at Airbus in Toulouse, and I have to say it was an experience from the top drawer, showing how all-age friendly and informative a visit to a manufacturing facility can be. Cadbury – eat your heart out!

Airbus Industrie was spawned in 1970 as a consortium  of European aviation manufacturers, including the UK’s Hawker-Siddeley, by their respective governments, to help them compete in the global market. Today it is a successful aircraft manufacturer, producing nearly half of the world’s jet airliners. This includes, of course, the largest, the A380. Carrying, typically, between 500 and 600 passengers on two decks, it has more room per passenger and greater carbon efficiency per passenger than traditional long haul craft.

It was an A380 assembly plant that we had the privilege to see in Toulouse. We took a lift to a viewing platform, high up at the end of an incredibly large hanger in which three A380s were being fitted out. What was staggering, though, was the process for creating the shell of the aircraft and bringing it all together in Toulouse.

The wings are made at the former Hawker Siddeley plant at Broughton, near Chester. Fuselage sections are made in Hamburg, underbelly and tail sections in Cadiz.

Transport infrastructure to get the elements to Toulouse has been created from scratch, including the re-engineering of the Airbus A300 into the dolphin shaped Beluga transport plane (only 5 in existence, used to transport smaller components) and three roll-on roll-off ships, the ‘Ville de Bordeaux’, ‘City of Hamburg’ and ‘Ciudad de Cadiz’ (I guess ‘Village of Mostyn’ would not have the same ring to it), designed from scratch to carry the larger wing, tail and fuselage sections.

The journey taken by every completed wing is quite staggering. It is taken to a specially constructed barge, the Afon Dyfrdwy, waiting on the River Dee near the Broughton plant. Only when the tide conditions are right can it be taken fifteen miles downstream to a custom built berth in the Port of Mostyn for transfer to one of the ships.   

These all run a constant circuit from Hamburg to Mostyn to Saint-Nazaire to Cadiz to Bordeaux, collecting different plane sections as it goes and delivering enough main sections to build one plane in Bordeaux. Again, they go onto a river barge, this time to navigate the Garonne as far as Langon.

The final 200 kilometres must be tackled by road. A convoy of half a dozen slow moving oversize loaded vehicles travels only at night and spends the intervening days in specially built secure stopping off locations en route. All of this happens once per week.

By now you are probably thinking as I did – why bother? Why not build the whole damned thing in one place. Airbus claims, though, that it makes negligible difference. All of that transport infrastructure costs less than a halfpenny in the pound in relation to the cost of the plane! So, the earth has been moved (literally on roads between Langon and Toulouse) to make the A380 a true international consortium collaboration – and a success story.

So, what conceivable relevance has making planes in Toulouse got to supporting people in Solihull. I believe that what has been achieved by Airbus demonstrates three things very clearly:

• that several small and disparate organisations struggling to make an impact in a marketplace can bring their skills and experience to a collective table and work together collaboratively and, as a result, make a huge impact, achieving more and establishing greater sustainability as one than they could ever dream of on their own.
• that even if such collaborations demand moving mountains and creating new vehicles to make them work, that can be a small price to pay for the difference it can make.
• that the long term result of such collaboration can be mould-breaking innovation,  solutions with extra dimensions and bigger, better outcomes. 

One Off Events

• Marshalls for Solihull Together sponsored walk (borough wide) on Saturday 11th September
• Event Marshalls, photographer, stall manager at Castle Bromwich Community Festival on Saturday 11^th September
• Campsite patrols, results collection and more at Hockey Festival on Bank Holiday Weekend 28^th, 29^th & 30^th August near Junction 5 of M42, towards Knowle

IT Buddies

Required to teach IT skills to people in their own homes or residential homes.  Need very good working knowledge of computers, excellent communitication skills and patience.

Project Administrator

A fantastic opportunity to gain experience in event management and administration for local events for the Solihull Festival.  Start immediately for events in September.  Further information is available on do-it.org

Trip Companion

Trip companion for local charity for trip to Centre Parcs – 20^th to 24^th September.  Travel and accommodation paid. Will suit those wanting to work in caring supportive role.

If you would like to help with any of the above please call Matthew or Carol on 0121 705 8820 or email volunteering@solihull-sustain.org.uk for further details.

I went to a Workshop about Hate Crime a fortnight ago. This is officially defined as to do with incidents perceived as being motivated by by prejudice and hate. It can be perpetrated as a result of race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender lifestyles or disability. This particular workshop dwelt mostly on disability and featured disturbing case studies, including a number many of us are familiar with such as those of Steven Hoskins and Fiona Pilkington.

The latter case was very much about repeat incidence of anti-social behaviour, the former about exploitation of a vulnerable person. Both were, in hindsight, avoidable if the intelligence available between different agencies and the community had been brought together in an intelligent and coherent way.

It was encouraging to hear individual agencies had now improved processes to detect repeating patterns of calls so that these could be followed up more purposefully. It was also recognised that with joining up this activity in partnership there was more work to do.

Our sector has its part to play, but how to contribute to a partnership effort is less clear at this stage. Perhaps those working with those vulnerable to hate crime should start to consider this, to be ready when consulation begins.

Does your organisation provide support for ‘looked after children’? It would be good to know who and what support you offer. This quick online survey will take only two minutes and won’t hurt.

The Coalition Government’s initiative to get young people to undertake voluntary and community work has finally been revealed to mixed response. It does seem though that early fears have been heeded and an appropriately cautious and measured approach is being taken. 

That complete nonsense of an idea, compulsory volunteering, that many feared, is nowhere to be seen and the whole shebang, which is distinctly separate to the existing government funded youth programme ‘V’, is starting with a pilot involving just 10,000 youngsters who have completed their GCSE’s. Starting with a small number will allow us all to see how it pans out before getting carried away, which must be appropriate in the current economic climate. 

There remain significant concerns in many camps. Some of the potential pitfalls are obvious:

• A pilot programme like this could easily ‘hoover up’ easy to reach, compliant young people and miss the real target hard line cases that need turning around.
• Because the pilot will involve working up to 8 weeks during the 2011 summer holidays, recruitment might be a challenge. If all their mates are doing what they do in the summer holidays…
• Making a real success of a programme like this will probably be more expensive than anyone imagines, each participant will need a substantial investment of time and mentoring for it to work.

However, any progress involves risk and no-one will ever know if an idea has legs unless it is given a run out.

We do not yet know what level of funding will be made available or where it will come from (although the Prime Minister has indicated that he will ‘find the funds to make it happen regardless’).

At this stage all we know about the 2011 programme comes from the following, published by the Cabinet Office:

All young people participating in NCS (National Citizen Service) pilot programmes will have a common experience, wherever they live, whatever their background and whichever organisation delivers the programme. We will be asking that bids include five distinct phases of activity:  

Phase 1: An introductory phase in which expectations will be set and relationships built between participants and staff.

Phase 2: A set of tasks, completed in a residential setting away from home, which are personally challenging (typically in the form of an outdoor challenge experience), and focused on personal and social development (one week).

Phase 3: A set of structured tasks involving visiting and helping the local community and developing skills, again the aim is that this would be completed in a residential setting away from home (one week).

Phase 4: Participants to design a social action task in consultation with the local community (one week).

Phase 5 onwards:

• A period of 30 hours of social action on a part-time basis.
• A fair/event to encourage participants to get involved in ongoing social action or volunteering activities in their area (with a view to creating an NCS alumni scheme).
• A large celebration and graduation event for participants and their guests.
• An alumni programme, including training sessions and reunion events, to build on the enthusiasm and relationships generated by NCS.
• We hope to be able to offer outstanding NCS graduates the opportunity to take part in a programme of social action projects in developing countries.   

A tendering exercise is going to be launched next week, but we do not know whether this be for national organisations to pitch for the opportunity to run it for the Government or whether there will be an opportunity for local areas to get involved at this stage.

It would be helpful for us at SUSTAiN to know, though, anticipating local dialogue at some stage, whether or not local organisations would be keen to participate if there is an opportunity to do so.  Please contact Tina Burgess with your views via tinab@solihull-sustain.org.uk.

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister launched the Big Society Bank and four ‘vanguard’ areas where Big Society is to be piloted. Here are links to some of the key developments in the programme:

• Big Society website/network
• The Coalition Government’s Big Society programme (published May 2010)
• The Cabinet Office’s structural reform plan (draft June 2010) – outlines the timeframe for creating Big Society
• Communities and Local Government plan (draft July 2010) – which contains more specific detail about Big Society
• Launch of Big Society Bank and four Big Society communities (press release 19th July 2010)

Changes to current legislation will be in force from October. It’s important we all understand what the changes are and put in place any required amendments to policies and working practices. Do you, your staff, and volunteers understand what the changes will really mean?

Changes which are important to note are:

• There will now be nine Equality Strands in total along with a public duty on socio-economics.
• Discrimination also has new additions which are association, perception and arising from disability.
• Who has responsibility for the above has also been clearly defined down to charity shops, clubs and internet-based services.

This means that it is even more important for third sector organisations to be more inclusive and to recognise that difference should not be excluded.

SUSTAiN will be offering support and guidance throughout the coming months but in the meantime, if you want more details about the legislation or specific support with changing your Equality practices please contact Gulbag Singh on 0121 711 3148 or email gulbags@solihull-sustain.org.uk.

Want to raise some unrestricted funds for your organisation?

Date: Saturday 11th September
Venue: Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst to Knowle Primary School
Start time: 10am – official opening by the Mayor of Solihull

A fun day out that brings Solihull together in aid of local causes.

Taking part costs just £5 per person (£2.50 for under 16s accompanied by an adult).

Registration deadline: Friday 27th August 2010

Solihull-based charity, voluntary or community group?

Field a team of walkers and all sponsor money they raise will go to direct to your charity or voluntary group.

• Walk Registration Form Group 2010
• Group Terms and Conditions

Want to raise money for local projects?

Individuals can walk on behalf of Solihull Together – a small grants fund made available to charities and voluntary organisations that help the people of Solihull.

• Walk Registration Form Individual / Solihull Together
• Walk Terms and Conditions Individual 

The route

The full 12 mile walk will take in the entire borough from Babbs Mill Park to Knowle. Alternatively, you can walk shorter routes of 2.5, 3.5 or 6 miles, with stopping points at Grace Academy (Chelmsley Wood) and Elmdon Park.

For those of you who took part last year – we hope to have a couple more twists and turns in the Elmdon to Knowle stretch.

Registration

Registration fees cover the cost of staging the event. Any surplus will go into the Solihull Together Fund.

Questions?

If you have any questions or comments please contact Claire Milican on 0121 711 3148 or email her at clairem@solihull-sustain.org.uk

Download: Solihull Together sponsored walk flyer

Last year’s great day out

Take a look at our video to see what a fantastic time people had at last year’s first ever Solihull Together sponsored walk.

Solihull Together is organised by SUSTAiN, working in partnership with SCF – Solihull Together. Registered charity number 1063014.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations Advice has published useful guidance and tools for voluntary organisations who are faced with cuts in the new budget in the autumn.

NCVO are also looking for evidence from organisations as to what impact cuts will have. The information will be used as evidence for lobbying the government in the lead up to the next budget. For further information see the NCVO website.