Changeup in the region
The Change Up programme was introduced by Government in April 2004. It is a national initiative which aims to build the infrastructure of the Voluntary and Community Sector through the provision of resources which include funding, extra capacity and skills.
Destination: West Midlands is the name of the regional Change Up programme. It supports voluntary and community sector organisations to develop their infrastructure in areas such as finance, governance, information & communications technology, performance, volunteers, and workforce development.
Who is Involved in Destination: West Midlands?
Destination: West Midlands is made up of consortia of voluntary and community sector organisations in the West Midlands. These consortia have been funded through the Change Up fund management agency known as Capacity Builders. There are currently 9 sub-regional consortia and 4 thematic consortia. For full details visit the Destination: West Midlands Consortia Directory.
What is the Role of Destination: West Midlands?
Its main role is to deliver the Regional Infrastructure Investment Strategy and Investment Plan by March 2008. The strategy will set out priorities for financial investment up to 2014 in order to develop and strengthen voluntary and community sector infrastructure, while the plan will outline a series of actions to ensure this happens over the next three years.
How Will This Be Achieved?
This will be achieved through a regional partnership group. The group will engage with as much of the Voluntary and Community Sector it can in order to accurately reflect the sector’s demography and the range of interests and issues that are important to it. This engagement will take place using a series of working groups which will explore specific areas of work and will carry out consultation in order to ensure transparency and wider ownership of infrastructure priorities.
Route to 2014
Destination West Midlands is consulting with all VCS stakeholders to determine the draft outline of the Regional Investment Strategy.
The consultation is asking voluntary organisation and community organisation for their views on the vision of the partnership and the priority infrastructure support needs. If you are a frontline delivery VCS organisation your views are particularly welcome to help us develop a more effective partnership.
The consultation will run for 10 weeks from 19th September 2007 until 28th November 2007. For more information and to join in the consultation process click the link on the right hand side.