Getting outside help with running your group

All groups are welcome to drop in at the Resource Centre to ask a question, check our noticeboards and reference library or have a brief chat with our knowledgeable front desk staff.

We offer additional support to:

  • Tenants’ or Residents’ Associations for Brighton & Hove City Council tenants and leaseholders, and/or
  • Groups run by and for people living in an area of social housing, and/or
  • Groups run by and for black and minority ethnic people, and/or
  • Groups run by and for disabled people.

If you think you may be eligible, contact us to find out whether we can help.

See below for more details on support we can offer to help you with running your group.

Click the Links tab above for details of other organisations who offer training, consultancy and information to help you run your group. Community Works have a useful list of local support organisations on their website.

  • Independent examinations of accounts at the Resource Centre

    The Resource Centre conducts free independent accounts examinations for some groups.

  • Is your AGM coming up?

    Is your Annual General Meeting coming up soon? The Resource Centre can help you prepare.

  • Support for Chairs

    Being a newly-elected chair can feel quite daunting, but if you can listen to others, be kind and fair, and be well-organised, you can be a good chair. The chair doesn’t need to have all the answers and shouldn’t be expected to do all the work. The Resource Centre can help you develop skills and techniques to chair meetings, support the committee and deal with difficult situations.

  • Support for Secretaries

    If you are the Secretary for your group, the Resource Centre can help you to understand your role and to develop skills and techniques to support your group effectively.

  • Support for Tenants' and Residents' Associations

    The Resource Centre is here to help your Tenants’ and Residents’ Association to organise effectively and get things done.

  • Support for treasurers

    You don’t need to be a financial wizard to keep a group’s accounts, and it can be a straightforward and satisfying job. Anyone can learn it – but you do need to know what is expected of you and feel confident you are doing it right.

  • Support with publicity and printing

    At the Resource Centre we can help groups to produce publicity and stationery, and provide administrative support.

  • Support with raising money

    The Resource Centre has a lot of fundraising information and our experienced staff may be able to help your group to raise money.

  • Support for Resource Centre Member Groups

    The Resource Centre offers extra free support to our member groups. We can help member groups to create publicity, raise funds, keep good accounts and run a group effectively.

  • Support with producing newsletters

    Creating a newsletter can be a really useful way of keeping members of your group regularly updated on important local issues, upcoming events and the work of your group. But it does involve a bit of forward planning and will take a bit of time.

These books are available at the Resource Centre, to borrow or to use in the Centre.

The services listed below are not provided by the Resource Centre. These are websites and services we feel are particularly useful for small groups in Brighton & Hove, and which are not easy to find by searching the internet.

Most useful services for local groups
Community Works
01273 234023
www.bhcommunityworks.org.uk
[email protected]

Services provided:
Finding volunteers, Help with developing policies and sample policies, Help with fundraising, Information about managing volunteers, Information on funding sources, Information on managing community and voluntary sector groups, Information on running a group, Networking and finding other community groups, One to one support with managing money, Providers of example equal opportunities policies, Statistics and data, Training for community groups, Training in book-keeping

Notes:
Community Works runs the following projects for the voluntary sector in Brighton & Hove:


They have an electronic voting system which is available to hire. This consists of hand-held pads which can be used by people in a meeting to vote. The results are then displayed instantly on a laptop. They also have a wooden ballot box, which groups can borrow.

Hull CVS
http://hullcvs.org.uk/group-support-other-services/governance-factsheets/

Services provided:
Information on legal structures, Information on managing community and voluntary sector groups, Information on running a group

Notes:
A useful collection of simple information sheets on running groups, covering things like What Insurance do we need?, The committee's essential responsibilities, A Glossary of Committee and Meeting terms, Committee rifts and disputes, How well does your group run?, and a Good Practice Guide on Volunteering.

Other services you might find useful

Would you like to make a donation?

We hope you find this page useful. Would you like to make a donation?

All Resource Centre information is available for free because we know small community groups have small budgets. However, we are a small charity, so if you are in a position to make a donation, it will help us to keep running this service into the future.

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