A Mission for Birmingham’s voluntary sector
One of the many amazing things about voluntary sector organisations is how adept they are at supporting people to participate and have impact in society. These range from creating great ways for people to donate time, skills and money, to supporting individuals willing to take on representative or campaigning roles. The structures, organisational boundaries, policies and practices of voluntary organisations have served well to bring people together around common interests and issues and facilitate participation in ways which nurture people and keep them safe.
The established means of participation we are familiar with are in the process of being augmented by something new and distinctly different. Emergent, open and co-created, new ways of participation are being enabled through platforms which thrive and depend on the unpredictable inputs and exchanges of many unpredictable players.
In order to remain visible, relevant and effective I think voluntary organisations need to both recognise this and adapt the ways they think and work in order to embrace and develop proficiency in supporting new forms of participation. This may require re-thinking structures, boundaries, roles and practice, bringing the best of things which have worked over decades that will serve usefully in a new context while perhaps breaking down other things to make space for something very different to flourish.
Having chaired a board of a charity through financial challenges and redundancies I appreciate that it is a lot to expect increased openness, readiness for learning and significant culture change. Jobs in the voluntary sector have always felt rather precarious, but the additional context of uncertainty we are going through means people feel even less safe, and understandably less up for change, new stuff and learning.
This is where opportunities being created through Impact Hub Birmingham could be a game changer for people in Birmingham’s voluntary organisations. The route in I suggest is through the Mission Birmingham Membership.
Mission Birmingham Membership gives you 12 months of access to the Birmingham and global Impact Hub online community, connecting you with innovators and entrepreneurs (and all sorts of new ways of thinking and doing). Add in the monthly day pass to Impact Hub Birmingham’s co-working space full of people with a passion for equality and a better Birmingham and the opportunities for cross-sector learning and collaboration start to seem very tangible. Consider the welcoming and pro-active hosting which is particular to Impact Hubs and feel assured that you will feel part of this community and introduced to people who it will be useful for you to know.
If just 100 voluntary organisations across Birmingham became members imagine what might be sparked. And if some of those were ready now they could take advantage of a massively reduced first year annual membership, which is being offered for £100 instead of £250 on Impact Hub Birmingham’s Kickstarter.
Don’t hang about though, the early-bird reduced rate Mission Birmimgham Memberships are being snaffled up. Pledge now, you don’t pay until 10 January. (And while you’re on the Kickstarter see if you’d also like a fab tea-towel, t-shirt, hoody or other reward. They are all pretty amazing.) I’m going to suggest my organisation in Dudley signs up too, as we could learn a lot from the Impact Hub Community.
