Our clients

BCEGABCDchanges current and recent consultancy contracts include:

The Hive, Consultation with young people on the benefits of creative activity as part of Fly Away a BLF Awards for All project, 2018 – 19

Shropshire Inclusive Dance – Facilitated Away Day for CIC team and Board, September 2018

Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Evaluation and support of their Swap Welly Time for Telly Time Project, 2018

Dudley CVS – Evaluation session for East Coseley Big Local, October 2018

Community First Yorkshire – Introductory training session on Voice and Echo – frameworks for influence, May 2018

RoundTable Children’s Wish – facilitation of an away day for the Board to develop a Strategic Vision,  February 2018

Shropshire Council Community Enablement team – co-delivery with FRESh of equalities session, February 2018

Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Evaluation of their Feed the Birds Project, 2017-18

The Hive, Working towards an Evaluation Framework, 2017

Shrewsbury Dial-a-Ride, Evaluation of the service through the eyes of the volunteers, 2017

The Hive, Consultation with young people on the benefits of creative – and leisure activity to their wellbeing as part of their Healthwatch funded Project, 2017

Centre for Psychological Research in Primary Care – 2 year narrative evaluation for pilot to change the delivery of improving access to psychological therapy service, 2016-18

Wolverhampton VCS – Evaluation of Improving Futures Programme, 2016-18

Shrewsbury College – Training Union Reps on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trans issues at work, June – July 2015

YWCA-GB – Facilitating an Away Day for the Board to vision and plan a strategic future, May 2015

Severnside Housing – Undertaking an SROI (Social Return on Investment) study into one neighbourhood project, 2014

RoundTable Children’s Wish – facilitation of an away day for the Board to develop a Strategic Vision, April 2014

Comic Relief, Philanthropy Unbound, RSA – one of 5 pilots, ours is specifically focusing on piloting our Women, Leadership & Change programme, specifically for women from African diaspora communities in the UK, 2013 – 2014

Severnside Housing – research to develop a framework which will help Severnside Housing to identify and evidence the difference that their neighbourhood working approach makes in the context of welfare reform impacting on people’s ability to pay rent, 2013-14

SAND – Safe Ageing No Discrimination – undertaking initial research funded by HealthWatch Shropshire looking at the issues facing ‘younger-older’ (aged 50 – 70) lesbian, gay, bisexual & trans people in contact with care services. www.lgbtsand.wordpress.com 2013

Sandwell CVO – facilitating a series of 6 workshops for advice providers to understand and negotiate a response to changes in local authority funding, 2013

South West Forum – interim Stronger Voice Project Coordinator, April – June 2012

Dudley Community Partnership – in partnership with Urban Forum, facilitating sessions on ‘Managing Assets & Services Holistically‘ promoting empowering collaboration between sectors to achieve efficiencies, 2012

Locality  (funded by DCLG)research and development of a guide to support Elected Members to get to grips with community engagement and Localism. Involving interviews and focus groups with Bradford MDC, Shropshire Council, Shropshire Rural Community Council, Solihull Council, Solihull Sustain, Wolverhampton City Council, All Saint’s Action Network Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton VSC, Wiltshire Community Land Trust, Warminster & Villages Development Trust, West Lancashire CVS, Dudley CVS, 2011-2012

South West Forum – delivery of Voice Facilitator Training to members: Plymouth & Bristol 2011-2012

Wolverhampton Partnership – facilitating and supporting a cross-sectoral group to develop ideas, plan and begin delivery of a community engagement learning programme in Wolverhampton, ongoing development and delivery of the programme, including courses on ‘working in inclusive ways’ and ‘running focus groups’: www.wolverhamptoncelp.org.uk 2009-13

South West Forum – research, development and delivery of DUO – a course based on a new framework specifically focusing on the needs of Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Organisations, 2011

Wolverhampton Compact – research and development of an Elected Member learning programme ‘Changing Times: Changing Roles’, working with Elected Members across parties to explore what they need to know and do to meet the demands of the Localism agenda, 2011

YWCA – evaluating the benefit of sending eight young women representatives to the World YWCA Council, 2010 – 11

Housing Liaison Group – ‘Managing Aggression at Work’ training for people who work in the Social Care Sector, as part of HLG’s National Training Programme, 1998-2013

Solihull Partnership – echo session with Elected Members, March 2011

Groundwork Manchester Salford Stockport Tameside and Trafford – evaluating the Future Footprints programme with young people focusing on Leadership in the context of Climate Change, March 2011

Solihull Sustain – generic facilitation skills training, March/April 2011

Wolverhampton Third Sector Partnership
– Voice facilitator training, February 2011

Solihull Sustain – Voice and echo facilitator training, February & March 2011

bassac (now Locality) –
developing ‘Raising Your Voice’ – a workbook on ‘reclaiming the radical’ – exercises and tools to influence, January 2011

Coventry City Council – Voice & echo facilitator training, January & February 2011

Communities & Local Government – partner in the Black Country Empowerment Group (1st round Take Part Pathfinder), included delivery of the Take Part learning programme to 4 audiences; women; ABCD NDC area; LINKs Board; and a generic group as well as training Voice and echo facilitators: www.blackcountrypathfinder.co.uk , 2008-11

Wiltshire Community First – Voice facilitator training and support to use both Voice and echo with Town & Parish Councils to explore their role in a changing environment, 2010 & further Voice facilitator training, January 2011

Shropshire Partnership – Voice and echo facilitators training, September & November 2010 & March 2011. Plus echo session with Elected Members, March 2011

bassac (now Locality) – developing ‘Finding Your Voice’ – a workbook on influencing with integrity, June 2010

Birmingham Take Part – Voice and echo facilitators training, June, September & December 2010

Youth of Wolverhampton – – planning & facilitating an Away Day for staff and  Board, July 2010

Redcar & Cleveland Partnership – Voice and echo facilitators training for Neighbourhood Management and partners, June 2010

Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council – planning & facilitating an Away Day for the Board, May 2010

Community Development Exchange – interim CEO role (Sal Hampson), Dec 2009 – April 2010

echo pilot – having a go with this framework which helps public agencies to assess and increase their openness to community influence, Dudley Children’s Trust & Wolverhampton Supporting People 2009 & 2010

bassac (now Locality) – developing ‘Made to Measure’ (M2M) a practical guide for community anchors to assess the impact of their work, 2009
Feedback on this guide received in June 2010 – “we’ve done two M2M follow up workshops now and the workbook is proving overwhelmingly useful and helpful to Community Alliance members – probably the most helpful product bassac has in its portfolio. It really helps people break down impact into manageable chunks, as someone said at one workshop ‘it helped me to knit fog’, and feedback is all really really positive.  I am very pleased, so many thanks for all your efforts in conceiving it and producing the original draft”

bassac (now Locality) – delivering Voice and Voice facilitator training to bassac Regional Managers and Community Anchors in the English Regions as part of the National Support Service Campaigning & Advocacy Workstream, 2008 – 2010

Improvement & Efficiency Partnership West Midlands – partner in the delivery consortium for IEP, specialising in the community empowerment aspect, 2008-2010

Dosti (Dudley’s Community Empowerment Network)

  • expanding on our work with Voice: networking facilitators, monitoring Voice in practice, gathering materials together, producing illustrative ‘insights’, 2009-10
  • facilitating and supporting a small cross-sectoral group to develop ideas and plan a programme of community engagement training for Dudley Borough, 2009
  • supporting Dosti members, with a particular focus on equalities, to share experiences and information about equalities priorities in Dudley Borough, identify evidence for those priorities and present them to the Community Strategy Review Group, 2009
  • facilitating Dosti’s Executive Board Away Days 2007 & 2008

Cheshire Children & Young People’s hub – using the ‘Voice’ framework to carry out annual evaluation of hub work, 2009 & 2010

Voice sessions with groups – facilitated by changes:

  • Tamworth CVS, 2010
  • South West Forum, 2010
  • bassac members, 2009-2010
  • Bedfordshire Police Authority, 2009
  • Dudley Community Centre Management Committees, 2009
  • Wolverhampton Third Sector Partnership, 2009
  • London Communities Police Partnership, 2008
  • Blackburn & Darwen Borough Council: Street Ambassadors, 2008
  • York City Council (Residents Associations), 2008

Echo presentations, for:

  • Shropshire Partnership, 2011
  • Solihull Partnership, 2010
  • Wolverhampton Partnership, 2010
  • Dudley Community Partnership, 2009
  • South Kesteven Local Strategic Partnership, 2008
  • West Midlands Improvement & Efficiency Partnership, L2D 2008

Nottingham University – delivering the module on Community Development and Health to Masters in Public Health (MPH) students, 2006-09

DiCE Training, for:

  • Sharrow Community Engagement Team, Sheffield 2008-9
  • Communities First Officers and residents in Wrexham, 2008 with mentoring support to 2010
  • Shepway District Council, 2008

Community Development Exchange (CDX) – as part of the National Empowerment Partnership programme of work – research and development of guides for the Doing Community Development (DCD) planning & evaluation framework and the Axis of Influence framework. Also research and development of a framework for public agencies to assess and improve their openness to community influence, 2008

Sandwell Primary Care Trust – discrete consultancy to assist in formulating a process for developing a strategy to embed community development within the Public Health Directorate, 2008

Government Equalities Office – national programme of research titled ‘Women Take Part’ to produce guidance on models, approaches and resources which can be used to encourage, equip and support women who are currently under represented, to become more active, both formally and informally, in governance structures and other aspects of both community and public life. Undertaken on behalf of the Take Part Network, 2007 – 08

Dosti (Dudley Community Empowerment Network)– facilitating action learning sessions to explore community engagement for a cross-sectoral Community Engagement Working Group, 2007

Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health – community development training for early adopter LINKS projects, 2007

Canterbury City Council – community development and community engagement training, 2007

Coventry Community Empowerment network – evaluation of the CEN for Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, 2007

Brierley Hill Community Forum – research to inform an evaluation of BHCF around ‘what works’, 2007

Shoreline Housing Partnership – A two day course on community development and some practical approaches to working with communities, 2007 (with Steve Skinner Associates)

Take Part Network – member of the Take Part Network – co-authoring and disseminating the National Learning Framework for Active Citizenship Learning for the Department for Communities and Local Government; delivering a workshop on active citizenship learning for CDF’s Integration conference; delivering a workshop for Learning Skills Network on the Learning Framework, 2007

Age Concern England – mapping community development approaches in Age Concern organisations, 2006-7

Dosti – developing an evaluation framework for community networks to identify the level of impact and influence they have in relation to partnerships; using this framework with four case study voluntary and community sector organisations; developing materials and resources around using the framework, and piloting facilitator training around using the framework with groups, 2006-7

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council – exploring the relevance of the above evaluation framework for young people in Dudley, 2006-7

Dosti – researching the nature of influence to inform the evaluation framework, 2005-6

Community Development Foundation – National Training Programme – as associates of CDF, developing and delivering courses on:

  • Achieving Better Community Development
  • Community Engagement: core principles and introductory practice
  • Understanding Community Development

(2000-2007)

Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council – designing and facilitating an event bringing together voluntary and statutory sectors around funding and Compact development (2006); facilitating discussions around the development of a resource for better partnership working, 2006-7

Chesterfield Primary Care Trust – delivery of 3 days training on the Doing Community Development: planning & Evaluation framework, 2006

Dudley Women’s Forum – designing and facilitating a morning session on ‘participation – what is it, why do it, how to do it’ as part of International Women’s Day celebrations, 2006

Age Concern England – developing a community development guide and associated training for Age Concern Organisations, 2005-6

Crown Prosecution Service – evaluating 3 national community engagement pilot projects: in Durham, Thames Valley and West Yorkshire and produce a guide to community engagement (as associates of the Community Development Foundation), 2005-6

Civil Renewal Unit – as part of the Active Learning for Active Citizenship initiative – developing a national learning framework for citizenship learning, 2004-6

Birmingham Women’s Aid – working in partnership with another consultancy to look at restructuring and reorganising the Birmingham Domestic Violence Forum, 2006

Academy for Sustainable Communities – designing and facilitating a multi-agency roundtable event for community development and built environment professions to explore the learning and development needs of sustainable communities professions (as associates of the Community Development Foundation), 2006

The Wildlife Trust – developing and delivering training on Community Engagement to Urban Greenspace Project workers, 2006

Telford & Wrekin PCT – evaluating a national pilot funded by the Home Office around healthy policing – working with West Mercia Police, 2005-6

Open University Business School– writing a distance learning postgraduate module around Leadership in the NHS for Nottingham Healthcare Trust managers, 2005

Bradford Equity Partnership – undertaking a feasibility study into income generation for their newly opened Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual (LGB) Centre, 2005

WEAD (Wolverhampton Elder Asian Disabled group) – support to look at roles and responsibilities of trustees, organisational development and action planning, 2005