Changing Lives is the operating name for the charity The Cyrenians, a homeless charity set up in the North East and now working on a national level. The charity works with vulnerable people and helps them overcome their difficulties to become an active member of society again: this is achieved though 12-step addiction recovery, provided homes at a more affordable rate than the Council (through TCUK), and securing food from national supermarkets to distribute at local food banks and their own day centres. Changing Lives has a women's service also, and has recently completed some research into sex workers in the Darlington and County Durham area. The charity has been shortlisted in the 2016 North East Business Awards in the Heart of the Community category.
Following an introductory meeting with the official liaison officer for my placement a few weeks ago, in which we decided that my main project during the two weeks I will spend with Changing Lives (working full-time hours) would be the creation of a scaled-down Impact Report and accompanying Infographic for the business (similar to the business's 2013 infographic shown below), and the completion of a DBS check, I have visited Changing Lives' central office in Team Valley to complete the compulsory induction training required of all volunteers in the charity.
This induction included learning a bit more about the company, their ethics and goals, and what they will provide for their volunteers. This presentation also detailed the base of my working relationship with the charity: what they expect of me during my placement, and what I can expect from them in terms of support and experience. The company ensures they have spaces for volunteers on all of their core training modules, which means I will have the opportunity to add to my skill-set throughout my placement if I so wish, dependent on what I feel I need to do as part of my project.
Afterwards, I was given a full tour of the central office and was given a run-down on the main Health and Safety points, including the location of the fire exits etc, and was provided with logins for the computer system to ensure that when my work placement officially starts (on Monday 14th March) I will be able to begin work straight away and not reliant on my liaising officer, Rhiannon, to access information and give me tasks.
Rhiannon then introduced me to members of all of the sections of the business, including HR, IT and Finance. These meetings will be paramount during my project as I will have to work with all sectors of the business in order to collate and prioritise data for the Impact Report. One particular sector of the business that I feel I will work with a lot during my placement is the Grant team: their role is to write bids for grants to fund the work the charity does. It is my belief that an effective, professional-looking, Impact Report will go a long way in helping them secure more bids and grants and help the company reach their aims detailed in their Five-Year Plan. On Monday, I plan to schedule a meeting with the employees in this sector first to get their opinions on what information bid providers want to know about and what information they, as employees of the charity, are most proud of.
One of the women in this Grants team was an English Literature graduate from Newcastle University, and so I hope to get to know her better in order to learn a bit more about opportunities and pathways available to English Literature students in the Cultural Industries following graduation.
Between now and Monday, I plan on reviewing the information about the company (leaflets and documents about the lesser-known branches of the charity's campaigning, see below), researching what makes an effective and successful impact report and infographic, and thinking about how to utilise social media and Changing Lives' website to share the information I find during the next two weeks.
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