Sajid Hashmi

Sajid Hashmi is chief executive of Vast, the development and support organisation for voluntary groups in Stoke-on-Trent

Community First?

By , Tuesday, 18 October 2011, 4 Comments

The Community First programme was officially launched last week. ‘Yippee’ we are all suppose to say, and I really want to be positive because our sector needs all the help it can get.

This programme is designed to replace/continue the highly successful Grassroots Programme which ended in March. Locally, Grassroots enabled Staffordshire Community Foundation to develop an endowment fund of £2.5m with local community groups directly benefiting from £1.1m in grants. If Grassroots was the invention of the round wheel, Community First is attempting to replace that with a square one – undoing every bit of good practice and success. Read more »

Forced marriages or natural partnerships?

By , Wednesday, 5 October 2011, Be the first to comment

Funders, the government and circumstances are pushing our sector down the road of mergers. I don’t doubt planned mergers or collaborations can cut costs, increase impact, improve services and increase efficiencies in the long term. However, on the other hand, mergers imposed are forced marriages. They can cause a loss of self
esteem, independence, identity, and thus a symbolic sense of failure. For these reasons it’s argued they cannot
possibly work. Read more »

Community organisers: a nationally imposed solution to local needs that don’t exist

By , Thursday, 4 August 2011, 4 Comments

The big society rhetoric has been about power to local communities. Then, along came community organisers, a government imposed doctrine on how local communities should be developed.

Local development and support organisations have been successfully doing community development for years – the issue has been funding and resourcing this work. Read more »

Charity giving – Keep it local

By , Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 2 Comments

We are in difficult financial times,we keep hearing, and yet no one mentions that our taxes are funding bankers’
bonuses and wars in Afghanistan and Libya rather than essential local services.

Read more »

The Big Society Bank is just another short-term fix

By , Friday, 18 March 2011, Be the first to comment

There is a tendency for government to reinvent our sector rather than building on what exists. But what we need is long-term support and not short-term fixes.

The latest idea of the Big Society Bank has got me thinking…

Read more »

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