July 24, 2024

Project Manager for Step Forward into Volunteering and Employment, Shelley Studholme, gives us an update on the programme’s activities and staff changes during another busy month:

We’ve had a productive and rewarding month delivering the project, meeting the needs of clients and adding value where we can, whilst raising awareness of the project, encouraging referrals and embracing developing our skills to impact the Step Forward team, the wider CVS team and the clients and organisations we work with.

The project was naturally commissioned to the end of July 2024, but through careful budget forecasting and managing the finances we have managed to secure one more year, after submitting a business plan to NENC ICB Commissioners that was accepted.

With this came new terms and conditions, so we have now fully absorbed Sam Peters from Together We into Cumbria CVS to continue in her role as Employment and Volunteering Liaison Officer and Lee Rose has been seconded to us from his organisation, the Glenmore Trust, for one more year to continue in his similar role. We are delighted to have them join us.

Lee has been busy upskilling himself in relation to the Disability Confident Scheme, and can now deliver this and offer to support other organisations to embark on the process of gaining this accolade. Lee also attended the Growing Well Social Prescribers event at Tebay to share the project and network with other services.

Myself and Sam Peters refreshed our Emergency First Aid at Work qualification with Ross from Lakes First Aid and are now accredited for the next 3 years. Later the same week Sam and I hit the road to attend not one, but two festivals in one day, hosting our stall and normalising the conversations around mental health, promoting positivity techniques and anxiety support mechanisms. We attended the Lakes College, Lillyhall, Skills Fair with over 50 other organisations and then joined a Wellbeing Festival at Workington Academy to showcase what we do.

Step Forward has hosted the first Holistic Employment meeting and hopes to grow the network and focus on working together to achieve change and aspirations that impact and add value to those we all support.

In addition, I was fortunate enough to talk to age 50+ individuals about transferable skills to the workplace and the value they can and do add for Copeland Work and Skills Council; and later on in the month joined Judith Smale’s session for Copeland Work and Skills Council to talk about the Health Benefits of Volunteering, followed by Sam who shared her lived experience of volunteering into employment and the positive impact on her wellbeing. We were delighted to see Carol Pugh and Chris Cuncliffe on these occasions, doing exceptional work.

I also met with Deborah Naylor to discuss their new and wonderful Brighter Futures initiative and hope to support where I can, attended The Strengthening Cumbria’s Civil Society research event at Energus and managed to discuss the importance of ABCD (Asset Based Community Development), a subject which impassions me. Attended the Decoding of Wellbeing Campaigns training, attended and completed a Master Class for HR Professionals and Managers Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace and Womens Hormonal Health all delivered excellently by Our Minds Work.

Finally I ended the month by joining the APM, Association of Project Managers North West network meeting one evening as a non member to listen to Andy Watt, an established author, deliver a presentation about “The Critical Chain”… which had impact and added value to what I do. I hope to join the network and represent the perspective of a project from the third sector amongst many wonderful nuclear projects.