CVA wants to champion local communities as they know best what's needed in their area.
Our Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) work has allowed us to lead on Social Prescribing in the borough in a way that promotes sustainable change.
Asset Based Community Development
We have been leading on ABCD in the borough and across London for more than 11 years now, focusing on nurturing residents' assets and growing interdependent networks at a very local level. This year we not only secured funding for a Community Builder as part of Best Start (families with children under 5) and MECC (Making Every Contact Count), but paved the way for a Kings Fund's investement in Croydon's communities by securing 2 part time Community Builders to be based in local VCS groups in 2 of the 6 ICN+ areas.
Our Community Builders continue to have hundreds of conversations with residents and professionals; over 600 conversation as a result of social prescribing activity! They supported residents to set up amazing grassroots projects: from Eritrean and Ethiopian wellness groups to doll making workshops, from Spanish mums' coffee mornings to recycling art sessions.
Social Prescribing
This is where our ABCD work has linked with the holistic approach to people’s health and wellbeing that Social Prescribing offers. We provide a one point of information on how Social Prescribing is delivered in Croydon and a list of Link workers in the borough at https://cvalive.org.uk/abcd/social-prescribing/. We also facilitated a Link workers' Forum.
We host one of two Community Facilitators, who builds capacity in health and social care teams and voluntary and the community sector through the Kings Fund and HCT. This year we supported the launch of Community Hubs in New Addington and Selsdon.
One Croydon Training Programme
Born as a programme for Croydon Link workers and social prescribers, the One Croydon's Training programme was extended to all our frontline workforce including: Food Banks, Health and Social Care staff, Befrienders, Faith groups, Social Workers, Employment Advisors, Charities and more. We delivered 20 sessions in the last year with topics rangin from Housing support to Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence, from Employability services to Mental Health First Aid and Fuel Poverty. All sessions brought together speakers from local voluntary sector providers to make sure practitioners are aware of who is delivering what in the borough.
Simply Connect
This year our online database of local activities and services in the voluntary sector was expanded even more and now boosts 584 organisations with 862 entries! We added the option to search by the organisations as well as activities, and the site has an average of nearly 2,000 unique visitors per month. If you would like to advertise your activities with us fill this form in!