Community Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in West London

1. Community Development and Corporate Social Responsibilityin West London Dr Simon Nicholas Davey Chief Executive Lets-Develop.community A not for profit organisation working todevelop the community of West London and beyond lets-develop.community

2. What is Community Development • Community Development is "a process which aims to make real and to extend participative democracy. Through its activities, the rights of citizenship are claimed for traditionally unheard and powerless people. Social needs and individual problems are turned into public issues to be tackled through collective activity, so that the people involved build up their personal skills and confidence and take a greater control of their communal life." lets-develop.community

3. What do large employersthink about this? • The key question is "What should we do ...... how much ...... and where?"   We do not have infinite resources and are not a philanthropic organisation.   Choices have to be made with regard to our own staff, contractors, and our neighbours and the public at large.   In my view, there is a clear grading of the "duty of care" towards our people "inside the fence", and the general public (for whom the Government receives our tax payments). • Chief Exec, UK based multinational, January 2002 lets-develop.community

4. Who We Are • Lets-Develop.community - community development in the West London sub region • Based in Brentford, London Borough of Hounslow • Not for profit, applying for charitable status • Managed by a board including representations from large UK corporate, a public sector organisation, small local businesses and community groups • We're business led, professionally managed and focused on the reality of business needs as well as community relevance lets-develop.community

5. Our Aims • To develop the community of West London (and immediate outlying area) by: • (a) facilitating free professional support for voluntary and community groups, • (b) promoting professionalisation and partnership in the voluntary and community sector, • (c) developing technological and information structures in communities. • Lets-Develop.community aims to empower community groups and communities themselves, by providing key professional services which leverage growth and capacity building. Central to this is the efficient use and engagement of information and communications through process and technologies. lets-develop.community

6. The History of LDC, PIC and WELL • Lets-Develop.Community was formed and took over the community involvement programmes of West London Leadership in August 2002. • PiC is it's core programme (facilitating and delivering free professional skills support to voluntary and community groups) and has been running with great success for seven years lets-develop.community

7. What We Do • Offer the voluntary sector the opportunity to use business support effectively (skills and in kind rather than pure 'chequebook philanthropy'). • Enable employers to develop their employees skills 'out of the box' in new and challenging environments. • Build true community relationships • Help leverage support for greater projects (e.g. we might link a business with a community group to generate a feasibility study free of charge - without it, the project would be dead in the water). • Work in partnership with other 'second tier' voluntary groups to maximise effectiveness (examples include business community connections, BitC and West London Network) lets-develop.community

8. West London –reality of the community lets-develop.community

9. What Lets-Develop.communitycan do for you • Enthuse your employees (better motivation, morale, attendance) with projects • Give you a better local profile (improve its value rather than its magnitude) • Contribute to local economic wellbeing (better skilled people make recruitment less problematic, work more effectively, contribute to your bottom line) • Improve community safety (e.g. IT companies - laptop theft at end of road) lets-develop.community

10. How do we do that? • LDC provides a structure for business support of the community by partnering with VCOs and defining projects and opportunities (typically non-financial). • Easily quantifiable support • Impact driven • Results driven • Cost: ten hours of time (X) = Impact: 15% increase in client base for VCO • We're not taking all your employees out for two days a week, but maybe five lots of two hours, spread over three months. lets-develop.community

11. Case Study: Hester Architectsand Neighbourly Care • Small architectural firm introduced to community group through PiC programme. • Drew up a 'pro bono' feasibility study for the development of a community centre in Southall. • The feasibility study helped to bring in funding. • Project developed and Neighbourly Care Southall was born, now serving the needs of the elderly community in Southall. • LDC/PiC projects maximise leverage and make things happen. lets-develop.community

12. What you can do for West London • Think local (but not just for your paying clients) • Direct your employees skills not just their muscle • Develop more direct support (we can help you) • Get more intimate with your community (might save you a few broken windows) lets-develop.community

13. How you can support us • Put employees into LDC programmes such as PiC (short, time limited projects) • Work with us to support needs of vol groups and communities (maybe small corporate donations or in kind resources) • Maybe a little funding... (we're not fee based but we don't run on fresh air) lets-develop.community

14. Have I got the right kind of employees for this sort of thing? • We work with volunteers who provide 'professional functionalities‘ e.g. law, finance, IT, marketing, surveying, architectural, PR, business planning • It doesn't matter whether you build roads, develop cancer cures or lay telephone cables. You've probably got plenty of people who want to get more involved in the community and use their professional expertise in a slightly different way. • Sometimes, it just requires someone who can think strategically. • You've got an awful lot of those if you're a FTSE-100 company. lets-develop.community

15. I’m too big/small for you to work with… • We've got 500 would be volunteers - how will you find them all projects?  • (We can't. What we can do is identify early stage possibilities for some of them and signpost a few more. We can't manage your community impact programme but we can help with some of the delivery). • I work for a small company – I can’t do free work. • (Actually, our membership ranges from BAA and BT to individual consultants. We do the ground work, identify possible projects and you say yes or no. All community work increases networking and the smaller the company, the greater its relative value. Even a small company can make a BIG impact). lets-develop.community

16. What happens next • Contact us for more information or to discuss your needs • Register employees (or yourselves) to provide support • You might not get a project next week but we'll try and identify synergies in terms of your expertise and location. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day soon. • Start making the difference to your local area (where you work, the people you drive past in the street) • We won't change West London overnight but with your help, we can make a start. lets-develop.community

17. Conclusion • You're already corporate. • Why not be even more socially responsible. • Lets-Develop the community of West London together. • Dr Simon Davey • Web: www.lets-develop.org.uk • Email: simon@lets-develop.org.uk • Tel: 0705 018 8707 or 020 8560 0660 lets-develop.community