Capital Volunteering
| Description | Capital Volunteering aim to tackle issues of mental health and social inclusion through volunteering |
|---|---|
| Setting | Community |
| Populationting | People with serious and enduring mental health issues living in London. There is a particular emphasis on including people with mental health issues from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups and refugee/asylum seeker communities. |
| Intervention summary | The project funds and supports over 100 volunteering projects within local organisations across London. Projects include: supported volunteering; mentoring and befriending; creative arts; environment; sports; social or peer support groups. |
| Outcome Summary | For individuals the focus is on social inclusion outcomes, for example: reduced isolation, increased skills, social networks, knowledge, links to community facilities, move on to employment and training. Other outcomes include reduced stigma in the community and increased capacity for organisations to work with volunteers with mental health issues. |
| Startup Cost | |
| Running Cost | £7. 3m over four years |
| Funding | From the Treasury Invest to Save Budget |
| Started | August 2004 |
| Ended | September 2008 (local and national projects started through Capital Volunteering may continue after this date) |
| Location | London, England |
| Contact |
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Background
Capital Volunteering works through a range of statutory and voluntary sector partners across London. It supports a range of projects involving volunteers and is aimed at increasing social inclusion for people with serious and enduring mental health issues. Projects include: supported volunteering; mentoring and befriending; creative arts; environment; sports; social or peer-support groups. There is a particular emphasis on including people with mental health issues from black and minority ethnic groups (BME) and refugee/asylum seeker (RAS) communities.
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
The majority of projects are based in 11 London boroughs: Camden; Islington; Hillingdon; Havering; Redbridge; Barking and Dagenham; Waltham Forest; Croydon; Southwark; Lewisham; and Lambeth. The boroughs correspond with the geography of the four mental health trusts who are partners in the bid to the Treasury. There are also a number of projects targeted at people from BME communities and refugee and asylum seekers, which are based across and outside these boroughs.
What local organisations are involved?
Other than our lead partners, Community Service Volunteers (CSV) and the London Development Centre for Mental Health, we work with over 200 voluntary and statutory sector organisations across London. Our partners include South London and Maudsley Mental Health Trust, Central and North West Mental Health Trust, North East London Mental Health Trust and Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust.
How many people are running this project and who are they?
The project is led by CSV and the London Development Centre for Mental Health. The central project team is based with CSV in King’s Cross and consists of three full time staff and one full time volunteer.
What local population are you targeting?
The primary target population is people with serious and enduring mental health issues living in London. The majority (80%) of whom are registered under the care programme approach and use secondary mental health services.
How many people are you targeting?
We aim to work with up to 4000 people across London.
Interventions
What interventions are you using to address the problem?
We aim to tackle barriers to social inclusion for people with mental health issues through volunteering, reducing reliance on acute mental health services and breaking down the stigma around mental health in the community. We currently have over 100 projects across London reflecting the interests of mental health service users, from mentoring to supported volunteering, creative arts to horticulture. We also support a range of BME and RAS pan London projects. For a full project list see the Get Involved section of our website.
Is the project design based on evidence? If so, please state reference.
The design is not based on published research but will itself publish research by the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) on the results of the intervention.
Outcome
What outcomes or planned outcomes are you measuring?
We are monitoring all projects/services supported by looking at the impact of the project work on the lives of service users. The extent to which this is done depends upon the size of the project/service and level of funding. On the whole, projects/services consider their impact on the following areas:
- Health and wellbeing.
- Social life/social networks.
- Leisure activities.
- Use of mental health services.
- Links to recovery/moving on, for example, further volunteering, training, employment.
- Self-confidence and self-esteem.
- Daily life.
- Skills and knowledge.
The IoP evaluates the social and economic impacts of Capital Volunteering including the effects that the programme is having on the quality of service users’ lives. The first interim report looked at the hopes, fears and initial experiences of the Capital Volunteers.
Do you have any outcomes or results yet? If so, what are they?
Early results from the IoP’s evaluation of the first 60 people sampled indicate that 85% felt they had already gained from taking part. Twenty three per cent mentioned new skills, knowledge and awareness; 17% had gained confidence; 15% had met new people; 13% mentioned enjoyment, fun and interest; and 10% had a sense of achievement or satisfaction.
Is your project relevant to a government target or guideline?
The project is relevant to the National Service Framework on mental health, in particular standards 1 and 4 1
Feedback
What obstacles did you have to overcome to set up this project?
One of the biggest challenges/obstacles has been embedding a project during a time of great financial and organisational uncertainty.
BME involvement has been a challenge. We’ve ring fenced funding and consistently pushed for projects to engage with the BME and RAS communities, which has now paid off.
What have you learned about the project so far?
We have deliberately taken a devolved approach, working with local partners to establish local governance and relevant strategic and implementation plans, including making decisions around spending. We have learnt that a devolved approach can be made to work anywhere, and is succeeding despite challenging environments such as restructuring and deficits at a local NHS trust level. Taking a devolved approach requires considerable time and patience but this yields huge dividends in terms of project delivery and sustainability.
What would you do differently?
Top slicing part of the funding to make sure there was capacity within each borough/trust early on has paid dividends. Ensuring the capacity to plan and engage stakeholders earlier on is essential.