News Archive

Cambridge House Innovation Fund

Winning Proposal ‘TICK IT’ Scheme
Congratulations to our Community Services Team

We want to run the Cambridge House ‘TICK IT!’ scheme pilot during the October half–term.
By March 2011, all local authorities are required to have at least 30% of publicly funded adult social care users using personal budgets.

This is an unprecedented shift in how care users plan and purchase their care and this has significant implications for commissioners and providers.

The ‘personalisation’ of care aims to provide people who are in receipt of a Care Package more choice and control.

The TICK IT scheme is a pilot scheme for parents and carers of young people with Disabilities to experience how they could be purchasing care in the future and for Cambridge House to experience how we could be delivering care in the future.

Parent/Carers will be able to support the young person they care for to choose the activity they want to do, choose how long they want to do the activity for, and, make choices about the carer they want to support them from a range of ‘staff profiles’.

We will be partnering Southwark College in the delivery of this project. The TICK IT scheme will be providing work placement opportunities for their Health and Social Care students. We are also partnering with Art in the Park, they have provided TICK IT with studio space and they in turn are receiving an income. The Poets Corner Tenants & Residents Association are also providing space for us.

We want to run the pilot for at least 8 children/young people/adults with severe learning disabilities — the respite this provides for them will be a significant additional benefit of funding the project.

Innovation Fund – Up to £10,000
Below contains useful information about the Innovation Fund and how to apply.

1. Introduction
We have been trying to find new ways of growing creativity within the organisation and we have decided to launch the Cambridge House Innovation Fund.

2. Rationale
The idea behind the Fund is

a) to enable staff and volunteers to try new ideas that meet a need outside of what we currently do. If it is successful it provides evidence of what works that can be used to attract further funding for future work or gives people ‘seed’ funding before a service can generate income through sales or commissions.

b) to enable everyone to have the opportunity to say what kind of work we should do. This is based on a Participatory Budgeting model where people decide how public money is spent. In theory a wider group of people should feel a sense of ownership for the winning idea rather than just those directly involved.

c) to show the model works and we can then ask funders and Corporates to top up the £10,000 pot for future years.

3. How to apply
All Cambridge House Services have the opportunity to come up with an idea that they would like to pilot over the next 9 months.

Each applicant team can apply for up to £10,000 for their pilot.

The only criteria are;

i) it must make a difference to peoples lives and you can show that it does,

ii) it must be something you think could be funded or could generate its own income in the future,

iii) you need to do it with a partner. The partner can be another CH service, a tenant or other organisation (voluntary, public or private sector.)

You need to explain what you want to do and answer how you meet the 3 criteria on no more than one side of A4 and return to Rebecca Garzon rgarzon@ch1889.org by 5pm on 11th October 2010.

There will be a panel of judges. This panel will choose up to 3 proposals that best meet the criteria.

The 3 selected proposals will each have 3 minutes at the AGM on 21st October to tell everyone about their project after which everyone present will have the opportunity to vote. The winning proposal gets the money to pilot their idea. At next years AGM they will need to report back to the AGM what they did that made a difference.

BIG DRAW

For the first time Cambridge House participated in the nationwide Big Draw celebration for which we invited the ‘19Plus Group’ to come to Cambridge House.

19Plus is a group run by Cambridge House in Southwark for adults with moderate to severe learning disabilities which focuses upon social and life skills. All of the staff working on the provision are Arts trained and use creative methods as a medium through which they enable clients to express themselves and develop independent living skills.

For this occassion we invited the public and staff members to come and have their portrait drawn. The event was great fun for everybody involved and the portraits will be exhibited in the near future at Cambridge House.

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Public Art Commission Award x 2

Each Award is worth £1,000 and is open to artists living in the Southwark area. Cambridge House was founded in 1889 as one of the early settlements to combat the effects of poverty and deprivation in the poorest parts of South London. We acquired funding for a £5.6 million redevelopment project which allowed for the renovation and extension of our buildings. We are opening our doors of our refurbished buildings to the public in October 2011 and are looking to have 2 commissioned art pieces on display for this occasion.

Project 1:

Outdoor water feature for Cambridge House courtyard using our reclaimed mosaic pieces (P1)

Project 2:
Re–invent glass stones previously embedded in our front yard (P3)

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Southwark Councillor visits 19Plus

The 19Plus disability programme had a visit from Councillor Dora Dixon–Fyle on Monday 18th July, and treated her to a vocal performance. The successful arts-based group is made up of ten local adults with learning disabilities, and its aim is to increase members' communication skills and understanding; one of the ways in which it does this is to help members express themselves creatively, including through song-writing and singing. The song the group performed was written and performed by group member Edward Thompson. The staff all have an Arts background, and can also support members to express themselves through visual imagery.

Cllr Dixon Fyle said: "I was delighted to be able to spend some time with members of the 19Plus group and see the positive impact of this disability programme on their social and health wellbeing."

19Plus is taking place at the Tenants and Residents Association, Poets Corner Estate, while the renovation work is going on at Cambridge House.

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Southwark Stars

Well done to Dean Rickerby, Lava Noori and Robert Radford, whose incredible volunteering efforts have been recognised by Southwark Volunteer Centre in a glittering ceremony celebrating Volunteers' Week. Dean and Lava have both contributed 200 hours of volunteering to Cambridge House over the last year, Dean as a graphic designer and Lava as an administrative assistant and receptionist, and Robert has given up more than 1000 hours to help out with maintenance. All of them have been an amazing help to us; we nominated them for these awards because we couldn't do without them, and wanted other people to recognise that they truly are stars!

Sadly Dean couldn't make the ceremony, but Robert and Lava were able to collect their awards in person from the Mayor of Southwark, Cllr Lorraine
Lauder.

Lava

Robert

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YPI 2011

Congratulations to Aisha Saleem and Maryan Nadeem who came second at this year's YPI competition representing Cambridge House.Thank you very much for having spoken about the work Cambridge House does and for supporting us all the way. The girls were brilliant and it was a rewarding experience for everybody invovled.

Every academic year, students in year 8 receive the opportunity to participate in the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative project as part of Citizenship. The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, better known as YPI among students, is an international program which was set up by Julie Toskan Casale, the founder of MAC Cosmetics. It is a unique challenge designed for GCSE students in the UK, Canada and the USA, which works according to a simple principle:

1.Students identify a social issue in their local community.
2.Students independently research local grassroots service charities working to address the social need they have chosen to focus on and select 1 charity they believe is going to make the greatest difference to their community.
3.Students call and visit their chosen charity.
4.Students prepare a presentation about the work of their charity which they deliver in a competition.
To read more, please click here.

CAMBRIDGE HOUSE - THE COMMUNITY'S LIVING ROOM

Cambridge House is currently in full swing of its renovation programme. The final plans for the rebuild were confirmed in June 2010 and building work commenced in October 2010. Cascade had the opportunity to speak to Burger Edwards, Director for Business Development and Finance at Cambridge House and he is overseeing the building development.

BASSAC informs

Localism bill provides opportunities for ambitious communities, but support is needed

We believe communities know best what they need and this bill gives them the power to go out and do something about it. Many of our members own community buildings and already successfully deliver services in their neighbourhoods. But we know from their experience that this shift in power cannot happen on its own - many local communities will need support to translate these new rights into action...

http://www.bassac.org.uk/node/982

Cabinet go back to the floor

Southwark Council Website

They wanted to see for themselves how services are delivered, look for efficiencies and understand the impact that cuts may have. Click on the link below to see what they found when they want 'back to the floor'.

www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200293/a_fairer_future/1917/cabinet_members_go_back_to_the_floor/5

Southwark Life

November 2010 issue

As major cuts to funding are announced, councillors go gack to the floor to see what this could mean for services. Cllr Abdul Mohamed spent a day at the 19Plus project, Cambridge House much loved service for young adults with learning and physical disabilities.

Click on the following link to read the full article, www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/2502/southwark_life

Cambridge House 2010 AGM

27th October 2010

On Thursday 21st October we held our 2010 AGM and it was, as usual, a great success. Excitingly, this year the AGM saw the launch of the Cambridge House Innovation Fund!

The idea behind this Fund is to enable staff and volunteers to try and come up with new ideas that meet a need outside of what we currently do.

All Cambridge House services were given the opportunity to come up with an idea that they wanted to pilot over the next 9 months and each applicant team could apply for up to £10,000 for their pilot; there was a judging panel of four who had the difficult task of deciding which three proposals to put through to the public vote, these three were then asked to give a three minute presentation after which all of us in attendance at the AGM were able to vote, using fabulous individual voting devices, then our Chief Executive, Clare Gilhooly, announced the lucky winner: TICK IT!

If you would like to know more about the Cambridge House Innovation Fund then please follow the link under News where you will find information on the Innovation Fund and the winning proposal.

Our 2009/10 Annual Review and Financial Report are available to download under Publications.

Dispatches from New York

4th October 2010

CEO, Clare Gilhooly gives her take on the International Federation of Settlement’s annual conference in New York...

To read the complete diary entry visit BASSAC’s website by clicking on this link: www.bassac.org.uk/node/955

Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards

4th May 2010

We are very pleased to announce that Cambridge House Law Centre has been shortlisted for the prestigious 'Legal Aid Law Firm of the Year 2010' category of this years Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards.

The judges, chaired by Cherie Booth QC, will be making 10 awards this year, to recognise excellence among the lawyers who act for some of the poorest and most socially disadvantaged people in society.

The national awards will take place on 26th May 2010 at the Globe Theatre.

Cambridge House Law Centre to join the London Legal Sponsored Walk

30th April 2010

The Cambridge House Law Centre Team will be walking their 6th London Legal Sponsored Walk on 17th May 2010. Please sponsor them on their JustGiving page!

Vodafone World of Difference winner at Cambridge House

12th January 2010

Communications volunteer Natalia Kannas will be joining Cambridge House for two months on the Vodafone World of Difference UK scheme. During her time here Natalia will be interviewing clients, volunteers and friends of Cambridge House from the past and present, to produce a document which will illustrate the positive impact Cambridge House has had on so many people’s lives.

As part of her project Natalia will be keeping a blog, which you can read and make comments on: http://worldofdifference.vodafone.co.uk/uk/natalia-kannas/

Cambridge House publish Annual Review 2008/9

16th October 2009

Cambridge House’s Annual Review 2009 is now available online. Incorporating our new branding, the document has been given a whole new look and is also now more accessible to people with learning disabilities. We hope you enjoy reading it!

The Annual Review 2008/9 can be found here.

Broadgate Estates and Knightsbridge Guarding win prestigious Dragon Award

16th October 2009

Cambridge House’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partners have won a Lord Mayor’s Dragon award for Social Inclusion. Broadgate Estates and Knightsbridge Guarding, who applied for the award in consortium with Cambridge House, received the award for the assistance they have given to our organisation.

The awards celebrate Corporate Community Involvement across Greater London, making examples of companies who get involved with their local communities in order to encourage regeneration. The awards also demonstrate the positive impact of such involvement on the businesses themselves, encouraging creativity, the development of new skills and greater employee motivation and retention.

Broadgate Estates have provided Cambridge House with property management and IT contract advice, as well as sharing their HR management software system and offering health and safety training for staff. Knightsbridge Guarding have worked with Cambridge House to improve onsite security by implementing security services and processes.

Mike Thornton, Director of Broadgate Estates says: “We are very proud for being recognised by the Dragon Awards for our unique efforts with helping Cambridge House. Our collaboration with our Service Partner, Knightsbridge Guarding has further enabled us to support Cambridge House's main core business with provision of property management services.”

Burger Edwards, Director of Business and Finance at Cambridge House says: “Our corporate partners have put so much into this initiative and it was an honour to work with them in applying for the Dragon award. Cambridge House is certainly in a better place due to its CSR partnerships.”

For more information visit the Dragon awards website.

Cambridge House Young People’s Project wins British Council Awards

Cambridge House’ Young People’s Project (YPP) has won two British Council awards for innovation and vision.

The first award – for an outstanding example of creativity and innovation – went to Cambridge House’s YPP ‘Intercultural Dialogue’ project, funded by the European Commission Youth in Action programme through the British Council. This exciting venture brought together young people from six different nations in the town of Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina to produce a performance piece, staged in the town’s theatre.

YPP won its second award for being a ‘winning visionary of the future’, after they were chosen as one of the top three projects out of the 30 present at the awards exhibition.

The exhibition, A Vision of the Future: Creativity and Innovation in the Lifelong Learning Programme and Youth in Action, was organised by Ecotec and the British Council. Held at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham, the exhibition showcased 30 of the best projects from the Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action programmes.

In recognition of the 2008 project’s success, three representatives of the young people’s project performed on stage in front of 300 delegates. Rahel Ghebre, Hannah Ogunlowo and Casey Ovonji-Fakunle sang three songs which they helped to write and produce during the ten days they spent in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Sturba Theme, Positive b and Breaking Down the Walls.

Cambridge House celebrates 120 years of community work

Cambridge House celebrated 120 years of community work in Southwark at a riverside reception at the House of Lords on 22nd June.

The event also marked the launch of a new research report called From settlement to community anchor: the enduring value of Cambridge House. Published by IVAR (Institute for Voluntary Action Research), the report focuses on the lasting impact Cambridge House has had on the community.

The reception, hosted by Baroness Jill Pitkeathley, chair of the Office of the Third Sector’s advisory body, was attended by over 170 people, who all gathered together on the terraces overlooking the Thames. VIP guests included Angela Smith, the new Minister for the Third Sector, Councillor Nick Stanton, Leader of the London Borough of Southwark and Councillor Jeff Hook, Mayor of Southwark.

Present were Cambridge House’s Corporate Social Responsibility partners Broadgate Estates, Eurotech, Knightsbridge Guarding, MacFarlanes, the Ministry of Justice and Vault IT. Cambridge House service users, staff, volunteers and friends all celebrated the event together.

Cambridge House would like to give a special thanks to CCLA whose generous contribution made the evening possible. Support from our other partners Broadgate Estates, Eurotech, Knightsbridge Guarding and Vault-IT contributed to the success of the event.

Read about the event in the Charity Times.