What is this course about?

This course sets out the baseline standards expected for the Bristol Impact Fund to do with service user involvement and participation, and how to use evidence about your community to design effective projects.

The Bristol Impact Fund aims to build the capacity of people and organisations experiencing inequality to support each other, contribute to decision-making that affects their communities and the whole city, and use their resources and strengths to create the kind of impact they want. 
This course provides an introduction to some of the key approaches and tools available to groups to achieve these aims, such as: 

• Using data from your previous work and public evidence to clearly explain the problem or issue you are addressing, who experiences it, the impact, and what they want to do about it.
• Involving service users or beneficiaries in the design of projects and activities (also known as 'co-production') and some of the mechanisms you can use to do this, such as surveys, interviews and workshops.
• Setting goals and outcomes with the groups and communities you want to work with, to make sure your project is targeted and effective, and demonstrating how and why the agreed goals are appropriate priorities.

Who is the course for?

Staff and trustees, directors and committee members.

•    This course will assist your organisation in developing your application to the Bristol Impact Fund. 
•    It is designed to help organisations understand and meet the councils baseline standards for Bristol Impact Fund grants.
•    In particular, this course is aimed at smaller organisations who have limited experience and/or capacity and who may not have applied for a council grant previously.

This course is a free course. However, it is only available for some organisations who are applying to Bristol City Council for the Bristol Impact Fund. To find out whether your organisation is eligible for a place on this course, please complete our online form and a member of our team will be in contact with you as soon as possible.

Voscur recommends you attend one of our free 1 hour briefing sessions prior to attending this training course as this will give you the details need to know about the Bristol Impact Fund criteria and application process. 

What will you learn? 

•    Why involving service users or beneficiaries in the planning of your work is important for organisations and the Bristol Impact Fund.
•    How a Theory of Change can give a framework to explain the specific inequalities your work is designed to address, and the difference your project could make.
•    Use evidence to understand the situation your work is involved in and the difference you want to make.
•    How to use input from service users or beneficiaries in the review and ongoing development of your project.
•    Where to find public data and evidence relevant to your project.
•    Tools and techniques to help engage and work with relevant communities.

What else do you need to know?

Please note the session will be recorded, however discussion sessions involving participants and Zoom images will be edited out of the recording.

To take part you will need a laptop with a camera, microphone, and Wi-Fi; you won't need any extra software. You will be emailed an invitation with a link to join the online training before the course.

Voscur is running all our training online due to the ongoing public health situation with coronavirus (or COVID-19). This decision was taken in line with local and national health advice, and to safeguard the health of our attendees and staff.