Not a day goes by without some gloomy news about the impact of the recession. Of course, we in the advice sector know full well about its impact, as we see people coming through our doors everyday who have been affected. But, what are we in the sector doing to recession-proof ourselves from the impact? How are we coping with the increased numbers coming through our doors day in, day out because they need help with their benefits or they’ve just their job or about to lose their home?
We know that there has been an increased demand for our services. In evidence gathered by LVSC as part of their campaign on the impact of the recession on the voluntary and community sector, organisations reported being on the verge of closing because they cannot bring in enough money to sustain their services, key staff leaving due to ‘burn out, implementing wage freezes for staff and increasing deficits as many funders do not recognise ‘full-cost recovery’.
But, how is this increased demand translating into additional funding? Are we collating evidence and providing it to funders to make the case for additional resources? Well, we should be, because we need to show them that our services are collapsing under the strain of the additional demand on our services.
April 2, 2009 at 2:41 pm |
NICVA is developing an online ‘toolkit’ to help organisations in the voluntary and community sector take steps that might help them to survive in a recession. We’d love to know if anybody is collating evidence in the way you mention and, also, if anybody knows of any other similar online resources we can point to from our site.