News

Strategic Development Manager £27,000 - £30,000 (based in Leicester)

FOCUS is a successful charity with ambitious plans for development. With an expected income of £400k this year, FOCUS delivers personal development and volunteering opportunities for young people in Leicester and Nottingham, and will work with over 2,000 young people during 2008.

We now require a Strategic Development Manager to build on our successes, to grow our funding base, to support the implementation of our new Strategic Plan and to help drive us forward.

So, if you’ve got a proven track record in fundraising, a passion for working with young people, and experience of a senior management position in the voluntary sector, then we would love to hear from you.

For further information and an application pack, please contact: Matt Lilley, Tel: 0116 251 0369, E-mail: matt.lilley@focus-charity.co.uk, or download from www.focus-charity.co.uk

Deadline for applications: 12pm, Friday 22 February 2008. Relevant files can be found on the Opportunities page

29^th January 2008: Part Time Youth Volunteer Advisor Needed (23½ hours)

We are looking for a new person to join our staff team in Leicester. We require a Part Time Youth Volunteer Advisor to work in our vteam to create high quality volunteering opportunities for young people and inspire a new generation of volunteers!

You will raise awareness amongst 16-25 year olds of the benefits of volunteering and the wide range of opportunities available.

Candidates should have experience of working with young people, which may include facilitating youth-led projects, mentoring, advice and guidance, volunteering management.

Deadline for applications: 12pm, 15 February 2008

Please contact Jenny White on 0116 251 0369 or email jenny.white@focus-charity.co.uk for more details.

16^th October 2007: Youth Volunteer Advisor Needed

We are looking for a new person to join our staff team in Leicester. We require a Youth Volunteer Advisor to work in our vteam to create high quality volunteering opportunities for young people and inspire a new generation of volunteers!

You will raise awareness amongst 16-25 year olds of the benefits of volunteering and the wide range of opportunities available.

Candidates should have experience of working with young people, which may include facilitating youth-led projects, mentoring, advice and guidance, volunteering management.

Deadline for applications: 12pm, 2 November 2007

Please contact Jenny White on 0116 251 0369 or email jenny.white@focus-charity.co.uk for more details.

24^th September 2007: Goodbye Gill

We recently said goodbye to Gill Trewick, our Projects & Volunteers Manager, who has left FOCUS after more than five years with the organisation. Gill joined us first as a volunteer in 2002, before becoming a paid member of staff in 2003. Gill's hard work, energy and enthusiasm have really helped to drive FOCUS forward over the past few years. We wish her all the very best for the future.

1^st August 2007: Young people rise to the Challenge

The summer term was a busy one for John and Viv, our two Challenge Programme Managers. They've been out and about supporting young people from schools and colleges in Leicester and Nottingham as they carried out challenges in their local communities.

One project, which took place in Nottingham, saw twenty young people from Shepherd School working to brighten up the grounds of Rosslyn Park Primary School. The young volunteers, all with severe or profound learning difficulties, spent three days clearing an area of the school's gardens and filling the beds with plants.

14^th May 2007: New staff team in place

Our Challenge Programme has been bolstered by the appointment of two full-time Programme Managers, John Belcher and Viv Hunter, who are busy promoting Challenge in Leicester and Nottingham. They've already made their mark, making links with new schools and adapting the programme to maximise its value to the recently revised schools' curriculum.

Jenny White and Emma Morgan, our new vteam, are also making an impact. They are inspiring young people aged 16-25 to volunteer in their communities in lots of different ways, whilst also working to encourage organisations to involve young volunteers.

In February we said goodbye to Matt Harby, our Fundraising & Development Manager, who achieved so much in securing a prosperous future for FOCUS. Matt has been replaced by Nathalie Walters, who joins us as Strategic Development Manager. Her track record, and the speed with which she has got to grips with her role, promise great things for the future development of FOCUS.

We are also pleased to have been joined by Steve Davies, our Fundraising & Administration Assistant, whose organisational skills and financial acumen are a great asset to the office.

16^th April 2007: First Ever Explore Residential

During the school Easter holidays we held our first ever Explore Residential project. The event, which aimed to develop young people's leadership skills, was a huge success.

The 24 young people, all aged 13-17, were split into three teams and challenged to 'make the world a better place'. One team chose Ghandi's words, 'Be the change you want to see in the world', as their inspiration. They made some leaflets filled with different ideas about the little things that people can do to change the world, and were really pleased when a tourist information office put a leaflet up in their window.

28^th February 2007: Strategic Development Manager

FOCUS is a successful charity with ambitious plans for further growth and development. With an expected income in excess of £400k this year, FOCUS delivers a range of personal development opportunities for young people in Leicester, Nottingham and London, with plans to expand to Manchester and Birmingham later in the year.

Following recent successes with several multi-year grants, we require a Strategic Development Manager to build on this success, to grow our funding base to support our expansion plans and to help drive our charity forward.

So, if you¹ve got a proven track record in fundraising, a passion for working with young people, and experience of a senior management position in the voluntary sector, then we would love to hear from you.

Position now filled

15^th February 2007: Looking for new Trustees

FOCUS is looking for new Trustees to expand the range of skills, knowledge and experience of its Board. If you've got these, along with the time, energy and enthusiasm to help drive FOCUS forward and to help us to achieve our vision of 'a society in which individuals feel inspired and empowered to have a positive impact in their communities', then we would love to hear from you.

Position now filled

10^th January 2007: Two new posts

• Challenge Programme Manager – Leicester
• Challenge Programme Manager - Nottingham

Funded by a Reaching Communities Grant from the Big Lottery Fund, these posts are initially offered on three-year contracts. Both post holders will deliver our Challenge programme for over 500 young people per year in each city.

Position now filled

10^th January 2007: Big Lottery Fund grant

In December 2006 we were delighted to be informed that the Big Lottery Fund had awarded us a Reaching Communities grant of £394,005 over three years to deliver the Challenge programme in Nottingham and Leicester. This represents the largest grant we have ever received.

10^th January 2007: v funding

In September 2006 v, the new youth volunteering charity, awarded FOCUS a grant to host a new vteam. We have now successfully recruited two new members of staff, a Youth Volunteer Development Manager and Youth Volunteer Adviser. They will both be in post in early February and we look forward to commencing our project, to promote the benefits of volunteering to young people, and to supporting v in their aim of encouraging 1 million more young people to volunteer.

15^th November 2006: Two New Posts

• Youth Volunteering Development Manager
• Youth Volunteering Adviser

These posts have been funded for two years by v, the new youth volunteering charity, which aims to inspire 1 million new young volunteers. The posts will form a Youth Volunteering Team within FOCUS and are one of 20 teams that have been created nationwide.

Position now filled

18^th May 2006: Gordon Brown Visits the Challenge Programme

On 3rd March 2006 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown; Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt; Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears; and MP for Leicester East, Keith Vaz visited the Challenge Programme in Leicester.

During their visit they met with a team of young people from New College, who were creating a mural for Allexton Youth and Community Centre, in the New Parks area of Leicester.

Mr Brown and his colleagues then discussed issues such as youth volunteering and local services for young people with the team.

During an interview for the BBC’s Politics Show following the visit Mr Brown said, “We've got to offer more young people the opportunity to get involved in their communities. We know that young people want to get involved and have enormous energy and talent. The Challenge Programme we have explored today with FOCUS is a good example of this.”

Challenge Programme team member, Ryan Hancock, aged 13 said, "It’s really good that they came to see what we’re doing. Everyone usually thinks that our school is really bad, but they haven’t been to see us. This shows that we are doing really good stuff too."

18^th May 2006: Big Lottery Grant

On 27th March 2006 we were informed that our application to the Big Lottery’s Young People’s Fund was successful.

FOCUS has been awarded £149,998 to provide its unique Inspire Residential events for 192 young people from Leicester over the next three years. The first two of these personal development events for young people and people with a disability will take place in August 2006.

28^th March 2006: Russell Commission Grant

In January 2006 FOCUS was successful in securing a grant of £10,822 from the Russell Commission small grants scheme. This will be used to carry out research and consultation to the market for our Challenge Programme, attracting young volunteers, and developing a training scheme and workshops to enable young people to engage in voluntary activity.

The work will take approximately 3 months to complete, and will culminate in the production of a full report, which will be available to download from this website towards the end of April.

28^th March 2006: Launch of Our Unique Management Training Events

In January 2006, we delivered the first of our unique Challenge Residentials. This brought together the senior management team of Ascribe PLC, an international healthcare software company, with pupils from Crown Hills Community College, Leicester.

The event took place at the Pioneer Centre, near Kidderminster, and provided the management delegates and young people with opportunities to develop their leadership, team-working, communication and problem-solving skills. The event was deemed to be a success by all who attended it and will, we hope, be the first of many similar events. Contact Matt Lilley for further details.

28^th March 2006: Working in Partnership with De Montfort University

Throughout 2006 we will be working in partnership with senior staff at De Montfort University as part of the Leicestershire Cares ‘Businesses Building Communities’ scheme. De Montfort staff will support FOCUS, through 100 hours of volunteering, in addressing a number of issues raised through our quality assurance action plan.

28^th March 2006: New Trustees

Towards the end of 2005 two further trustees joined our board. Lisa Egan and Debra Maguire have both volunteered for FOCUS over a number of years and bring to the board a range of skills and experience.

Lisa, a wheelchair-user, first came to FOCUS as a young person on our Bridge programme and subsequently retrained as a volunteer. She works for an LGB charity and is a member of the London Transport Users Committee.

Debra is a solicitor specialising in Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution, mainly supporting young people and those with disabilities.

28^th March 2006: Challenge Programme in Leicester and London

Following local marketing, we have received a growing number of requests from schools in Leicester for our Challenge Programme. Having worked with three schools to date, we plan to offer the programme to many more Leicester schools during the summer term.

In London we have received enquiries and provisional bookings for the programme from schools in Hackney. It is expected that we will begin to expand beyond Hackney later this year.

30^th September 2005: Consultation with Young People

Over the past 3 months we have undertaken a series of consultation exercises with young people in order to improve our programmes and to ensure that the views and influence of young people are central to our development. The consultation process has focused on our services, the involvement of young people in the management of FOCUS, and on young people’s views of volunteering, community involvement and the availability of activities and services.

Stage 1 of this process involved consultation questionnaires being completed by 164 young people (representing an 82% return on the distribution of questionnaires) and was supported by IBM. Stage 2, supported by the Y Speak Consultation Fund and Community Champions brought together a small focus group on a three-day residential event.

The results of our consultation will shortly be published on our website.

30^th September 2005: The Challenge Programme comes to Leicester

Thanks to a grant from the Single Community Programme, administered by Voluntary Action Leicester, we will be running the Challenge Programme with 48 young people in Leicester during the autumn term 2005.

The first two schools to sign up are The Lancaster School and Sir Jonathan North Community College, with a third school to be confirmed shortly.

30^th September 2005: New Trustees

Following our recent recruitment drive, we can now confirm the appointment of two new trustees to our board. Martin Gilbraith and Jennifer Kabaaga (our new Treasurer) were welcomed to the board over the summer and have already become very active and involved in governance activities.

We have also received applications from a number of other potential trustees and these will be considered over the next few weeks.

29^th April 2005: FOCUS Seeks New Trustees

The Board is recruiting up to three new Trustees to ensure that we have the right breadth of skills and experience to meet the aims set out in our Strategic Plan.

More information about Trustee Recruitment is available (PDF format).

1^st April 2005: What’s New on Our Website?

Why not check out the following new features on our website:

• Job Vacancies
• Committee Membership (details of our board of Trustees)
• New shops join our free Shopping Site
• All new staff photos on our Contact Us page!

Soon to come will be our new Photo Gallery, featuring great pictures from our projects; a Quotes page; and a new Message Board, for you to let us know what you think about everything we do (or should do!)

1^st April 2005: Support from the DfES

In January the DfES (Department of Education and Skills) backed our plans to launch our new Challenge Programme. They will support FOCUS with a grant of £231,888 over three years starting in April 2005. This money will help us to develop the programme, launch it in London, and roll it out across the country between now and March 2008.

14^th March 2005: Launch of Our Pilot Projects!

"Following our strategic review and the development of our new portfolio of activities, we are now looking to pilot our revised Challenge Programme. In conjunction with the Hackney Education Business Partnership we have been asked by three schools in the London Borough of Hackney to provide the Challenge Programme for their Year 10 pupils (i.e. 14 – 15 year olds)."

More information about Volunteering for the Challenge Program is available on the Opportunities page.

Investors in People

In December 2004 we were successfully reassessed for the national Investors in People award, which we have held since 1998. The award recognises the value we place on our staff and volunteers and the ways in which we invest in their training, development and support.

Strategic Review

Having reached the end of several significant funding streams in March 2004 we have undertaken a comprehensive strategic review over the summer that has culminated in a new vision, mission and strategic aims and a new portfolio of activities.

Review Body

In May 2004 we established a Review Body, consisting of staff, trustees and volunteers, to support the strategic review of our activities and to recommend actions to ensure the successful re-launch of our services.

The Review Body has met regularly since June and has been vital to the development of our new vision, mission and aims and to our strategic plans and the creation of our new portfolio of activities.

Change of Address

In June 2004, as part of our restructuring and strategic review we closed down our offices in Nottingham, Oxford and Cambridge and consolidated into an office at 73 Churchgate, Leicester. Our new office comprises a refurbished training room, meeting rooms and a larger storage area. This will become the hub of our operations in the future as we implement our new services and expand nationally.

Change of Chair of Trustees

In July 2004 Bryan Stevens stepped down as Chair of our board of Trustees after seven years in post. His contribution to FOCUS has been enormous as he has worked tirelessly to support staff, promote our work externally, lead the board, and undertake numerous fundraising bike rides! We are pleased to report that Bryan wishes to remain on the board and to continue to support our work.

Our new Chair, Mark Bennett brings to the post over 12 years experience as a FOCUS volunteer and first-hand knowledge of a great many of our projects. His experience, enthusiasm for our work and his unquestionable commitment will be invaluable in helping lead FOCUS through an ambitious and exciting period in our development.

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