Group Support strives to build sustainable Voluntary and Community Organisations (VCO's), strengthening the quality of governance and service delivery of the sector in Coventry by providing targeted and tailored support to trustees, staff and volunteers.

Our Services

Group Support provides a range of support which we tailor to ensure we meet your development needs. The services you can access include support with:

• Pre-Start
  Deciding whether setting up a voluntary and community organisation is the right move for you and helping you to test the demand for the potential services you want to provide.
• Start Up
  Starting your group including identifying the purpose of your group, recruiting trustees or directors to your management committee and selecting the right structure for your organisation.
• Established Groups
  Long term business planning, annual development planning and specific project planning.

What stage is your group at?

Accessing our Services

There are several ways in which you can access the support services we provide:

• One-to-One development support appointment
• Telephone advice
• Email advice

Registering your group as a VAC member

Before you attend a session we ask that you consider becoming a member of Voluntary Action Coventry, subject to eligibility. Membership is free and you benefit from additional information and access to resources and reduced rate services which are not available to non-members. Whilst we are happy to support non-members we give priority to members of Voluntary Action Coventry. You can apply online. Please follow the link to complete the membership form.

Our Team

Sue Ogle, Director of Operations and Development
Sue provides strategic and operational direction to the project.
Email: s.ogle@vacoventry.org.uk  

Simon Batten, Funding Advice and Group Support Officer
Simon is the lead officer on the project and supports groups with funding advice and developmental issues.
Email: s.batten@vacoventry.org.uk  

Marian McGowan, Events and Communications Assistant
Marian is the first point of contact regarding the training programme and supports the project service evaluation.
Email: m.mcgowan@vacoventry.org.uk

One-to-One development support appointment

One-to-One development support appointment with one of our advisors by telephoning 024 7622 0381 and select option 3. We can hold meetings with you in VAC offices or alternatively can arrange to meet you offsite. These meetings are normally scheduled during our normal office hours between 9.00am - 5.00pm though in exceptional circumstances we may agree to meet with you outside of our normal working hours.

Please note that whilst we try to offer you an appointment within two weeks of your initial query our service is generally oversubscribed and you may occassionally during periods of high demand need to wait a bit longer.

We are happy to meet with either groups or individuals who represent organisations or who are seeking to start voluntary or community organisations in Coventry.

Telephone advice

You can phone us for advice between 9.00am - 5.00pm Monday to Friday by telephoning 024 7622 0381 and select option 3. We may not always be able to respond straight away but if you leave a message with your contact details, the nature of your query and a contact telephone we will ring you back as soon as possible. We aim to respond to all queries within two working days.

Email advice

You can drop us an email asking for support by emailing your query to groupsupport@vacoventry.org.uk Again please let us know the nature of your query, how you would like us to respond to your query - by phone / email / in person - and any additional information you think might be relevant for example whether you need a response by a particular time.

At our initial meeting our advisors will talk with you to establish what support you need. They will then agree with you how we can support you, and agree actions to be completed to help you achieve your goals whether writing a constitution or bidding for funding to run a community project. Generally we then hold a follow up meeting to review progress and agree further actions if necessary.

We work at your pace and provide advice and support rather than doing the actions for you, our advisors role is to help you develop the skills within your group to perform the actions successfully without our support in the future.