News and Events
SFE News and Events January 2010
News – Enhancement to the SFE service
Thanks to funding received from The Rowley Trust, SCC Closing Gaps in the Communities Fund, the Staffordshire Charitable Trust, St Marys Abbey Colwich and a private donor the SFE have been adopting a proactive approach to ensure that those who approach the SFE are in receipt of all the assistance they need. SFE clients are also encouraged to help the organisation identify others in need but undetected or unreported to other support agencies through the SFE’s new “information and connection service”.
The development of the information pack and the service is being coordinated by Alice Blagg who also coordinated the production of the SFE’s Business Process Manual. Viv Fawcett, the SFE office lead, (endearingly referred to as “aunty Viv” for her plain spoken advice) has been testing the service since the beginning of the year. As a result she has already connected SFE clients with a number of other agencies, some of which are SFE approved referral agents. This has given Viv much satisfaction as the service resulted from observing that the SFE usually finds itself addressing a single household issue when there are many at play. As a result of the service we feel we are adding a lot of useful value to the SFE core service. An evaluation of the impact the service will be made at the end of the year.
Alice at home
Event – FRN Conference 14th to 16th January
Nick Malyon and Roy Dart attended the Furniture Reuse Network (FRN) Annual Conference at Cranage Cheshire and gained much from it in terms of information and connecting with a wide range of similar charitable businesses.
As previously reported the recent work undertaken by Helen Middleton from FRN for the SFE was used as a case study during the “Marketing on a shoestring” workshop. As a result of the workshop the SFE has received a number of contacts from across the country and hopefully it will lead to some joint working with other FRO’s and agencies. If anything further arises it will be reported on our website.
Event – SFE Exhibit in the Market Square on Friday 5th February
A team of staff and volunteers will once again be mounting an exhibit of what the SFE does in the market square. Previous events have helped the SFE develop much needed connections with the community.
If you want to know more about the SFE please come along – we are very proud of what we do and we want to ensure you get best value from your Furniture Exchange.
News – Craig Murphy joins the SFE as a volunteer.
The SFE has acquired a “maker and mender” in the form of Craig Murphy who is described as being "very capable on the vans" by the SFE lead driver and warehouse guru Gareth Davies. Craig is an experienced welder and has been a team leader with the Prince’s Trust.
Event – SFE Referral Agency and Stakeholder Briefing Event Thursday 25th March
The SFE is to mount a Referral Agency and Stakeholder Briefing event on Thursday the 25th March when those attending will be updated on a number of issues including:
- Making the SFE and Referral Agency links work even more effectively
- Progress with the new SFE information and connection service
- The around the villages project which will begin in late February early March
- The updating of the SFE website – The number of people accessing the website has almost doubled in the past year and more people are now mentioning their use of it.
- A number of other new developments that we anticipate will come on stream in February and early March
Further details will appear on the website as they are confirmed.