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It is the purpose of the Membership and Branches of The Royal British Legion within the County to professionally deliver the current aims and objectives of today’s Legion and to deliver assistance where a need is identified to our beneficiaries. To do this we must maximise our Membership so we can deliver support for the Poppy Appeal, Fundraising and Volunteering within the County.
Our aim is to promote a sense of belonging and reinforce pride in being associated with the Legion.
The County Plan is a management tool for the County Chairman & County Committee to work with the Area Manager, Advice & Information Team Leader & Community Fundraiser to ensure we achieve the aims and services outlined in the Royal Charter.
The main objective of our County is to assist with the compliance of Governing regulations to aid the Board of Trustees in carrying out the work of the Legion and in particular to promote its strategic objectives detailed in the Corporate Plan as follows:
Definition
Increase Public awareness of what The Royal British Legion does for its Serving & Ex-service Family.
Maximise income through a strategic programme of services and events.
Funding and deliverance of high quality and flexible welfare services.
Have a close working relationship with outside partners.
Retention of Membership, volunteers, donors and staff.
Enhance Remembrance activities within the County throughout the year.
Continually identify opportunities to embrace Comradeship.
This County Plan replaces any former County Plan for the County of Cumberland & Westmorland.
This County Plan is to be approved at County Conference on 2nd December 2017
UPDATE 2017
Public Relations:
- Armed Forces Day was celebrated by many Branches and Clubs in June 2016.
- The Legion was out in force at various events and shows throughout the year. These were supported by the County and by Branches.
- WW1 Commemorative events such as GP90 gather pace and many branches will be meeting to discuss their own commemorative events
- WW1 Commemorations have been embraced by the community with exhibitions and concerts taking place throughout Cumbria with funds being raised for the Poppy Appeal.
- Poppy Appeal Launch 2017 took place around the county. This year held in Carlisle a very cold but bright day was very successful with many people accepting the challenge of abseiling down the County Hall.
- A new MSO is in place and will be visiting branches throughout the 2017/18 meetings
County Business:
- The County holds four meetings per year – January, April, July and October, plus the Annual County Conference.
- In addition the County Chairman will be forming a committee to discuss and promote the RBL Branch Community Support Initiative
Membership:
- Is down in some areas of the County but up in others unfortunately the closure of two branches with more to come has been a problem and many members from those branches have just let their memberships lapse.
Training:
- A Training Workshops was held on Office 365 and further training on BCS and LOMAS is planned for 17/18
Fundraising:
Poppy Appeal 2016-17
Currently the Poppy Appeal stands at £423,021,67p
It is impossible to calculate against last years figure as the final figure is not yet known.
There are 51 PAO’s covering the whole of the county who oversee over 1500 volunteers collectors. 15 Cadet Youth Groups help with the collection. We operate in 1800 static points as follows:
Observations and Objectives.
- Banks, Building Societies and Pubs and Clubs still need improving and are actually in decline in income.
- Schools have increased both in number and in income due to schools pack and stronger resources.
- People are wanting to collect all year round therefore we need to seek to develop our all year round 365 collection potential
- Corporate sponsorship continues to be on the increase. We need to further capitalise on this.
PAO Gaps.
- After a mammoth 11 vacant areas to fill we only had a handful of people leave us so we have been able to cover every area as we always have.
- This coming year will be challenging with 3 or 4 new Organisers to find some of which coverage large and valuable incomes.
- A seminar was held in Penrith during September for those involved in running local Poppy Appeal collections.
- 2 successful Seminars with 41 attendance in total.
Fundraising – other:
Events:
Our events committee has again supported expo presence at a large number of events including commemoration for Somme100 and Jutland, the Cumbria Steam Gathering, The Cumberland Show, Armed Forces Day, The Dalston Show, The Westmorland Show, The Penrith Show, Barrow Carnival and the Eden Gala .
Welfare:
The partnership with NCIP (now named Place Based Services Programme) continues. It is a third sector delivery programme across the County, providing a range of practical help and advice services for adults of any age. PBS events have been attended at Dunmail Park, Theatre by the Lake, and Morrisons.
An outreach continues in Workington foodbank, and a strong relationship with foodbanks in Barrow, Millom, Cockermouth, Egremont, Carlisle and Maryport allows referrals from those beneficiaries in crisis. We have held meetings to discuss additional resources such as the fuel bank that our clients can have access to.
The Salvation Army assisted clients throughout the flooding from food parcels to children’s Christmas presents. The welfare team made calls to beneficiaries who we knew where in flood hit areas to ensure they were receiving all available assistance including grants from Cumbria Community Foundation.
The CAB clinic that was launched in Allerdale in 2015 has moved to Allerdale House (Council building) and has gone from monthly to weekly. Thanks to Allerdale Council who have kindly allowed us use of a room every Wednesday where we can run a drop in and pre-book appointments as necessary. In addition the housing and benefit team has immediate access to TRBL if they have a client requiring our assistance.
Since the last conference, Centenary Close at Maryport has opened; this is the Veterans project by Home Group. We have made numerous referrals into the project and liaised with multiple agencies from around the County to ensure the beneficiaries receive the support they require. The Calderwood House project in Egremont for homeless veterans continues to develop and has widened their eligibility to take those in from out of the County.
Discussions have taken place with Cumbria Constabulary with regards to operating a hub in Copeland. It will be for partner agencies and not public facing. They have offered the welfare team a space in the hub to be able to liaise with local organisations, and to deal with mutual clients in an efficient manner. We are hopeful for all policies to be in place for us to be operating from there early 2017.
This year has seen the launch of the new Armed Forces Network in Cumbria being run by CVS. The welfare team are a part of this and are encouraging participation from all those who deal with veterans to attend. CAN (Cumbria Advice Network) are updating their website to hold current information for Veterans across a range of subjects including housing, employment and mental health.
Meetings have been held locally with the community mental health teams, First steps and the welfare team to ensure joined up working and structured support for our clients are in place.
Following on from last years meeting with Dignity in Dementia they applied for the Legions external funding and were successful with their bid, they are now mid project offering support to families of those with dementia in the South Lakes. This is a pilot scheme offering 15 funded places.
Since our move into the Eden Rural Foyer we have set up 2 outreach sessions for Penrith and surrounding areas. We are seeing a steady increase in referrals from both beneficiaries and partner agencies.
The drop in at Cornerstone, Denton Holme remains busy with both beneficiaries and partner agencies calling in for information. Radio Cumbria are supporting by adding us to their diary of events.
We have invited RAF Spadeadam personnel who are within 60 days of deployment to apply for a family break, enabling them to have time together prior to a difficult period. Work continues to raise awareness of the assistance we have available through all media and outreach.
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