Campaigns
Clinks campaigns on specific issues relevant to the Voluntary and Community Sector, and for the Sector as a whole, promoting its diversity, strengths, and specific success stories. Our campaigns are different from mainstream campaigns: they are not aimed at the public or mainstream media but key decision makers such as Ministers, and senior Civil Servants.
We campaign for the Voluntary and Community Sector, the role of service user voice, funding for the Sector, tackling race inequalities, the women's sector and women offenders, and young people in the Criminal Justice System
The Voluntary and Community Sector
A central part of Clinks work is to promote the Sector, and its successes. In particular, we seek to highlight small and community organisations which have fewer resources to run their own campaigns. We consider some of the best work to be carried out by projects embedded within communities, with a thorough understanding of local issues, and well networked.
The role of service user voice
Following on from our publication Unlocking Potential, we have continued to lobby the Ministry of Justice about the importance of including user voice at all levels of decision making. To complement this, we have been working with Revolving Doors Agency to produce guidance for Voluntary and Community Sector organisations on how to put this principle into practice.
Funding for the Sector
Clinks campaigns for sustainable, appropriate and Compact compliant funding for the Sector.
Clinks seeks to ensure that commissioning by the statutory sector uses the expertise of the Sector in the design of services, and offers a level playing field to the Sector to bid for and win contracts. To faciliatate this, Clinks is part of the Third Sector Consortium (3SC), which bids for tenders on behalf of a consortium of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations to ensure that the size and scope of contracts does not exclude small, and specialist providers.
Clinks is part of the Local Grants Forum, which campaigns for the continued use of grants when this is the appropriate form of funding for Voluntary and Community Organisations. The Forum published Defending Local Grants, which contains details of resources you can use at local level which will help you to convince councillors, commissioning officers and procurement professionals that grants should continue to be used to fund local organisations and groups.
An example is our recent roundtable event with Justice Minister, Crispin Blunt MP.
Tackling race inequalities
Race for Justice is the campaign to end the inequalities faced by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups and strengthen the voice and role of the voluntary sector in the Criminal Justice System. The campaign is led by a coalition of voluntary sector organisations working with BAME offenders and their families. The Campaign launched in Autumn 2008 and published Less Equal Than Others to highlight the continuing disadvantage of BME offenders in the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales.
The women's sector and women offenders
Clinks supports the Corston report and its recommendations. We were particulary pleased that it recognised the effectiveness of work being done by the Voluntary and Community Sector.
In Nov 2009 in partnership with the Griffins Society, Women in Prison, the Ministry of Justice, and the Government's Equalities we ran Women in Focus, a conference which explored what has been achieved since the Corston report, and how we could work together to ensure further progress. In particular, it showcased and celebrated the work of the Voluntary and Community Sector.
Clinks seeks to highlight the specific and often neglected needs of women offenders, and to provide support to the organisations which work with them.
Young people in the Criminal Justice System
The Transition to Adulthood (T2A) Alliance is a broad coalition of organisations and individuals working to improve the opportunities and life chances of young people in their transition to adulthood, who are at risk of committing crime and falling into the criminal justice system. The T2A Alliance aims to raise awareness of the problems this group face and to secure policy change to improve their lives. Young adult offenders are a significant group within the criminal justice system and are responsible for a third of all crime. Over a half of young adults in custody go on to reoffend within one year of release and up to two thirds reoffend within two years. The Alliance is managed by Barrow Cadbury
GateMate is a campaign, managed by The Prince's Trust and supported by Clinks, which aims to support young adults leaving prison and into the community. The campaign believes that all young adults should be met at the gate on their release from prison and have support from a positive role model. The Gatemate website features a map of all mentoring services in the country.
