27 Nov What does Torbay Communities do?

Torbay Communities is one of the bigger charities in the Bay, yet so many people do not know what we do – certainly not everything we do.

That could be the fault of our marketing and communications manager (that’ll be me then) or, more likely because a lot of the work we do is with our numerous partners.

As a so-called umbrella organisation, we work with dozens, if not ultimately hundreds, of other charities and statutory service providers across the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE).

Explaining what we do in a way that others outside our sector understand is a perennial problem and no sooner do we get a handle on it all, we add another service or modify an existing one.

Like every other organisation of any size, we have a mission statement, and we have a strapline, but the devil really is in the detail, and we are constantly trying to boil down our many strands of work into a simple, quick and concise description.

We boast that we ‘Bring people together’ and we do but that is not just the starting point, it is also the endpoint and as a result, we can safely say that our communities are ‘stronger together’.

You don’t have to look back to the COVID crisis to realise just how strong and supportive our communities are in the Bay and that cannot be said of all towns and cities in the UK.

We’ve come a long way from the meeting called The Force for Change which took place in Parkfield in Paignton in November 2012 when more than 100 VCSE groups came together to look at innovative ways of responding to and managing funding cuts.

The Torbay Community Development Trust (TCDT) was born two years later with a handful of staff and a lot of ambition. Funding-wise down the years, little has changed and the pressure is constantly ramping up in the VCSE sector.

Groups and organisations come and go as funding streams either dry up or are diverted into other areas, but a constant has been TCDT, now known as Torbay Communities, and we have weathered many a storm on the way, always working to best effect when working with partners.

We have statistics aplenty, but they never tell the whole story or reflect the work that has gone into those stats – we are not about figures or graphs, we are about people, people of all ages.

In a nutshell, we have come up with an elevator pitch, a way of describing our work and our organisation in the time it takes to travel with someone in a lift, and so far, this is what the marketing and communications department has come up with to polish its tarnished reputation:

“Torbay Communities is an umbrella organisation that works alongside dozens of other voluntary community and social enterprise organisations to provide support for thousands of mainly vulnerable and lonely people of all ages across the Bay.

“We have a team of Community Builders who work in every area of the Bay. They help people to live their best lives, often reintroducing them to their own communities and watching as they blossom, forging new friendships, rekindling hobbies and interests, and giving them the confidence to get out and about again.

“Then there is the Torbay Community Helpline, set up one week before COVID brought us our first lockdown. We provided a shopping and, prescription collection service, facilitated telephone befrienders and recruited an army of volunteers to help their neighbours, including staffing and helping set up the vaccination centres. We have since expanded our services and boast ‘One call, that’s all’, and we are busier than ever.

“We provide funding advice for other organisations as well as being responsible for Imagine This, the Torbay Assembly, LocalMotion, Live Longer Better, Torbay Together, the Torbay Timebank, Parkfield, refugees and asylum seekers, and the Torbay Community Champion Awards.

“We are everywhere, and despite what people think, we are not the Torbay Council, nor are we the NHS or any other statutory authority. We are Torbay Communities, and we need to raise funds to keep going!”

You have been warned! Just don’t get into a lift with any of our team or you will hear it all over again 😁