Lorna Gough

Case study: Sabr Arts and Crafts – creating a support network for a grassroots initiative

December 15, 2025 by Lorna Gough

Introduction to the group

Sabr Arts and Crafts is a grassroots initiative to create a welcoming space that addresses mental health and well-being, particularly for women from the South Asian community, who experience a high level of need but a lack of provision locally. The founder herself is from this community and benefited from past provisions that are no longer available.

The need

The Sabr Arts committee had lots of brilliant ideas but needed some support putting governance, management and funding in place to realise their vision.

What was done?

Sabr Arts and Crafts were already providing an informal weekly session at a local community centre but they needed funding to continue. They asked CCVS for help.

We provided tailored one-to-one guidance on governance, including assistance with drafting policies and developing a constitution. This foundational support enabled Sabr Arts to formalise their structure and operate with greater confidence and clarity.

We then went on to create a network of support around the group:

Cambridge Online gave Sabr Arts a refurbished laptop to address the group’s limited access to digital resources. This significantly improved Sabr Arts and Crafts ability to look for funding and communicate with beneficiaries, volunteers and other stakeholders.

Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum. This connection provides the group with ongoing mentorship and support in managing finances, ensuring they can plan and sustain their activities effectively.

Our Community WhatsApp group which helped raise awareness of the group’s activities and attract new participants.

CPSL Mind. This partnership resulted in successful funding and training opportunities, equipping the group’s founder with the skills to support members’ well-being and provide appropriate signposting to mental health services.

Cambridgeshire County Council Community Team, which led to a successful small grant application, which enabled the group to host their first event, their Eid party.

Cambridge City Council. We provided support with Sabr Arts and Crafts small grants funding application. This application was successful and will fund the group’s operating costs for the next year.

Cambridge Women’s Resource Centre: has supported the founder with starting the group, signposting to CCVS, and ongoing support with session planning and grant funding applications.

Khidmat Sisters: A local social group supporting the local female Muslim community in another part of the City. Khidmat Sisters has been running for a number of years and has been able to mentor the founder and her group as they promote the group with the local community.

The Impact/change

Sabr Arts and Crafts are now set up with a formal structure and have secured funding enabling the running of their weekly workshops at a local community centre. The weekly sessions are well attended and a successful Eid celebration attracted more attendees. The group plans to host seasonal celebratory events regularly.

CPSL Mind training and support means the group can also do more to support participants and signpost to further mental health services.

As of the 15 September 2025, Sabr arts and craft sessions have been attended by 46 individuals since the group started.

Sabr Arts and Crafts has recently been successfully nominated as a community project for the Tesco Stronger Starts programme.

Centre for Warmth funding and how it’s helped C3 Impact (The C3 Church)

September 22, 2025 by Lorna Gough

Support Cambridgeshire received a grant in 2024, administered by NAVCA and funded by Cadent under their Centres for Warmth Programme.

The Centre for Warmth Programme aims to support people who are living in vulnerable situations by keeping them warm, safe, and connected. The project is based on identifying and partnering with local charities in areas of high deprivation, fuel poverty, and risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, who are located close to areas where Cadent are carrying out mains replacement work.

Through this programme Support Cambridgeshire have been able to give small grants to community initiatives in Cambridge, Huntingdon and Wisbech.

This is the story of C3 Impact (The C3 Church), Cambridge, highlighting their important work and the difference this grant has made.

Who is C3?

C3 is a vital lifeline for many local residents—it’s grown into a place where practical support, kindness, and community go hand in hand. Over the past few years, its C3 Impact Programme has developed into a deeply trusted and much-needed service. The Programme, the social action arm of the C3 Church, offers help with everything from food insecurity to language learning, mental wellbeing, and support with everyday struggles.

What makes C3’s work so distinctive is the holistic way it supports people—not just in crisis moments, but by walking alongside them over a period of time. The church has become a warm, welcoming space where people can find food or advice, and also dignity, encouragement, and human connection.

How has the Centre for Warmth Programme supported and broadened the work of C3

In recent months, additional funding through the Cadent and NAVCA Warm Centre Grant has made a profound difference. Thanks to this support, C3 has been able to extend and strengthen many of its services. Crucially, the funding allowed the church to restart its Citizens Advice signposting service, helping residents access benefits, advice and personalised support at the moment they need it most. At a time when navigating the benefits system or finding accurate information about energy bills and debt can feel overwhelming, this one-to-one help is invaluable.

The grant has also enabled the church to continue running its free weekly community hubs, including Wednesday’s Impact Hub, Food Truck Fridays, and the new Evening Community Space. These aren’t just drop-ins—they are safe havens. On any given day, guests might arrive cold, hungry, isolated, or worried. But they leave having had a hot meal, a warm conversation, and a genuine sense of being cared for. Many say it’s the only place they truly feel seen.

The warm space element of C3’s offer is more than just physical comfort. It’s about emotional safety too. With energy costs still high and social isolation on the rise, having a welcoming space where people can simply sit, chat, and feel part of a community is now more vital than ever. The Warm Centre funding ensures these spaces can remain open and resourced—not only in the coldest months, but throughout the year.

C3 also offers a wide range of volunteering opportunities, where people can clearly see the positive impact they have on others’ lives and the wider community, while also building their own skills and confidence.

A quote from The Centre C3 Impact Team:

If you want a job done, ask a busy person! The story of the NEC Charity Hub

October 9, 2025 by Lorna Gough

If you want a job done ask a busy person, or so the phrase goes.

In this case the person asking was Sarah Crick, the CEO of Red Hen, and the person she asked was me. Would CCVS (soon to be Support Cambridgeshire) be interested in taking on the management of some soon to be empty offices for a period until they were redeveloped? Doing so would give us the opportunity to rent them to Cambridge based charities who were looking for an affordable home. The answer from me was ‘no it won’t work, and we are too busy’ but we agreed to meet The Crown Estates anyway so we could definitively say it would never work.

Four months later CCVS were the lead tenants for the Northeast Cambridge Charity Hub based at Byron House on the Cambridge Business Park. Red Hen moved in as our first tenant and more have followed.

Maps Murmurations Project: Where Generations Meet

September 18, 2025 by Lorna Gough

Since last autumn, CCVS Volunteering for All has been working in partnership with Cambridge City Council and a range of community organisations to deliver a creative, intergenerational project that celebrates connection, place, and wellbeing. Partners have included InCommon, Find Your Wild, Active Life Team at CCC, Museum of Cambridge, Cambridge Room, Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, and others interested in the project.

The project was developed in response to growing awareness that people of all ages—older adults, young people, and everyone in between—can face barriers to getting outside and engaging with their community. Frailty, social anxiety, lack of confidence, or simply the absence of nearby friends or family can prevent full participation in everyday life. This initiative shifts the focus from vulnerabilities to strengths, experience, and local knowledge, creating opportunities for connection, activity, and shared learning.

Creating Connections Across Generations

The project brings together people from different generations to explore what Cambridge means to them. Through collaborative activities, participants share stories, experiences, and perspectives—building new memories and enhancing both physical and psychological wellbeing.

Young people from local schools volunteered and participated alongside older residents from council-supported housing schemes. Activities included creative sessions, group discussions, and supported local walks across various city wards. The outcomes—artworks, stories, and reflections—contribute to community-created maps showcasing Cambridge through the eyes of its residents, young and old.

Cybersecurity for community groups: Simple steps to stay safe

August 7, 2025 by Lorna Gough

Charities are facing growing threats as cybercrime continues to rise.

Our on-demand training: Cybersecurity for Small Charities covers the basics of staying safe online, but the digital landscape is evolving fast. That’s why our Development Team has pulled together a few extra, practical tips to help you protect your data, your people, and your mission. With limited resources and a reliance on volunteers, a little awareness can go a long way.

Why are charities more vulnerable?

High staff turnover: Many charities rely on part-time or volunteer staff, often with limited training.
Personal devices: Many charities use personal phones or laptops, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), which may lack proper security.
Smarter scams: Technological advances, especially with AI mean that phishing emails are harder to spot—making training essential.

Phishing: one click can cost you

Phishing emails can look incredibly real. Clicking a single link could lead to:

Data breaches
Financial loss
Reputational damage

In March 2025, the Charity Commission published a blog alerting charities to correspondence, including phishing emails being sent out claiming to be from the Charity Commission. The emails request action to be taken, such as removing a trustee or chief executive from their position, releasing funds as part of a grant or supplying documents such as a passport or utility bill. The emails may be signed as coming from ‘the Commission,’ Chief Executive Officer and/or its Directors. The blog post continues to provide practical top tips on how to tell if emails or correspondence is from The Charity Commission and also acknowledges, “that it’s not always easy to tell if correspondence is real or fake….”

What you can do

Train your team, including volunteers. Include phishing awareness in all your onboarding. Monthly reminders help too.
Email filters: Don’t move junk mail to your inbox—leave it in the junk mail folder.
Report suspicious emails: Encourage staff and volunteers to flag anything odd to IT or colleagues. This could be with clear procedures in place for who to report and how, and what action and follow up action should be taken, and again by whom on these reports.
Cyber insurance: Often requires that you do have basic protections are in place—so check any policy before your purchase.

Stay safe online

Avoid public Wi-Fi: Free hotspots aren’t secure, they won’t have business grade protection and security in place. Use 4G/5G or a business-grade VPN. (Virtual Private Network. A service that creates a secure, encrypted connection over the internet.)
Encrypt your connection: VPNs protect your data when working remotely.

Passwords & tools

Don’t share passwords in chat apps like Teams: Use tools like TeamPassword.
Use a password manager: Try Dashlane to create and store strong passwords. Avast also provides support with passwords and password managers. Other password managers are available.
Further links for free online resources:

Final Top Tip: Cybersecurity doesn’t have to be complicated. A few simple habits can make a big difference.

Do check out our on-demand training – Cybersecurity for Small Charities for a comprehensive introductory guide to ensure that you are protecting your charities or community groups’ online safety.

Any questions, do get in touch; we are here to help: info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk

Social enterprise and charity – entrepreneurial thinking or commercialisation?

August 5, 2025 by Lorna Gough

This blog was written in response to the article in Third Sector: Ian MacQuillin: Have we seen Dan Pallotta’s Ted Talk too many times?

In financially tight times it is only natural that the demand for the charity sector to become more business-like in its approach is growing again, but what does that mean for charities?

Is commercialisation the correct approach?

In his article, Ian MacQuillin recently asked whether the push toward commercialisation promoted by people like Dan Pallotta is the correct approach. Should charities be seeking to attract “£400k talent” by paying corporate salaries to get the “best” people to apply commercial strategies to social problems? Would encouraging people to generate profit from solving social ills really be the fastest way to a better world? Are we, as the for-profit crowd would like to suggest, simply stuck in a saviour narrative doing good for people but not really changing anything?

I would like to say the answer to those questions is a definitive no.

Measuring value

The drive to commercialise charities is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of value creation in the non-profit context. The trading sector measures value in the number of dollars and pounds it can generate by solving a particular problem as it finds ways to bridge the gap between excess supply within a system and the demand for that supply. Whereas the non-profit sector measures value in terms of impact: moments of lives changed and travel towards better outcomes.

Problem solvers

Charities are designed to tackle complex social problems where there is no financial profit to be gained.

If these were market opportunities, they would be being served by market competitors. Charities play a crucial part in a market-driven society by picking up these intractable problems and working towards understanding and unravelling their complexity. The work done in these organisations is at its best, particularly in smaller charities, through experimentation and iteration. Small teams of dedicated people, motivated by the desire to solve problems, work together using entrepreneurial thinking to test new approaches and find out what works. It is home to many generalists who do whatever job needs to be done to get the job done.

It is undeniable that from this complexity, there might emerge individual simple problems that charitable organisations can create specific solutions for. These could provide charities with the opportunity to pursue their mission and sustainability through trading activity that pursues their charitable purposes. Charities might consider the impact of adopting a trading approach and how best to do that. Perhaps they could trade directly, partnering with another organisation by licensing their intellectual property at market value, or might they create a separate trading organisation which donates the majority of its profits to the charity, thus ensuring sustainability through trade while protecting itself from the risk of mission drift that comes from pursuing market opportunities.

Putting beneficiaries first

These are complex questions which each organisation must explore for themselves in their own context, with reference to their charitable obligations to their beneficiaries first and foremost in their minds – not the market, nor the “£400k talent” Pallotta believes would deliver better outcomes.

Why? Simply because charities are the only organisations with this imperative.

In a commercial organisation, delighting a customer may cost money but the investment generates, hopefully, a rate of return that gratifies its shareholders and everyone involved can be satisfied. In a charitable organisation, there is no easy or reliable return on serving a beneficiary. A beneficiary is to a charity as a shareholder is to a business, and it is incredibly difficult to effectively serve these two masters whose interests are so divergent.

Cait Brumme and Brian Trelstad captured this in their article for social entrepreneurs in Harvard Business Review: ‘Should Your Start-Up Be For-Profit or Non-profit?’ It encourages those starting new mission-driven ventures to be clear about what their mission dictated about their approach to money: “Hybrid organizations also often require two distinct teams with clearly separated duties, multiple governing boards, and strong legal oversight, all of which can increase complexity and administrative costs for a mission-driven venture.”

Commercialisation may sometimes be in the interests of a charity and its beneficiaries, but it is not a given that business is good in a non-profit context.

If we can learn anything from entrepreneurs, and I would suggest that we can learn a lot from them, it ought to be in further developing our already strong abilities to think and respond to problems flexibly and design innovative solutions that work, not thinking of our value creation in terms of money.

We can help

The issues may be complex, but we at Support Cambridgeshire are here to support you if you want to create (or expand) a non-profit organisation creating solutions to problems you care about, whether by trading or otherwise. If you plan to lock all your resources into pursuing your mission, we can help. Contact us: enquiries@cambridgecvs.org.uk

Celebrate your people’s achievements with Digital Badges!

July 28, 2025 by Lorna Gough

Support Cambridgeshire are excited to introduce digital badges for local community groups and charities to recognise the awesome skills and achievements of their learners, beneficiaries and volunteers.

Whether it’s through training, development programmes, or other milestones, individuals will be able to earn badges that showcase what they’ve learned. These badges aren’t just for show—they can be added to LinkedIn, shared on social media, or highlighted to employers to boost the earner’s professional profile.

Incoming changes to employment rights

July 24, 2025 by Lorna Gough

This article is published with the permission of Lyndsay Salmon HR consultant and Support Cambridgeshire Trustee:

Exciting news for the HR enthusiasts out there – on 1 July the Government published its Implementation Roadmap for the Employment Rights Bill, this sets out how (and when) they plan to introduce the upcoming employment law changes.

I’ve highlighted the ones in bold which I think are most likely to have an impact on your organisation, and as soon as I have more information, I’ll be sharing that so you can ensure policies, procedures and processes are all updated and aligned with the changes.

 Immediate (awaiting Royal Assent):

Repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and major parts of the Trade Union Act 2016
New protections preventing dismissal for participating in industrial action

April 2026:

Protective award for collective redundancies – doubling maximum period
‘Day 1’ paternity and unpaid parental leave – no longer 26 weeks employment needed, this will be from day 1 of employment. You may need to update your policy and be aware
Enhanced whistle-blower protections
Establishment of a Fair Work Agency
Statutory Sick Pay improvements (removal of lower earnings limit and waiting period) – this will be a bigger deal. Sick pay from day 1. You will need to update policies and ensure you are managing sickness carefully to help employees improve their attendance if needed  
Simplified trade union recognition and digital/workplace balloting systems

October 2026:

Ban on fire-and-rehire
Launch of a Fair Pay Agreement Negotiating Body for adult social care
Stronger tipping laws
Employer duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment – already need to take reasonable steps – will now need to take ALL reasonable steps, further advice to follow as soon as we know what that might entail over and above current arrangements.
Expanded trade union rights
Time limits to bring an employment tribunal amended. (Maybe 6 months, not 3)

2027:

Mandatory gender pay gap and menopause action plans (voluntary from April 2026)
Rights for pregnant workers – Pay and leave being reviewed… watch this space
Bereavement leave
Protections against zero hour contract abuse – This looks likely to be banning exploitative contracts
Umbrella company regulation
‘Day 1’ unfair dismissal rights.  Consultations will begin this summer and continue into early 2026 – no longer will I say – ‘do they have 2 years’ service?’…. From day 1 employees will be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal. Ensuing probation processes are fair and followed is likely to be important – but it’s been pushed well into 2027 which is much later than expected

Consultations will begin this summer and continue into early 2026.

Lyndsay will continue to monitor the Employment Rights Bill implementation and we will share any future insights.

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