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Copyright © 2015 Choices Consortium
Choices Consortium is a Company Registered by Guarantee No.8309032
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About us

Why we formed

CHOICES was established in response to intentions to open up public sector services to private, third sector and small community organisations. The drivers of austerity and localism are leading to widespread recommissioning of criminal justice, health, welfare and social care services. These drivers are complemented by expectation that local community groups and individuals need to take more responsibility for themselves and the areas they live and be ‘assets’ that can be harnessed to create better communities. CHOICES had been established to enable this process and to specifically, help build community assets in local areas experiencing health and social disadvantage, inequality, and higher levels of crime and serious violence. CHOICES has a pioneering new approach to partnership working where we will build sustainable capacity and resilience in individuals and groups so they can contribute positively to local areas and help tackle disadvantage and inequality. CHOICES will respond to wider strategies including: Ending Gang and Youth Violence, Transforming Rehabilitation and Health and Social Care reform.
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Purpose

CHOICES will increase health, wellbeing and emotional and economic resilience and ‘capital’ in individuals, families and community and reduce risks of harm by:

  • Providing leadership, critical information, training and other resources to individuals, families, communities and small voluntary organisations.
  • We will provide expert support to help capacity-build small community agencies including governance, ‘toolkits’ and help to gain funding, manage and deliver contracts.
  • CHOICES will undertake projects to gain consensus on policy issues impacting on vulnerable individuals, families and communities, creating consensus policy reports and lobbying for local and national change in policy and practice where needed
  • CHOICES will work with others to deliver projects which enable individuals, families and community to mitigate risk of harm and build their personal and social capital and participate fully in civil society.

CHOICES and our consortium partners have the potential to realise wide community benefits including social, health, economic and re-generational, through improving individuals’ health, wellbeing and social functioning in order to reduce offending behaviour.

Provision

CHOICES work is focused on areas and boroughs of highest need: hotspots for gang activity, poor health and deprivation, poverty, crime, and unemployment. CHOICES and our partners will engage with the hardest to reach individuals: those experiencing a lack of aspiration; entrenched criminal lifestyles; health, social and economic issues; and those who fall between services or statutory provision. This includes individuals involved in gangs, exploitation or serious violence.

Experience

Collectively the CHOICES Consortium provides unique expertise, track record and innovation in developing integrated, efficient and sustainable solutions. CHOICES is supported by a diverse, expanding network of CONSORTIUM PARTNERS who are specialists in delivery, community links, policy advice and experts-by-experience. This key element of our model is the involvement of credible experts and mentors who have themselves experienced similar lifestyles and are experts in their personal journeys of transformation.

  

Consortium Model

CHOICES has a hub and spokes model. As an established legal entity, CHOICES can act as a single point of contracting for commissioning bodies. CHOICES central business unit will assure delivery of contracts by small community bodies for commissioners by providing governance, performance managing contacts and mitigating risks, whilst providing support and leadership to build the capacity of small community organisations to deliver services.

Choices Consortium Logo

Consortium Model

Our Mission and Aims

Mission

CHOICES mission is to enable the development and ‘capacity build’ innovative and sustainable community-led services, in communities experiencing inequalities, severe and pervading vulnerabilities, exclusion and fragmentation.

CHOICES will offer a range of practical services, support and training to small community organisations and individuals working with disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalised groups including those impacted by crime, recidivism and unemployment. Young people within this cohort experience a lack of aspiration, entrenched lifestyles of offending, and a range of health, social and economic problems.

CHOICES and consortium members will provide individuals with an integrated package of support, which is flexible to meet their specific needs, not restricted by statutory boundaries, and is designed and coordinated by local, credible experts. This kind of holistic, community-focused support is what this cohort can help people turn their lives around, and move people away from destructive or unhealthy lifestyles into more productive, healthier lives and create safer and cohesive communities.

Aims

  • CHOICES will work with local communities to clarify and assess their needs and the challenges which confront them. However, CHOICES will also work with local communities to assess their assets, that can be harnessed to improve quality of life and build capacity and resilience to mitigate challenges and problems.

  • CHOICES will work with small community agencies to develop and deliver responsive, high-quality services for individuals, families and their networks.

  • CHOICES and our partners will achieve positive outcomes for individuals and communities, principally to decrease problems identified and the increase of health and wellbeing, social functioning and quality of life of target populations and encourage participation in the community. In short we will help turn individuals perceived to cause problems in local communities to local assets.

  • CHOICES will enable, build and transform through partnership-working, the organisational capacities of small and trusted local initiatives.

  • CHOICES will provide and support the local development of ethical, accountable leadership

  • CHOICES will develop community infrastructure and partnerships, strategies and resilience to challenging issues and thus prevent further risk of harm and suffering.

Key elements of the work of Choices Consortium is to:

  • Support the capacity building of smaller, diverse organisations, to enable them to compete and provide services within new structures.
  • To provide leadership development and skills in communities who are disconnected and do not have leadership.
  • Offer community development support.
  • Provide delivery assurance and accountability of contractual commitments on performance as well as measuring social impact by measuring effectiveness across outcomes, for example: reduced offending, social functioning, health, well-being, housing, employment training and education.

Community Interest Statement

CHOICES aims is to increase health, wellbeing and emotional and economic resilience and ‘capital’ in individuals, families and community and reduce risks of harm.

CHOICES consider that any monies and properties should always be re-invested into either the continued development of CHOICES or re-invested into continuing to capacity build the membership organisations or directly into the communities that we serve.

The role of the Hub

CHOICES hub acts as the intermediary between commissioners and small community organisations providing front line services. Its duties include:

  • Contract negotiation, implementation, delivery assurance and management

  • Leadership of the Consortium

  • Business Development activities including tender writing

  • Advice and governance of financial resources

  • Quality assurance

  • Organisational capacity building

  • Enabling development of small organization governance and management of risk

  • Advice on core policies

  • Engagement with key stakeholders including new funding and business development opportunities.

  • Training and workforce development

  • Legal support (e.g. contracting arrangements)

  • •Advice on and development of monitoring and evaluation tools