We are very proud to have recently launched our first ever Strategic Plan!
At GCP, we are committed to community-led work, empowerment and co-production. We aim to strengthen and support the assets present in the community by offering real opportunities for community members to contribute directly to the running of our organisation. Our Strategic Plan has been co-produced by community members with lived experience of the asylum process, volunteers, staff and board members, and sets out our community’s vision for the coming years – what we want to achieve, our reasons, and how we are going to do it together.
This has been a huge achievement us and the product of a lot of hard work. Back in September 2017, GCP held a Strategy Day which was attended by over 40 people including community members, volunteers, staff and board members. Everyone was asked to contribute and take part in activities focusing on different aspects of the organisation. After this, the Strategy Group formed, consisting of 12 members, each person having different experiences with the organisation, and even more varied life experiences. The group met once a week thereafter, and began sifting through information from the Strategy Day, and started figuring out what GCP’s Strategic Plan should look like. As one Strategy Group member, described: “the sessions were facilitated by the manager and a board member, but we were in charge.” “We looked at lots of other strategic plans. Lots of them seemed to include phrases that didn’t mean to mean anything, they talked about vague commitments. We knew we didn’t want ours to be like that.” From the wealth of ideas gathered on the Strategy Day, the group narrowed it down to 17 meaningful and achievable goals for the organisation, to be carried out over the next 3 years.
Our community members identified various goals for the organisation, such as developing a mentoring and befriending programme for refugees and asylum claimants, providing information sessions on the asylum process for new claimants, and to provide more opportunities for community members to relax and socialise. The Plan also includes goals for GCP’s food provision, so we will continue to develop this to better meet the demand in the community.
We had a lovely celebration at Kinning Park Complex on the 5th February to launch the Plan, with a great turnout from community members and partner organisations.
This marks the beginning of a period of change for GCP, and our work has just started. This is not the end of community members meaningfully contributing their strengths to the running of GCP, however. The strategy group will continue to meet in order to evaluate the Strategic Plan’s progress and hold GCP to account.
To find out more about Govan Community Project and their work, please visit their website here.
