THEMES

Together Middlesbrough & Cleveland: collaborative partnership

PROCESS

The levels of poverty in Middlesbrough are the highest in country. For many years, Together Middlesbrough & Cleveland (TM&C) has been tackling a wide range of social issues including poverty, loneliness, homelessness, food insecurity and other challenges faced by children and families.

In November 2020, with fundraising support from CSC, the organisation secured a major grant from the National Lottery Coronavirus Community Support Fund to scale up its work, and they have now formed a collaborative partnership with us.

The Project Brief

Our consultancy support came in the form of marketing, community engagement, and strategic support. With our help, TM&C also secured a grant from Power to Change. This grant was used to commission CSC to deliver Social Media and Income Generation webinars to local organisations in TM&C’s network. During the pandemic, we noticed that many organisations lacked the confidence using online platforms to engage audiences and beneficiaries; others faced operational challenges that prevent them from effectively fundraising. The webinars were designed to address these issues and support these communities. 

Our Approach

We also evaluated TM&C as an organisation, assessing the impact of their activities and achievements to support future funding proposals. Alongside this, provided communications and marketing support while helping the organisation to set up practices that will strengthen these functions in the long term. 

As a part of our partnership, TM&C helped us source ethnic minority-led organisations as beneficiaries for our Steps to Sustainability initiative. This includes Ubuntu Multicultural Centre, for whom we have completed a Community Engagement Survey.