Struggling charities facing increasing demand and diminishing funding need help to survive.

Stark warnings have been issued that if action is not taken now many community and voluntary groups could be forced to fold in the next 12 months.

It comes as more than 70% of groups say they expect to be hit hard by the recession over the next year at the same time as demand for their services increases.

With councils and other public bodies increasingly looking to community and voluntary groups to take over services, what does the future hold?

According to experts smaller charities may need to merge with larger organisations to survive. At the same time residents and businesses will have to dig deep to ensure the vulnerable and poverty-stricken get the support they need.

In Brighton and Hove alone there are about 1,600 community and voluntary groups offering everything from support to the terminally ill in their final moments to shelters for the homeless.

Economic impact

At a recent conference of the city’s Community and Voluntary Sector Forum (CVSF) 84% of those surveyed said the economic climate would hit their organisations over the next year with 15% saying they were lurching from one crisis to the next.

At the same time 72% said they had seen a rise in demand for their services.

Andy Winter, the chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust (BHT), said: “There are a lot of very worried people out there.

"I would expect one to two dozen groups to close over the next year and many of those that employ any staff will have to let them go.

“There will be a huge change over the next decade in the way these groups work and what is expected of them.

“There are likely to be some forms of support that will be provided entirely by volunteers.

“Organisations like Brighton Housing Trust will increasingly be expected to pick up the pieces of homelessness and poverty, except in very special cases.

“We are also likely to be seeing levels of poverty that are very different from what we deal with now.

“More and more people are going to be in the position of having to choose between food, heating and bills. We have to figure out how we can offer support to those people.

“We have to be creative in looking at funding options and we have to get the message out to those who are comfortably off – we need your help.”

Forced to merge

The CVSF survey showed almost 80% of groups are expecting to work more closely with other community and voluntary groups over the next year. According to Mr Winter, many smaller charities will be forced to merge with larger to survive.

An example of this is when BHT took over women’s counselling service Threshold.

He said: “Charities have their own chief executives, management structures and offices and bringing two organisations together cuts that cost and redirects it towards the core work that the organisation should be doing.

“I know many people will see someone like me as a predator but it can work to everyone’s advantage. It is a delicate balancing act and it is important to make sure both sides share similar outlooks.

“I would urge groups that are struggling to look to us or organisations like ours.”

The worrying climate for charities and voluntary groups comes at a time when public bodies in Sussex are increasingly calling on them to take on services.

In Brighton and Hove the Green council has said it is exploring the option of volunteers taking on the mobile library, which is currently set to be axed.

In West Sussex the County Council is farming out the management of youth centres.

At the CVSF conference at the end of last year participants warned expectations of what volunteers can take on must be realistic.

Volunteers

A report produced by the forum based on responses to its survey said: “There are challenges for volunteers and volunteer management as there are raised expectations about what volunteers can do. Herein lies one of the many paradoxes of the current policy agenda – organisations are reliant on volunteers but not as a response to delivering cut price services.”

Libby Young, the acting joint chief executive of the CVSF, said: “The local community and voluntary sector has a long history of delivering quality services for our city’s communities.

"In the coming years CVSF hopes that there will be even more opportunities for the sector’s skills and expertise to be used to meet the needs of local people in an efficient and cost effective way.

“CVSF believes that supporting voluntary and community groups and organisations both now and in the future will be to the benefit of everyone and will enable our city and its residents to thrive.”

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