IMPACT is a broadly-based programme of personal and organisational development support for voluntary agencies tackling homelessness in London. The aim of the programme is to improve the capacity of agencies to deliver well targeted, effective and sustainable services to their homeless and formerly homeless clients.
The IMPACT programme is built around three core elements:
Triangle Consulting and Charities Evaluation Services provide a wide range of support to homelessness agencies on our behalf. Over a number of years our programme has encompassed the training of individuals, support for organisational improvements, the development of effective information management systems, the improvement of outcome tools and influencing the use of outcomes for Supporting People purposes. Triangle Consulting developed a new version of the Outcomes Star on our behalf - a proven tool to improve the outcome focus of work with individual clients. With the support of Jellymould Creative, Triangle have produced a user-friendly collection of publications for the Foundation on using the Outcomes Star and these were downloaded more than 7,000 times during 2007. The Outcomes Star collection forms the centrepiece of our Homeless Outcomes website.
We are currently developing a software system to support the use of the Outcomes Star, and will soon make this available for organisation's to use online for free.
We provide seminars and workshops to help agencies understand and respond effectively to the rapidly changing environment. Developing best practice is a constant theme throughout the programme and we support events and other action to aid this. Find out more about IMPACT through Strategy and Best Practice.
One of the important elements of this part of the programme is Beyond a Helpline a programme specially designed to help small agencies achieve the highest levels of HR management and development. The programme is supported by a website - www.beyondahelpline.org.uk.
Visit the website and read a report on the origins and progress of the scheme.
Mergers are increasingly a fact of life in the homelessness sector. Alan Cripps and Mary Carter have written a brief guide for the Foundation on mergers literature to help agency leaders to quickly get to grips with and access the resources that are out there, many of which are freely available online.
We have a history of providing leadership development support for homelessness agencies. As before, the 2006/07 programme continues to provide access to Action Learning Sets and the opportunity to apply for Bursaries for Study Visits.
Visit the main IMPACT through Leadership page
An independent evaluation of the first 18 months of the IMPACT programme underlined the benefits that many agencies and individuals obtain from it:
"The (IMPACT) programme has won almost universal praise from the people I have consulted and the reports that I have seen. It has succeeded in providing learning and networking opportunities that have been valued both by the individuals who have benefited and by the organisations for which they work or volunteer." David Carrington September 2003
If you would like to see how the IMPACT programme has developed over the years, then download: "A Short History of the IMPACT programme".
The London Housing Foundation's pilot scheme Beyond a Helpline provides high-quality HR support to eleven small agencies tackling homelessness in London.
The agencies involved receive coaching, training, policy and procedural templates, HR surgeries, training, audits and more, on top of the more traditional telephone support - all provided by Broadway's award winning HR department.
In May, the London Housing Foundation launched a Beyond a Helpline website providing access to online support, briefings and easy access to the policy and procedural documents.
