Capacity

Announced in the 2007 Waste Strategy for England, the Third Sector Capacity Building Programme was a three year programme delivered from 2008-11 in partnership between WRAP and REalliance.

The programme aimed to increase the capacity of the sector to operate in the waste and recycling sector and enhance their ability to deliver resource efficiency services

We provided support in three main areas:

Organisational development – by providing consultancy support or an interim manager to an organisation to help it develop a service or aspect of its work.  Each organisation worked with case manager who provided support, advice and ongoing contact.

Network development – opening up opportunities for organisations by developing the ability of third sector organisations to work together, for example by improving collaboration, knowledge and skill sharing between third sector organisations  and strengthening the support and development infrastructure which facilitates these activities.

Market development – increasing awareness and take-up of third sector resource management services, identifying new markets for third sector resource management services, and assisting third sector organisations to entering them.

Over the three years, the programme supported 93 different projects via funding from WRAP. Additionally 51 organisations received support directly from the REalliance team.  Together, these projects supported around 300 of the 700 resource efficiency organisations in England. 

By the end of the programme in March 2011, the supported organisations had

• diverted an addtional 74,000 tonnes of waste
• provided reused furniture to over a quarter of a million households
• increased their turnover by £12m
• provided 3,800 additional training places

This is just the beginning, the benefits of the programme will continue to be seen for years to come.

Download the final programme report for more details

If you want to know more please get in touch via info@realliance.org.uk