In December 2020 we were commissioned by Involve@Lincoln, a charity providing space for peer-to-peer mental health support, professional counselling services and a community cafe. We had previously worked with them earlier in the year to raise awareness of their community shares officer to secure funds to purchase their building from the county council.
Aim
The aim of the commission was to audit and evaluate the current condition and use of the building, make recommendations for how the space could be best used, and review service and rental agreements to help maximise income in order for the organisation to move towards financial sustainability rather than funding reliance.
Outcome
We adopted a multiphased approach to the commission; auditing the existing spaces to find out about their condition and usage, interviewing key people to gain better understanding of their requirements as centre users and paper research to explore benchmarking and best practices for similar organisations.
We delivered a comprehensive report that looked at the centre's culture, the current usage of the premises, building staff capacity, policy compliance and accountability, and hire revenue review. We delivered general recommendations about the space, examples of how tenancy agreements could be amended to maximise the usage of the spaces as well as maximise the tenant's impact, we identified additional development opportunities and delivered a plan for space redevelopment.
As with many charities, Involve@Lincoln had limited capacity and funds to implement some of the suggestions made within our report. As such, we ceased our consultancy having delivered the report in order to free up much-needed capital to invest into the infrastructure of the building.
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