Bringing government and charity together: a Charity Next secondee's experience at Barnado's

Posted 31st October 2008 14:24pm by Jo Mardon

It’s been two months since I joined Barnardo’s through the Charity Next scheme, and it’s hard to believe how quickly the time has gone!

My role is to develop and support our internal ‘Pass it On’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness across the organisation about the importance of gifts left to Barnardo’s in supporters’ wills. The whole organisation? That’s not just staff but over 9000 volunteers too, with a wide variety of roles, interests and motivations for being part of Barnardo’s. All these are factors we need to consider for our communications to be effective, and through my role I’m gaining a fascinating overview of how a charity such as Barnardo’s runs.

As part of my induction I was encouraged to visit a Barnardo’s project, to understand at first hand some of the work we do with vulnerable young people. So it was that I set off on a journey to one of our Young Carers Projects where I spent a day shadowing the Children’s Services Manager. It was fascinating to gain an insight into the inner-workings of the project, from funding to targets to relationships with the local authority. Speaking to the social workers and going out on a visit really brought home how much of a difference Barnardo’s can make to these children’s lives – and their families too.

What a contrast to working on a Bill in the Department for Work and Pensions!