What We Do

As a multi-disciplinary community regeneration and workforce development consultancy we provide a comprehensive range of services for our clients:

Fundraising: Island Associates staff and associates have extensive experience of developing successful bids for grant funding to a wide range of UK and European sources. Our experience ranges from small-scale community projects to major regeneration programmes. In addition to developing individual grant applications we can develop longer-term and realistic Fundraising Strategies. Training can also be provided in effective bid writing to enable clients to grow their in-house capacity to access funding. We are members of the Institute of Fundraising and abide by their Code of Conduct for such work.

Workforce Development: Achieving your objectives as an organisation will only come about through building an effective team and developing the individuals that go to make up that team. Workforce development is key to organisational and business success. Island Associates can work with you to achieve this either through direct training provision or the development of Workforce Strategies tailored to your needs.

Neighbourhood Regeneration: community renewal is at the heart of Government policy with local people themselves seen as playing a central role in securing a better quality of life for their communities. Island Associates can work with you to develop strategic plans, to improve the delivery of existing services, to develop new initiatives to fill service "gaps" and to develop ways of empowering and involving communities in service delivery.

Community engagement: Island Associates can work with clients to develop and deliver community consultation and stakeholder engagement processes. We tailor our approach to the needs of individual clients and use a range of techniques to ensure an inclusive approach to community development.

Project management: Having great ideas and the enthusiasm to bring them to fruition is essential. Equally important is having, or putting in place, the appropriate delivery and management arrangements to turn the ideas into reality. In addition to working with clients to develop your plans and proposals and secure funding, Island Associates can also manage, or advise upon, their delivery.

Organisational development: One of the few certainties in organisational life is change. Whether you are a community group, a public body or a business we all have to adapt to changing circumstances. Island Associates can work with you to manage the process of change and continuous improvement - we can assist with organisational re-structuring, performance management, team building, conflict resolution, developing quality assurance practices, etc - all the nuts and bolts that together make for organisational success.

Strategic planning: Aim at nothing and you'll probably hit it!! To be effective all organisations need to set clear objectives and develop strategies to achieve them. Island Associates can work with community and public sector agencies to develop your strategies be they organisational business plans or individual project plans. We can also facilitate strategic planning workshops with staff, trustees, board directors, partners and community representatives.

Feasibility studies: are you planning a major project? Time spent planning what you want to do is rarely wasted and can save significant time, money and effort later on. Through carrying out a feasibility study Island Associates can help you to develop your ideas, manage the risks and maximise the chances of success. We can help with project studies, organisational development proposals, social enterprise initiatives, policy research, stakeholder surveys, site development studies, etc.

Project evaluation: monitoring and evaluation is a key tool for learning from your activities. It is an activity which should be undertaken throughout project delivery not just at the end. Through assessing aims and objectives, baselines, inputs, outputs and outcomes and value for money we aim to enable clients to determine the impact of their work in a positive and empowering way.

Communications & PR: effective communication is central to the success of all organisations. There are many facets to communications - it is important internally with your staff, trustees, board members and key partners; it is also important externally with your wider community and stakeholders. Island Associates can help you to develop effective communications strategies and to maximise your external profile through targeted marketing, PR and media liaison.