Openstorytellers Case Study
Openstorytellers is a charity and a social enterprise. They are a team of learning disabled and non-disabled people working together to promote the art of storytelling, to help people tell their own stories and find their place in history through traditional stories and legends. They run courses with people with profound and multiple disabilities to help them communicate better with friends, family and carers. They also run projects with children with special needs and young people in transition, to help make telling their own story easy and fun; and they train professionals to spread the good work.
Cindy is the Development Manager for this unique charity and heard about VISTA as soon as she started working with Openstorytellers. Their Director knew about the work of VISTA and was keen to get more involved.
Cindy says:
‘ViSTA’s low cost courses are so varied and there has been something for us all. It is great to have high quality training on offer in our own county, without having to travel to London. I have found the masterclasses the most useful as the calibre of the trainers has been top-class, with the latest advice and shared experiences. These courses have also introduced me to other fundraisers and charity managers, and many would like to keep in contact for mutual support in the future.
ViSTA are providing us with an ongoing support package through their Community Accounting and Bookkeeping Service – CAaBS. We have been most grateful for this support as it has helped us draw down funding. Tim Green is our knight in shining armour! He has revolutionised our workload and enabled us to deliver financial projections on time. We have recently been granted funding from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for a new Director for 4 years, and funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation for a 3 year project and I quote: “Cindy your spreadsheets and financial analysis were clear and illuminating” I think I might frame that one! Thanks for your help again with helping me get the right figures to prospective funders, it could be a different story without this support.
ViSTA’s training is of excellent quality and targeted at just the right level for the audience. I have been very impressed with the whole service from ViSTA including staff support, good venues and excellent trainers. I would highly recommend ViSTA’ s services to anyone. ViSTA’s support , including CAaBS will enable charities to be better placed to ride the tough economic storms that we are currently facing. ‘
Company no 6074763 , Registered Charity no 1119172, Telephone: 08453 580372
UK Learning Provider Reference Number: 10020323