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Pilotlight offers DPOs free capacity building support.

Pilotlight offers DPOs free capacity building support.

"The Pilotlighters were brilliant and went beyond the call of duty… it was immensely enjoyable… lots of ideas, great openness." — Disability Action in Islington

Disability LIB is partnering with the charity Pilotlight to help DPOs build their capacity for strategic planning and long-term sustainability. Pilotlight brings together skilled professionals from the private sector and harnesses their talents to help small to medium-sized charities and social enterprises tackling disadvantage.

Pilotlight provides a uniquely managed capacity-building process that supports organisations in exploring their vision and giving them the skills to make it happen. It uses a hands-off coaching model so that its partner charities remain in control and get real strategic planning skills from their work with Pilotlight.

"We appreciated the opportunity to talk to people who take us seriously... and to think differently." — Disability Action Waltham Forest

Pilotlight have worked with over 100 organisations in the last five years, including DPOs throughout the UK. The results are impressive. After benefiting from Pilotlight's support, organisations have reported better management and governance, more income and staffing, and greater impact on service-users. Two years after working with Pilotlight, the charites and social enterprises we support: (The Pilotlight Effect '08) have:

- Increased the number of people reached by 57%
- Increased turnover by 54% (6 times the voluntary sector average)
- Improved services provided to individuals and communities by 60%

"With the help of people who bring some objectivity, Pilotlight gives you the space that you don't usually have as a DPO to think much more broadly about what the organisation does and where you want to get it to in the future." — Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE)

If you think your DPO could benefit from working with Pilotlight please contact Stephen Hodgkins at Disability LIB stephen.hodgkins@disabilitylib.org.uk or 0844 800 4331 for more information and an application form.

Link: stephen.hodgkins@disabilitylib.org.uk

Date posted: Monday, 8 March 2010