What we do

The Eke-Out Project is now widely accepted as essential infrastructure for voluntary organisations working with children, young people and families in Edinburgh. The Project’s overarching aim is to support partnership working both within the Network and in the strategic joint planning structures with statutory colleagues. The Project strives to achieve this aim by providing members of the Network with the following services:

Support for Reps on Strategic Partnerships

The Eke-Out Project acts as a central hub for the Network’s matrix of representatives on joint planning groups in the city. Project staff receive requests for reps or lobby for places on groups where none exist and then collate the necessary information to allow the Project to brief the Network and promote the vacancy. Network reps are selected democratically by publicising the opportunities openly and holding elections where places are oversubscribed. Targeted ‘headhunting’ of Network members is also undertaken, where open advertising does not bring forward any interest. After a new rep has been identified, a comprehensive and ongoing package of support is offered to assist reps to participate in an informed and supported way and to help ensure that the wider Network’s interests are represented. This support package varies depending on the Project’s staff capacity, the level of experience of the rep and the relative priority of the strategic group but may include some or all of the following support services:

Policy Development

The Eke-Out Project works proactively to support the development of policy on issues of importance to the Network. This is achieved primarily through the Project’s support for Network reps on partnership groups and through the Network Policy Forum (NPF) established in January 2006.

Outreach

One of the Eke-Out Project’s key aims is the inclusion and participation of small, ‘grass roots’ or hard to reach voluntary organisations which often find it harder to make their voice heard. By reaching out to groups like these and meeting them in their own premises and at their convenience, the Project hopes to understand better the particular issues of importance for them and address barriers to their involvement in the Network. Active participation of these organisations will make the Network more representative and responsive to members’ needs. The Eke-Out Project has devised an Outreach Strategy to guide this work and an Outreach Framework to structure the individual visits.

Network Development

The Eke-Out Project is continually developing the Network by recruiting new members whenever and wherever they are ‘discovered’. The Network is a collection of voluntary organisations involved with services for children, young people and families in Edinburgh so most Network members are local groups, however, membership is also open to regional, national and in certain cases, international organisations providing they deliver services in Edinburgh or to Edinburgh citizens. If you would like to find out more about the benefits of joining the Network, have a look at the Network section of the website.

The Eke-Out Project also develops the Network by identifying and supporting special interest ‘sub-networks’ for particular thematic or geographic interests. These can be linked to a relevant partnership group or they can be short life networks of members interested in a particular topic.

The Network is also developed through the identification and sharing of new ideas and good practice. This is achieved through events, surveys, briefings and reports. In this work, the Eke-Out Project does not perform a quality control role. Instead, the Project supports Network members to promote good practice through peer debate.

Sector Profiling

The Eke-Out database contains a huge amount of information about individual Network members. This valuable data is used to profile the sector and to demonstrate the contributions made by voluntary organisations to the city of Edinburgh. A restricted dataset from the main database is available as a separate searchable database on this website. More complex queries are processed and interpreted by the Eke-Out Project staff team. For more information about this, visit the Database section of the site.

Research and Information Resources

The Eke-Out Project works to identify relevant information sources and build up a resource library of material on key issues for the sector. This includes the systematic monitoring of a wide range of on-line, paper and human information sources to keep abreast of news and developments of interest. Depending on the urgency and nature of the subject, this information is then transcribed, interpreted and summarised for targeted distribution to Network members as briefings, email alerts, research reports and articles. The Project also produces Eke-Outreach, a newsletter for Network members and other interested colleagues.

Communications and Consultations

The Eke-Out Project is the staff resource for a large Network of separate organisations and services. It is therefore driven by communications both to and from the Project ‘hub’. The information held on the main database about Network members’ areas of interest and expertise helps the Project target communications more effectively to reduce information overload. Both routine and customised communications are used to consult with the Network membership. This is sometimes co-ordinated by the Project staff team to enable a consensus response from the Network or relevant sub-network. However, the Project also tracks and publicises details of many other local and national consultations for Network members to respond to directly according to interest. Current consultations can be found in the members’ area of the website.