We are pleased to announce that Third Sector Essentials has been officially launched! The launch took place at the Zion Arts Centre on 20^th May 2010.

After the initial hiccups of the escaped soup, failing laptops and lack of internet connection…. we managed to bring everything together to launch the new Community Interest Company at the Zion Arts Centre. Here is an account of how the afternoon rolled out with a few pictures.

Shirley Adams, One of the Directors of Third Sector Essentials opened the afternoon by expressing her thanks to those that made the launch at this exciting time for our organisation and continued to outline what we should expect from the next two hours and.  Andy Ramwell, Head of Institute, from MISPA (Manchester Institute of Sport and Physical Activity) set the scene by giving a presentation around the current status of the public sector and what this might mean for our sector.

Claire Davis, who is currently acting managing director for Third Sector Essentials, then introduced a survival exercise. The intention was to explore the journey that Third Sector Essentials is on and inviting those that attended the launch to experience how making decisions in a tough climate can be productive and leave you feeling elated whilst making difficult decisions.

Claire followed on with the theme to explore the aims of Third Sector Essentials and outline the aims of the organisation. These were:  To contribute towards a thriving Third Sector.

This will be done by:

• Promoting and encouraging Third Sector organisations.
• Building the capacity of voluntary and community group.
• Inspiring Third Sector organisation to take a different approach.
• Promoting good practice in all Third Sector activity

A local community dance group, “Vision” presented a dynamic dance choreographed to Adele’s “Chasing Pavements” that provided the entertainment for the afternoon.

Third Sector Essentials is the over arching organisation that currently has two projects under its’ wings. Francess Tagoe from The Gio Project gave an overview of what the project delivers followed by Tracey Rawlins presentation about Manchester Community Central.

We then ate soup and lots of cake, followed by more cake, whilst networking and watching the Third Sector Essentials short “Follow Me” video which can be viewed here: http://www.gioproject.org.uk/2010/05/26/follow-me-a-video-by-third-sector-essentials/

This time next week Third Sector Essentials will have been officially launched!

We are all very excited about the launch and what the future will hold for us. We will be taking lots of pictures  along with typing up the key messages which we will post on the website. So if you can’t make it, don’t fret! We will keep you updated. If you would like to attend the launch, please contact hello@thirdsectoressentials.org.uk

Details

Where: The Zion Arts Centre, 335 Stretford Road, Manchester M15 5ZA

Time: 16:00 – 18:00

Just to whet your appetites, here are some photos that will be used in the viral.  Keep following the red string!

So here we are in the wake of VAM’s death and at the exciting birth of Third Sector Essentials.   Here at Third Sector Essentials we are currently going through a process  of business planning for the future and looking at marketing plan to get our message out there.  You can follow us along the way and hear about what we have been up to through this blog.

Last week was a busy week for us.  We (or rather Hannah) is putting together a viral about the organisation.  A viral is a kind of guerilla marketing technique to create a buzz about our organisation.  Once the editing is done then we will upload the footage to you tube and distribute it far and wide to everyone we know.  Thursday last week we were travelling all over Greater Manchester getting footage for this and boy did we get some funny looks, especially when three of us were jumping on and off the trams at picadilly following a piece of red string!  But, its all in the name of the cause!  You will just have to wait and see what the string is for.

Keep logging on to find out how we are getting on!  Until next time…