Imayla

Situation

Imayla are a Bristol-based Community Interest Company offering fun and learning opportunities for young people, families and groups, combining creative arts and environmental activities inspired by the natural environment. They are a well-established and well-respected organisation serving inner-city communities in Bristol.

Task

As the pandemic took hold, they were unable to deliver their group sessions but were still working flat-out to support the young people and their families who use their services. At the same time, many of their long-term funding streams were reaching the end and their Director was working hard on bids and tenders to continue to fund their projects. Amidst this uncertainty, Imayla’s Director asked me to help them review their strategy as they looked at diversification and future-proofing.

Action

Fiona and I spent several sessions exploring the current organisational objectives and strategic vision, and worked on aligning these with their impact reporting and plans for the future. Following on from this, I facilitated a virtual strategic planning session with the Imayla Board, which also served as a mechanism to update the Board on the operational pressures the organisation was managing as the pandemic took hold. The session brought everyone together at a very challenging time and allowed the director and senior team the space to communicate with the Board despite the challenges of lockdown.

Result

The directors responded to the strategy session by committing their support and practical help to the operations team as they navigated the lockdown period. They fully embraced the Director’s vision for the organisation’s future and made firm, yet manageable plans which would support her and the team as they drove the organisation forward. Now lockdown has ended, the team are reenergised, and the new strategy has started to take shape. The organisation is now resilient, sustainable, and has lots of exciting opportunities for the future.

Fran supported Imayla CIC to gain clarity and purpose as we diversified from dependancy on a large grant to streaming on a greater range of income sources. She also supported myself as, at that time, a somewhat frazzled manager and the whole Imayla Board of Directors and staff team to come together to build our underpinning current framework. I recommend her – great warm and friendly style, well-informed, good understanding of the voluntary sector and relavent business models and able to support us to get the frameworks in place that we needed. And I am enjoying my role once again!

Fiona Castle

Director at Imayla CIC

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