The Rainbow Centre aims to support voluntary and community organisations within Harlow via a range of infrastructure support services and practical facilities.
Rainbow Services are affiliate members of NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary & Community Action www.navca.org.uk) and therefore support their five key functions:
- Development – looking at local need and working with others to develop appropriate action
- Liaison – assisting cross-sector relationships as well as helping to forge links between voluntary and community organisations
- Representation – enabling voluntary and community organisations to present views and opinions to statutory bodies via consultation, networking etc
- Services – providing affordable and accessible facilities, support with seeking and securing funding – sharing information and co-ordinating the Harlow Voluntary Sector Forum
- Strategic Partnerships – working with local, county and national partnerships to help develop relationships and strategic planning opportunities between the voluntary and statutory sectors. Working with statutory partners also affords Rainbow and the sector in general to have a key voice in the planning and delivery processes and to co-produce shared service models as appropriate within a shrinking statutory sector financial landscape.
Services provided by Rainbow Services include;
The Rainbow Centre – Office space to rent; hot desk space for hire on a regular or one-off basis; meeting and training room hire; PAT testing; resource hire; Disclosure and Barring Service; reception service to hire (including phone messages, photocopying, laminating); Postal address service.
Resource Library – we have a resource library available at The Rainbow Centre.
You can also access online templates of policies and procedures here .
Representation – members of Rainbow Services’ team sit on over 21 local and Essex-wide boards and forums and represent the interests of the sector at these. Click here for a list of the boards and forums
Workshops – Rainbow Services provides free skills workshops to the sector.
Click here for a list of workshops coming up and how to book
Forums – Rainbow Services works closely with The Alliance to provide access to forums online for our affiliates.
Click here to see what forums we have going or to create your own .
Events – Rainbow Services works in partnership to co-ordinate community events.
View Events.
Ebulletin – we provide a free weekly ebulletin with local and national news, funding opportunities, and workshops.
View the latest Ebulletin.
Voluntary Sector Forum – we co-ordinate a quarterly forum for our affiliates to come together and network as well as have a guest speaker or topic at each session.
Find out more about the Voluntary Sector Forum.
To benefit from our services, please become an Affiliate by completing this form – this is completely FREE!
Are you a community group, charity, Social Enterprise, Charitable Incorporated Organisation, or Community Interest Company in Harlow?
Whether you are formal or informal, large or small, co-ordinated by volunteers or staffed, Rainbow Services would like to hear from you. We support groups like yours across Harlow – for free – and we are trying to find out more about what exists in the town for residents and what support you might need.
