Background

CCA was founded by a group of professionals with rich experience of working at the grass root community level. For a long period the group worked informally and provided care and support to individuals who had mental health and substance dependency issues in their own homes and communities. Later with the support of NDC (New Deal for Communities) and ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) began trading in January 2000.

CCA was registered as a Limited Company by Guarantee in January 2000. It has the status of a not-for-profit social economy co-operative. It works with disadvantaged individuals, communities and people with mental health issues city wide within Nottingham. We have a client centred approach and are committed to providing a needs-based, personalised service working specifically at the client's pace.

CCA has a multi-disciplinary management team with combined experience of 125 years, in the field of social work, health and mental health, housing, child protection, education/training and social enterprise.

Utilising this experience we can provide a wide range of support and training to individuals and organisations from a diverse community. For an in-depth look at the programmes we offer, just click here.

Objectives

• to offer appropriate information, advice and guidance to individuals for further education, employment and self-employment
• to provide care and support to individuals with mental health difficulties
• to support people in our community to fulfill their potential in order to make a positive contribution to society
• to work appropriately and productively in partnership with voluntary, statutory, public and private sectors to ensure the delivery of quality service
• to work with individuals using a care plan approach to enable self-help, and to receive highest standard of care/service
• to continue to challenge institutional barriers that prevent individuals to progress and/or restrict empowerment process

Principles

• Serve all irrespective of race, religion, colour, sex and creed
• Deal fairly and humanely with all people who come into contact with us
• Adhere to Data Protection Act, keeping all data confidential
• Enhance performance on a regular basis. To attain feedback from clients, employees and the community to enable a balanced internal assessment
• Value the support of our staff, service users, volunteers and associated organisations
• Continuously update our knowledge base, through training and development to all staff

Customer Base

Most of our clients are from the following backgrounds:

• individuals with mental health issues
• refugees and asylum seekers
• people with learning difficulties
• tenants and private rented families
• individuals interested in business starts
• single parents
• groups interested in social enterprise
• volunteers interested in social development work
• new and exising community groups
• ex-offenders

Strategy

• Participatory and client-centred approach
• To show commitment in providing personalised service to our clients
• To provide needs-based services working specifically at our clients' pace
• To build confidence, self-esteem and intiate process of self-management
• All trainings designed on the basis of 'Learning by Doing' concept - tailor-made and highly participatory trainings
• Work towards continuous improvement by regular formal and informal feedback, and self-assessment

Staff Development

Over the past 12 months, CCA staff have been attending various training courses and events to broaden our knowledge base so that we can provide our clients with the best possible service. Training has included:

IAG training, education, PQASSO accreditation, health and crime, leadership, debt and money advice, asylum and refugee training, supporting people, overpayments, immigration control, housing benefits, core curriculum, health and safety, first aid, crisis counselling. We have many more training sessions and programmes booked for all our staff over the forthcoming year to ensure that we are all fully equipped to help with all our service user's enquiries.

Social Events

Click here to view CCA's history of social events