Bursary reopens for voluntary sector leaders

The Walter Dickie Leadership Bursary gives £2,500 annually to
the leader of a voluntary organisation to develop their
entrepreneurial leadership skills.

Applicants are encouraged to come up with interesting ideas to
support their own development as an entrepreneurial leader.

Previous winners include a trip to Copenhagen to learn how to
plan a cycle-friendly city, and to Montreal to learn about
developing community garden networks.

There is no formal scoring system for applications. The judging
panel are looking for the proposal that inspires them most and is
in keeping with the ethos of the award.

All that is asked in return is that successful applicants share
their experiences within their own organisation, with WCVA and with
the wider sector. 

Applications will be accepted up until the closing date
on 18 October 2019, and the winner will be announced at
our Annual General Meeting and Lecture in November.

Potential applicants are encouraged to contact the
Social Investment Cymru team prior to application for an informal
discussion on 0300 111 0124.

Find out more and how to apply. 

Last year’s winner

Isla Horton, Development Co-ordinator at Grow Cardiff, was
announced as the second ever winner of the bursary at WCVA’s Annual
General Meeting on 22 November 2018.

The bursary enabled Isla to embark on a study tour of Montreal
in Canada, visiting respected organisations across the area that
are promoting natural resources and revitalising their communities
through gardening projects – as well as visiting local schools
where they use gardening as a learning tool across the
curriculum.

The bursary will also pay for Isla to undergo three courses of
study at the Thrive centre for therapeutic horticulture, based in
Reading.

Isla will be using what she has learnt to enrich Grow Cardiff’s
projects, including work with schools, social prescribing, and
neighbourhood community gardens.

She will also be sharing her learning with the wider sector and
external partners through Grow Cardiff’s membership with various
third sector organisations (including WCVA) and schools, health and
well-being and social prescribing networks across Cardiff.

‘I have had very little training other than on the job and out
of necessity since starting Grow Cardiff, and I would like to use
this bursary as a space to reflect and grow – a time to develop
myself as a leader, something I have often denied myself, but that
on reflection, I very much need,’ says Isla.

‘I want to become the leader that Grow Cardiff deserves and that
I have the potential to become if I allow myself the time and space
to explore.’

About Walter

As a member of WCVA’s board Walter Dickie’s expertise,
experience and commitment to the third sector have had a profound
impact on the work of WCVA and those who had the pleasure of
working with him. 

For more than ten years Walter supported WCVA as a trustee where
he played an instrumental role in guiding the organisation and
helping to set up the ground-breaking Communities Investment Fund
which lends money to social businesses.

That fund still runs today and remains the cornerstone of so
much of our ongoing social investment activity.

Thanks to Walter’s dedication, WCVA has been able to lend nearly
eight million pounds to community organisations, many working in
the most deprived areas of Wales.

To honour Walter’s memory and continue the development of
entrepreneurial leadership in the sector that he gave so much time
to support, WCVA set up The Walter Dickie Leadership Bursary.