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How We Help
Our professionals
We have a range of professional skills and expertise you can draw on, but please make sure you read the eligibility criteria and examples below.
Only passion & hard work helps communities thrive
Voluntary and community groups requesting support from Suffolk ProHelp have to satisfy certain eligibility criteria that restricts the service to those who have a track record of working within the local community, are locally constituted and are unable to pay for professional services.
We are likely to support the following types of project:
- Charities, voluntary and community sector organisations based within the county
- Community organisations working for the social and/or economic regeneration of their local area
- Those which have charitable aims and clearly demonstrate a benefit to the wider community and/or show integration of the whole community
- Those which a member company can easily and quickly deliver support to
- Assignments which are a discreet and manageable task, from which a result can be achieved in a limited period of time
We are unlikely to support:
- Those which do not require particular professional expertise i.e. could be completed by anyone with the time
- Groups who can afford to pay for professional advice
- Urgent requests i.e. those that will need to be completed within four weeks (ProHelp cannot guarantee early attention of non-fee paying work) - although we have a special service operating for Covid 19
- Branches of national organisations who can access either funding or expertise from other branches or the national office - to qualify for ProHelp support, any branch of a national organisation must be locally constituted
- Clubs that have no charitable aims
- Religious groups unless the project will directly benefit the wider community
- Assignments which will involve, or are likely to involve, mediation or litigation and those which occur on a regular basis e.g. annual audits.
Examples of the types of projects which ProHelp is likely to support includes:
- Legal advice on property lease agreements
- Taxation/VAT advice and setting up financial systems
- Advice on Health & Safety or employment issues, policies and procedures
- Outline plans and costings for new buildings or refurbishments
- Structural surveys of buildings
- Property valuations or searches
- Guidance on the production of a marketing strategy and/or PR advice
- Setting up a limited company, setting up a trading arm/mergers
- Feasibility studies or funding applications where ProHelp input requested involves: advice on process, content or layout; professional input to a particular section e.g. initial outline drawings for a building conversion or cost estimates; comments on draft plans, studies and applications before final document is submitted.
The process for getting support is simple. First complete a short enquiry form which will be evaluated. We may ask further details at this stage. We will then send you an an application form which you will complete and return along with your constitution and accounts. This will be a will be assessed by the ProHelp Manager and Members and will only be accepted if it is agreed that the projects objectives meet the appropriate criteria and member organisations have the capacity to meet the need. This process ensures due diligence and that we target our support effectively and monitor the outcomes.
You will need to be prepared to work with the professional firm as soon as one is assigned to you. Please ensure you are in a position to respond before making an application and have papers and information organised in order to make maximum use of professional time.