An opportunity has arisen to join the NCVS team as our new Practice Development Unit (PDU) Lead.

We are looking for a passionate and motivated individual that can develop and grow the PDU, which we have hosted in partnership with Opportunity Nottingham since 2017 and will now be delivering with the new Changing Futures programme.

This is an exciting opportunity to take the Practice Development Unit to the next level, increasing cross sector partnerships to influence system change and understanding how to embed the PDU as the learning tool and platform for the local system in the future.

Please help us by sharing our job advert as widely as you can:
Save / Share the full advert (pdf).

The closing date for this vacancy is 12 noon on Monday 4 July 2022.

Unrestricted £50,000 grants close at 5pm on Friday 29 July 2022

Lloyds Bank Foundation supports charities with an annual income of £25,000 to £1million with a proven track record of helping people on a journey of positive change through in-depth, holistic and person-centred support. They offer unrestricted funding, including around core costs, and tailored development support to help your charity be more effective.

This is your last chance to apply for this round of funding. A new funding programme will open later this year.

It's June and Pride Month, so we'd like to remind you of this funding source. Grants of up to £400 are available and an additional discretionary £200 may be given to certain projects. Grants are available to Nottinghamshire groups that do not already receive funding (from any source) to specifically benefit the LGBTQ+ community.

Grants up to £2,000 with no set closing date

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust use their resources to help address the issues and challenges faced by coalfield communities and their residents. Each year they provide grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to help them deliver projects in the top 30% most deprived coalfield areas.

Following the impact of the pandemic on income and employment and the increase in cost of living, people are finding it harder to make ends meet and low income households are having to choose between food and fuel. As well as the immediate need for support with food and fuel, there has also been an impact on mental health as a result and more people are isolated.

These small grants are available to help organisations provide the much needed support that low income families and those who are isolated need.

Decisions will be made regularly as applications are received and until this year’s allocation of funding has been committed.

Up to £25,000 match funding per charity

Groups/organisations need to sign up before Friday 1 July 2022

Christmas Challenge 2022 applications are now open. The Christmas Challenge is the UK's biggest digital match funding campaign. The Christmas Challenge gives your donors the chance to double their donations as you raise vital funds for your work. This year it will run from midday Tuesday 29 November to midday Tuesday 6 December. Last year, the Christmas Challenge raised a record-breaking £24.1million for 928 charities.

The next Leaders of Volunteers Network (LoVN) meeting takes place on Zoom on Tuesday 5 July 2022 from 10am to 12 noon. We will be taking a look at progress on the Nottingham Volunteer Strategy, chatting about Employer Supported Volunteering and sharing ideas, success stories and plans.

We're pleased to see that quite a lot of people are already signed up for this session, but if you haven’t booked your free place, please register now to ensure you are sent the Zoom meeting link.

We’ve been getting out with our Volunteer Local advice sessions to Bulwell and St Ann's for a while now and, over the next few weeks, we’re taking our volunteering information to a few other community venues.

• On Tuesday 21 June, Dave Thomas, our Volunteering Development Officer will be at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum’s Jobs Fair at the Vine Community Centre from 11am until 3pm.
  
  
• On Thursday 23 June, Davia, one of the Volunteering team, will be at High Pavement College to introduce students to the fun of volunteering.
  
  
• On Thursday 7 July, Dave will be at Ellis Guilford Academy to talk to students there.

If you have volunteer opportunities that could use the skills, interests and enthusiasm of refugees or of young people, please let us know as soon as you can so that we can add (or update) these opportunities on our website in readiness for the above events.
Email Dave Thomas with details: davet@nottinghamcvs.co.uk

If you’ve been in touch to let us know that you’d like to find out more about the training on offer to your volunteers through the community champions project, please be patient. We are working with our partners to set up some dates for this training and we’ll be in touch soon.

If you would like to know more about Community Champions, please contact Dave Thomas at davet@nottinghamcvs.co.uk or phone 07564 040767

Green social prescribing is a way of connecting people to nature-based activities and green groups, projects and schemes in their local community for support with health and wellbeing. Often this will be through a referral from a Link Worker based at a GP practice or another primary care professional.

Our scheme in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, called GreenSpace, is one of seven government Green Social Prescribing Test and Learn sites. It's all about improving people’s mental health. Green providers, social prescribers, voluntary organisations and community initiatives will help connect many more people with nature-based activities, helping everyone to feel better.

NCVS, in partnership with the NHS, welcomes members of South Asian communities and other ethnic minority groups for this awareness session.

Monday 11 July 2022 from 12.30pm to 2pm

The ICCA, 99 Hucknall Road, NG5 1QZ

Some free car parking spaces are available

The session will provide some insight into Dementia care, NHS support, diagnosis, help in the community, and risk factors, amongst other things. You will learn about how Dementia affects everyone differently and what support is available through the NHS and in Nottingham.

For more information about the session, please call Kashmeera on 07933 136 750.

To register your attendance, please email admin@TheICCA.co.uk with the subject line 'Dementia session'. Alternatively, you can call The ICCA on 0115 969 3402 to register.

Refreshments will be provided. Places are limited so please book early.

Thursday 7 July 2022 City Campus (Dryden Building)

Designed to enable stakeholders to both connect and explore collaboration opportunities with NTU and fellow organisations, the event will include

9.30am - 11.45am: Session 1 - Community Partners Networking Breakfast

Chance for coordinators and managers of volunteers to share knowledge and experiences with new and existing local partners.

12pm - 2.30pm: Session 2 - NTU’s Community Engagement Approach & Opportunities Marketplace

Hear from Marie Muir, Head of Student and Community Engagement, then meet colleagues from Nottingham Business School, Social Sciences, Computer Science, Employability, Enterprise Centre, and other NTU departments offering mutually beneficial collaboration opportunities with your organisation

Please register to attend either or both sessions and please share with colleagues within your organisation. NTU is particularly keen to welcome partners involved in strategic decisions, such as Senior Managers and Trustees, to Session 2.

All attendees are welcome to enjoy a light lunch between 12 and 12.30pm.

Are you curious about increasing your staff teams with remote workers? Find out how best to build productive remote teams and how to balance business and well-being. Speakers Leslie Ayoola, Andrew Deighton and Tamika Martin.

You can register to attend the in-person event or book a livestream (online) ticket.

Friday 24 June 2022 from 9.30am to 2pm
The Atrium, 99 Hucknall Road, Nottingham NG5 1QZ
Free to attend with breakfast and lunch included, or stream online.

Wednesday 6 July 2022, 10.30am to 12.45pm

An online course giving a basic understanding of roles and responsibilities in the safeguarding of adults and how to respond to concerns.

Cost: £25 per participant

Tuesday 26 July 2022, 10.30am to 12.45pm

An online course giving a basic understanding of roles and responsibilities in the safeguarding of children and young people and how to respond to concerns.

Cost: £25 per participant

Wednesday 3 August 2022, 10.30am to 12.45pm

An online course giving a basic understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the Designated Safeguarding Lead Person.

Cost: £25 per participant

Wednesday 24 August 2022, 10.30am to 11.45am

An interactive online session for Trustees (or members of Management Committees) of organisations whose activities put them in contact with vulnerable adults or children.

Cost: £15 per participant

Wednesday 7 September 2022, 6pm to 8pm

This two-hour online session covers the basic information for all trustees, whether you are new to the role or long-established.

Cost: £20 per participant

Wednesday 27 July 2022, 10am to 12.15am

A new interactive hands-on workshop for organisations and community groups who want to practice their skills and would welcome constructive feedback to further develop their skills in writing successful funding applications.
Cost: £20 per participant

Wednesday 22 June 2022, 6pm to 8pm

Do you manage a space, office or building? This new two-hour online session will take your Fire Wardens and/or Fire Marshal through the basics. As a result, they will be better equipped to carry out these very important roles.

Cost: £20 per participant

Tuesday 13 September 2022, 11am to 1pm

This two-hour online session is intended for trustees who have completed our 'Being a Trustee' course, who want to further develop their involvement and awareness of trustee duties and improve their personal skill set.

Cost: £20 per participant

Wednesday 14 September 2022, 6pm to 8pm

Are you acting as secretary or note taker, or do you need to record meetings? Learn how to take effective minutes and make your task easier. This two-hour online session replaces our previous face-to-face three-hour course and will take you through the process of producing a 'minute'.

Cost: £20 per participant

Tuesday 21 June 2022, 10.30am to 12.30pm

This new two-hour online session will explain the basics of health and safety, then take you through the process of carrying out a risk assessment in an organisational environment.

Cost: £20 per participant

Wednesday 29 June 2022, 10am to 11.15am

For organisations and community groups who are new to applying for funding, or for those in need of a refresher. Relevant for groups applying for COVID-19 funding and recovery support as well as other general funding.

Cost: £10 per participant

Thursday 13 October 2022, 6pm to 7pm

In this one-hour online session, we will identify some of the barriers that potential volunteers face to becoming involved in your organisation and share ideas to remove these barriers.

Cost: £10 per participant

Tuesday 15 November 2022, 10am to 11am

This one-hour online session aims to share some ideas about how best to deal with the inevitable disagreements, personality clashes and conflicts that arise from time to time among a team of volunteers.

Cost: £10 per participant

Wednesday 5 October 2022, 10am to 11am

This one-hour online session looks at methods that have proved to be effective in volunteer leadership, including the best ways to plan, involve, support and retain volunteers.

Cost: £10 per participant

Wednesday 8 February 2023, 10am to 12 noon

For some time, we’ve been asked about training that goes beyond the basics of managing and supporting volunteers. In this new two-hour online session, we’ll explore some of the real-life issues that you are facing.

Cost: £20 per participant

Thursday 24 November 2022, 10am to 12pm

A two-hour online course for Leaders of Volunteers to start to develop an understanding of some of the legal requirements that relate to your volunteering programme.

Cost: £20 per participant

Tuesday 12 July 2022, 10am to 11am

A one-hour online session to help your volunteer role descriptions stand out, ensuring you attract enthusiastic volunteers.

Cost: £10 per participant

The PDU aims to promote and facilitate collaborative learning and the sharing of good practice among professionals and volunteers from all sectors, in Nottingham and neighbouring areas, who work with people experiencing multiple disadvantage (understood as a combination of mental ill-health, substance misuse, homelessness, offending and domestic abuse, among other issues).

Contact our coordinator Filipa Santos for more information by sending an email to enquiries@pdunottingham.org

Join our free online hub www.pdunottingham.org

Follow us on Twitter @NottinghamCVS #PDUNottingham.

 An opportunity has arisen to join the NCVS team as our new Practice Development Unit (PDU) Lead.

We are looking for a passionate and motivated individual that can develop and grow the PDU, which we have hosted in partnership with Opportunity Nottingham since 2017 and will now be delivering with the new Changing Futures programme.

This is an exciting opportunity to take the PDU to the next level, increasing cross sector partnerships to influence system change and understanding how to embed the PDU as the learning tool and platform for the local system in the future.

The closing date for this vacancy is 12 noon on Monday 4 July 2022

 Read more and see full information pack

All of our upcoming events are currently full. Keep watching this space for new events being announced.

In the meantime, you might be interested in one of our Communities of Practice (CoP). Our CoPs are informal forums for social learning, designed to facilitate discussion and sharing of experience and good practice between peers. The groups meet on a quarterly basis and welcome professionals, volunteers and people with lived experience of multiple disadvantage and using support services.

Two of our CoPs currently have spaces available:

Co-production CoP

This CoP provides a forum for professionals and volunteers with a passion for, and commitment to, collaborating effectively with the people they support and empowering them to get the most out of their involvement.

Next meeting dates: Wednesday 15 June and 21 September, 10am to 12noon

Gender Responsive Services CoP

This CoP provides a forum for professionals and volunteers, particularly those working within mixed gender services, who have a commitment to working more effectively to respond to gender differences in experiences of multiple disadvantage and are interested in developing and applying gender responsive approaches.

Next meeting dates: Thursday 14 July and 13 October, 10am to 12noon

To find out more or join these groups, please email enquiries@pdunottingham.org

Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CEO Jane Laughton said, ‘It is critical that we find out whether peoples’ basic needs such as food and drink are being met through care companies funded by our Local Authorities. We encourage anyone over the age of 75 years who is in receipt of home care, or their carers, family or friends to get in touch with us to tell us about their experience’.

The Charity Commission has launched a 12-week consultation into potential changes to the annual return, which could require charities to answer 16 additional questions each year.

As part of the proposals, the Commission is looking to update the questions charities will need to answer from next year onwards as well as adding new ones. 

If the proposed changes went ahead, it would be the first major update to the annual return since 2018.