It's not goodbye. 

NCVS would like to send our well wishes and congratulations to Laura Armitage, Active Travel Social Prescribing Community Development Coordinator, as she begins her new adventure. On Monday 15 April 2024, Laura will become one of the Strategic Walk Lead Notts for Active Partners Trust, a role close to her heart as she helped set the groundwork for the role whilst working within NCVS.

This fund closed to applications on Saturday 31 July 2024

Grants of between £350 and £10,000 are available to organisations working to improve their communities in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Specifically, projects that promote health, develop physical improvement, advance education or relieve poverty, distress and sickness.

The Changing Futures Programme Director, Bobby Lowen and NCVS Practice Development Unit (PDU) Programme Manager, Katie Hall were invited to speak at a recent conference event “Transforming Services: Using Trauma Informed Principles to Change Practice”. 

This Neurodiversity Awareness Week (18-24 March 2024), Laura, our Active Travel Social Prescribing (ATSP) Community Development Coordinator here at NCVS, went to a Neuro-inclusive Language and Communications discussion held on Monday 18 March 2024.

Neurodiversity is a relatively new term, and cultural and personal understandings of neurodiversity have changed significantly, especially around language. People are cautious of causing offence or getting something wrong; this discussion was built around how people can use the ‘right’ language when talking about neurodiversity. 

Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, continues his series of articles in support of Leaders of Volunteers. This time, Dave looks into how you can measure the difference volunteers make to your organisation. 

Measuring the impact of involving volunteers can be crucial for understanding the effectiveness of their contributions and ensuring that their efforts align with organisational goals.

Here are ten steps you can take to measure this impact:

Our Projects Support Administrator, Davia, had a busy few days last week when she represented NCVS at three important events.

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a day to celebrate the women of the world, past and present, and their achievements, as well as act as inspiration for future generations. On the note of inspiration, this year's theme is Inspire Inclusion. People are invited to use #InspireInclusion and #EmbraceEquity to honour this theme.

Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, continues his series of articles in support of Leaders of Volunteers. This time, Dave looks into what local groups can do to celebrate their volunteers during Volunteers' Week.

Volunteers' Week serves as a platform to celebrate, promote, and support volunteering, recognising it as a fundamental pillar of social cohesion, community resilience, and positive social change. This year, for the first time, it runs from Monday 3 to Sunday 9 June.

Earlier last year NCVS engaged with community organisations to understand why some communities (especially those from South Asian backgrounds) were not accessing NHS Talking Therapy services.

Based on the findings of the engagement we are pleased to say that we have partnered with Al-Hurraya to deliver training for community leaders and organisations supporting diverse communities. 

Last year, a number of national charities jointly promoted a volunteer event to mark the coronation of King Charles III. This was the Big Help Out, and it is being run again this year at the end of Volunteers’ Week (Monday 3 to Sunday 9 June 2024).

Here at Nottingham CVS, we will always prioritise local voluntary groups, so we acknowledged the Big Help Out but didn’t promote it. Now, in its second year, we have an opportunity to use the national publicity that it will generate to attract, retain, and celebrate volunteers in our local communities.