Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes...

Although online, remote or virtual volunteering is nothing new, over the past year (2020-2021) there has been a fantastic growth in the number of such opportunities and in the organisations offering them.

Many Leaders of Volunteers have responded to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic by supporting remote teams. In this blog, I’d like to share some of the things that they, and we at the NCVS Volunteer Centre, have learned along the way.

Charities and Community Interest Companies (CICs) in Nottingham are celebrating after receiving a prestigious High Sheriff Award 2021 from Dame Elizabeth Fradd (DBE DL), the High Sheriff of Nottingham.

The awards are presented each year to individuals and community groups across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, in order to recognise and honour the important work they do to help others.

Congratulations to Base 51 on being presented with a prestigious High Sheriff's Award in recognition of their valuable services to the community!

The young people's charity, which supports anyone aged 11-25 in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, was recently visited by Professor Dame Elizabeth Fradd, the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, who presented them with the award at a socially distanced ceremony.

Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes...

I have long been an advocate of the principle that volunteers can do anything. As long as people with the right skills are involved in the right roles, this has always been true. The voluntary sector is made up of hundreds and thousands of small organisations with no paid staff where volunteers have to do everything. 

Local charity Himmah, in partnership with FareShare, has launched a membership scheme to help tackle food poverty in Nottingham.

The Nottingham People's Pantry is a food membership and support project for low-income households who are struggling to afford groceries. Participants in the scheme have a choice of:

More than 15 charities that support homeless people across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire have joined forces to launch Street Support Nottingham - an exciting new initiative that connects people and organisations locally to better tackle homelessness.

The new web-based service has been set up by members of the Nottingham Homelessness Voluntary Sector Forum and is run by the Street Support Network. Funding for the project was initially provided by the National Lottery Community Fund, with The Boots Charitable Trust agreeing to sponsor the site for an entire year.

Have you heard of the Toiletries Amnesty? The charitable organisation is working to end hygiene poverty by connecting charities and community groups to local people with unwanted toiletries and cosmetics.

How it works

Toiletries Amnesty is a free to use directory, where each organisation can list the items they need, and specify whether they accept partly-used or opened products. You can amend your listing at any time – for example, to change your opening hours, the items you need or the best place to drop off donations.

Local charity Equation has launched a new campaign to tackle domestic abuse and mental health issues facing men in Nottinghamshire. The #SpeakOutToHelpOut campaign went live on International Men's Day (19 November 2020).

Wednesday 25 November is #WhiteRibbonDay2020 - an opportunity to stand up, speak out and say no to violence against women.

According to Nottingham charity Equation, the local organisers of White Ribbon Day, while anyone can experience domestic abuse or sexual violence regardless of their age, race, sex, gender identity, sexuality, disability, wealth or lifestyle, the majority of victims/survivors are women who have experienced abuse by a man.

Our Practice Development Unit's (PDU) new e-learning package is now live.

The suite of free e-learning modules was launched today (17 November 2020) at the Opportunity Nottingham annual event. During the event, participants were able to access a demo of the e-learning package, watch a video that explained more about the new resources and interact with PDU Coordinator Filipa Santos to share their feedback.