If you're a member of our Children and Young People's Providers Network (CYPPN) or Vulnerable Adults' Providers Network (VAPN), don't forget to book your place at our next virtual meeting - Thursday 25 February 2021, 10am-12pm, via Zoom.

You can find out more about our upcoming meeting, the planned agenda and register your place to attend by visiting our website. Registration will remain open until 4pm on Tuesday 23 February.

If you have registered to attend this event and can no longer do so, please can you notify us by emailing ncvs@nottinghamcvs.co.uk. We ask that you please email as soon as possible so that we can free up places for other attendees.

Want to become a member?

The CYPPN and VAPN are city-based forums run by NCVS for community and voluntary organisations that provide services or support to vulnerable adults or children and young people (0-24 years) in Nottingham.

If you're interested in becoming a member of either Network, you can find out more and sign up by clicking on the links below.

• Children and Young People's Providers Network - sign up here
  
  
• Vulnerable Adults' Providers Network - sign up here
  

Have your say at this online consultation event, jointly hosted by Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service (NCVS) and One Nottingham, on Friday 19 February, 10am-11am, via Zoom.

Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations and One Nottingham partners are invited to come and hear about the proposals for the Nottingham City Council budget 2021-2022, ask questions and discuss proposals.

Councillor Sam Webster (Portfolio Holder for Finance) will be available to answer your questions at this live interactive session.

Near Neighbours has a new grant programme open. The charity is offering small grants, of up to £4,000, to Nottingham projects that are supporting communities affected by the pandemic.

Funding of up to £1,000 is available to help small grassroots groups that work with refugees and asylum seekers and their communities in Nottingham, and who have ideas for projects or activities that will either directly benefit individuals from these communities or help build stronger community organisations.

Financial support is available for Nottingham City residents to spend on food and essential supplies.

The government's COVID Winter Grant Scheme is providing eligible households (with or without children), with a £50 supermarket e-voucher, via email, to be redeemed at local supermarkets.

The grant is being facilitated by Nottingham City Council. Selected applicants will be chosen on a first-come-first-served basis.

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.

But should they always be allowed to do anything? In this blog entry, I want to consider organisations where volunteers are delivering services alongside paid staff.

Wednesday 3 March 2021, 10.30am-12.30pm

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

Wednesday 10 March 2021, 6pm-8pm

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

Cost: £20 per participant

A two-part online course for Leaders of Volunteers to start to develop an understanding of some of the legal requirements that relate to volunteering. You are required to attend both parts.

Part 1 - Tuesday 16 February 2021, 7pm to 8pm
We will explore definitions of volunteering and contrast these with internships, work experience, placements, student projects, secondments from work. We will then consider aspects of Health and Safety and risk before taking a look at how Data Protection relates to volunteer programmes.

Part 2 - Thursday 18 February 2021, 7pm to 8pm
We will explore expenses and payment, contracts, and situations where volunteers can legally become employees. We will take a look at some case studies, and develop an action plan for your own volunteer programme.

Full course cost: £20 per participant

Thursday 11 March 2021, 10am to 11am

This 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

Tuesday 23 March 2021, 7pm to 8pm

A new 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 or calling 0115 934 8428 or 07483 354 441.

Join our free online hub www.pdunottingham.org

Follow us on Twitter @NottinghamCVS #PDUNottingham.

All our upcoming events are fully booked. Watch this space for new events being announced soon.

Email enquiries@pdunottingham.org if you would like to be added to the reserve list for any of our events. Visit this page to see our current programme.

We recently shared information in this e-bulletin about a Social Prescribing project being undertaken by Nottingham Trent University to investigate what the Social Prescribing connection process to community groups involves and how people's interests and needs are being matched to existing groups.

The project is now looking for participants (aged 18 and over) to take part who have received a recent Social Prescribing referral in Nottingham. Participants are required for a one-hour interview to investigate how people are connected to local community groups from their GP or other health professional.

Nottingham-based charity Epic Partners has been granted an award from the Garfield Weston Foundation to support local residents with a range of training or communication needs.

If you're aged 21 or over and you're looking for support with learning ESOL, English, Maths and IT, need support with writing or adapting your CV, a job application or cover letter, or feel that you are struggling with your communication skills and confidence, please contact Norman Floyd, Epic Partners Training and Community Education Manager, on 07885 522 851 or email norman.floyd@epicpartners.co.uk

The Department of Health and Social Care has opened a consultation on the proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act published by the government in a new white paper.

The proposed reforms are designed to put patients at the centre of decisions about their own care and ensure everyone is treated equally, including actions to address the disproportionate detention of people from Black and minority ethnic groups. The consultation will run until 21 April 2021.