We are still encouraging responses from as many voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) groups and organisations as possible. Thank you to those who have already completed the survey.

If you haven't found the space and time yet to respond, we urge you not to delay. The sooner we hear from you, the earlier we can raise pertinent issues with funders and commissioners.

A State of the Sector survey is our opportunity to ask the important questions to get the information we need to ensure the sector is firmly embedded in wider systems as equal partners with the public sector. We will use the anonymised data from your survey responses to influence commissioning intentions as well as funding allocations. The voluntary sector has a key role to play in delivery of services and the subsequent report can provide the evidence.

Please share the survey link with other groups you know
https://www.nottinghamcvs.co.uk/state-of-the-sector-2021.

And if you need support with your response, we are here to help. Call 07564 041495 or email ncvs@nottinghamcvs.co.uk.

Thriving Communities is a new national support programme for voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise groups, supporting communities impacted by COVID-19 in England, working alongside social prescribing link workers. It's run by the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP).

In the Midlands region (working across East and West Midlands), Community Action Derby takes the lead role to co-ordinate activity, and NCVS is a supporting partner, helping Nottingham groups to get involved with social prescribing.

With apologies for the short notice, we're encouraging you to act quickly to sign up for the next Learning Together programme in the Midlands. This gives you free online access to networking events, webinars, small group learning and other resources 

Sign up here before 12 noon on Friday 17 September 2021 (tomorrow)!

From information sharing to deeper conversations you can explore, learn, raise issues and good practice so we can develop social prescribing together and groups can be prepared to refer and accept referrals, where appropriate. The first online meeting will be a welcome session on Monday 27 September from 3pm to 4.30pm.

Further background is available on the Midlands Thriving Communities website and in this pdf document.

If you have any questions, please contact your Midlands Regional Lead Sarah on midlands.thrivingcommunities@nasp.info.

Third sector organisations (registered charities and social enterprises) are invited to apply for a grant from the new Make Notts Safe Fund, set up by Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry.

The funding is available to help assist the Commissioner with preventing crime, responding to issues of greatest concern in communities, and delivering victim and community support services.

The deadline for receipt of applications is midday on Thursday 30 September 2021.

The Community Cycle Clubs programme, run by Cycling UK, supports new or existing groups and organisations to offer regular cycling activities. The cycling should be fun, social and suitable for less experienced riders.

Cycling can be enormously beneficial for both physical and mental health, and the programme supports many community groups and charities who decide to offer cycling activities to the groups of people they already work with.

The programme offers:

• Up to £3,000 in grant funding for groups or organisations to start a regular cycling activity. Funding can cover equipment, e.g. purchasing bicycles, helmets, basic tools
• Training for clubs, e.g. ride leader training, first aid, basic bike mechanics
• Affiliation with Cycling UK, meaning the club’s activities are covered by insurance.

More information is available on the Cycling UK website. You can also contact Lauren Baker, Cycling Development Officer for the East Midlands. Email lauren.baker@cyclinguk.org.

This is a grant and learning opportunity for mental health focused charities and social enterprises who are looking to develop their trading ventures.

Support from the Enterprise Development Programme enables organisations to grow financial resilience and impact by providing a mixture of grant and learning support to help get enterprise ideas off the ground.

Income from trading is vitally important to organisations. It generates unrestricted funding that can cover core costs and provides greater financial freedom and flexibility.

If accepted onto the programme, participating organisations would work collaboratively with the Association of Mental Health Providers to develop their ideas. Email Greg Woolley to learn more: greg@amhp.org.uk.

Eligibility criteria applies (for example, organisations must have a current annual revenue of between £50,000 and £1.5million), and a Stage 1 expression of interest form needs to be completed before 4pm on Monday 4 October 2021.

The Community Support Scheme invites applications from charities and community groups within Nottinghamshire or Derbyshire only.

Applications for funding are considered by a panel that includes two independent members, usually twice yearly in May and November.

The panel consider applications for assistance in a number of different categories including those that:

• Work in partnership with organisations assisting the disadvantaged
• Promote and encourage sporting activities
• Promote and encourage activities in the arts
• Support education and development
• Benefit the environment.

Typical awards are between £100 and £1,000. Applications are via a form on the Scheme's website.

Like everyone else, Leaders of Volunteers have had to deal with the effects of the pandemic. Some of us have been able to keep our volunteers involved by moving roles online, home-based or over the phone. Others have created new roles. Some of us have had to suspend our volunteer programme, and our volunteers have either drifted away or found other ways to spend their time.

For all of us, the past 18 months have seen a massive upheaval.

The Community Life Survey 2020/21 highlights that upheaval with changes in the numbers and ways that people were volunteering from April 2020 to March 2021.

Following our launch last week, NCVS will be back at Bulwell Riverside tomorrow (Friday 17 September 2021) from 10am to 1pm.

Volunteer Local is a drop-in service in the local community, providing face-to-face support to local people wanting to volunteer, as well as to voluntary and community sector groups looking for volunteers. We can talk you through all the latest volunteer opportunities and best practice.

Join us at Bulwell Riverside, Main Street, Bulwell NG6 8QJ each Friday.

In the near future, NCVS hopes to work with more community venues to run the Volunteer Local service at other locations across the city. If your community venue would be interested in working with NCVS in this way, please get in touch. Email volunteercentre@nottinghamcvs.co.uk or call Dave Thomas on 07483 422503.

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 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.

GreenSpace aims to help people tackle and manage their mental ill-health by supporting them to spend time and connect more with nature, the outdoors and green spaces on their doorstep. So, we're really happy that Trent Bridge Community Trust is launching a new, free wellbeing programme, Notts in City Minds. The Trust has lots of experience of working with people with mental ill-health.

Notts in City Minds launched on Tuesday 14 September and will run for 12 weeks on Tuesdays from 1pm to 2.30pm at Melbourne Park (NG8 5HJ – Leen Valley, Aspley).

Participants will be able to take advantage of the green space, indoor and outdoor sports facilities, as well as outdoor seating area, indoor café and learning suites. Coaches support participants with their mental health using group sports and physical activities as well as social interaction and mental health workshops. Participants can be of any fitness level and don't need to be fit and active already.

If you know someone who would benefit, participants can turn up on the day or contact the Trust's Mental Health Officer, Ian Richardson in advance. Email ian.richardson@trentbridge.co.uk or call 07814 112510.

Vanclaron is a community interest company empowering individuals and communities in Nottingham to take control of their health. One of Vanclaron's messages is wanting you to thrive and for nature to thrive around you.

A 4-week challenge to take a photo in nature as part of their organised park walks has already begun, and there are prizes available. The next session is this Saturday 18 September, and you will need to register to get involved.

To find out more, call Omar on 07896 775175 or view information on Eventbrite.

Wednesday 6 October 2021, 9.30am to 12.30pm
Free to attend online

Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnerships are offering this online, interactive, partnership event for safeguarding leads to encourage a wide-ranging discussion between participants about safeguarding children in sports groups and voluntary sector organisations.

The programme includes an expert speaker on the subject of child neglect, Ruth Pearson, who has over 30 years' experience in the field of child protection as a social worker and manager, and presentations from Nottingham Forest Football Club, the National Ice Arena in Nottingham and the YMCA.

For more information and details of how to book, view the event listing on our website.

Thursday 7 October 2021, 10.30am to 1.45pm

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

Tuesday 19 October 2021, 10.30am to 3pm 

Delivered by registered Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) Instructor Claire Henson, this introductory course will raise awareness of mental health issues and give initial guidance on how to support people who may be experiencing mental ill health.

The course is an excellent starting point for anyone who is working in the field of mental health or for an organisation that wants to raise staff and volunteer awareness of mental health issues.

Cost: £40 per participant (£25 course fee plus £15 resource pack)

Tuesday 9 November 2021, 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

Thursday 18 November 2021, 10.30am to 1.45pm

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

Before registering for this Designated Lead course, participants should ensure they have attended the NCVS Introduction to Safeguarding Children and Young People course (or alternate refresher training) within the last three years.

Cost: £25 per participant

Tuesday 12 October 2021, 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

Wednesday 20 October 2021, 10.30am to 12.30pm

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

Cost: £20 per participant

Tuesday 2 November 2021, 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

Thursday 4 November 2021, 11am to 1pm

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 22 September 2021, 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

Wednesday 6 October 2021, 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 27 October 2021, 10am to 11am

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

Wednesday 10 November 2021, 10am to 12.15pm

A two-hour online course (with short break included) 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

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.

Tuesday 21 September 2021, from 10am to 11.30am
Online via Zoom

Last places available for this free online event exploring how the process of prison release can be improved to give the best chance for people experiencing multiple disadvantage to effectively transition and re-settle into the community. Registrations close 12 noon on Monday 20 September.

Tuesday 28 September 2021, from 10am to 11.30am
Online via Zoom

A free online event exploring the role of small community and faith based organisations in supporting people facing multiple disadvantage. This event will reflect on the distinctive features of small community and faith based charities and what makes their responses effective in developing trusting relationships of support with vulnerable communities.

Nottingham-based domestic abuse, sexual violence and gender equality charity Equation has released dates for its next available training opportunities for Nottingham city (and sometimes county) workers.

Please click on the link for the training you are interested in attending and you will be taken through to the Eventbrite booking page. All courses are free to attend.

Non-Domestic Abuse Stalking Awareness (city and county workers) - Tuesday 21 September 2021, 9.30am-12noon

Domestic Abuse and Suicide (city workers only) - Tuesday 5 October 2021, 2pm-4.30pm

Working with DA Survivors Experiencing Multiple Disadvantage (city workers only) - Monday 11 October 2021, 1.30pm-4pm

Domestic Abuse and Technology (city workers only) - Tuesday 12 October 2021, 9.30am-12noon

Understanding and Responding to Domestic Violence and Abuse (city workers only) - Tuesday 12 October 2021, 9.30am-1pm

Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire's latest hot topic is a short survey for people to describe their experiences of accessing NHS dental treatment. Please share the survey link with your contacts.

Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire has heard lots about how dentistry has been affected by the COVID pandemic, and wants to build a better picture to share information with those who plan dental services across our area.

The survey invites responses from now until the end of December 2021.

If you know someone who would like to complete the survey but does not have internet access, they can contact 07587 037248 to arrange over the phone or a postal survey.

You may be familiar with Ask Lion, - known as AskLiON - which is an online health and social care community directory provided by Nottingham City Council. The website offers information about services, groups and events in Nottingham, including information for care providers (childcare and adult social care).

To enable the AskLiON team to understand how effective and useful the website is, they are asking for as many views as possible from people who might use the site or may have used the site in the past.

The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete and is open until October 2021.