Please join us as we work with the Director of Public Health, Lucy Hubber, to build the Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Nottingham City. We invite you to participate in this important consultation event via Zoom on Thursday 13 January 2022 from 10am to 12.30pm.

We have organised this event in partnership with Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and the Nottingham Integrated Care Partnership, giving you the opportunity to bring the voice of your communities to express what matters to them.

Lucy will set out for us what the data is showing in terms of health outcomes for Nottingham residents and test if these are the right things to be focusing on. She then wants to hear from you what the best outcome would be if these priorities are addressed effectively. What do you think needs to change?

There will be further opportunities to be involved in developing the operational details of the strategy once the principles are agreed by the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Nottingham City Council's Employment and Skills team (Nottingham Jobs) and Community and Family Learning team have partnered with NCVS to access funding which will allow equipment to be distributed to Nottingham City residents in need of digital support.

The funding is being used to buy laptops and WIFI dongles for individuals without digital access who can then use the equipment for Employment and Skills activities.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many of Nottingham’s support and core services had to move online and can only be accessed digitally. For a large number of people, accessing digital support services is out of reach due to a lack of hardware, connectivity and/or ability to use the technology.

If you are a voluntary or community group providing services to individuals who meet the programme criteria, you are now able to refer them directly to attend a short community-based IT course, where they will receive a laptop.

You must provide information about potential participants by 5pm on Monday 20 December 2021. The first course begins in the week commencing 10 January 2022. Future dates will be announced if all laptops are not distributed in this round.

We are recruiting a Community Engagement Coordinator who can lead on engaging Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, particularly South Asian communities, to raise awareness of mental health and feed back to the IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) services to enable them to better engage and support BAME communities.

Our ideal candidate will have a track record of engagement with BAME communities and community leaders. A background in mental health or general NHS services would also be an advantage.

Please help to share our job advert (pdf).

Fixed term for two years, with possible extension
Hours: Part time, 21 hours per week
Location: Home and office based with community outreach
Salary: £24,000 per annum pro rata (£14,000 actual salary)

Closing date: 12 noon on Wednesday 15 December 2021

We have added a free online workshop to our safeguarding programme in January 2022. Learn more about how the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) can support voluntary organisations with safer recruitment in this 90-minute workshop. It takes place on Zoom on Tuesday 25 January 2022 from 1.30pm to 3pm.

The session will be delivered by Lizzie Whittington, Regional Outreach Adviser for the DBS in the East Midlands.

If you work in a voluntary organisation that supports children or vulnerable adults, you may be accustomed to asking staff and volunteers to get DBS checks during your recruitment process. You may wonder, why is this needed and how does it affect your organisation?

Lizzie will take you through the process of applying for DBS checks, how to select which level of check is right for particular volunteer and paid roles and what to do if a certificate comes back with information on it.

Anyone who works in a safeguarding or recruitment role is welcome to attend.

We send our congratulations to Louise Cooke, Founder, CEO and Head of Operations at Sharewear Clothing Scheme. Louise will be awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration by Nottingham Trent University during their December 2021 graduation ceremonies.

This has been offered in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the alleviation of clothing poverty across Nottingham and surrounding areas and for raising the profile of clothing poverty as a national issue.

There is a short turnaround for applications. Please check that the Fund remains open for applications, as the deadline is 5pm on Wednesday 15 December 2021 or once 700 applications are received (whichever comes first).

The Platinum Jubilee celebrates 70 years of Her Majesty The Queen’s reign and to mark this occasion, The National Lottery Community Fund will fund 70 projects across the UK. This fund is suitable for small local voluntary or community organisations and groups. Applications will be prioritised from groups with an annual income below £100,000. You can apply for up to £50,000 to be spent within two years.

Your project will need to meet at least two of these criteria:

• connects people across generations through doing activities together
• makes use of significant local sites or spaces – parks, heritage buildings, community spaces etc.
• considers future generations and how the Jubilee can leave a legacy for them in the community
• creates new opportunities for the people that live locally to contribute and/or to build skills and experience
• starts something new (a set of activities, a group, a community space, a service, a network) that marks the Jubilee as a turning point in the community
• is designed and led by young people who want to be more active in shaping the future of their communities
• starts collective action in relation to the natural world locally - giving more people the opportunity to care for the planet at a local level.

Full guidelines are on The Platinum Jubilee Fund website.

Deadline for applications: 5pm on Monday 10 January 2022

Rosa is a grantmaking charity that funds grassroots women’s organisations working to make the UK a fairer, safer place for women and girls. Rosa’s Rise Fund provides organisational development funding for Black and minoritised-led women’s and girls’ organisations across the UK.

Two-year grants of up to £40,000 are available to Black and minoritised-led women’s and girls’ organisations in the UK which have been established for three years or more, and which have an average income of less than £100,000 per year.

The funding is for organisational development work relating to areas such as strategy, governance, leadership, alliances and partnerships, funding, demonstrating impact and systems and processes.

A 'How to apply' webinar is being held at 1pm on Wednesday 15 December 2021. Register for the webinar here.

Full application guidelines are on Rosa's website.

Deadline for applications: 5pm on Sunday 16 January 2022

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has made available a £4million Suicide Prevention Fund to support voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations that work to prevent suicide. A portion of the grant fund will be ring-fenced specifically to help support small community-led and user-led groups and organisations.

This fund is not intended for organisations whose everyday activities may only have an indirect and unintended impact on suicide prevention.

All awarded funding must be spent by 31 March 2022. However, the funds can be backdated to cover activities from April 2021.

Full guidelines are on the government website.

Applications open on Monday 13 December 2021 until Tuesday 11 January 2022

The Women and Girls Match Fund is a match funding campaign for charities that are working to improve the lives of vulnerable, disadvantaged or underrepresented women and girls in England and Scotland.

The week-long match funding campaign will launch on International Women’s Day 2022, Tuesday 8 March.

All public donations made to participating charities via theBigGive.org.uk during the week of the campaign (8 to 15 March 2022) will be matched by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture & Sport's (DCMS) Tampon Tax Fund until each organisation’s ring-fenced match funding award of either £2,500, £10,000 or £25,000 is used up.

Charities must be led by, for and with women and girls, and must be registered on theBigGive.org.uk fundraising website. It is free to register.

A webinar for potential applicants will be held at 12pm on Tuesday 14 December to share more information and answer any questions. Sign up for the webinar here.

Full guidelines are on the Big Give website.

Deadline: Monday 17 January 2022

Funding is available through Nottingham & Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum (NNRF), the lead organisation of the ‘Refugee and Asylum Seeker’ Consortium.

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

Please refer to the following documents:
Guidance notes (link opens pdf)
Application form (link downloads Word document)

For further information, please contact Josh Aspden, Communities of Identity Partnership Development Coordinator. Call 07375 068512 or email coi.josh@nottsrefugeeforum.org.uk.

Next deadlines are Tuesday 4 January 2022 or Monday 21 March 2022

The fund is dedicated to bringing lasting benefit to those areas most affected by East Midlands Airport's operations. This includes a range of Nottingham city and county postcodes alongside Derbyshire and Leicestershire postcodes. An area map is available in their fund brochure.

The maximum grant is £2,000, while funding for sports kits is limited to £500.

To read the application guidance, see the eligible geographic areas and to access the
application form, see the EMA Community Fund website.

September saw the successful launch of the NCVS Volunteer Local service at Bulwell Riverside. This is a drop-in service offering support to voluntary and community groups who are looking for volunteers or have developmental needs. The Bulwell Volunteer Local sessions continue to run every Friday from 10am to 1pm.

We're delighted to announce that we will be providing this service at an additional community location in Nottingham.

Our second Volunteer Local drop-in service will be at St Ann’s Valley Centre. You'll find St Ann's Valley Centre at 2 Livingstone Road NG3 3GG, just off St Ann's Well Road. We start there on Wednesday 5 January 2022 from 1.30pm to 4pm (and we'll return every Wednesday afternoon at that time).

At our weekly Volunteer Local sessions, friendly Volunteer Advisors can help with local volunteer opportunities and Development Officers offer support to voluntary organisations. 

We plan to open more of these sessions across the city to make it even easier for local communities to find out how and where they can volunteer.

Email volunteercentre@nottinghamcvs.co.uk for more information.

Two new reports have made the news in the last couple of weeks, and could influence the future governmental policy response to volunteering.

The Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) surveyed 2,500 UK adults in its Volunteering for a Healthier Britain report. The study asked about the wellbeing, health, volunteering activity and social connectedness of people to understand whether it had been affected by the pandemic.

While the pandemic has negatively impacted health in Britain's poorest neighbourhoods, a key finding of the study is that volunteering can be a protective factor for those who get involved, and could be a powerful tool to help address health inequalities.

The second report is published by NCVO and forms part of a larger cross-UK study.. Volunteering in England During Covid-19: The Policy Response and its Impact looks at the experiences of volunteers and organisations and how they were affected by government policy decisions on volunteering in England during the outbreak.

This report found a mixed – but mostly negative - experience of governmental policy response to volunteering in England during the pandemic. “Inconsistent and confusing public health guidance for frontline organisations put strain on those managing and coordinating volunteers."

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.

Social Prescribing Link Workers and other healthcare professionals need to know that any organisation they are referring into is safe and suitable for the person being referred.

To ensure this we are asking organisations to become GreenSpace Trusted Providers. This shows the organisation has the relevant policies and procedures in place and wants to become part of our growing GreenSpace social prescribing network, helping even more people enjoy the benefits of nature connectedness for their mental and physical wellbeing. 
 
A warm welcome to our first group of GreenSpace Trusted Providers working in our local communities. They are:

We are also working with other green and nature-based providers in the city to join us as Trusted Providers over the next few weeks.

To find out more about any of our Trusted Providers, or if you would like to be part of GreenSpace, please email greenspace@nottinghamcvs.co.uk.

The national Green Social Prescribing (GSP) Advisory and Project Board paid a visit to Nottingham on Tuesday 23 November 2021, as part of its review of GSP Test and Learn sites in England.

The latest edition of the national 'Green Social Prescribing & Social Prescribing Round-up' newsletter features the visit and thanks the GreenSpace team and the St Ann’s Allotment team from the Renewal Trust for a fantastic day.

They say, "We had an inspirational green social prescribing tour around the allotment site, which is the size of 42 football pitches. Highlights on the visit were Val's allotment, Ecoworks and Nature in Mind, demonstrating how green activities play a vital part in improving people’s mental health."

The photo above was taken on the day. You can see more photos in this tweet.

POhWER Advocacy Nottingham is launching a new community group in the run up to Christmas.

The POhWER at St Peter’s Community Group will launch at St Peter’s Church (St Peter's Gate NG1 2NW) on Tuesday 21 December 2021 from 10.30am to 11.30am.

The aim of the group is to provide information, advice, volunteer advocacy and mental health peer support and also to provide a community and prevent and counter isolation.

The group is free and supported by volunteers. There will be tea and biscuits.

Booking isn't required, but it helps to know you're coming as spaces are limited. Please contact Sonia Burns if you have any queries: s.burns@pohwer.net.

Thursday 6 January 2022, 10.30am to 1.45pm

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 

Due to recent cancellations, a small number of places are available again on this session
Wednesday 19 January 2022, 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

Thursday 3 February 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

Thursday 24 February 2022, 10.30am to 1.45pm

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

Cost: £25 per participant

Tuesday 25 January 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 10 February 2022, 11am to 1pm

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

Tuesday 22 February 2022, 1pm to 3pm

This two-hour online 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

Tuesday 1 March 2022, 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

Thursday 10 March 2022, 11am to 12pm

The Board or Committee Secretary is one of the principal roles in a charity or community organisation, yet there are few courses on the subject. In this one-hour online session you will learn why it is so important and that it is definitely not just about taking minutes.

Cost: £10 per participant

Wednesday 23 March 2022, 10am to 12pm

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 12 January 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 26 January 2022, 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 9 February 2022, 10am to 12.15pm

A two-hour (with short break) 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

Wednesday 2 March 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

Tuesday 22 March 2022, 2pm to 3pm

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.

Thursday 27 January 2022, from 10.30am to 11.30am
Online via Zoom

We are pleased to bring back a live webinar exploring an introduction to multiple disadvantage: a combination of issues such as mental ill health, homelessness, domestic abuse, offending and substance misuse. This webinar will include:

• What causes multiple disadvantage and how misunderstanding causes can lead to stigma and exclusion
• How it feels to face multiple disadvantage
• How services can work more successfully with people facing multiple disadvantage
• Why “system change” is so important in resolving multiple disadvantage.

Audience: This webinar is aimed at professionals from all sectors who come across clients facing multiple disadvantages and are looking for an introductory level understanding of what multiple disadvantage is and how services can work more effectively to support their clients.

Thursday 20 January 2022, from 9.30am to 4pm
Cleaves Hall Conference Centre, 6 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AS

A free workshop exploring good practice essentials on harm reduction, aimed at professionals and volunteers from all sectors who work with people who use substances in non-specialist substance misuse roles.

We will share more details and open registrations very soon. For now, save the date and watch this webpage for more in the coming week!

Nottinghamshire Deaf Society (NDS) is running a couple of one-off taster sessions before a new programme of intensive BSL training begins in January.

• BSL Taster Session – one-off session of 2 hours
  £20 per person (which is discounted from the full Level 1 course fees if you continue)
  Saturday 11 December 2021, 2pm to 4pm. Online via Zoom or
  Saturday 15 January 2022, 10am to 12pm. Face-to-face at NDS, 22 Forest Road West, Nottingham NG7 4EQ.
  
  
• Introduction to BSL – 9 week course, 2 hour lesson once a week
  £150 per person, Certificate for each attendee following informal assessment at the end
  Mondays 6pm to 8pm starting 24 January 2022. Face-to-face at NDS.
  
  
• Level 1 Award in BSL – 32 week course, 2 hour lesson once a week
  Accredited course with exam body, Signature
  £495 per person including teaching, registration and assessments.
  Mondays 2pm to 4pm starting 24 January 2022. Online via Zoom or
  Wednesdays 6pm to 8pm starting 26 January 2022. Face-to-face at NDS.

All courses are taught by qualified and experienced deaf teachers, and the face-to-face classes take place at NDS which houses the deaf community centre in Nottingham. NDS believes that training should be done by people with a lived experience of deafness; teaching people about their own language and culture.

For more information and to book a place, visit the NDS website.

British Red Cross is offering free First Aid workshops across Nottingham from December 2021 and the beginning of 2022.

This opportunity requires your group/organisation to schedule a session for multiple participants and to provide a suitable venue. British Red Cross then provides a trainer at no cost to you. Adult sessions need to have between 5 and 15 participants. Youth sessions can be arranged for up to 35 young people.

Workshops are designed to be interactive and learner led. You are asked to ensure a member of staff is always present and encourages attendees to fully engage.

Take-up of sessions is popular, so please book as early as possible using this online scheduler.

For more information, please contact Anish Nathwani, Community Education Coordinator for Nottinghamshire: AnishNathwani@redcross.org.uk / 07709 406597.

An opportunity is available for an Engagement Consultant to develop a Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Provider Alliance within the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System (ICS).

Download the full briefing document (pdf).

Candidates must have availability to start this role immediately, continuing into March 2022. If you would like to arrange an informal chat about this opportunity, please email Jules Sebelin, Chief Executive Officer at NCVS: juless@nottinghamcvs.co.uk.

The deadline for applications is midnight on Sunday 19 December 2021. Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 20 December 2021 and will include a presentation of a brief proposal and budget.

Nottingham City Council is able to provide extra financial support to residents for food and heating this winter thanks to the Household Support Grant. People who receive Council Tax Support are eligible to claim supermarket e-vouchers (worth £100) and
energy bill e-vouchers (worth £49).

Claim can be made in two periods from 6 December 2021 to 31 January 2022 and again from 1 February to 31 March 2022, enabling households to claim vouchers twice to help through the winter months.

easyfundraising is spreading Christmas cheer by giving voluntary and community organisations daily opportunities to win free donations. Open the doors in their big Advent giveaway and you can open doors to daily donation prizes of £250 and a huge £10,000 donation giveaway on 25 December.

More background to the benefits of easyfundraising as a way to boost your funds is available on the NCVS website. If you haven't already registered with easyfundraising, you can register for free now for a chance to win.

Submissions to be sent for High Sheriff approval by Friday 14 January 2022
Closing date for entries: Sunday 23 January 2022

The National Crimebeat is the Youth Crime Prevention Charity of the High Sheriffs’ Association in England and Wales and the prestigious awards ceremony gives recognition to the most innovative and successful crime prevention projects carried out by young people.

High Sheriffs throughout the country are encouraged to support this initiative, and  Harminder S Dua CBE, High Sheriff for Nottinghamshire invites your applications. All entries must be endorsed by the High Sheriff.

Please contact Terry Tring for more information and an application form: Communities Team, 4th Floor County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 4QP, email terry.tring@nottscc.gov.uk or telephone Leah Sareen on 0115 977 4427 for any support.

Further information can also be found at www.national-crimebeat.org.uk.

Community Engaged Learning (CEL) is a proven, high impact way of learning that enables students, in collaboration with local organisations, to directly address identified real life issues related to their course subject.

Back in October 2021, we told you about some student modules at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) which had capacity to accept projects from local charities.

Other CEL modules include 'Theory and Application to Mental Health', 'Criminology in the Real World' and 'Critical Service Learning in Sociology'. In particular, students on the MSc Psychological Well-being and Mental Health course are looking to take on applied psychology consultation work for external organisations next term (January to April 2022).

The Community Engagement and Volunteering Team at NTU can help you understand how best to work with NTU staff and students to turn your project ideas into reality. Take a look at the CEL website if you think your organisation could benefit.

Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council have begun work to revise their Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments (PNAs). PNAs aim to understand the pharmaceutical needs of our local population and, where necessary, use this information to develop pharmaceutical services to meet any identified unmet needs.

For the purposes of this consultation, what is meant by pharmaceutical services or 'a pharmacy' is a place you would use to get a prescription dispensed or buy medicines which you can only buy from a pharmacy. This doesn't include the pharmacy at a hospital or the part of a pharmacy where you buy beauty products, nor does it mean other places such as convenience stores, garages and shops where you can buy medicines such as paracetamol.

Now is the time to ensure your voice is heard. Please complete the online survey before Sunday 16 January 2022.

If you would like more information or an Easy Read version of the questionnaire, please email PNAsurveys@pcc-cic.org.uk with a subject line of “Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council pharmacy public questionnaire”.

The Work and Pensions Committee has launched a survey to hear about first-hand experiences of the assessment processes for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

The survey is open until mid-February 2022 and welcomes responses from everyone who has had an assessment to claim PIP or who has had a Work Capability Assessment, either to claim ESA or as part of a Universal Credit claim.

The survey is part of the Committee’s inquiry which is examining the effectiveness of the application and assessment processes for benefits paid to disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, amid continuing concerns about the problems being experienced by people making claims.

The Committee has previously heard that the application and assessment processes for health-related benefits are often flawed, with a majority of people who appeal against decisions made by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) being successful.