As the end of 2021 approaches, Jules Sebelin writes:

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful holiday break, whichever way you choose to celebrate or reflect. I recognise that, for some, this time of year is even busier than usual while you provide support for some of our most at risk citizens. Please look after yourselves and your volunteers while you carry out your vital roles.

We have had a busy year at NCVS, bringing a Green Social Prescribing programme on board, delivering a robust training programme and providing support in many ways for the voluntary sector in Nottingham. Our social media channels and e-bulletin subscribership has increased and our new digital platforms allow us to sign up and look after thousands of volunteers who have continued to serve through all of the various pandemic challenges. And, not least of all the changes, we have moved from the building we occupied for over 20 years.

Looking ahead, we acknowledge that while our voluntary and community sector remains resilient in the face of adversity, it is also vulnerable...

Thursday 13 January 2022 from 10am to 12.30pm

If you haven't already done so, don't forget to book your place at this online consultation event, jointly organised by NCVS and Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (HWNN), with the Nottingham City Integrated Care Partnership (ICP).

This is an opportunity for the voluntary and community sector to shape health and care priorities for Nottingham City. Join us on Zoom to share your views and meet Lucy Hubber, Nottingham's Director of Public Health.

While there is rapid progress in delivering Covid vaccinations to the citizens of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, there remain inequalities in take up by some groups and communities that the Nottinghamshire Local Resilience Forum (LRF) are seeking to address.

The role of community and voluntary organisations in the progress made so far has been significant. From local spontaneous community action supporting neighbours, to organised and pro-active communications and messaging by special interest groups.

The Forum want to recognise these contributions and identify further opportunities to support community groups – to encourage the take up of Covid vaccinations by those in groups where vaccination rates are lower.

Applications for up to £500 can be made using this application form (link downloads Word document), which should be returned to jade.farrell@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.

This fund is for organisations operating in Nottinghamshire county areas only

Nottinghamshire County Council recognises the huge contribution that the Voluntary and Community Sector has made to lives of residents over many years which has been brought into sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A new discretionary grant funding scheme, the Local Communities Fund, is the successor to the Local Improvement Scheme. The LCF consists of a Revenue Programme (split into two parts: ‘Small Grants’ and ‘Large Grants’), a Capital Programme and a Talented Athletes Programme.

Applications received by Friday 31 December 2021 should receive a decision by April 2022. For applications received from January 2022, please check the LCF webpage for updates.

Your Best Friend empowers all 13-24 year old girls, young women, and non-binary people with knowledge and confidence to help their friends - helping each other understand young people’s relationships and what happens when they become unsafe.

The Your Best Friend Fund is distributing £300,000 in grants to organisations and groups based in England and Wales to create their own ideas and projects that support Your Best Friend’s aims. They expect 30 to 40 small grants of £1,000 to £10,000 and six to eight large grants between £10,000 and £25,000.

There is a rolling schedule for applications. Full guidelines are available on the Your Best Friend website. The next Small Grants panel deadline is Monday 7 March 2022. The next Large Grants panel deadline is Friday 17 February 2022.

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 one of seven government Green Social Prescribing Test and Learn sites. It's 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.

Monday 17 January 2022 from 1pm to 4pm
Online via Zoom, Free to attend

As part of the GreenSpace green social prescribing project, we are adding a little sunshine to Blue Monday and turning it Green, promoting mental health awareness and opening discussions in the community around mental health. This session aims to break down the preconceptions about mental health and to provide participants with ways in which they can help and support people.

We particularly encourage those with GreenSpace Trusted Provider Status and those who are working towards GreenSpace Trusted Provider status to join us.

There will be three key speakers from health services including Tricky to Talk, IAPT talking therapies and Highbury Hospital. A mindfulness session for attendees will round off the afternoon.

Please email greenspace@nottinghamcvs.co.uk if you have any questions about the event.

Tuesday 4 January 2022, 7pm to 9pm, online via Zoom

The National Federation of the Blind, Nottingham Branch is dedicated to campaigning on behalf of blind, partially sighted and deaf-blind people on issues affecting our lives. Join the Annual General Meeting to find out what the branch has been doing and is planning. Contact details are on the event listing on the NCVS website.

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 

Thursday 25 January 2022, 1.30pm to 3pm

Learn more about how the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) can support voluntary organisations with safer recruitment in this free online 90-minute workshop.

Free to attend

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

Wednesday 16 February 2022, 10.30am to 12.30pm

What is the right structure for your organisation? This new two-hour online session will explain your options and provide you with some useful tips to help you through the process of registration and beyond.

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.

The PDU is taking a break over the holiday period. The PDU inbox will be monitored occasionally for urgent queries. All non-urgent enquiries will be answered at the start of the New Year.

• Christmas Eve and week commencing 27 December: no cover
• Week commencing 3 January: cover on Thursday and Friday

 We look forward to seeing you again at PDU events in 2022.

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

Places are still available for our upcoming live webinar exploring an introduction to multiple disadvantage, which will explore:

• 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.

New date to be confirmed

In light of the evolving situation with the Covid-19 pandemic, the spread of the Omicron variant and new safety measures introduced by the government, we have decided to postpone our upcoming Harm reduction workshop; which will be our first face to face event since the start of the pandemic!

We will share more details at the start of the year.

Tuesday 11 January 2022, 9.30am to 10.30am, online via Microsoft Teams
Free for Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County workers

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as "Clare’s Law", enables the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s or ex-partner’s previous abusive or violent offending

This one hour briefing will be provided by the Police Domestic Abuse Support Unit, and is organised by Equation. It will provide an overview of the scheme, its purpose and how it can be accessed. There will also be opportunity for Q & A's.

Register via Eventbrite 

The latest training programme from the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Sexual Health Outreach/Health Promotion Service is available.

Training is free to all those working in Nottingham City and Southern Boroughs (Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe) and is delivered online via Microsoft Teams.

Courses focus on Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) and are aimed at any staff, volunteers and carers working with or supporting young people or vulnerable adults.

For information about all courses and to book, please visit the Nottingham Sexual Health Service page on Eventbrite.

A new project at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is seeking to engage with the voices of activists who are fighting or have fought on issues of refugee rights.

This is part of a larger NTU project - "Voices of Activism in Nottingham" - working with partners in the community, city council, and museum sector to develop public awareness and engagement with Nottingham’s activist past and present. The project aims to run from now until summer 2022.

If you are an activist looking for a chance to advocate for refugees in Nottingham and beyond, or know of others, please email jenny.wustenberg@ntu.ac.uk to express your interest.

Applications for Pilotlight 360 are now open for charities and social enterprises based across the UK.

Leaders of ambitious organisations tackling social disadvantage in the UK can apply for this innovative free mentoring programme, designed to tackle the issues they are facing and amplify their impact.

Over a 10-month period, successful applicants will benefit from the support of four business experts from diverse private and public sector organisations. These empathetic "Pilotlighters" coach charity leaders and their boards through the strategic challenges they may face.

Individualised expert guidance is offered on everything from creative operational improvements and efficiencies to sustainable long-term business strategies.

Deadline: Wednesday 12 January 2022
Apply for the Pilotlight 360 programme here.

Applications for the 2022 Weston Charity Awards are also now open. The awards, created by the Garfield Weston Foundation in partnership with Pilotlight, celebrate and support great front-line charities in the North of England, the Midlands and Wales, working in the fields of community, welfare and youth.

Charities with incomes under £5million can apply. Winners will receive £6,500 unrestricted grant funding alongside access to the Pilotlight 360 programme.

Deadline: 5pm on Friday 7 January 2022
Apply for the Weston Charity Awards here.

Nottingham & Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum (NNRF) was named as one of the 2021 winners. We featured the story on the NCVS website. Could it be you in 2022?

This opportunity has come to us via the East Midlands Volunteer Centres Network. Embrace Harlaxton is a new student-led communication consultancy undertaking pro bono work with voluntary and community sector organisations in the East Midlands.

It offers real world experiences for students from the University of Evansville in the USA studying at its British Campus at Harlaxton near Grantham. Embrace Harlaxton offers the students an opportunity to discover more about the UK during their four month stay here and to gain knowledge and skills in business.

There may be opportunities to work with a limited number of Nottingham organisations during two four-month terms: January to April and August to December.

Students are being supported by Douglas Brown, a Public Relations and Communications consultant (and previously lecturer at University of Lincoln). If you would like to find out more, please call Douglas on 07876 044318 or email douglasbrownpr@btinternet.com.

Services the students might deliver include:

• Event organisation
• Media liaison and training
• Communications support for fundraising
• Development of online resources such as new web sites.
• Creation of a brand identity from scratch and development of on and offline promotional content
• Development of a social media profile and training in using it for volunteers
• Creation of content like video to promote services
• Design and redesign of leaflets describing services.

Counterculture Partnership LLP has been commissioned to help develop a joined-up vision: Nottingham - A Vision for Music.

Led by a steering group and working with a wide range of partners, this work will support the recovery and prosperity of the sector. They want to hear views from audience members and all corners of the industry – amateur, voluntary and professional - to help establish an extensive, inclusive approach.

Your input is valuable. Responses are welcome from all individuals and organisations who live, work, make music, or attend music events in Nottingham.  

The survey consists of a few sections of short questions followed by some longer form questions and should take around 10 minutes for individuals to complete, and around 25 minutes for businesses depending on the intricacy of your involvement with music.

The survey runs until midnight on Thursday 13 January 2022.