Jules Sebelin, our Chief Executive, encourages you to join us on our journey:

As we slowly recover from the pandemic it is ever more apparent how much voluntary and community sector organisations have been integral to the lives of Nottingham’s citizens. But what is also apparent are the many challenges ahead. The looming cost of living crisis, for one, will push many people over the financial cliff edge. Our food banks and advice services may become overwhelmed with people who have never needed their services before.     

At NCVS we are constantly striving to ensure the support we offer to the sector is relevant and effective. We are looking for people interested in helping us to develop our forward thinking and strategy. Our current trustees have guided us admirably through big changes recently, and are looking to add to their numbers to join us on our journey.

Please do get in touch if you are interested in becoming part of our team.

We are accepting expressions of interest through the volunteering section of our website, where you can see the trustee role description. Or please email me for a direct and confidential discussion: juless@nottinghamcvs.co.uk.

In other news, we have moved the date of the Beginner’s Guide to Marketing course to Monday 28 February to enable even more people to join. And we have developed a new course, Deeper Dive into Writing Funding Applications, which will have its first session on Wednesday 16 March. More details are below.

You may be new to writing funding applications, or you may have some experience and want to develop your skills further. This hands-on interactive session takes you deeper into the process, giving you the chance to practice skills and receive immediate feedback.

In this practical session, you will:

• Get time to practice completing key elements of a funding application, in a supportive group setting, and gain constructive feedback to develop your skills
• Learn how to avoid common mistakes in writing funding applications
• Learn how to identify and develop skills in what makes a strong application.

Join the session via Zoom on Wednesday 16 March 2022 from 10am to 12.15pm. The course cost is £20 per participant.

This course will now run on Monday 28 February 2022, from 10.30am to 1pm on Zoom. Please share the details so as many people as possible can benefit from this opportunity.

The interactive session will give you the confidence to embark on developing marketing content to help you engage and influence new audiences. Kate Read offers expert input and recommendations on your marketing activities and tools and resources for future success.

The cost per participant is £25.

The next joint meeting of our Children and Young People's Providers Network (CYPPN) and Vulnerable Adults' Providers Network (VAPN) takes place on Thursday 17 February 2022, from 10am to 12noon, on Zoom.

If you are a member of either network, or interested to get involved, don't forget to book your place to ensure you're sent instructions about how to join the meeting. Registration will remain open until 4pm the day before.

The agenda includes presentations about Insight IAPT (free NHS talking therapies for adults), POhWER's current advocacy work in Nottingham, and the support offered by Imara for young people and families following a disclosure of sexual abuse. Plus, Oluwatobi Ojewola (Majority Black Led Churches (MBLC) Volunteer Coordinator, based with NCVS) will talk about how the MBLC network is equipping volunteers to deliver factual messages about Covid-19 vaccination programmes. 

If you have any queries about this event, please email ncvs@nottinghamcvs.co.uk.

Deadline for bids: 5pm on Friday 4 March 2022

Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC) are looking for a collaborative partner to support their ambitions around co-production in Nottingham.

Over the last three years this work has been driven through the ‘Community Voice, Community Connections’ contract which ends on 30 June 2022 and SSBC are now looking for a partner who can support, develop and help embed the SSBC Parent Champion and Ambassador roles across Nottingham, creating a sustainable model to ensure a strong legacy of co-production in the early years and family sectors.

The contract value is £417,000 over 33 months.

Interested organisations can view the full specification here.

Information event:

To support organisations to bid for this important work, SSBC are hosting a People in the Lead Information webinar on Tuesday 22 February 2022, from 1.30pm to 2.30pm.

This event offers the opportunity to:

• Learn more about SSBC’s strategic ambitions around co-production
• Understand the background to the People in the Lead contract and SSBC’s co-production story so far
• Understand the bid process
• Ask any questions about the contract and People in the Lead work and ambitions.

To attend the webinar, please register here.

POhWER Advocacy Nottingham has a new launch date for the POhWER at St Peter’s Community Group which had to be postponed before Christmas.

It will launch at St Peter’s Church (St Peter's Gate NG1 2NW) on Tuesday 1 March 2022 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.

Another regular POhWER group runs at Rivergreen, Clifton (NG11 8AU) on the last Thursday afternoon of the month. The next date for this group is Thursday 24 February from 2.30pm to 3.30pm.

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

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

Monday 28 February 2022, 10.30am to 1pm

If you would like to know how to create a marketing strategy and be more confident creating the right content for the various marketing channels at your disposal, then this online course is for you.

Cost: £25 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 16 March 2022, 10am to 12.15pm

A new interactive hands-on workshop for organisations and community groups who want to practice their skills and would welcome constructive feedback to further develop their skills in writing successful funding applications.

Cost: £20 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 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.

Tuesday 8 March 2022, from 10am to 11.30am
Online via Zoom

Join us for a free online event exploring a local example of good practice in making the most of multi-agency multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meetings. This will include key findings from a report studying the local Wrap Around MDT initiative, which developed a comprehensive understanding of the initiative and its impact on group members and beneficiaries.

Audience: This webinar is aimed at professionals from all sectors who support people experiencing multiple disadvantage and work with other services in multi-agency and multi-disciplinary settings.

This workshop is running on two alternative dates. Follow the relevant link to register for your date of choice.

Both events are at Cleaves Conference Centre, 6 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AS.

Tuesday 22 March 2022, from 10am to 3pm - register here
Thursday 26 May 2022, from 10am to 3pm - register here

Join us for a free one-day in-person workshop, exploring good practice from the Opportunity Nottingham programme on working with people who experience multiple disadvantage. This will include:

• What is multiple disadvantage and what it means for people who experience it
• Understanding trauma and its impact on service users
• Understanding loss and bereavement and their impact on service users
• Using case studies to identify approaches

Audience: this workshop is aimed at professionals and volunteers from across all sectors who are interested in developing more effective ways to interact with and support service users who experience multiple sources of disadvantage.

We have recently launched four new e-learning modules exploring more good practice around working in a psychologically and trauma informed way. These resources are particularly relevant to anyone working with or providing support to people who experience multiple disadvantage.

You can access these on the PDU online hub (you will need to be logged in).

• Readiness for change
  This module explores the concept of 'readiness for change', limitations of current models of change for people facing multiple disadvantage, local research, and how to support people towards making changes they want to make.
• Recovery from trauma
  This module looks at the stages of recovery, asking about trauma and abuse, dealing with disclosure, compound trauma and homelessness, and trauma, loss and endings.
• Coping with incidents at work
  This module explores the impact of traumatic events at work, possible responses, what you might experience immediately after a traumatic event and in the days and weeks that follow, ways to cope and support each other, awareness of Post Incident Peer Support and where to learn more.
• Post-incident peer support
  This module looks at 'Defusion' meetings and how they fit with developing PIEs (psychologically informed environments), structures to provide post incident support to peers / colleagues at work, and developing confidence to provide support after incidents.

These courses, delivered by Nottingham City Council, form part of the Financial Resilience Action Plan for 2021-2022 under the objective of helping to increase incomes in the city.

All courses will be delivered via Microsoft Teams and are online only courses. Participants will be provided with supporting PowerPoint slides and access to exercises and activities via email shortly before the course date. Places are limited to 20 people per course.

Please note that some sessions are already nearing capacity. Future dates may become available.

How non-advisors can effectively support citizens who need debt advice
Monday 28 February 2022, 10am to 1pm
Provides an overview of how to recognise emergency debt situations and identify where someone may need further advice.

Disability benefits overview
Friday 4 March 2022, 10am to 1pm
Increase your understanding of disability benefits.

Limited capability for work
Monday 21 March 2022, 10am to 1pm
This course looks at how fitness for work is determined by the benefits system.

Understanding Universal Credit
Friday 25 March 2022, 10am to 1pm
Aimed at non-specialists who want to increase their knowledge of Universal Credit.

Benefit entitlement for older people
Monday 25 April 2022, 10am to 1pm
Aimed at non-specialists who want to increase their knowledge of benefits for people over pension age.

Benefits in care homes and hospitals
Friday 29 April 2022, 10am to 1pm
This course looks at the rules for anyone entering or leaving hospital or residential care.

If you would like to attend, please email emma.walker@nottinghamcity.gov.uk or robert.sherratt@nottinghamcity.gov.uk to reserve a place. Please include the session name/date, your full name, organisation, telephone number and email address.

Nottingham City Council is offering fully funded online training and 1-2-1 support sessions to charities across D2N2 to help combat cyber and data crime. This is free to charities based in the Nottingham/Nottinghamshire/Derby/Derbyshire area with fewer than 250 employees.

Training includes Cyber Security, GDPR and how to use Microsoft Office 365 resources to cut risks. The training team have extensive experience of cyber-security and lead this training across D2N2.

Course content will be based on the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit. The team offer 1-2-1 training of approximately 90 minutes, with a certificate. There is optional free online training.

Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. No previous IT knowledge is required.

Please contact toolkitsupport@nottinghamcity.gov.uk to arrange a 1-2-1 session at a mutually convenient time, or to ask any questions.

Thursday 24 February 2022, 10am to 1pm
Online via Zoom, Free to attend

Ideea Rom (Nottingham community group) and the Community Partnerships Team at Nottingham City Council are holding this training event to raise awareness of Roma culture, tradition, common barriers and how to tackle the stigma, discrimination, isolation and disengagement this community faces.

Councillor Neghat Khan. Dales Ward Councillor and Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods, Safety and Inclusion will be opening the event. This will be followed by presentations from community organisations.

Register via Eventbrite.

Please email shazia.khan2@nottinghamcity.gov.uk if you require further information.

Wednesday 9 March 2022, 9.30am to 11am
Online event, Free for Nottingham city and county workers

This one-off seminar, organised by Equation, explores the SafeLives report on psychological violence. This research took a survivor-led approach and looked to:

• Define and understand the term ‘psychological violence’
• Understand the dynamics and tactics of ‘psychological violence’
• Consider the impact of ‘psychological violence’ on survivors and their families
• Understand how we can support people experiencing ‘psychological violence’.
  

Jen Daw, Senior Research Analyst at SafeLives will present the key findings from this report.

The seminar is suitable for any manager, practitioner, worker or volunteer who may have contact with someone experiencing domestic abuse. It will also be valuable for Strategists, Policy Officers and Commissioners.

Register here

Nottingham Financial Resilience Partnership has shared details of this online training because of the sad reality that money stress and mental health are heavily intertwined. Suicide can sometimes be linked to financial stress.

Other specialist mental health awareness courses are available from local providers. However, if you haven't done any mental health training before, this 20 minute free, online suicide awareness training could be useful.

The Zero Suicide Alliance training is recommended for anyone over 16 years of age and is endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing.

Fearless Youth Association is offering a Youth Mental Health Training Course to help support people who work with young people. It is suitable for everyone who works with, supports or lives with young people aged 8 to 18.

The course is fully accredited and will take place online over two days. A £20 refundable deposit will be returned on completion of the course.

For further information, please email info@fyaonline.com or call 07940 801390.

We were delighted to hear from one of last year's successful applicants recently – currently a 2027 Associate with this talent programme after seeing information in our NCVS e-bulletin back in January 2021!

Two people from Nottingham were accepted onto the programme last year. Could you be next? Applications are now open for the October 2022 intake.

Do you have experience working or volunteering in a frontline-based role in your community, or have lived experience of issues affecting working-class communities? If so, you may like to consider applying for 2027 - a 12-month, salaried job and professional development programme which gives participants the tools to become leaders in grant-giving organisations.

Applications close at 1pm on Wednesday 30 March 2022.

This is an opportunity for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), charities or social organisations to host a University of Nottingham student as an intern for a ten day period during the student Easter break (Monday 11 to Friday 29 April 2022).

Interns are fully funded and paid a bursary by the University. These opportunities are exclusive to students from Widening Participation backgrounds.

The benefits for your organisation include: access to University talent, allowing members of staff to take on coaching/managerial responsibilities, improved knowledge of the student and graduate labour market and a valuable contribution to your social responsibility or community work.

The deadline to get involved is Friday 25 February 2022.

For more information, please contact George Lycett in the Careers and Employability Service. Email george.lycett@nottingham.ac.uk.

Closing date for applications: midnight on Friday 4 March 2022

NRMTS is a Nottinghamshire based charity, established in 1946 by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Francis Carney, and US President Dwight Eisenhower in recognition of the contribution made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in ending World War II.

Open to individuals living and/or working in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, the scholarship exists to unlock the potential of 21-35 year olds by immersion in American society, industry and culture, so they can realise their aspirations and benefit the wider Nottinghamshire community.

Successful applicants will be funded to spend six weeks in the USA investigating a project of their choice.

Deadline for applications: Friday 18 March 2022

Nottinghamshire Police have opened nominations for the Live Our Best Life Awards, aimed at recognising the incredible hard work and fantastic achievements made by young people throughout the county.

The awards focus on those aged between eight and eighteen, who have shown incredible resilience, selflessness or have done something inspirational throughout the last year. Awards are available in six categories, with prizes including gift cards and unique experiences.

A full awards ceremony with entertainment, food and speeches will take place at Nottingham Forest’s football ground on 19 April 2022.

Make your nomination here

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is launching a campaign to recruit new magistrates across the UK. Nottingham is a particular priority region where more magistrates are urgently needed and the MoJ is not only looking to increase the pool of people coming forward but to continue to diversify the magistracy, so that it is more representative of the communities it serves.

Over 90% of criminal cases are dealt with by magistrates sitting in local criminal courts, ruling on cases such as drink-driving, theft and assault. People from all walks of life can be magistrates – as long as they are aged between 18 and 70. It is a voluntary role, which people can do alongside any employment or caring obligations.

See more on the Judiciary website. Or, you could invite a local Diversity and Community Relations Magistrate (DCRM) or Magistrate in the Community (MIC) to deliver a presentation to your organisation or community group. All presentations can be adapted to your individual needs and time constraints and can be delivered online, if necessary.

To find out more or to arrange a presentation, please contact John-Charles Tanner JP, DCRM for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and MIC Coordinator for North Derbyshire Bench. Email john-charles.tanner.jp@ejudiciary.net.

TONIC (a public consultation agency) has been commissioned by Police and Crime Commissioner, Caroline Henry, to conduct an independent Victim Needs Assessment across Nottinghamshire and a review of the Victim CARE model.

They are seeking feedback through interviews as well as a public survey in order to hear from a wide range of stakeholders and victims across the county.

Please note, this consultation is seeking views and perspective on victim support services other than those for domestic abuse and sexual violence. Having recently been reviewed, those crimes, and services related to them, are out of scope of the current project.

Interviews will take between 30-40 minutes and will be conducted online (or telephone if you prefer). All interviews are confidential and views shared will be anonymised.

Sign up for an interview slot at https://notts-vna.youcanbook.me.

You can also participate by completing this online survey.

The survey is open until Friday 18 February 2022 and the aim is to complete interviews by Tuesday 22 February 2022.

Healthwatch is asking people across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to take part in their 'Hot Topic' survey to better understand experiences of accessing care at GP practices during the pandemic.

The short survey is open to anyone in Nottingham or Nottinghamshire who has contacted their GP in the last 12 months.

It should only take a few minutes to complete and the information shared will help to build an understanding of where things have worked well and where things could, or should, be improved.

If you are part of a group that would like to invite Healthwatch along in person to help complete the survey with your members, please email alan.rhodes@hwnn.co.uk to arrange.

Proposals to modernise Nottingham City Libraries and make the service more cost-effective are now open for public consultation.

You can help write 'The Next Chapter'. No decisions have been made. Responses to this consultation will be considered before Nottingham City Council makes any decisions about the future of Nottingham City Libraries.

The consultation will remain open until Sunday 24 April 2022.

Read more and answer the survey here.

If you have any questions, would like more information, or would like this survey in an alternative format, please email engage@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.