Please take note of this new funding opportunity if you are an established organisation or community group, supporting Nottingham City’s communities, and can tell us about needs you have because of the impact of COVID-19 on your work.

Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service (NCVS) is working in partnership with Nottingham City Council to ensure Nottingham residents are supported to self-isolate in the event of a positive test for COVID-19.

It is recognised that when the self-isolation rules change from being mandatory to recommended people may find it difficult to receive support. Also, people that are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 may feel the need to voluntarily self-isolate. This fund is to ensure that all people who self-isolate receive the support they need to be able to do so.

It is also recognised that the voluntary sector has played and will continue to play a vital role in supporting communities and vulnerable people directly affected by the pandemic. This fund is to help you to continue to carry out this vital work.

The fund is open for applications from Thursday 24 February (today) until 12 noon on Monday 14 March 2022.

We know this is a tight deadline but we have made every effort to make the application process as simple as possible, so please do apply if you feel you meet the criteria.

Full guidance documents and the application form are on the NCVS website.

If you have any difficulty with the application or need any assistance please get in touch at ncvs@nottinghamcvs.co.uk. We will be happy to help.

It's time to start planning your staff and volunteer training for the year ahead. Our most popular courses are back, and we will be adding even more opportunities in the next few weeks.

Are you looking for that next level course? One of the new courses you can book onto is 'How to be a Better Leader of Volunteers', which invites you to explore some of the real-life issues you are facing.

Our next available course dates are listed in the Training section, as you scroll further down this e-bulletin. Or take a look at the full programme now on our website.

This interactive online session on Monday 28 March 2022 (10.30am to 1pm) 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 and booking closes on Sunday at 4pm.

If you scrolled quickly past our opening news story, please make sure to check if you meet the criteria for this new grant programme.

The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Monday 14 March 2022.

Over the very many years that I have been a Leader of Volunteers, the phrase "Volunteer Passport" has faded in and out of fashion. It has resurfaced on the national scene in reports produced before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although I have never been a fan of this concept, I want to explore the positives and negatives of volunteer passports and invite you to let me have your feedback.

Like many aspects of volunteering, there is no single definition of a "Volunteer Passport"...

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.

Our very first GreenSpace Bulletin was published and distributed last week. This shares news and information about the project and the organisations working with us to develop green social prescribing across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

You can view the full bulletin in your web browser now. If you would like to receive future issues directly to your inbox, please email greenspace@nottinghamcvs.co.uk with a request to be added to the mailing list.

Nottingham Fempowerment
Tuesday 8 March 2022, 9.30am to 2.30pm
New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6BE

Join Nottingham's Fempowerment collective in celebrating International Women's Day at this free, women-only day with children's activities, speeches, information stalls, dance & drumming workshops, Gulabi Warrior Walk, refreshments and more!

Please read the most up to date information on the IWD Nottingham website. There is no need to book. You are asked not to attend if you’re experiencing Covid symptoms, however, and it's recommended you do a lateral flow test before coming.

Are you a local organisation or project working with women? Do you want to have a free stall on the day? Email Tanya@mojatu.com for more information.

View other events taking place in celebration of IWD, and have your event added to the IWD Nottingham 2022 Events Calendar.

Among the other events, there is an invitation to:

Nergiz Kurdish Women's Group
Monday 7 March 2022, 10am to 12 noon
Room 9 at Nottingham Women's Centre, 30 Chaucer Street NG1 5LP

Come along to a brief presentation about Kurdish women as well as food, drinks and small gifts for attendees.

Thursday 7 April 2022, 10.30am to 12.45pm

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

Wednesday 13 April 2022, 10.30am to 12.45pm

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 5 May 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

Wednesday 18 May 2022, 10.30am to 12.45pm

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

Cost: £25 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 Marshal 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

Tuesday 12 April 2022, 10.30am to 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 27 April 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

Tuesday 10 May 2022, 10.30am to 12.30pm

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 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

Tuesday 5 April 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

Thursday 28 April 2022, 6pm to 7pm

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 11 May 2022, 10am to 12pm

A two-hour 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 25 May 2022, 10am to 12pm

For some time, we’ve been asked about training that goes beyond the basics of managing and supporting volunteers. In this new two-hour online session, we’ll explore some of the real-life issues that you are facing.

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

Places are still available for our upcoming 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.

This workshop is running on two alternative dates. Follow the relevant link to register for your date of choice. There are only a small number of places left for the March date, register soon to avoid disappointment!

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.

The evaluation of the PDU is now complete and we are really excited to share its findings with you. This was quite an in-depth study of the PDU's impacts in the local workforce, from individual workers and volunteers, to their organisations and the wider system. It also highlighted areas of opportunity and where we might be able to make the most difference.

We want to thank everyone who gave some of their time to talk about your experience participating and supporting our activities. We value your perspectives and are already thinking about what steps we'll take next in response to some of the things you shared.

You can read this evaluation report and find out more about the PDU’s impacts on the local workforce on our new evaluation page on the NCVS website.

Tuesday 1 March 2022, 9.30am to 10.30am
Online via Teams
Free to Nottingham city and Nottinghamshire county workers

This hour-long session, delivered by Equation, provides an overview of safe contact principles and practice when working with domestic abuse survivors. It will also explore the implications of COVID-19 on safe contact.

Register via Eventbrite

Friday 4 March 2022, 10am to 12 noon
Room 4, Nottingham Women’s Centre, Chaucer Street NG1 5LP

POhWER is running a free self-advocacy workshop for women as part of the International Women’s Day 2022 calendar of events at Nottingham Women’s Centre.

The workshop is designed to create an awareness of advocacy and teach some self-advocacy skills.

Places are free but spaces are limited. Booking is required by calling Sonia Burns on 07580 840917 or emailing s.burns@pohwer.net.

Tuesday 8 March 2022, 10am to 11am
Free webinar

This session demonstrates how you can use the budget and cash flow tools that are free to download from the CA Plus website. Whether you are an old hand, or if you are new to this, it’s more important than ever to plan ahead.

Register here

Monday 28 March to Friday 1 April 2022 - a week of free online briefings

The Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership and Integrated Workforce Development Team are delighted to announce another free week of briefings.

Click on the titles below for full information. Each link takes you to the Eventbrite page where you can register to attend. Book quickly as some sessions are already full.

Launch event - Transitional Safeguarding
Monday 28 March, 10am to 12 noon

Cultural competency (session is fully booked)

Journey of a young person through the Youth Justice System
Tuesday 29 March, 2pm to 4pm

Beyond words - creative ways of capturing the voice of verbal and non-verbal children and young people
Wednesday 30 March, 9.30am to 12 noon

Adult Safeguarding introduction
Wednesday 30 March, 10am to 12 noon

Practice improvements from Domestic Homicide learning
Wednesday 30 March, 2pm to 4pm

Wellbeing for practitioners
Friday 1 April, 11am to 1pm

Sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) and Safer Sleeping
Friday 1 April, 2pm to 4.30pm

If you have any questions about these events, please email IWDTEventInbox@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Applications close on Friday 4 March 2022 for the April cohort

This is an opportunity for leaders of ambitious charities and social enterprises to access innovative free mentoring programmes. Worth up to £16,000, these programmes are designed to tackle the issues organisations are facing and amplify their impact.

Pilotlight Insight is all about a specific business challenge. It gives charities access to expert consultancy on a challenge of critical importance. At the end of the programme, recommended solutions are presented to the charity.

Pilotlight Direction is all about focus. It’s an opportunity for charities to gain expert insight on a single issue they’re facing. Charities on this programme have a clear picture of what they want to achieve while being open to ideas and change.

Further application rounds are available to start in a later cohort.

Read more on the Pilotlight website

Deadline for expressions of interest: Friday 18 March 2022

PeoplePlus runs a range of frontline public services including prison education, employment support, skills training, apprenticeships, enterprise and independent living on behalf of the government, as well as recruitment, training and development and wellbeing solutions to employers.

They are the largest independent provider of training and education in prisons, including in HMP Nottingham.

To complement their year 4 Prison Education delivery, PeoplePlus is now seeking expressions of interest from a diverse range of organisations to deliver qualifications to offender learners.

If you are a provider of skills training and interested in this opportunity, please read more on the PeoplePlus website and complete the Expression of Interest (EOI) form that is linked to there. Or download the EOI form directly here (Word document).

Giving World, a registered charity (no. 1105883) operating throughout England, protects people from poverty by taking surplus products from businesses and redistributing them to those who need them through local charities and grassroots groups.

Following the challenges of the past few years and the further impending increase to the cost of living, the need in our communities will continue to grow. Giving World can help your organisation to meet that need by providing business surplus stock free of charge, such as clothing, food items, toiletries, cleaning and household products as well as other useful items.

Goods can be collected directly from Giving World (based in Leicester), or delivery can be arranged at cost. You will only ever pay for transport.

To access these goods when you need them, register your organisation with the Giving World website.

If you would like more information, please call 0116 251 6205 between 9.30am-4pm Monday-Thursday and 9.30am-12.30pm Friday.

You can also email admin@givingworld.org.uk.

Equation and Nottingham Youth Justice Service are working together on a research project around girls or young women’s experiences of violence. They are looking for young women living in Nottingham city or in Nottinghamshire, aged between 10-25 to take part in interviews about their experiences.

You can read more about the research on the Respect not Fear website. The website can be shared with girls and young women so they can decide if they wish to take part.

If you are a professional working with girls and young women, and you would like to share your experiences as a professional, please email anthea@equation.org.uk.