Our recruitment continues with a new post of Database Assistant. We're pleased that the high level of engagement with our website and all services means we're seeking additional support to keep our many contacts up to date (share the advert).

We are looking for a skilled and detail-oriented person to help us achieve a high level of customer support through maintaining the integrity of our data.

If you are keen to understand the operations of a busy charity and you recognise how organised systems can help to build relationships and improve efficiency, this Database Assistant role is for you.

We have also extended the closing date for the Community Engagement Coordinator role (share the advert).

The closing date for both vacancies is 12 noon on Monday 25 April 2022.

Please take a look and share our adverts widely with your networks.

Mojatu Foundation is happy to share details of this new project, alongside Gain Diaspora and FYA (Fearless Youth Association), and supported by many others.

This project is to help those in need of extra food this month, aiming to reach 200 to 300 families in Nottingham. The aim is to provide 500 meals each week, with an estimated provision of 2,000 meals in the month of April 2022.

Please see the Mojatu Foundation website for more information and contact details.

You will have seen in previous NCVS e-bulletins that Nottingham City Council is currently consulting on the detailed proposals for Children’s Centres and the new citywide Early Help offer.

If you had registered to attend, you will already know that the online public consultation meeting due to take place earlier this week (Tuesday 5 April) had to be rescheduled.

This means there is still time to get involved and make your voice heard. It's very important that Nottingham City Council hears the perspectives of voluntary and community organisations who are working with children and families.

The new date for the MS Teams meeting is Thursday 21 April 2022 from 5pm to 6.15pm. Register to attend via Eventbrite

The full background to the consultation process is here.

If you have any queries about the process, email engage@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.

Closing date for applications: Sunday 24 April 2022

Western Power Distribution (WPD) has teamed up with Localgiving to deliver the Community Matters Fund. This current round of funding is to support charitable organisations in their response to people suffering with their mental health due to loneliness and/or social isolation.

The Community Matters Fund is looking to support projects addressing loneliness and social isolation that fit within the following themes:

• Delivering services to reduce loneliness and/or social isolation
• Delivering services to improve mental health caused by loneliness and/or social isolation
• Delivering educational activities focused on skills development and ongoing support to reduce loneliness and/or social isolation (e.g. digital skills, employability skills, life skills)
• Innovative approaches to combat loneliness and/or social isolation and its associated impact on mental health.

Please read the full guidelines on the WPD website. Depending on the type of organisation, up to £2,000 or up to £10,000 can be applied for. East Midlands is one of the eligible regions.

All applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application by 4 May 2022 and projects must be delivered by 31 December 2022.

The next Leaders of Volunteers Network (LoVN) meeting takes place on Zoom on Thursday 14 April 2022 from 10am to 12 noon.

This is an online networking meeting for anyone with an interest in managing, supporting or leading volunteers.

Among our topics this time:

• News of the launch of the national Vision for Volunteering, which sets out a plan for the next 10 years
• Changes to the Investing in Volunteers quality standard
• An update on Covid-19 guidance for volunteering
• Volunteers' Week 2022 (1-7 June)
• Exploring the challenges we face as Leaders of Volunteers.

Please ensure you register to attend so that you are sent the Zoom meeting link.

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

Tuesday 26 July 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 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

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

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 22 June 2022, 6pm to 8pm

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

Wednesday 18 May 2022, 6pm to 8pm

This two-hour online session is intended for trustees who have completed our 'Being a Trustee' course, who want to further develop their involvement and awareness of trustee duties and improve their personal skill set.

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

Tuesday 21 June 2022, 10.30am to 12.30pm

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 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

Thursday 13 October 2022, 6pm to 7pm

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

Tuesday 14 June 2022, 6pm to 7pm

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

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 25 May 2022, 10am to 12 noon

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

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

Tuesday 12 July 2022, 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

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 10 May 2022, 10am to 11am
Online (MS Teams)

We are pleased to be hosting another session of Nottinghamshire Police’s Abuse of Position for Sexual Purpose Training. This free online workshop is run by Nottinghamshire Police Counter Corruption Unit and will aim to:

• Increase understanding of inappropriate relationships between Police Officers and vulnerable members of the community, including sexual misconduct
• Raise awareness of the warning signs typically associated with these inappropriate relations.

Audience: This webinar is aimed at professionals and volunteers from all sectors who are interested in learning more about abuse of professional position, and may be of particular interest for those who support vulnerable clients. The session will be most appropriate for services based in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

Wednesday 4 May 2022, 9:30am to 4pm
Cleaves Hall Conference Centre, 6 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AS

Places are still available for our free in person workshop exploring good practice essentials on harm reduction. This workshop will explore what harm reduction is and what it means on a practical level for a wide variety of substances, and what support can be provided and how to access this for service users.

Audience: This event is aimed at professionals and volunteers from all sectors who work with people who use substances in non-specialist substance misuse roles.

Registration for this event will close on Tuesday 26 April.

Nominations close at midnight on Monday 11 April 2022

Sustrans are installing new ‘Portrait Benches’ on the National Cycle Network (NCN) across the country as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration, thanks to funding from the Department for Transport.

These artworks will be of local heroes from the last 70 years and celebrate their contribution to the local area by immortalising their image as life-size steel figures alongside a new bench on the NCN.

Local people are asked to have their say on who they think these new benches should represent by nominating their local heroes. In our region, there are plans to install benches in Nottingham (along the River Leen Corridor on the NCN6).

Read more and make your nomination on the Sustrans website. You can make multiple nominations.

Deadline for applications: 10am on Monday 18 April 2022

City Arts is looking to select an artist or arts collective to produce a creative body of work in response to research conducted by the University of Nottingham's Biodiscovery Institute (BDI). The commission is for a fixed fee of £4,000 (inclusive of VAT).

The artist will be asked to explore science themes through public engagement and with staff at the BDI. It is likely that the artist will run initial public engagement sessions to support this process. You must be confident that you can deliver the project within a time period from May to August 2022.

The approach to the work could be an installation, sculpture, digital art, film, dance, sound piece, photography, textiles, publication or visual arts piece. The work produced will result in a public showcase event, seminar or exhibition in collaboration with partners.

To find out more information and to apply, visit the City Arts website or email recruitment@city-arts.org.uk.

Applications close at 9am on Wednesday 27 April 2022

YEF is a programme open to young people aged 16 to 25 years old, based in the East Midlands. YEF invites young people to use their creativity to deliver a project based on their imaginative ideas. Projects can cover any art form.

Projects can have a social action angle, can be an opportunity to develop skills that might be useful for their careers, or be an opportunity to collaborate creatively with others improving their creative and personal development.

Each young person can apply for up to £500 to help deliver their creative idea. Alongside funding, each successful applicant will have access to the following support as part of the online programme:

• 1-2-1 support with an individual Creative Coach
• Project Management Webinars and Creative Discussions.

The programme runs from June 2022 to December 2022. Up to 25 bursaries for young people are available.

More information and how to apply is on The Mighty Creatives website.

Nominations and voting closes on Friday 20 May 2022

The National Diversity Awards is a prestigious black tie event, which celebrates the excellent achievements of grass-root communities that tackle the issues in today’s society, giving them recognition for their dedication and hard work.

The concept for the National Diversity Awards arose when The Diversity Group identified an urgent need for more positive role models to be actively promoted, with the aim to empower and inspire the wide breadth of diverse communities across the UK.

These awards are for people who inspire other individuals through their work, through their commitment to helping others, through their infectious personalities and through adversity.

Find out more on the National Diversity Awards website.