Angela Kandola and Mimi Gbadesire joined the NCVS team in the summer of 2023 and they've been busy building strong connections with local organisations and communities. It's time to introduce their work in full.

Angela and Mimi are employed by NCVS as job share to deliver the Changing Futures programme as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Community Engagement Coordinators. NCVS is delighted to be hosting the role and to benefit from their combined experience and expertise.

Changing Futures Nottingham is one of 15 partnerships across the country working towards sustainable improvements in 'the system' which supports people facing Severe and Multiple Disadvantage (SMD).

People from minority ethnicities are under-represented on the Changing Futures programme, particularly those from Asian and Asian British and White non-British communities. The programme needed provision for assertive outreach and community engagement into these under-represented communities.

Angela and Mimi are connecting with voluntary, community and faith organisations to raise awareness of SMD and how it affects different people. This involves:

• Engaging and communicating with people from different backgrounds to understand the prevalence of SMD and the challenges in accessing services.
  
  
• Working with community leaders and groups to design and deliver engagement activities that help to improve knowledge of SMD and impact on communities.
  
  
• Building relationships, as well as connecting people with tools, networks, and knowledge about SMD services, especially the Changing Futures Navigators, the Wraparound Multi-Disciplinary Team, as well as the Practice Development Unit (PDU) here at NCVS.

Angela and Mimi can also fund community organisations to deliver tailored, culturally-specific support where a service's specialist support is requested by an individual beneficiary through a Personalised Commissioning Budget.

For further information about any aspect of their work, please contact:

AngelaK@nottinghamcvs.co.uk, Tel: 07933 136750

MimiG@nottinghamcvs.co.uk, Tel: 07483 423629

NCVS is collaborating with Key Fund to hold a free in-person event, where you will hear how Key Fund can support your social enterprise or charity to tap in to non-traditional forms of finance.

This in-person event is on Wednesday 24 January 2024 from 9.30am to 11am.

Our Nottingham venue is still to be confirmed, but please register your interest now to secure your place. We'll make sure there's a breakfast offering of pastries, fruit and drinks.

Are you curious about social investment? This event will be particularly beneficial for those who have responsibility for developing funding and income streams within a finance or business development role.

Key Fund has been investing in social businesses and enterprising charities across the East Midlands and the North since 1999, and has a special interest in helping small community based businesses thrive and grow.

Social Investment can include loans (sometimes blended with grants) to help you achieve your social purpose. Alongside a good business model, the ability to demonstrate your impact will be considered to determine your eligibility for investment.

Please read client stories from Key Fund which demonstrate amazing impact.

If any of these stories resonate with you, come along to hear more.

Charities have been reacting to yesterday's Autumn Statement 2023, criticising its "punitive welfare measures". You can read some of the responses in this Civil Society news article. Further responses from charity sector infrastructure bodies have been reported in a separate news article.

NCVO's (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) Policy and Insight Manager has provided these insights into the implications of the Autumn Statement for charities.

Despite the backing of more than 1,400 charities, NCVO's call on the chancellor to address chronic underfunding of public services was overlooked. They say, "Not uplifting grants and contracts to cover the true cost of delivering them means some charities will be forced to step away from delivering public services or reduce the services they offer, leaving people without the support they need and deserve."

If you would like to add your voice to NCVO's national campaigns advocating for the sector, please email policy@ncvo.org.uk.

Equivalent to an MBE, The King's Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK. The awards scheme aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to benefit their communities.

The well-deserved winners in 2023's awards are:

• Notts LGBT+ Network
• Himmah
• Beeston Community Resource CIO
• Care after Combat (based in Newark)
• Framework Knitters Museum (in Ruddington)

Congratulations to all. It's a fantastic achievement!

Thursday 14 December 2023, 10am to 12 noon
Online via Zoom

This is the new name for the combined networks which used to meet as the Children and Young People's Providers Network (CYPPN) and Vulnerable Adults' Providers Network (VAPN).

NCVS will be hosting and facilitating a varied agenda, with presentations, collaborative workshops, and time for networking.

Topics on December's agenda include:

• Presentation by Habib Akhtar, Service Manager for CGL The Place
  Services available for under 25s who are using or at risk of substance use or impacted by another person’s alcohol or drug use.
  
  
• Presentation and collaborative workshop by National VCSE Observatory at Nottingham Trent University: how do you feel about data?
  How can improved insights around data help us strengthen the visibility of the Nottingham VCSE sector?
  
  
• A discussion around co-production
  What does it mean? How can we do it well?

We look forward to seeing you there. Please register to ensure you receive the Zoom meeting link.

Nottingham City Council is working in partnership with Spacehive to deliver a new Crowdfunding programme designed to help community groups and organisations in Nottingham to create, fund and deliver new community-led projects.

The Crowdfund Nottingham platform is launching next week and you're invited to an online workshop to introduce the programme. It will enable UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) money to be pledged to the community-led projects that local communities want to see happen.

The online workshop is on Wednesday 29 November 2023, from 12 noon to 1pm.

At the workshop, you will find out how projects across Nottingham can pitch for up to £30,000 from the UKSPF Employment Support fund and Community Development fund for capital projects.

A capital project needs to involve construction/upgrading of building facilities in Nottingham City to meet community needs, and/or purchase of associated equipment, e.g. refurbishing a meeting space to deliver one-to-one advice or group work.

You will get guidance on types of viable projects, how to create a project on the platform, and how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign. UKSPF funds can only pay up to 50% of project costs. Organisations will need to successfully crowdfund to achieve full funding targets.

If you can't attend at this time, it's still worth registering, as you will be sent the workshop content after the event.

If you have any questions about the event or accessibility requirements, please email support@spacehive.com.

For other questions about UKSPF funding, email ukspf@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.

Deadline for applications: midnight on Sunday 10 December 2023

Severn Trent Community Fund is offering another much-needed opportunity for groups to apply for support with their core costs. This core funding is for groups that run for the benefit of local residents, supporting those most vulnerable, who need urgent financial help to maintain their services.

You can apply to be considered for a restricted grant of between £5,000 and £20,000 (depending on the size of the organisation) for one year to help get through this incredibly challenging time.

Your organisation must have been operating since 2018 or before and have an annual income of £250,000 or less (averaged over the past five years).

Please note that new projects aren't eligible for these core cost grants. You can apply for other funds through the mainstream Community Fund. However, this is paused at the moment and will resume awarding in March 2024 for applications of over £10,000, and May 2024 for applications of £2,000 - £10,000.

Deadline for applications: Tuesday 16 January 2024

Big Give is partnering with the Environmental Funders Network (EFN) to launch a Green Match Fund campaign for the fourth year, designed specifically for charities working on environmental issues as part of their core mission.

All public donations made to participating charities via theBigGive.org.uk during the week of the campaign (18 to 25 April 2024) will be matched up to a specific amount.

Charities have two different models they can choose to apply for:

• Up to £10,000 in public donations (to be doubled by match funds) through the 1:1 model
• Up to £100,000 in public donations (to be doubled by match funds) through the pledge model. Charities can receive up to £50,000 in Champion funds.

You can watch an introductory webinar recording which explains the Green Match Fund models on The Big Give YouTube channel. View it here.

The reference to “core mission” means that the environment must be mentioned in the organisation’s charitable objects. This may include: biodiversity & conservation; climate change; agriculture & food; sustainable communities; energy; transport; trade & finance; consumption & waste; toxics & pollution. Charities may be working in the UK or overseas.

There are plenty of places available at our next two meetings, and we look forward to seeing you at an online or in-person event soon. Or why not both?

LoVN Extra in-person

LoVN Extra is the branding that we are using for our in-person networking events. Thanks to Diversify Education and Communities CIC, our next one will be held on Tuesday 12 December 2023, 10am to 12 noon at Beechdale Community Centre, 1 Ambergate Road, Nottingham NG8 3GD.

We had needed to limit the number of attendees at our previous LoVN Extra meetings due to the venue size. We're pleased to say that there is plenty of capacity for attendees at Beechdale Community Centre.

Register your place now

Our regular LoVN online

Bookings are open for our next LoVN meeting on Tuesday 23 January 2024, 10am to 12 noon, via Zoom.

Register your place here to ensure you are sent instructions about how to join the Zoom session

If you want to get something on the agenda for this, or a future LoVN, please get in touch: davet@nottinghamcvs.co.uk.

Saturday 25 November 2023, 10am to 6pm
Nottingham Central Library, Nottingham NG1 7FG
Tickets: £5 (plus booking fee)

Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature is championing the bold steps publishers are making to advance equality, amplify the stories of LGBTQ+ writers and illustrators and explore routes into publishing for aspiring authors. This conference will consider the future possibilities for representation in books for all ages.

The event has a particular emphasis on the city’s established culture of publishing comics and graphic novels. It's also a chance to get inside the new Central Library before the doors open to the public next Tuesday (28 November).

Thursday 7 December 2023, 4pm to 5.30pm
City Arts, 11-13 Hockley, Nottingham NG1 1FH
Free to attend

City Arts is hosting a forum discussion and exhibition preview by Move Dance Feel. It explores the powerful role that dance can play in supporting women’s wellbeing during and after cancer treatment.

Move Dance Feel is a creative community. Their mission is to address inequality in cancer care by making dance available, as a mainstream activity, to all women living with and beyond cancer.

This event is for people working in the arts, in cancer care, in healthcare management and/or community and mental health services. The organisers welcome people from different working environments to invite rich discussion during the event and beyond.

Wednesday 13 December 2023, 11.30am to 1pm
Trent Conference Centre, Unit 1 Easter Park, Lenton Lane, Nottingham NG7 2PX
Free to attend

Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC) is bringing together up to 18 different Nottingham-based voluntary and community organisations that provide services or activities for children 0-3 years old and expectant parents. All of these organisations receive funding from SSBC’s Ideas Fund.

SSBC is inviting other interested partners to drop into a lunch time networking session to get to know more about these organisations and projects. You will be provided with a free lunch.

Please email emma.roden1@nhs.net if you would like to know which organisations are involved before signing up. If you have specific dietary requirements, please get in touch by Tuesday 28 November to ensure they can cater for your needs.

Thursday 11 January 2024, 10am to 12.30pm

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 2024, 10am to 12.30pm

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 29 November 2023, 10am to 12.30pm

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

Cost: £25 per participant

Tuesday 13 February 2024, 6pm to 7.30pm

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 6 February 2024, 6pm to 8pm

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

Thursday 22 February 2024, 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 24 January 2024, 12 noon to 2pm

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

Tuesday 16 January 2024, 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 20 February 2024, 6pm to 8pm

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

Monday 8 January 2024, 10.30am to 12.30pm

What is the right structure for your organisation? This 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 23 January 2024, 1pm to 2.15pm

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 cost of living funding and recovery support as well as other general funding.

Cost: £10 per participant

Thursday 28 March 2024, 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 13 March 2024, 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

Wednesday 10 January 2024, 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 21 February 2024, 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

Thursday 8 February 2024, 10am to 12 noon

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 17 January 2024, 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 Practice Development Unit (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 severe and multiple disadvantage (SMD). This is understood as a combination of mental ill-health, substance misuse, homelessness, offending and domestic abuse, among other issues.

Contact Katie Hall, our PDU Programme Manager, for more information: enquiries@pdunottingham.org

Join our free online hub www.pdunottingham.org

Follow us on Twitter @NottinghamCVS #PDUNottingham.

Tuesday 28 November 2023, 1pm to 3pm

A bi monthly forum where we work together to better understand the barriers to employment, training and education opportunities for people living in supported accommodation settings. We explore the challenges for both staff and service users and ways we can work together to share good practice and make positive system changes.

CA Plus (Community Accounting) has a free webinar programme which provides a good introduction to most areas of finance for voluntary and community organisations.

You can join live webinars, but all are recorded, so if you register and are then unable to attend at the time, you will automatically be sent a recording after the event.

The next session on Wednesday 10 January 2024 covers Budgeting and Planning. It will give you an introduction to their free tools and resources to help you plan for the year ahead. You'll hear about a full cost recovery budget tool as well as cash flow forecasting.

Wednesday 6 December 2023
Choose from one of four time slots (8am-8.30am, 12.30pm-1pm, 4pm-4.30pm or 6pm-6.30pm) 
Free to attend, online via Microsoft Teams

Short information sessions were held in September 2023 about the expansion of the current early years entitlements for our youngest children from April 2024, This briefing is a follow up session to ensure the latest information is shared for Childcare Providers delivering the early years entitlements for eligible 2, 3 and 4 year olds.

This information session will be delivered by Nottingham City Council Early Years Team and will focus primarily on the implementation of 15 hours provision for working parents of 2 year olds from April 2024. It will be particularly useful for those currently providing provision for 2 year olds, or looking to do so in the future.

Please respond quickly (before the end of November 2023) to set up an introductory conversation with Dr Diana Frost.

Through our links with the National VCSE Observatory at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), a new opportunity is available for voluntary and community organisations, helping you to harness the power of your data and solve data problems.

In your daily work, you probably collect more data than you think - about your activities, the number of people you reach and how the people you support benefit from what you do. Even about who receives and reads your newsletters.

Are you making best use of this information to report on your impact? Do you wish your data was more organised? How many spreadsheets do you really need, and could there be a better solution?

Dr Diana Frost leads the Masters Programme in Management and Business Analytics at NTU. Students on this one-year course gain theoretical and real-world experience of using quantitative data analysis to solve organisational challenges. She is seeking VCSE organisations who would like to collaborate and become smarter in using their data for better decision-making.

This is a fantastic opportunity. Diana will start by having a conversation with you to understand your organisation's needs. She will help you identify your data project and guide you in developing a case brief. This needs to be in place in December, ready for students to work on the solutions in January / February 2024.

To benefit from this opportunity, please email diana.frost@ntu.ac.uk as early as possible, before the end of November. Places are limited.

If you're not ready at this time, but know you could use data more effectively, it's worth getting in touch now, as this opportunity may run again next year.

The refugee arts charity, Compass Collective, is working in partnership with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Refugee Roots, New Art Exchange and others, to create “Voice Notes” a project for young refugees and asylum seekers aged 16-30.

If you know young people who would like to be part of an international exhibition, sharing their story with people living around the world, please pass on this opportunity.

Workshops are running at New Art Exchange and Attenborough Nature Reserve on three Saturdays: 25 November, 2 December and 9 December 2023 (hot lunch and transport will be provided).

Workshops will last approximately five hours. Participants need to attend all sessions, but no prior experience is necessary.

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers is held on 17 December.

As this year is the 20th anniversary of the demonstration, POW is proposing a takeover of social media in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and asks you to join in to make this happen.

POW will be flooding their social media pages with pictures of their team and supporters holding the iconic red umbrella symbol of the day, as well as pictures of them wearing red shoes to ‘stamp out violence against sex workers’.

Throughout the next month POW staff will be carrying a red umbrella during work hours so that any external partners they meet can use it for their own social media posts. Please feel free to contact POW to arrange someone attending with more umbrellas for larger scale group pictures. POW will be reposting all of the contributions on social media throughout the day, so please ensure to tag them:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/POWnotts/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pow_notts/

You can also repost the graphic displayed above on your social media with the hashtags #POWnotts #IDEVASW2023 #IDEVASWnotts

Contact details are on the POW website if you need to get in touch.

Deadline for applications: 4pm on Monday 22 January 2024

Nottinghamshire Community Foundation is inviting applications from budding entrepreneurs in Nottinghamshire looking for a small grant to support their business development in an 'Angels Den' event. This is a local Dragons Den style event.

Local ‘Business Angels’ are looking to award successful enterprise ideas a grant of up to £3,000, plus support, mentoring and potential investment, to help their business development.

To be considered for a grant, applicants need to

• be resident in Nottinghamshire
• be able to submit a realistic business plan
• have a great enterprise idea.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to pitch their ideas to the panel on the afternoon of Tuesday 6 February 2024 at Ryley Wealth Management, The Arc, NG2 Business Park, Enterprise Way, Nottingham NG2 1EN.

Individuals between 18 and 30 years old who want a new business start up grant without attending a Den event, can apply to another enterprise scheme. See https://www.nottscf.org.uk/grant/swef-grant-programme/

Public Health Master’s degree students at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) are required to undertake a minimum of 280 hours over 10 weeks (4 days a week) or 12 weeks (3 days a week). They will be set learning objectives prior to placement and have to complete a reflective report on what they have learnt on placement and how this fit with their objectives. 

The placement module aims to enhance student employability prospects by providing an opportunity for students to gain understanding through valuable work experience while allowing them to reflect on how a particular health-related organisation operates.

Students have expertise in research, promoting health and wellbeing, policy and politics, public health in the community (national and international scale), socioeconomic determinants of health, health needs and impact assessments as well as multidisciplinary team working.

Students will be matched to opportunities in early March 2024 based on information provided by yourself and the students. The students will commence placement on Monday 15 April.

Please contact Amy Underwood, Placement and Engagement Manager with any questions: amy.underwood@ntu.ac.uk

Deadline for nominations: 5.30pm on Thursday 14 December 2023

The Inspiring Communicator Awards (ICAs) run by CharityComms celebrate those whose services to charity communications truly go above and beyond. The awards highlight people who particularly demonstrate spirit, insight, skills, and, above all, are inspirational in their use of communications for a cause or charity.

To mark a decade of the awards there are 10 categories this year. Categories cover individuals, teams, themes and outputs to recognise the breadth of impressive and impactful work and individuals in the sector.

Please note that you can only nominate a person or team in a single category, so please make sure the nomination is in the most relevant category.

The awards ceremony will be held in person in London on 28 February 2024.

Deadline for responses: Sunday 17 December 2023

Following on from publication of the government's Women's Health Strategy in August 2022, Nottingham City Council’s Public Health team is writing a Women’s Health Needs Assessment.

This survey asks for views of local women (who live in Nottingham City or who are registered with a Nottingham GP) aged 16+ regarding their health and wellbeing.

Your feedback will help the team:

• Assess how women access health & care services
• Understand which aspects of health are most important to women
• Identify any gaps.

The next meeting of the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner's Accountability Board takes place on Tuesday 19 December 2023. The topic is neighbourhood policing.

The Accountability Board is the Police and Crime Commissioner's opportunity to scrutinise, support, challenge and hold Nottinghamshire Police’s Chief Constable to account on behalf of the public to ensure efficient and effective policing services are being delivered.

You can have your say and submit questions for the Commissioner to ask the Chief Constable.

Details of this and future Accountability Board sessions are at the link below.

This survey will remain open into January 2024, but please answer as early as you can.

The latest 'hot topic survey' from Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (HWNN) looks into NHS complaints processes. Whether you have made a complaint, wanted to and changed your mind, or have never considered it, they want to hear from you.