Issue 568 | 16 May 2019

Mental Health Awareness Week: research and resources This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme is ‘Body image – how we think and feel about our bodies.’ This topic has been researched in great detail by the Mental Health Foundation and there are lots of statistics, information and links to useful resources on its Twitter feed and on the hashtag #BeBodyKind . The organisation has published a report titled 'Body image: How we think and feel about our bodies', based on its research, which covers new statistics relating to body image as well as policy recommendations. You can read an executive summary of the report and you can download a full version of the report here. Free mental health training and resources for small charities Mind has launched a free e-learning programme designed specifically for small organisations. Mental Health for Small Workplaces is made of three modules: Building your awareness, Looking after yourself and Supporting each other. You can find a link to the eLearning and a selection of supporting resources here. Closing the Employment Gap Toolkit & Scoping Review from the YPHP Young people’s mental wellbeing can significantly affect their ability to apply for, obtain and maintain work. The Young People’s Health Partnership (YPHP) and partners from the Health & Wellbeing Alliance have developed a toolkit for those working with young people to support them. This includes a Closing the Employment Gap for Young People Toolkit and a Scoping Review . Please share these amongst your networks particularly organisations that support young people. You can find out more about the YPHP and its work on the website.

News, views and opportunities

NAVCA members: share your Volunteers' Week celebrations Volunteers' Week is fast approaching and we want to hear from our members about the ways you'll be celebrating and thanking volunteers! We will promote your activities in LINX and on Twitter, so let us know what you will be doing during Volunteers' Week.

Working with your trustees one-to-one: new guidance from the AoC The Association of Chairs (AoC) has released a new guide about working with trustees for its members and participants of the Beacon Programme. The guide features the AoC’s new trustee cycle and practical ideas and suggestions as to how you can work with trustees from recruitment through to departure. You can find out more about the guide and what it covers in this blog post.

Help the CQC work better with VCSE sector The Care Quality Commission is asking voluntary and community organisations to take part in a survey which will help them to shape guidance on how the Commission will work with the sector. This will include what to expect from the CQC and how VCSE organisations should share information with them. The CQC is looking to make changes at local level and is encouraging small and local charities and community groups to take part in the survey, which should only take five minutes. You can find the survey here.

Digital roundup

Uniting charities through digital discussion and decision-making tool NAVCA member B&NES 3SG uses Loomio to communicate with its members and has recently been featured in a blog by Loomio, exploring some of the features that it benefits from. Loomio is an app that helps people have discussions and make decisions together. After significant growth in its community of charity and non-profit groups, B&NES 3SG found that organising events, arranging meetings and making community-wide decisions was becoming difficult. With the help of Loomio, they are able to stay organised, and keep track of communications so that members don’t struggle to catch up on information they may have missed. Find out more here.

Should your charity be in the Cloud? Office 365 vs Office desktop: which is really best for your charity? This is the topic of a recent article from Charity Digital News which offers some impartial tips about Microsoft cloud and desktop services. Give it a read if you are considering whether to ditch the traditional desktop-based versions of programs like Word, Excel and PowerPoint to move to Microsoft’s cloud-hosted versions. Read now.

Events

Joining Forces Collaborative Event, Birmingham, 20 May Join Good Things Foundation for a free event on Monday 20 May at Birmingham Hippodrome to find out more about local membership and community services that can help you to strengthen your own organisation and to build resilience. You can drop in and chat to the Good Things Foundation team about the Online Centres Network, or any of its exhibiting partners, any time between 10am and 2pm. Please just book your place so that they know you are coming!

Volunteers' Week, 1-7 June Volunteers' Weeks takes place from 1-7 June, when we come together to show volunteers exactly what they mean to voluntary and community organisations, the individuals and communities they support. There are lots of resources available to support your activities on the Volunteers' Week website , where you’ll also find examples from other organisations and planned events that are taking place throughout the country.

International Social Prescribing Network Conference, July 11-12, University of Westminster This two-day collaborative conference will provide an exciting opportunity to hear the latest research and thinking on the implementation and practice of social prescribing around the world. You will hear how social prescribing is being implemented in Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Finland as well as understanding progress in the home countries of the UK.  Keynote talks and breakouts include the latest strategic information and discussion from NHS England by James Sanderson, Director of Personalised Care and a comprehensive review of the evidence for lifestyle medicine by Dr Dean Ornish, Clinical Professor of Medicine, University College San Francisco.

Jobs

Visit our   jobs page  for more details on current vacancies in the voluntary and community sector, or click on the links below: Engagement Worker (Culture Champions), Salford CVS HOUR Manchester Project Coordinator, Macc, Manchester Also here's a   quick guide  to selling yourself when applying for a job in the voluntary sector. Advertise jobs and contracts here, on our website and through our Twitter page! Just send details including a weblink to   webedit@navca.org.uk . This service is free to members.

Funding, contracts & awards

Our funding section is brought to you by  Community Matters Yorkshire . Goldsmiths' Company Charity Grants are made to London-based or national charities, for the relief of poverty, the advancement of education and any other charitable purposes. Deadline 01 June. St Giles Charities The St Giles Charities make a range of grants to support individuals, projects, organisations and schools in central London. The charities’ objectives focus upon two areas: Education and Financial Hardship. They are active in an area of benefit that covers parts of the West End and Bloomsbury, centred on the parishes of St Giles-in-the-Fields and St George’s, Bloomsbury. Deadline 03 June. Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust makes grants to support the Armed Forces Community. They manage the grant programmes funded by the Covenant Fund. They also run wider funding programmes that support the Armed Forces Community. Deadline 05 June. PRS- The Open Fund for Music Creators The Open Fund supports the development of outstanding songwriters and composers of all genres and backgrounds and at different stages of their career. The fund can support projects by songwriters, composers, or artists, bands, producers and performers who are writing their own music or commissioning others. Deadline 10 June. Lloyds Bank Foundation - Enable Programme Enable grants are awarded to charities which have identified clear development needs, and provide a great opportunity to strengthen charities to deliver more effectively.  Movement for Good offers grants of £1000 and £50,000 Ecclesiastical’s Movement for Good Charity Grant event is offering 500 grants of £1000 along with 10 grants of £50,000. You can nominate one group to win £1000 designed to help them in the work they do and the services they offer. There are no restrictions on the organisations and groups that can nominated, other than they operate on a not-for-profit basis. Deadline 17 May . The ten larger grants of £50,000 are aimed at organisations that are actively championing new projects to communities in the advancement of education and skills; citizenship or community development; arts, culture or heritage. Organisations can submit their applications from the 7 June 2019 until Friday 26 July 2019.

Blogs

Fozia Irfan CEO of Bedfordshire & Luton Community Foundation asks whether the benefactor-beneficiary relationship is stuck in the past, in this blog for The Blagrave Trust. Rupert McNeil, Government Chief People Officer, opens up about his own mental health problems in this blog, which supports a series of ‘ This is me’ films, developed by the Civil Service Leadership Academy for Mental Health Awareness Week.

Health and social care

Social Prescribing Awards The Social Prescribing awards are a new initiative from the  Social Prescribing Network , the  College of Medicine  and the  University of Westminster , and are organised by Chamberlain Dunn. The winners will be celebrated during the  International Social Prescribing Network Conference  being held at the University of Westminster on 11 and 12 July 2019. For the purpose of these awards, social prescribing means a referral from a professional to a link worker and then an onwards referral from the link worker, usually to the voluntary, community or social enterprise sector. There are 4 categories open for entry. The submission deadline for entries is 17:00 on 4 June 2019 and you can find out more here.

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