New fund for frontline organisations tackling loneliness
The government has announced it will launch a
£2 million fund to help organisations at the frontline of tackling loneliness across the country.
The funding aims to support frontline, grassroots organisations that bring people together and help them build social connections. The investment will help small organisations promote themselves more widely, help fund the use of suitable venues and accessible transport, and bring established groups together to best serve local people at risk of loneliness.
The funding marks one year since the publication of the Government’s landmark Loneliness Strategy which outlined almost 60 commitments to end loneliness. This included funding 126 projects through its £11.5 million Building Connections Fund.
Baroness Barran, Minister for Loneliness, said:
“Loneliness is one of the biggest public health challenges our country faces and we are committed to tackling it head on. This new fund is a fitting way to mark one year since the launch of our landmark strategy and will help grassroots organisations address the issue in their own communities.
“I have had the privilege of meeting so many people, young and old, who are unsung heroes and heroines in their communities, bringing people together through cafés, reading groups, arts and crafts, gardening, sports and more. They have told me how they want a chance to celebrate their work, together with other local groups, so they can raise awareness and encourage more people to be involved.
“This new investment shows how much we value their work and our continued commitment to beating loneliness.”
More information about the funding application process, including eligibility and when it will open, will follow in due course. You can
read more about the fund here.
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New resources from Good Finance for infrastructure organisations
Good Finance has released a collection of tools and resources
to help infrastructure organisations present on Good Finance and social investment. All of these free tools have been tried, tested, and refined by NAVCA and our members.
On the Good Finance website you will find presentations, case studies, blogs, podcasts and more, all designed to help infrastructure organisations to support their VCSE members on their own social investment journey.
Take a look.
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Transforming the power dynamics of grant making
Charity thinktank NPC is exploring the power dynamics in grant-making as part of its research for an upcoming guide on how to recognise power dynamics at play and what to do about it.
NPC has hosted a series of seminars on this topic and Sufina Ahmad, who attended two of the events, sets out her top three reflections on how the ideas discussed can be put into practice,
in this blog.
How have you grappled with the power dynamics in grant making? NPC would love to hear your experiences, to feed into the new guide. Get in touch with Fatima Asif at
fatima.asif@thinkNPC.org.
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Get ready for Charity Fraud Awareness Week
Next week is Charity Fraud Awareness Week 2019 and this year will offer charities a raft of ways to help the sector protect themselves from criminals including the risks of cyber crime.
The report explains the range of different cyber attacks being used to target charities, some of which are outlined in
this article from Charity Digital News
. You’ll also find five ways that you can proactively take part in Charity Fraud Awareness Week and help to protect your organisation from fraud.
Take a look
.
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Making your website accessible: top tips from Scope
Is your website accessible to people with disabilities? According to
a study by WebAIM
earlier this year, 98% of homepages from one million popular websites failed to meet legal accessibility standards.
So, how can you make sure that the 14 million people in the UK living with some form of disability can use your website? Members of Scope’s digital team spoke about this at the Festival of Marketing 2019, sharing some practical tips on how you can transform your online accessibility. This includes the use of alt text on images and user testing throughout the design process. You can read the top tips in
this article from Econsultancy.
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Charity Fraud Awareness Week promotes openness and honesty about fraud. It brings together everyone involved in the charity and not-for-profit sectors to raise awareness and share good practice in tackling fraud and financial crime.
This event will bring together experts from across charity, fraud and cyber security and get to the heart of the vulnerability of charities to fraud. It will demonstrate the devastating effects of fraud on a charity but also give you practical assistance to tackle it.
Presentations will include ‘Fraud Resilience with the Charity Commission’, ‘Staying Cyber Safe with TITAN’ and ‘Good Governance with Brabners’.
Collectively, the event partners hope to expose the extent of fraud within the charity sector and offer practical advice to help protect against it. Suitable for advisers, trustees, volunteers and in-house staff from the charity sector.
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Organised by CVS South Gloucestershire in collaboration with
NAVCA and the
Good Finance teams, this event brings together charities, social enterprises and community businesses with social investors to network, share information and discuss the latest issues relating to repayable finance.
Social investment is the use of repayable finance to help an organisation achieve a social purpose. Charities and social enterprises can use repayable finance to help them increase their impact on society, for example, by growing their business, providing working capital for contract delivery, or buying assets. Find out more about the event
here.
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Join Good Things Foundation for a free event on Wednesday 20 November at Trinity Community Arts Centre in Bristol to find out more information 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 them, and any of the following partners any time between 11am and 2pm. Please book your place so that they know you are coming!
Some of the exhibitors attending include: Good Things Foundation, Online Centres Network, Locality, VOSCUR, Citizens Advice Bristol, Groundwork, St John's Ambulance, WECIL and North Somerset Training. If you are another organisation also interested in having a free space to talk to local people at this event, please contact Good Things Foundation at
hello@goodthingsfoundation.org
.
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Visit our
jobs page
for more details on current vacancies in the voluntary and community sector, or click on the links below:
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.
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Funding, contracts & awards
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Concertina makes grants to charitable bodies which provide musical entertainment and related activities for the elderly. This not only brightens up their lives, but also provides a therapeutic benefit to their health and well-being. Deadline 31 October.
The fund benefits vulnerable children and young adults, especially those at risk of sexual and other forms of exploitation. Deadline 31 October.
The Youth Music Programme is the name for Youth Musics grant-making process. Its main aim is to support music-making opportunities for children and young people in England and, in particular, for those in challenging circumstances.
Grants are available for charitable organisations involved with conservation of culture inherited from the past and the dissemination of knowledge, particularly in the humanities field.
Small Grants for purposes that will improve the longevity sustainability and services offered for older people across the UK.
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Claire Murdoch
, NHS National Director for Mental Health, shares her vision for the future of mental health – a future in which the NHS and local partners work hand in hand to ensure people with mental health issues get the best care possible, as close to home as possible.
Caron Bradshaw
, chief executive of Charity Finance Group, asks (and answers) ‘Why does the narrative around public 'trust' makes me feel so uncomfortable?
Jay Kennedy
, Director of Policy and Research at DSC, argues that the Charity Commission is losing the confidence and respect of those it regulates.
Chris Walker
from NCVO takes a look at this week’s Queen’s Speech; what’s in it and what it means for charities.
Becky Malby
discusses an asset-based approach to health, outlining the best bits of advice on how to develop social prescribing, which feature in the recently launched Asset-Based Health Inquiry.
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Groundbreaking new platform launched to support mental health
Public Health England (PHE), in partnership with the NHS, has launched
Every Mind Matters to help people take simple steps to look after their mental health, improve their mental wellbeing and support others.
A new PHE survey reveals more than 8 in ten (83%) people have experienced early signs of poor mental health including feeling anxious, stressed, having low mood or trouble sleeping in the last 12 months. While these can be a natural response to life’s challenges, they can become more serious if people don’t take action, and many wait too long.
Over a quarter (27%) of people who experienced signs of poor mental health waited at least 6 months before taking action to manage their mental health, with three quarters (74%) of those who waited this long wishing they had done so sooner.
Every Mind Matters shows people the simple steps they can take to be better prepared for life’s ups and downs. The launch follows 18 months of planning and local and regional piloting, developed with clinical and academic experts, national mental health charities and input from people with experience of poor mental health.
Find out more.
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25 million to be offered free NHS flu jab this winter
The NHS has prepared for its largest ever flu protection drive to help keep people well and ease pressure on urgent care services over the colder months.
The number of people eligible has topped 25 million this year as the offer of the vaccine is now extended to all primary school aged children – an extra 600,000 children. NHS commissioned school vaccination teams, maternity services, general practices and local pharmacies are all now gearing up to provide vaccines to primary school aged children, 2 and 3 year olds, those with underlying health conditions, pregnant women and older adults (aged 65 years and over).
Employers of frontline health and social care workers also have a responsibility to ensure their staff can get the free vaccine. A record number of NHS staff – almost 3 quarters of a million, or 70.3% of frontline workers – took up their workplace jab last year.
Read more.
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Department of Health & Social Care: Webinars for the VCSE sector
The Public Participation and Voluntary Partnerships teams at NHS England / NHS Improvement, along with National Voices, are co-hosting a webinar for VCSE organisations, including Health and Wellbeing Alliance members and others, to introduce and explain Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and discuss how to get involved, including providing support under the ‘prospectus’. The webinar is taking place at 11am on Thursday 31 October and will last for one hour.
As part of the Long Term Plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement made a commitment to develop a ‘menu’ of evidence-based interventions to support the narrowing of health inequalities and improve equity of access and outcomes.
This webinar is an opportunity for the VCSE sector to hear about how this menu is being developed and how they can submit evidence-based interventions for inclusion in the menu. Presenters include Ranjit Senghera from NHS England and NHS Improvement, and Sarah Sweeney from Friends Families and Travellers (a member of the
Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Alliance
).
This webinar will be an update from the Voluntary Partnerships team at NHS England and NHS Improvement on the current workstreams to deliver on the commitments laid out in the NHS Long Term Plan focused on Volunteering. The webinar is for Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise organisations. This webinar is part of a series to promote the Principles for VCSE Engagement. Find out more
here.
You can find a list of upcoming NHS England webinars in October and November
here.
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