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Aimed at Volunteer Coordinators and Managers this training session will look at what is a difficult volunteer situation, with real life examples. The impact difficult situations may have on your group / organisation, and potential solutions including exit strategies.

Training is funded so free to attend and includes lunch and an opportunity to network.

Book your free place - Email highpeakvol@gvb.org.uk or call the High Peak Volunteering team on 07973 338 717.

>> Download Poster

Derbyshire Disability Action Network Newsletter & Event

DDAN is a Big Lottery funded project that aims to raise standards for dis-abled people across the 3rd Sector. >> Download their first Newletter.

DDAN is running a free Executive Seminar event on the 21 April 2010, directed at decision makers within the voluntary and community sector (Chair's, CEO's, etc) or their representatives. It will run from 10am to 3pm and include lunch. The event is open to frontline organisations and focuses on raising the disability agenda, looking at how we influence policy. It will also include a speaker from Access to Work as a result of the survey completed recently with 3D members.

Bringing People Together Fund

A new small grants programme for communities across Derbyshire

Do you have an idea to involve different groups of people from your local community?
Are you looking for a one off small amount of money to make it happen?

Partners working together in Derbyshire are making small one-off grants of £100 to £2000 available to local community, faith and voluntary groups across Derbyshire, to encourage people from different backgrounds to come together. The Derbyshire Bringing People Together fund is available to make inspiring ideas reality.

Examples of how the fund could be spent are:

Activities that bring young people from different backgrounds and areas together.

Older people’s groups sharing experiences with local school children.

Activities that help neighbours get to know each other better.

Activities that connect schools with the wider community.

These are just examples, but projects are likely to involve arts, food, heritage or community benefit, and be aimed at promoting a sense of belonging and community.

Proposals can be submitted at any time until 16 July 2010, for projects that will be completed by 30th September 2010.

A six week campaign aimed at promoting community cohesion across Derbyshire and labelling activities and projects under the Bringing People Together banner will run from 11 April 2010 – 23 May 2010.

www.derbyshire.gov.uk/partnershipforum

Chesterfield Campaigning Workshop

12 February 2010 9.30am - 4.30pm
at the African Caribbean Community Association, 6 Ashgate Road, Chesterfield

This introductory level campaign workshop is for individuals and voluntary organisations and will provide:
- Insight into the successful features of a campaign – what are the ‘keys to success’?
- Sessions on the key steps in planning and evaluating a campaign.
- An opportunity to consult experts such as experienced campaigners, MPs and journalists on how to put your theories into practice and what tactics have the most impact.

For more information about the workshop, or to book your place, contact Ruby Coote: ruby.coote@smk.org.uk or 020 7700 8231. Spaces are limited so book your place now. The workshop is £10 per individual; this fee covers lunch and refreshments too.

Electoral Guidance for Charities

Updated advice on 'Charities and Elections' has been published by the Charity Commission, to be used in the run up to local or general elections. This includes whether a charity might be required to register with the Electoral Commission if it issues material that could be seen as indicating to the public that particular candidates or parties support or oppose the charity's policies. This depends on how much might be spent, and how, in any campaign around the policies. Commission news release at www.charitycommission.gov.uk/news/pr_elections.asp or read the guidance at www.charitycommission.gov.uk/supportingcharities/elect.asp

Warning to Charities on Direct Debit Fraud

The Charity Commission has issued a warning on fraudulent direct debit payments. A number of such debits have been set from charity bank accounts.

See news item www.charitycommission.gov.uk/investigations/Fradulent_direct_debit.asp including suggested action to prevent this.

Time Off for Trade Union Activities

A new statutory Code of Practice on Time Off for Trade Union Duties and Activities produced by Acas came into effect from the start of January. The updates from the previous version include areas such as the responsibilities of line managers and union representatives in ensuring time off arrangements are effective and access to facilities and the use of electronic communications.

Acas news item at www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2789 or go direct to www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2391

Grinding the Spirit of Charities into Submission

The National Coalition for Independent Action (NCIA), which is based around frustration at the (lack of) independence of voluntary and community organisations from government and vested interests, has been hitting the headlines recently with its objections to the revamped Compact. It has been questioning why the national sector bodies have been supporting this new version of the agreement between government and the sector, including in the pages of The Times. Or see the NCIA version at www.independentaction.net/?p=4813

NCIA has recognised that is has been better at saying what it doesn't like than what it wants, so is holding a debate on 27 February in cooperation with Nottingham Trent University on "current management approaches" in the sector. It will look at alternatives to "repressive contract specifications and targets ...; mechanistic and uncritical quality assurance systems; prescriptive and uniform practices".
See www.independentaction.net/?p=4853

Membership Open for Sector Learning Providers Body

The Third Sector National Learning Alliance, the voice for third sector learning and skills providers, is now accepting membership applications: www.tsnla.org.uk/content/become-member

The Alliance is also creating a toolkit which will make the business case for third sector learning providers, and is after sector case studies showing effective delivery targeted learning as well as examples of social enterprise learning initiatives. See the Word document (31KB).

An Exploration of Community Self Help

A new position paper from the Community Development Foundation 'Help from Within' explores the issues around community self help. It identifies the key questions facing communities in the current political and economic climate and explores the way that communities can often take localised actions to help themselves. In pdf, 108KB. (Source: ACRE headlines)

Working Together for Independent Living

The Office of the Third Sector has gathered examples of effective partnership working from the Supporting People Programme to see what worked best, what has been learned so far, and where the opportunities are now in supporting independent living for the most excluded. Key findings and the publication 'Case studies of Local Authorities and third sector organisations working together to help vulnerable groups into homes and jobs' (Word doc 1.62MB).

Research Overview of Third Sector Role in Housing

The Third Sector Research Centre has produced a number of 'Housing Scoping' papers giving an overview of research and policy reflections on the role played by the third sector in housing. Homelessness advice and support and self-help housing organisations are two of the sub-sectors – the actual briefing paper link (pdf) is easy to miss on the top right of the relevant page.

Volunteering and Mentoring Work with Offenders

A series of Volunteering and Mentoring Guides to support organisations working with offenders have been published by Clinks. Titles include 'Setting up a project', 'Managing volunteers', 'Demonstrating effectiveness' and 'Quality standards'. In pdf format, about 1MB each, from www.clinks.org/volunteeringguides.aspx

Summarising Volunteering in the Recession

An outline report on 'Volunteering in the recession', produced for the Recession Summit last week, has been put online by Volunteering England. It looks at positive and negative developments and highlights crisis points.

NCVO Annual HR Conference

Be a Great Employer – Get the Best from Your Staff
23 March

This event will develop and strengthen your HR knowledge and help you keep up to date with, and understand the implications of, employment legislation. It will cover the core principles you need in employing and managing your staff including salary structures, disciplinary and grievance procedures, conflict resolution, managing sickness absence and poor performance, mergers and managing a diverse workforce.

For more and to book visit www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/HR10 or call Matt on 020 7520 3160.

Arthur Rank Centre: Computers for Rural People

The Arthur Rank Centre is a collaborative unit supported by the National Churches, the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Rank Foundation serving the rural community and its churches.

If you live in a rural area, whether on a farm miles from anywhere, or even in a country town, you have to spend time travelling about to get things done or find things out. That is in addition to commuting of course. Email and Internet provide enormous opportunities when you can’t just pop round the corner to the shop or library. Yet computers are usually expensive, and few people want to buy one "just to see if it might be useful". The Arthur Rank Centre is committed to supporting the rural community, and has set up the "Computers for Rural People" scheme to provide computers at very low cost to encourage people to take the first step.

So if you think a computer might be useful, but can't afford several hundred pounds just to try, we can help you. At a really low price we can provide a computer of your own, pre-loaded with Microsoft software, and delivered to your door with 3 months warranty, to get you started. A fully functioning computer costs as little as £99.

Community Projects – if you need more than one computer, for example, for a Drop-in centre, school or so on, the prices are even lower!

All computers come pre-installed with:
Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003
Three months warranty and free delivery to all UK mainland

It is asked that you make a voluntary donation of £12 minimum to The Arthur Rank Centre to cover costs and support charitable activities.

How to order – contact them at: Computers for Rural People, The Arthur Rank Centre, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire CV8 2LZ
Telephone: 02476 853066
Email: info@arthurrankcentre.org.uk
Website: www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/projects/computers_for_rural_people/index.html

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