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Digital Training for Not-for-Profits

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Many VCSE organisations have had to suddenly adapt to working online and many with dwindling resources pushed to the edge. At a time when the sector is needed more than ever, in order to help protect our communities face this pivitol moment in our lifetime, we need to provide organisations with the necessary tools to carry out this vital work. Beyond are offering free digital training to all nonprofits working with covid-affected communities in England.

Examples of courses available:

  • Developing a Cyber Resilient Organisation

  • Equity by Design

  • Prototyping in Practice

  • Digital Safeguarding for your Services

  • Building Strong Relational Skills to Sustain Organisational Change

  • Working and Being Together Online

  • Design Thinking for Times in Crisis

Sign up now.

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The Joseph Roundtree's Annual Poverty Report 2020/21

Much of the studies and reports undertaken at the moment have surrounded the impact that the pandemic has had on increasingy poverty levels since the start of lockdown.. However, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation’s annual report has highlighted that actually many members of our communities were already at high risk of poverty. The pandemic has exacerbated these poverty risks and have “hit the hardest” those already struggling.

Their report shines light on the changing nature of poverty since the pandemic took hold and includes insights from the Povert Action Group.

Their main recommendations include:

  • “We need as many people as possible to be in good jobs. Unemployment is expected to rise in the coming months, and we need to see further bold action to retrain workers and create good quality new jobs.

  • We need to improve earnings for low-income working families and ensure more people are in secure, good quality work. Government must support people in the lowest-paid jobs, or people working part-time, to move into higher pay and access sufficient and secure working hours, including bringing forward the Employment Bill.

  • We need to strengthen the benefits system. At a minimum, we need the temporary £20 per week increase to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit to be made permanent, extending this same lifeline to people on legacy benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.

  • We need to increase the amount of low-cost housing available for families on low incomes and increase support for households who have high housing costs.”

These recommendations should be taken into account during the upcoming local elections. We need politcians to listen to reports such as this and implement socio-economic strategies which address these issues in order to curb further rising inequalities.

Full report can be found here.

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VCSE Sector 'Jargon Buster'

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The VCSE sector is notorious for using a plethora of acronyms and complicated semantics in it’s narrative and discussions about the sector. As we are coming up to the elections in May, there will increasing networking and zoom events contemplating the sector, sharing ideas and devising solutions to problems. The sector’s ‘jargon’ therefore will be constantly used and not always understood by everyone.

GMCVO have in light of this, produced a ‘jargon buster’ document in order to help anyone understandably a little overwhelmed with the sector’s rhetoric. This will be extremely useful for organisations and employees across the secto and make conversations more accessible for all.

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Greater Manchester Mayor VCSE Sector Hustings

GMCVO are hosting the VCSE sector Mayoral Hustings event on April 14th 12-1.30pm, ahead of the 6th May election. The successful elected Mayor’s power will significantly affect VCSE organisations across Greater Manchester, and therefore, it is vital that we find a leader who is willing to put our sector at the centre of their build, back, better plan.

The Hustings will be a chance for organistions across the sub-region to scrutinise candidates ahead of the election. The VCSE manifesto will be sent to the three main party candidates ahead of the event.

The candidates attending are:

  • Andy Burnham (Labour & current Mayor)

  • Laura Evans (Conservative) &

  • Simon Lepori (Liberal Democrat)

GMCVO are asking attentees to think about and answer the following questions:

1. What is your own biggest issue at the moment? 

2. What do you think is Greater Manchester’s biggest issue? (not counting Covid-19)

3. What comment or question would you like to put to the candidates?


Register for your space now.


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Your Say on Government Covid Funding

An enquiry into the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to be announced, however pandemic piecemeal investigations have begun. The Committee is calling for evidence now on how well funding provided by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the HM Treasury was distributed. 

The Commitee want to hear your evidence, your views, your point of view.

What ever your thinking is, the government want to know. We don’t know if they will listen or what will result from your submission. What we do know is that if nothing is said, nothing will happen.  

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Attracting & Retaining a Talented & Diverse Workforce Event

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Covid-19 has highlighted the crucial role of the local public sector in keeping society going. Despite this, renewed talk about public sector pay freezes, and the perception of some that local public sector work is stuffy and inefficient, poses a real challenge to the effective recruitment of the next generation of skilled and motivated workers. This, combined with the phenomenon of demographic ageing across the economy, risks a potential skills shortage in some of our most socially valuable jobs.

In this webinar, colleagues are invited to learn about some of the innovative strategies and techniques being deployed across the sector to deliver effective apprenticeship schemes. This event is an opportunity to hear best practice examples of apprenticeship schemes that work to effectively attract, retain, and develop a talented workforce. We will also consider how you can make your organisation more attractive to prospective apprentices and some of the key benefits and support available when choosing to recruit via an apprenticeship route.

You will have the chance to ask questions to peers and leading practitioners on these topics.

Apply to attend here.

25th March 11.30-13.30 CET.

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The VCSE Sector Voice

One of the complaints that is increasingly being heard is that the VCSE is seemingly side lined. This is being said so frequently that it is more than just a perception. One of the ways of being heard is to use avenues that are open to us. One such avenue is here:

 Setting the agenda on infrastructure investment across the North | TheBusinessDesk.com

 If as many of us as possible participated in this survey a voice may be heard. If we do not then the sector voice will not be heard. At the very least, participation puts down a marker to build on the relationship that VSNW is developing with The Business Desk. There are 24 questions, most of which are multiple choice and, at first glance, business orientated. However, there is an “other” box in most of them where comments can be made.

The VCFSE sector in the North West will surely have opinions on all of these. Please air your views as soon as possible.

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Climate Action Fund Open

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The National Lottery Community Fund have opened their 2nd round of the Climate Action Fund (CAF). It’s aim is to aupport communities across the UK to help tackle climate change.

The second round focus on supporting medium-large scale projects focusing on waste & consumption. they encourage place-based, community-led partnerships to apply.

Overview:

Area

UK-wide

Suitable for

Community-led partnerships

Funding size

We’re offering two types of funding in this round - development funding and full awards. The maximum grant size for development funding is £150,000. For full awards, the maximum available is £1.5 million.

Total available

Around £8 million to 10 million is available for this second round of funding. We expect to make 12 to 15 awards in total in this round, and to award more development grants than full awards.

Application deadline

5pm on 8 April 2021 for your initial idea. If you get to the next stage, we expect the rest of the application process to take six to eight months.

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The Baobab Foundation

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The Baobab Foundation has been newly created as a mechanism to secure long-term funding for black and ethnic communities and for those organisations that support them. It has been set up both as a response to the impact of Covid-19 and the murder last year of George Floyd.

Health inequalities are rife in the UK and across the world; BAME communities have been affected disproportionately throughout the global pandemic and it is imperative that this is addressed. Baobab’s vision envelopes transferring power and agency to those organisations who are often issued with less funding; they plan to be led and govered by the very same. Their inspiring vision is to have created this new organisation by the end of Summer 2021 and launch with £5-10million in grant funding by the end of the year. Their longer-term prospectus aims to raise £1billion in endowed funding which will help with adminsitering £50million in funding per year.

They have monthly meetings for members, which is expanding quickly, including many regional and national black and ethnic minority organistions and networks. They are continuing to gain support and traction from charitable funding, corportations and philanthropists.

They do however, still need help and assistance from local infrastructure organistions to reach to every nook and cranny across the country.

They are asking if each CVS could aim to target 5-10 black and ethnic minority community organistions in their networks to become members.

Please contact Jermain or Yoanna for more information.

This is a wonderful and much needed vision, a fantastic tool which will be invaluable as the UK addresses the extensive inequality and racism experienced by many communities.

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