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Welcome to the latest edition of the Halton & St Helens Voluntary and Community Action E-Bulletin and thanks for signing up to continue receiving our ebulletins!

VALUES in 3 Bitesize Sessions

Each of us has a unique personal pattern of priority values. Our values are closely interwoven with our sense of ‘self’. One the biggest challenges for any of us in any role is being confident in ‘who’ we are and how someone like us thinks and speaks. With greater insight into our own values, and how those values influence and inform our behaviour, we can better understand the meaning we make of situations. We can also bring a deeper authenticity to our relationships with others creating positive impacts on our resilience and both our capacity to exercise leadership and to be innovative.

Ninety minutes of discussion, small group work and individual tasks across three topics to develop actionable insights into what makes us tick and how to keep it ticking...

Knife Crime - Extra Home Office Funding

Charities in England and Wales can bid for a share of a £1 million Home Office fund to help steer young people away from gangs and violent crime. The fund has been set up to support community projects which reduce knife crime and have a positive impact on young people at risk of carrying a knife and committing crime. The first round of the fund was launched in October 2017 and they are now making available up to £1 million to be spent by end of March 2019 (deadline for submission of bids is 15 June 2018). The fund is open to voluntary and community sector groups and we are inviting bids for funding for projects of up to £30,000 although bids will be considered for greater funding for projects with collaboration between partners...

Lay Member for Patient and Public Involvement Grade 4

This is a part-time post (3 days per week initially) for a lay project team member for patient and public involvement in a large-scale research project which will develop and test an intervention aimed at urgent dental care service users. You will join a core project team of 5, including researchers and administrative staff. The project is funded by NIHR Programme for Applied Research. You will lead on championing patient and public involvement activities in the research project, and in particular will assist a researcher in leading a Community Advisory Group consisting of patients and dentists in the development of intervention materials aimed at addressing inequalities in urgent dental care uptake. More generally, you will provide input into the research activities and dissemination from the patient and public perspective...

Help Available For People Stressed Because of Money Problems

Mental Health Awareness Week 2018 may have now ended but local charity Citizens Advice Halton is still urging people who are worried and feeling stressed about their finances and paying their bills to get in touch for support and advice. Last year they helped over 1,600 local people who were struggling to pay their bills and falling into debt. Over 50% of whom had Council Tax arrears or rent arrears, both classed as priority debts because you risk being imprisoned or losing your home through eviction...

St Helens Day: Citizens Parade Featuring The Mayor

On Saturday 30th June, Heart of Glass will host very special people’s parade, celebrating the everyday heroes who make St Helens the special place it is! St Helens Day is part of a year long programme of events which celebrate the St Helens 150 Anniversary, and an opportunity for us to celebrate our town and all it's citizens - past, present and future. Performance artists Eggs Collective will lead a colourful procession through the town centre, featuring local community groups, voluntary organisations, the Mayor, musical performances and vintage vehicles from the North West Museum of Road Transport. They are recruiting a very special team of volunteers who will help them make St Helens Day Parade possible in a variety of ways...

Basic Bid-Writing Training and Monitoring & Evaluation Courses

Our colleagues from Halton Borough Council’s External Funding Team have asked us to circulate the information about their next series of Basic Bid-Writing Training and Monitoring & Evaluation Courses run by Halton Borough Council’s External Funding Team. If you wish to attend please complete and return the attached booking form or complete it online. The training is free for groups in Halton. Groups from St Helens can attend for a nominal charge of £40.00...

Volunteers Wanted For Liverpool Pride

Liverpool Pride are looking for volunteers to help with this years Liverpool Pride festival. They are especially looking for young people aged 18-25, but older groups are also more than welcome to volunteer too! You don't have to be LGBT to volunteer, they are also looking for allies or people who want to gain some experience. There will be a number of roles with lots of experience for you to gain as well as having fun...

Vision Support Mobile Unit Visiting The Area

Do you have sight loss? Then Vision Support may be able to help with Independent living, IT Training (computer lessons), Low vision and daily living aids, Home visiting, Volunteering opportunities, Welfare and benefits advice, Social clubs and activities...

Willowbrook Hospice Receives Special Award From St Helens Chamber

Willowbrook Hospice has been recognised with a special award for their contribution to the local community at the St Helens Chamber Business Awards. Hosted by Peter Emmett with special guests Paul Wellens and Jon Wilkin, the glittering award ceremony was held at the Totally Wicked Stadium in St Helens with over 260 guests enjoying a three course meal before the winners of were announced. The hospice fundraising team received the Special Award for their contribution to the local community, with particular recognition given to their work with local primary schools in the Enterprise 250 project...

A New Autism Strategy For Halton

One Halton would like to invite you to the launch of Halton’s All-Age Autism Strategy. The Strategy and accompanying Delivery Plan set out what they hope to achieve over the next three years and beyond to ensure that people with autism have the same opportunities as everyone else. The Delivery Plan reflects priority areas for action as identified by young people and adults with autism who, along with their carers, families and key providers of services, have been closely involved in developing the Strategy and Delivery Plan through a series of events...

Wood Pit Disaster Commemoration Concert

A deeply moving choral homage to a terrible local colliery disaster is set to feature at Haydock Library 140 years on, as part of the award-winning Cultural Hubs, arts-in-libraries programme. The concert, led by the Haydock Male Voice Choir will commemorate the tragic disaster that occurred at the Wood Pit in Haydock on 7 June 1878, which took the lives of 204 men and boys, and left 93 widows and 282 orphans. In the wake of the tragedy, the grieving community showed great strength under very difficult circumstances to come together in support of each other. A fund was set up by Lord Derby which raised about £25,000 – roughly £2 million in today’s money...

WASPI

WASPI Women Against State Pension Inequality to campaign against the rise in state pension age. Are you a Woman born in the 1950's and interested in joining Halton, Widnes Runcorn Supporters Group?. WASPI will be having their next meeting Tuesday 5th June at 7:30pm...

Trustee Vacancies

Due to the retirement of longstanding trustees, the PH Holt Foundation is looking to recruit three new trustees to its board and welcomes applications from individuals who share our values and commitment to making a positive difference in communities across Merseyside. We are particularly keen to strengthen our board’s expertise and skill base with professionals from the private, public and charity worlds with experience in one or more of the following areas...

Don't Forget...

VCSE Connect

Information about the voluntary, community, charitable sector still remains one of the key issues raised by professionals and clinicians when you ask the question “What could the voluntary sector do?” or “How can I refer this person to something more appropriate?”

As the gateway into the sector, Halton & St Helens VCA holds lots of information and data about local voluntary action.  We have produced that in great detail, in “Here to Help”, provided a search facility on our website, share information with key organisations and have many different ways of sharing what groups do, but still people say they don’t know what groups exist, what they do and how they get to them or refer to them.  So Halton & St Helens VCA has been working on an extension to our database which will display information about groups in an easy format, tell you what they do and when, allow clinicians and other key professionals to log-in directly and make a referral directly to the group (as long as they have agreed to receive referrals).  This means for the first time there will be a single place where referrals to the local voluntary and community sector can be made.

If you would like your organisation to be included in the VCSE Connect directory...

Volunteer Week - Events

Volunteers Week 2018 (1st - 7th June) is an opportunity to recognise the contribution made by volunteers across the UK and raise awareness of the value and impact their volunteering can have on people’s lives. The annual campaign, established in 1984, seeks to recognise the contribution millions of volunteers make to our communities every week. More than 15m people volunteer in the UK every month. They lend their time and talents to causes as varied as food banks, libraries and hospitals. Volunteers’ Week is the perfect opportunity to recognise volunteers who give their time, energy and enthusiasm to helping other. Volunteering is a way to give something back.  It is also an opportunity for volunteers to benefit from new experiences, make friends, gain skills and have fun.

As part of this volunteer celebration, Halton Volunteer Centre are holding a number of events/days out that any volunteer from either Halton, St Helens or the wider area is welcome to attend / join...

Please feel free to forward this email onto any other organisations/individuals who you feel would be interested. Apologies if you receive this email more than once.

If you have any comments you would like to tell us about this e-bulletin, please send an email to ldaffern@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk or if you have any news/events you would like us to publicise, please complete our News/Events webform: https://www.haltonsthelensvca.org.uk/vca-newsevents-template

Halton and St Helens Voluntary and Community Action