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Welcome to the latest edition of the Halton & St Helens Voluntary and Community Action E-Bulletin...

SAVE the DATE..... 4th June 2019

Volunteer Awards and Recruitment Fair, 10am to 2pm at St Helens Town Hall on 4th June.  Details of how to book will follow soon!

Funding Bulletins from Halton Borough Council – April

Our colleagues from Halton Borough Council’s External Funding Team have prepared some Funding Bulletins containing valuable information for voluntary organisations looking for grants to get projects off the ground. The Monthly funding bulletins offering information on funding opportunities in the following areas: Arts, Community & Voluntary, Environment & Heritage, European, Faith, Health, Schools, Sports and Youth...

Cheshire & Merseyside Population Health Framework

The Cheshire & Merseyside Population Health Framework has been developed in conjunction with Cheshire & Merseyside Health & Care Partnership Prevention Board, Public Health England, Local Authorities, the NHS, the voluntary sector and third sector. It sets out evidence based guidelines partners can use to create a transformational and sustainable shift in the health and wellbeing of the Cheshire & Merseyside population. The guidelines are not prescriptive; they aim to support prevention within local place based settings. They can therefore be adapted and interpreted at a local level...
 

Housing First Job Vacancies

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is looking for people with the passion to deliver on their vision and help them to create a truly global and competitive city region which works for everyone.  If you’re interested in a career with the Combined Authority take a look at their current opportunities...

NHS Long Term Plan - Have Your Say

What would you do to improve St Helens health services? Healthwatch St Helens have been tasked by NHS England to do a piece of work around the NHS Long Term Plan Engagement, it is to find out about people’s experiences of health and care services in the borough and to tell them what the NHS can do to help them and their communities stay well and to make the support available better...

The JohnPaul Project

The JohnPaul Project is a charitable service which aims to improve the emotional wellbeing of veterans and their families across Merseyside through targeted psychological therapies and support programmes. The project was set up memory of JohnPaul Finnigan a local veteran who sadly lost his life to suicide in 2018 after a lengthy battle with PTSD. The project is determined to reduce the number of Veteran deaths by suicide, saving lives by using prevention strategies that are based on the best evidence available, together with supporting both veterans and their families to join us all on the road of being a survivor who is equipped to deal with the complexities that life presents. They have produced a new promotional video supporting veterans across the Liverpool City Region...

New Litter Heroes Ambassadors Volunteers Needed

Keep Britain Tidy is seeking new Litter Heroes Ambassadors to join the volunteer programme and they need your help! The Litter Heroes Ambassador programme is for people from all walks of life who want to get their communities involved in litter picking and improving public spaces for all. You need to be at least 18 years old, good at motivating others and willing to get outdoors and lead by example.  Applications are now open until Monday 6th May 2019 and successful applicants will be notified of next steps during the week commencing 6th May...

Apex Trust's Women's HUB

Apex Trust are inviting Women of St Helens to join them every Wednesday from 10:00am to 3:30pm at the Womens HUB at their base in Century House, St Helens. There will be a variety of activities so to find out more please contact Apex Trust for more details...

Job Vacancy-Telephone Helpline & Befriending Co-ordinator

Sightline is a unique service delivering practical and emotional support to the visually impaired community through a confidential, evening, Freephone helpline. The helpline service is available to callers with any visual impairment, families, carers and professionals. Staffed by trained visually impaired volunteers the service operates each evening between 6pm to 10pm. The post will have its office base in Preston, but the role involves working across the North West of England. Clean driving license needed...

Wanted - Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Specialist

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are looking for a new Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Specialist to join the WHH Family. This is a permanent, new role at Band 7 (£33,222 to £43,041 pa) Working pattern is 37.5 hours per week. The closing date for applications is Sunday 7th April 2019 and the interviews will be taking place on 24th April 2019...

Rosa UK: Voices From The Frontline Now Open For Applications

Rosa - the UK fund for women and girls, is pleased to open the fourth round of their flagship grants programme, Voices from the Frontline. The programme offers grants of up to £5,000 to women's organisations of all sizes for advocacy, campaigning and activism. They want to encourage applications from a wide range of women's organisations from across the UK. To date, Voices from the Front Line has supported more than 60 grassroots and national women’s organisations across the UK. The deadline for applications is 5.00pm on Tuesday 14th May...

Dr David Lyon - Governing Body Member NHS Halton CCG

The team at Halton & St Helens VCA are sad to hear that Dr Lyons has left his role as Chair at NHS Halton CCG. We are grateful to him for his support  of voluntary sector organisations throughout his tenure. In particular, his championing of the CCG radio show (supported by the VCA) on Halton Community Radio. Following much consideration, Dr Lyon took the difficult decision to resign from his post as Chair, with effect from 14th March 2019. David Merrill, Vice Chair, who took up the position of Chair in the interim period, will continue to discharge the duties of Chair until a new substantive Chair has been appointed. In terms of the next steps, discussions will be held with the CCG membership with a view to progressing the recruitment process...

Refuge Project Worker - Changing Lives

Changing Lives is a national charity that supports over 17,500 people each year. They are a well-respected, growing organisation dedicated to supporting the most vulnerable people across the UK. They began as a soup run, supporting people who were homeless in the North East over 45 years ago. Since 1970, their services have grown and developed to support people experiencing a wide range of personal challenges, including addiction and recovery programmes, employment guidance, help for people in prison or on probation, and support for people experiencing sexual exploitation or domestic abuse. They are looking for committed and compassionate professionals who share their enthusiasm for changing lives...

Pass It On 2019 Good Neighbour Project

“Pass it on” is a new, community-wide project starting early 2019 and closing with celebration and award events in June and July 2019. The aim is to create a safer, more cohesive community with early identification and improved reporting of safeguarding and vulnerability issues. Halton is a borough that has always been a welcoming and inclusive place to live and work and is becoming a more diverse community. This project offers the opportunity for us to celebrate this. They are looking for people to participate- to share their good news stories, to try any activity on being a good neighbour and to look after each other, especially those people in our community that may have care or support needs. They are leading a public campaign, joining with partners in the community, across social media, the press and hosting public celebration events...

VCA Membership Offer and Renewal

Have you had received your new VCA membership update and renewal pack?  If not, let us know!  The new membership offer is split into Non Affiliated with basic benefits and Affiliated that gives you access to full membership benefits.  You can find out more by reading our new Membership booklet...

Don't Forget...

Volunteer Co-ordinators Forum Halton

The Next Volunteer Managers/Co-ordinators Forum will be on Tuesday 30 April 2019 - 11.30am-2pm, at St Marie's, Lugsdale Road, Widnes. The Forum meets six monthly to share information, discuss issues, monitoring and anything else to do with volunteering. The meetings are informal and enjoyable. We hope you will feel able to participate. Should you feel it would be helpful or appropriate for your role as a Volunteer Manager/Co-ordinator, please come along on the above date. Lunch is not provided, so please bring along your own. Tea and coffee will be provided...

Volunteer Week 2019 - Events

Volunteers Week 2019 (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.  Volunteers’ Week is the perfect opportunity to recognise volunteers who give their time, energy and enthusiasm to helping other.  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...

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...

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