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

Halton & St Helens VCA AGM 2019

Halton & St Helens VCA would like to invite you to our Annual General Meeting which is being held on Tuesday 10th December, at St Maries, Lugsdale Road, Widnes, WA8 6DB from 2pm to 3pm...

Halton VCSE Forum 16th December 2019

Halton & St Helens VCA would like to invite you to the next Halton VCSE Forum taking place on Monday 16th December 2019 at 10am in Halton & St Helens VCA, St Maries, Lugsdale Road, Widnes, WA8 6DB.  We are bringing key partners together to connect with the sector to provide and share key developments on One Halton and we will update on key work and initiatives in Halton...

St Helens VCSE Forum - 27th January 2020

alton & St Helens VCA are pleased to share with you the date of the next St Helens VCSE Forum.  We are bringing key partners together to connect with the sector to provide and share key developments on St Helens Cares and we will update on key work and initiatives in St Helens...

St Helens VCSE Forum - Domestic Abuse Engagement Session. Thursday December 12th

We are bringing together colleagues with an interest in the St Helens work to develop a Domestic Abuse Strategy. The St Helens People’s Board have identified Domestic Abuse as a priority for the Borough and partners are coming together to work on how we develop new approaches. Following the Domestic Abuse Summit held in October, we will be hearing from Samantha Murray from St Helens Council about work to develop a strategy and the role the sector can play. Come along if your organisation has ideas about how we can support this work and are interested in co-producing the Borough’s approach...

Free Workshops For Charities: Understand And Measure Wellbeing

Charities, especially small- and medium-sized ones, want to measure what matters. Funding bodies are increasingly asking for measures that capture real impact, beyond traditional outcomes. Wellbeing is now widely recognised as an evidence-informed, established approach to understanding how your service, project or programme makes a difference. But what does wellbeing look like in your context? And where do you start when it comes to measuring it? At the Centre we are committed to supporting voluntary sector organisations to understand, improve and measure wellbeing. Supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, What Works Wellbeing are pleased to announce a programme of free workshops around the country designed specially for small to medium-sized charities, starting in February 2020...

Training and Quality Assurance Officer - Henshaws

Henshaws Community Services enable people of all ages living with sight loss and a range of other disabilities to make informed choices about their future. Independence and friendship are at the heart of what we do to help people find the confidence to go beyond their expectations. The role will work under the guidance of the Business and Partnership Manager – Knowledge Village – to promote and deliver on our Henshaws Knowledge Village Accreditation and Training Programme for businesses which champions accessibility for people living with sight loss to thrive internally as an employee or externally as a customer. A key responsibility is to deliver Visual Impairment Awareness Training (internal training provided) for organisations across the Greater Manchester Region (and wider) in varied and diverse market sectors including arts and culture, healthcare, and voluntary sector organisations...

Madlove St Helens - Work Better Together To Improve Mental Health Care In St Helens Friday 29th November 1pm

Heart of Glass and the artist/mental health activist James Leadbitter are delighted to invite you and your service users to an informal and creative gathering of St Helens-based service providers and care receivers to collectively discuss how we can work better together to improve mental health care in St Helens. This event is on Friday 29 November, 1- 4.30pm, the old Argos Store, Church Street, St Helens (lunch provided). The session will be facilitated by artist, activist and Madlove Take Over co-curator James Leadbitter and is for everyone affected by mental health in St Helens...

VCS Involvement In Local Emergency Response : Report Published

The Emergencies Partnership hopes to breakdown the silos that have previously aected the charity sector's response to disasters in the UK. Jane Ide the Chief Executive of our National Association NAVCA is the Vice-Chair of the Partnership. They are working to engage the wider sector into the response to emergencies. More information on arrangements for Halton & St Helens will be included in future e-bulletins...

Disabled Entrepreneur Awarded Lottery Funding

John Perry  of Focus Employment Hub Limited social enterprise based in St Helens has been awarded lottery funding to provide support for disabled people and people with long term health conditions.  To provide emotional and practical support with the focus being on employment. The aim will be to provide tailored support to a small group of individuals on a 1-2-1 or in a group setting to realise their potential and to help them to achieve their personal and professional goals.   John is a qualified personal and vocational counsellor, throughout his personal and professional life has advocated for disabled people, their families and the wider community...

Strictly Fun At The Heath’s Tea Dances - Older But Wiser

Put on your dancing shoes for a wonderful afternoon of dancing to live music provided by organist John Kyffin (of Rushworth and Draper fame). In a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, enjoy a range of ball-room and sequence dances, tea, coffee, a piece of cake, entry into the raffle and of course the wonderful company of others, all included in the price of £5 per person.  All ages and singles welcome. No-one sits down for long because there is also the guidance of experienced dancers on site too. Everyone is encouraged to have a go...

Indoor Christmas Fayre

Get into the festive spirit by coming along to the Willowbrook Hospice indoor Christmas Fayre on 7 December (11am-3pm) at The Living Well on Borough Road, St Helens. As well as a range of stalls selling festive goodies, there’ll be games, food and drink and the fabulous Winter Wonderland and of course Santa’s Grotto...

New information On Charity Returns

The Charity Commission is no longer providing copies of annual returns once they have been submitted online. Charities are being advised to print your return in draft form before submitting it, as you will not receive a PDF of the final version as you may have done in previous years. Once submitted, there is no way to retrieve the information so it is important that you remember to print your return in draft format before you have pressed ‘submit’...

Making Room for Nature - Video Nominated For Award

Local charity, Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust, is in the running for a national award in recognition of an inspiring film which takes viewers across the expanse of the Mersey Estuary revealing a host of delightful wildlife living right on our doorstep. The film takes a closer look at the Trust’s findings of how wildlife on the estuary has been affected by the construction of the Mersey Gateway Bridge, reflecting upon their choice to make room for nature. Local people are being urged to view the video and support the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust by voting for their film “Making Room for Nature” at the Charity Film Awards website...

St Helens Christmas For Care Leavers Appeal

In December 2018, in line with St Helens Councils priority of raising aspiration and ambition for young people, a project was launched between Invest St Helens and Council Social Work teams to deliver Christmas for Care Leavers age 16-25 years, with plans to use the Ambassadors Programme as a platform to make this happen. The response to this was phenomenal – numerous businesses and individuals donated and the results spoke for themselves. Over £7,000 was raised, plus gifts and other items from over 40 different businesses, individuals, schools and groups. It is the aim to make the 2019 campaign bigger and better and your help is needed to do that. Donations to the appeal can be made in the form of products, such as items from your business if appropriate, purchasing gifts to donate, providing goods or services free of charge in the form of a gift voucher or experience token, or financial contributions can also be received...

Halton Christmas Toy Appeal Drop Off Point

Halton and St Helens VCA are once again a drop off point for the Halton Christmas Toy Appeal.  You can drop off your donations at Halton and St Helens VCA, St Maries, Lugsdale Road, Widnes, WA8 6DB between 10am and 4pm Monday to Friday. Halton Christmas Toy Appeal is in ugent need of your help, they need toys and gifts for this years appeal.  All toys and gifts are for the disadvantaged and less fortunate children living in this community, all donations get distributed within the community to children who wouldn't normally get a present on Chrismas day, they have over 200+ children to help this year. You can help by donating a new unopened toy or gift suitable for ages 0-18 boys and girls...

Partnerships Between NHS Trusts and VCSE – Survey Request

NAVCA  are the national membership body specifically for local sector support and development organisations (also known as local infrastructure) in England. They are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to conduct some research into partnerships between NHS Trusts and organisations within the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector. This survey forms an important part of this research and will be vital to creating recommendations in the final report. The survey should only take 5-10 minutes to complete and your time in completing this will be greatly appreciated. The Deadline for completion of this survey is Monday 2nd December...

Our Halton Community Grants

Halton Borough Council, working in Partnership with the Our Liverpool Programme, wishes to offer the opportunity for voluntary and community organisations to apply for one or two year funding grants.  Organisations will need to demonstrate that they can help achieve the agreed aims, objectives and outcomes of the programm, with the focus being on working with asylum seekers and refugees...

Talent Match Support

Talent Match funded by Big Lottery and European Social Fund offering support to 15 – 29  year olds. Talent Match has a team of mentors throughout Wirral who will work closely with each referral, providing intensive support to move young people towards training/education or sustainable employment using their SELF model...

Lighting the Town RED this World AIDS Day

Some of Merseyside’s best-known landmarks are set to be bathed in red light over the weekend of 30th November and 1st December to mark World AIDS Day.  By lighting the city and surrounding boroughs red we are joining together to raise awareness.  On Sunday December 1st Sahir House World AIDS Day Vigil will be held in the Cunard Building on the Strand, Liverpool from 2.30pm.  A selection of the UK AIDS memorial quilts are being exhibited along with art work from Sahir House Many Hands One hear network created in partnership with Homotopia.  Guest speakers will commence at 3.30pm with performance from the Rainbow Chorus Choir.  The event closes with the remembrance list being accompanied by the talented violinist Peter Morgan...

VCA Membership

Halton and St Helens VCA are pleased to welcome our new and re-registered affiliated, non-affiliated and associate members.  We all look forward to working with you.

If you'd like to find out about your membership status, click on the link below which will take you to our current list of Affiliated and Associate members, or call Lynne Daffern or Debbie Morris on 01928 592405 / 01744 457100  for more information. 

https://www.haltonsthelensvca.org.uk/vca-membership-list

Don't Forget...

Now You Have Your Grant Training - 9th December

Halton & St Helens VCA are proud to work in partnership with the External Funding Team at Halton Borough Council and are please to facilitate the opportunity for them to deliver this extreamly useful course for our members. This course will offer a basic introduction to the responsibilities of grant management for those who have not received external funding before, or who are relatively new to managing grant funding...

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