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

Research & Policy Officer (Fixed-Term Contract) - Closing Date Noon Friday 24th July

The VS6 Partnership would like to recruit a fixed term Research and Policy Officer until 30th November 2020. The successful applicant will support senior voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector leaders in the Liverpool City Region. This will include working closely with England’s only Combined Authority VCFSE Advisor and one of only a very few sector representatives on a Local Enterprise Partnership. Salary: £27,539 pa (pro rata). Application Deadline: Noon, 24th July 2020...

Creating A Halton Network To Support Young People And Prevent Crime

Kyle Tunstall, Sport and Physical Activity Officer (Children and Young People) with Merseyside Sport is working with Runcorn police to tackle anti-social behaviour and criminal exploitation through sports. The main areas they are targeting are Halton Lodge and Grangeway. The plan is to empower sports clubs to work with this audience of young people to engage them and support them. This will mean creating a network of organisations all playing a holistic role in supporting young people, some organisations are already on board to work on this project (including Halton Housing)...

Covid 19 - Bringing The Sector Together

Matthew Roberts, one of our senior management team has shared his thoughts, in our latest blog, about the last 3 months and our work in Halton during the Covid-19 pandemic...

Coronavirus Funding Update from Halton Borough Council (6th July)

The External Funding Team at Halton Borough Coucil, have sent over the latest monthly coronavirus funding bulletin from the External Funding Team.  The External Funding Team is also available to offer free bid-writing support to any Halton organisation that wishes to bid for emergency funding...

New From The Community Network:  Neighbourhood Integration Project

The Community Network, run jointly by NHS Providers and NHS Confederation, has published a new series of briefings as part of its Neighbourhood Integration Project. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated the integration of care in the community across England, with organisations often working together at a neighbourhood level to meet the needs of their local populations. Before the pandemic, the Community Network initiated a project to capture where local service integration was already well underway. The result is a series of case studies focused on how more joined up care has been delivered, and three briefings looking at the ways partners have resolved common operational challenges that so often hold back the integration agenda – around workforce, governance and shared working practices...

Job Opportunity at The Women's Organisation

The Women’s Organisation is expanding their team by seeking to recruit an experienced Business Adviser to support the high quality delivery of women’s economic development services throughout the Liverpool City Region (Merseyside and Halton areas).  They are committed to flexible working and applicants applying for full time or part time posts will be considered...

COVID-19 Community-led Organisations Recovery Scheme

To help distribute funding quickly and efficiently, some of the COVID-19 response funding is being awarded through a carefully selected range of specialist partners. By using their collective expertise and networks, they can ensure vital support gets to even more communities. This funding is designed to support organisations that work with those communities which have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, as well as social enterprises and community businesses...

Summer Holiday Activity (Halton)

Edsential are excited to announce the launch of the Holiday Activity Fund for 2020...

Summer Meal Plans

Teresa Mercer, the Community and Business Health Promotions Officer for St Helens Borough Council has devised a 6-week meal plan and shopping list to help those who receive the School Meal Vouchers, which as you will know has been extended to cover the 2020 school summer holidays. She is more than happy for everyone to share the information on Social Media, link it to your website or print it out as you see fit, all she asks is that you acknowledge the Council...

St Helens Community Centre Managers' Network (Online)

Halton & St Helens are pleased to welcome back the St Helens Community Centre Managers' Network. First established over 15 years ago the Network met regularly to facilitate a peer support network for those who ran community centers. In recent years the membership of the network found it increasingly difficult to meet due to the various demands of running a centre. However, with the current challenging environment we find ourselves in and the various conversations of those who manage centres have been having it was agreed to bring back this Network as a facility to bring together Centre Managers and Trustees of Community facilities to offer peer support and where possible joint working to help community centres not only to survive in the current climate but to thrive as we move into the future...

What Does Hope Mean To You?

Pencils, pens, and paintbrushes at the ready... PAPYRUS is launching a brand-new competition for children and young people aged 4 to 18 to get creative over the summer holidays with a work of art that depicts HOPE.  The competition will be for those between 4 and 18 years of age and they will be asked to create a piece of art which depicts what hope means for them. This could be a simple drawing or something more creative. Parents or guardians will be asked to submit a photograph of the artwork over the next six weeks and they will showcase them on social media on World Suicide Prevention Day...

Cultural And Heritage Organisations To Receive A £1.57bn Support Package

The UK's arts, culture and heritage industries will receive a £1.57 billion rescue package to help weather the impact of coronavirus, the government has announced.  Organisations - many of which are charities - across the performing arts and theatres, heritage, historic palaces, museums, galleries, live music and independent cinema will be able to access emergency grants and loans.  The money will provide a lifeline to cultural and heritage organisations hit hard by the pandemic...

How To Manage Negative Social Media Comments

At some point if you are on social media, you will encounter a negative comment or two directed your way.  The temptation is to respond in a similar manner and explain why they are wrong, however this is usually the best approach.  Digital Giants has put together an infographic showing the seven steps to responding to a negative comment. We highly recommend adopting these as a strategy so you and your colleagues are prepared should you encounter such negativity...

Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust

The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust awards grants to charitable organisations in the United Kingdom. The trustees welcome applications for projects within the following areas on a three-year rotation: Music and The Arts / The Elderly, Homelessness / Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Children and Young People. Grants are available up to £5,000 depending on the organisation's annual income...

We Need Your feedback - COVID-19 - Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)

Cheshire & Merseyside Health and Care Partnership recognise that the skill, energy and compassion of the VCSE sector is proving vital in keeping our communities strong and safe. We also recognise the huge pressure that this is putting on the sector’s staff, volunteers & budgets. One of the areas that we would like to find out more about are the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector requirements for Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) at this time. The aim of this piece of work is to share supply chains with the sector and identify the needs to be able to share with partners to influence ability to access larger supply chains and also influence the need to fund services to cover PPE costs.

This piece of work is being led by staff from Halton and St Helen's VA and CVS Cheshire East who have been seconded to work for the CM Health and Care Partnership...

Wheelchair and Zimmer Frame Hire

Halton Disability Partnership (HDP) now has a store of wheelchairs and Zimmer frames. These are available at very short notice to any person in need, there is no referral form, no paperwork and just a small donation to HDP required...

COVID-19 Community Research: Understanding Unmet Need Survey

We are supporting researchers from the Public Health Institute, LJMU, to carry out a survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on voluntary, community, faith and enterprise sector organisations across our local region. The survey will take up to 20 minutes to complete and will be open until 31st July 2020...

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.

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Halton and St Helens Voluntary and Community Action