Halton and St Helens Voluntary and Community Action

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

New Start Up Workshop

Information workshop for anyone thinking about starting a new community group, CIC, charity. This 2 hour workshop will help anyone thinking about starting up a new community group, charity or community business such as a CIC. We will explore the various legal structures, governing documents, financial requirements, essential policies and possible next steps...


Volunteer Recruitment Fairs 2019

Halton Volunteer Centre are holding two Volunteer Recruitment Fairs in Widnes later this year.  The fairs will be a market place style event for the most part. However, we would like to make the event as exciting and interactive as possible, so please feel free to be creative when considering how you might engage with the general public & students. We would request that your stand is manned for the whole time, so that the last visitor has a good experience as the first one. Also, we ask that fundraising tins etc are not put out on your stand as this is purely a recruitment fair. The first one will be held at Kingsway Campus on 1st October and the second one will be held at Cronton Sixth form college on 8th October...


Invest St Helens Business Awards - Open For Entry

Invest St Helens Business Awards in association with Pride of St Helens, is now open for entry. They have10 categories that are open for self-nomination and you can also choose to nominate a fellow business. The awards are open to all St Helens based businesses and are free to enter. This year they have created some new categories so there really is something for everyone, plus you can enter as many categories as you wish...


Scheme To Help Adults Retrain Gets Underway

The National Retraining Scheme – which is being developed to support adults to adapt to changes in the workplace – has begun its initial rollout in the Liverpool City Region with the launch of a new digital service, Get Help to Retrain. The scheme - which is backed by CBI and TUC - will support adults to retrain and kick start a new career. Adults whose jobs could change or become obsolete due to advances in technology will get support to retrain and get on a path to a new career, Education Secretary Damian Hinds announced, marking the start of the innovative National Retraining Scheme... 


Alfred Shaw Trust Fund

The Alfred Shaw Trust Fund is now open for applications and the closing date is 30 August 2019. The fund supports groups working in the Runcorn area on projects that help children, vulnerable adults and the elderly...


Office Space for Hire - Chain Lane Community Centre

The office at Chain Lane Community Centre, St. Helens, will become available for hire from early October this year. The British Red Cross have run their St Helens ‘Support at Home’ Project from the office but sadly, the funding for this ends at the end of September. The Office will accommodate up to 3 desks. Rent includes all utilities but telecommunications are the responsibility of the hirer. They are looking for an individual, group or small community organisation, charity or business that would like to be based out in the community. They do want the hirer to be on site for a reasonable part of the day, not just a base from which to occasionally call in...


VCA Focus Group on GP Access in Runcorn

Do you live in Runcorn? Do you care about local GP services? Are you passionate about the future of General Practice in Runcorn? If so, why not join staff from Halton & St Helens VCA and the volunteers of the R Health project at an upcoming Focus Group? It will be held on Tuesday 13th August (between2pm and 4pm) at the Grangeway Community Centre. Attendees will discuss “access” or the challenges patients face when making an appointment to see a GP or other relevant Practice employee. We’ll be discussing what the worst and best possible access would be, before passing our recommendations onto the decision makers at R Health... 


Diabetes UK New Programme of Meetings - St Helens

St Helens & District Group of Diabetes UK are a friendly group offering information and support to people living with diabetes, those at risk of developing it and anyone who wants to find out more about the condition. Meetings are free to attend and they have a good selection of information on diabetes available. The programme will commence with the 1st meeting on Wednesday 4th September 2019 at 7.30pm in St Helens United Reformed Church...


Call For Vigilance As Telephone Scammers Target Residents Across Cheshire

Police are urging Cheshire residents to be vigilant after a bank in Widnes was notified of seven of its customers having been targeted by telephone scammers in a single day. The customers informed NatWest on Widnes Road, Wednesday 10 July, that they had received phone calls from people purporting to work for the bank...


Police Commissioner Launches Search For New Youth Ambassadors

Merseyside’s Police Commissioner is looking for 10 enthusiastic, skilled young people to volunteer to support, challenge and inform the work of her office and the wider criminal justice system. Jane Kennedy is looking to recruit a group of new volunteer Youth Ambassadors to help shape the way she engages with young people while giving them a greater voice in policing and community safety matters. The role will last for 12 months and is open to those aged between 16 and 24, who live, work or study in Merseyside. Youth Ambassadors will meet bi-monthly with the Police Commissioner and her team and will assist in the creation and delivery of a new Youth Engagement Plan...


GP Access Survey for Runcorn GP Practices

Halton & St Helens VCA has been asked to support Runcorn GP Practices with some important engagement work. GP Practices play an important role in their community and many people cherish the relationship they have with their GP Practice.  Local Practices have recognised that they need to adapt to preserve this important relationship at a time when demand for their services is increasing. In Runcorn, the R-Health project has been set up to achieve this. The R-Health project involves all six GP Practices working together learning from one another, sharing expertise & experiences and exploring new ways of delivering GP services in Runcorn. You can complete the survey...


Hospice Urgent Appeal For Volunteer Drivers And Driver’s Assistants

Willowbrook Hospice has launched an urgent appeal for volunteer drivers and van driver’s assistants in the St Helens and Knowsley area to help with collections of donations and deliveries. Bev Neilson, Retail Volunteer Coordinator at Willowbrook Hospice, said: “We’ve got 16 charity shops throughout ‘our patch’ and we really depend on our van drivers and assistants to help stock our shops and deliver any large items to our customers. All the money raised through our shops helps Willowbrook to continue to care and support people with life limiting illnesses across St Helens and Knowsley...


Recofferee, A Chance To Pause

Addiction and recovery can be a lonely experience. This is a chance to pause and have a chat with someone in recovery about recovery in the community, funded by the Community Lottery and HBC. The first step is hardest, so talk to someone who has been there. Confidentiality and respect at all times...


Carers In the NHS Workforce

This event, which will be of interest to HR teams, Directors / Deputy Directors of nursing, carer support organisations and those with a responsibility for staff health and wellbeing and staff side colleagues, is jointly hosted by VSNW and Health & Care Partnership for Cheshire & Merseyside...


Win A Car and “Help Make A Difference”

Willowbrook Hospice is offering you a chance to win a fabulous Suzuki Celerio, courtesy of Chapelhouse St Helens. Tickets are just £5 each and all profits from the raffle will contribute to the hospice’s “Make a Difference Appeal” – a recently launched campaign to help Willowbrook refurbish and upgrade their facilities to enhance the experience of both their patients and their family members...


Update on European Funding for VS6

Network for Europe via the VS6 partnership have shared with us the latest news on European funding...


Funding Bulletins from Halton Borough Council – July

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...


Meet the Funder - ESF Community Grants 2019

Come and join us on Monday 5th August 2019 for an hour to hear from the WEA who will be administering the ESF Community Grant Programme for the Liverpool City Region. A £2.7 million programme to tackle unemployment has been launched in April 2019 with backing from the European Social Fund. The WEA will distribute small grants of £20,000 across Merseyside and Halton to eligible organisations in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector between April 2019 and May 2021. Funded activities will target those aged 19 and over, from the hardest to reach communities...


Apex Trust Are Recruiting For Volunteers For Their New “Plan Bee” Coffee Bar.

Plan Bee coffee bar is the business arm of Apex providing employment opportunities and career advancement for people who have a criminal record. All profits made in Plan Bee are reinvested into the charity enabling them to continue to deliver great support services for our local community. Join the Hive (organisation) as one of the volunteer bees and have the opportunity to learn new skills and develop work experience. They want to help people with a criminal record to move forward with their lives, and be a part of the bee colony (team). Plan Bee gives volunteer bees the opportunity to receive accredited training in many different areas including Barista skills, Cookery skills, and Food Hygiene to name a few... 


Telling Your Social Story

Delivered by the very talented and experienced Grace Dyke from Yellow Jigsaw CIC. "Telling your social story" developing your key messages to connect with your key audiences - from volunteers and clients to funders and supporters. Yellow Jigsaw will share with you tried and tested strategies for telling your story to get the maximum impact to your target audience...

 


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...

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

 

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Tel: 01744 457100 | Fax: 01744 457101 | Email: info@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk
Halton & St Helens Voluntary and Community Action, incorporating Volunteer Centre Halton and Volunteer Centre St Helens, is Registered in England & Wales as a Registered Charity No. 1106001 and a Company Limited by Guarantee No. 2539153.

St Maries
Lugsdale Lane
Widnes, WA8 6DB

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