Celebrating the Millennium by organising an event or special celebration of your work, starting a new activity during the year 2000, or simply giving a Millennium flavour to an event you organise each year anyway, is a good way of raising the profile of your organisation and promoting your work.
We are also compiling a calendar of all voluntary and
community sector events so please keep us informed of what
you are planning. This will help to ensure that events don't
clash. Just contact the CVS office, tel: 464696,
e-mail:
[email protected], with the details.
To obtain an application pack phone 0845 600 2040.
Contact: Serina Rolph, Millennium Officer,
Cambridge City Council,
Members Services,
The Guildhall,
Cambridge, CB2 3QJ.
Tel: 457018 - Fax: 457029
E-mail: [email protected]
The HImP is constructed in layers and will be published in two parts. The first two layers will be aimed at a wider public readership and aim to set out the context and issues in each of the areas included. There will be a second section with further more detailed information about the activities and issues outlined in the first section. Voluntary Organisations working in specific health related fields will probably want to access the more detailed layers in the second section.
The document will be launched at a meeting on 16th July and the CVS will have a copy of the full document in our reference library after that date. We are also asking for an additional loan copy.
Before you rush to offer there are a number of points to bear in mind. Any representatives we put forward must be committed to:
Ruth Amy from Business Link/CambsTEC explained how the new Individual Learning Accounts will operate and how they can be accessed locally. These will provide awards of up to �150 to help individuals to undertake learning or training of their choice. Only 750 accounts will be available in the first year but many more will be offered in future years. We recognised that these awards could be very useful to improve access to training in the voluntary sector where there is often very little money available within organisations to support the training of staff and volunteers. Many of our members and users will also find these helpful.
We also looked at the advent of the University for Industry (Ufi) and the establishment of hubs of learning centres all over the country and, finally, the aims of the new strategic Lifelong Learning Partnerships which the government wants in place in every area this year. Copies of the information about all these initiatives are available from the CVS office.
If you have training needs you would like to put forward, or would like copies of the notes on ILAs, Ufi and Lifelong Learning Partnerships then please contact the CVS office, tel:464696, e-mail:[email protected], and ask for a copy of the last Training Forum mailing.
At the end of the meeting it was agreed that it would be useful to have a regular Forum for groups concerned with health and social care issues. The Forum will be open to any voluntary organisation or community group with an interest in health related work.
AIMS OF THE FORUM:
This grants programme will make awards ranging from �500 to �5000. Applicants will not be required to raise other "matching" funds in order to qualify for help and will usually be told if they have been successful within twelve weeks of applying.
During the first year (April 1999 to April 2000) Awards for All will
concentrate on funding small scale arts, charities, sporting and heritage
activities contributing to the nation wide Millennium Festival, making
�35 million available to help community celebrations of the year 2000.
If you are interested in applying 'phone 0845 600 2040 for an
application pack. If you have already registered your group's interest
in the Millennium Festival small grants scheme (which has now been
subsumed in Awards for All) you should automatically be sent a pack.
Millennium Festival Award applications will be accepted any time from now until June 2000. The assessment of applications will be carried out through NLCB Regional Offices. They expect to make the first grant announcements in September.
After the Millennium Festival Awards for All is over, the Awards for
All programme will continue without any closing date for application.
Note this new award replaces the NLCB Small Grants Programme.
We will have a briefing in June for any group planning to make an
application - see Whats On for more details.
We know that there are good reasons why local organisations have been unable to offer placements. Many groups have been unable to offer supervised full-time placements or have felt daunted by the volume of paperwork and other requirements.
We are looking at a new scheme which aims to minimise the bureaucratic burden on individual organisations and may enable organisations to participate on a part-time basis.
We would like to hear from any organisations interested in offering supervised work experience placements to unemployed young people so that we can discuss the possibilities with you. Call Lorna Davies on 464696
The bid also included funding to research and compile a directory of training opportunities within the voluntary sector. This would encourage and enable organisations to access each other's training provision.
A local partnership is being set up but so far we have received no information about its management and development and we have concerns about the extent to which it will work to lever in resources to support voluntary sector initiatives.
We have, however, received a request from Cambridgeshire Lifelong Learning Partnership to support and circulate a detailed questionnaire to all local organisations asking for information about their learning activities and ideas for projects. We have of course been active in other key partnerships working on New Deal and ESF and have established and supported the Voluntary Sector Training Forum - and we are keen to support any relevant strategic initiatives that will increase the effectiveness of the voluntary sector's work. However, we are wary of supporting this request until we are clear that the voluntary sector will have access to data collected by the partnership and we know that the voluntary sector will retain ownership over its own ideas for project funding! We do not want to see good ideas put forward by the voluntary sector receive funding to be delivered by statutory partners.
The Voluntary Sector Training Forum has already collated some information and would be willing to conduct more detailed research if we receive the reassurance we have asked for. However, they are unwilling at this stage to give us the resources to enable us to do this.
If you get sent a questionnaire directly, you will need to make your own mind up about how much information you give - but we would advice keeping good ideas to yourself for the time being. We will complete and return a questionnaire on behalf of the Voluntary Sector Training Forum.
The CVS is also hoping to begin negotiations with the City Council to draw up a local Compact, similar to the new national Compact that sets out the relationship between national government and the voluntary sector.
The CVS is inviting all City Council funded groups to a consultation meeting at the end of June to get your views on the present grant aid system and any changes you would like to see in how grants are administered.
A separate invitation has been sent to all grant aided groups. Please make every effort to send a representative from your group to this meeting.
The project has involved a number of local voluntary organisations and community groups in the King's Hedges area - but we would like to hear from any City wide organisations who are running or planning activities in King's Hedges which might contribute to the project. We would also like to hear from any local groups that have not been involved before and would like to know more.
Please contact Lorna Davies at the CVS office on 464696.
This means that the directory now includes up to date information and contact details for a total of 260 groups and organisations.
It is an invaluable guide to who does what in the voluntary sector from groups offering counselling and advice to those concerned with children or young people , the elderly or the disabled, or working on issues such as homelessness, the environment or third world development.
The directory costs �4.00 plus 75p postage and packing and is available form the CVS office in Llandaff Chambers, 2 Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 1AX. Cheques should be made payable to CCVS.
The grant of �29,140 comes from the National Lottery Charities Board as part of the national Millennium Festival. We expect that all our local groups will benefit from this grant.
It will help fund:
We need to know about the short term and long term premises needs of local groups to help us develop our plans.
If your organisation is looking for premises now or in the near future,
premises are currently available in two City locations. If you will be
looking for premises next year, looking to expand into new premises (or just
keen to share the benefits of improved facilities and longer term security)
then we also need to hear from you.
Please contact us so we can let you have a copy of our premises questionnaire
so that we can incorporate your needs into our plans.
PLEASE CALL THE CVS OFFICE OR E-MAIL US AT [email protected] IF YOU ARE
LOOKING FOR PREMISES NOW AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SPACE THAT IS
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE.
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