News

This is where we’ll post third sector news and important updates that are useful for your organisation.

Demystifying End Of Life Care and Cancer – Compassionate Communities

Compassionate Communities hopes that you can join us for the next Compassionate Tendring workshop ‘Demystifying End Of Life Care and Cancer’ that is taking place on Wednesday 21 June, at Wix Village Hall, CO11 2RT.

The aim of this workshop is to support a Compassionate Community approach to EOL care and bereavement support by sharing, learning and improving the support available in our communities, pathways into and out of services + identifying collaborative opportunities to improve EOL care for everybody.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

  • 09.30 – 10.00:   Arrival and refreshments
  • 10.00 – 10.15:   Scene setting – Greg Cooper, Head of Partnership, St Helena
  • 10.15 – 11.45:   Presentations, discussion + Q&A
        • Personalised Care in Secondary Care – Louise Smith, Macmillan Deputy Lead Cancer Nurse, ESNEFT
        • Personalised Care in a Community Setting – Kelly Stanford, Macmillan Cancer Care Nurse, Clacton PCN
        • PCN Cancer Care – Laura Beesley, PCN Cancer Care Nurse, Colchester + Abby Hardy, PCN Cancer Care Nurse, Tendring
        • Palliative care in the community – Clinical Nurse Specialists, St Helena
  • 12.15 – 12.30:   Workshop review + forward plan – Debbie Dyer, Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Community Hospitals, ESNEFT

Please email compassionatecommunities@sthelena.org.uk to confirm your attendance.

Author: Alliance Admin
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Categories: News

One Colchester Winter Resilience Campaign a Huge Success – Community 360

Thanks to partnership working, funding and community spirit, the One Colchester Winter Resilience Campaign has been a huge success, with over 500 winter packs being distributed over the winter months to Colchester’s most vulnerable.

A Winter Resilience Steering Group, chaired by Community360, who co-delivers the project, brings together representatives from the public and voluntary sector to facilitate action over the winter months. 

Roadshows were delivered in the community, information events and support were available through the One Colchester Hub, and winter packs were distributed to those affected by the cold weather, including families on low incomes, people living with respiratory conditions and long-term health conditions.

Jess Leonard, Strategic Head of Projects at Community360 said: “It is humbling every year to see just how many people in our community are benefiting from the Winter Resilience Campaign. A staggering 3700 people were supported through the Warmer Homes Project alone. We were able to conduct outreach in the community, distribute winter packs, warm clothing and provide food and clothing vouchers.”

She added: “In total we were able to support over 7774 residents who received assistance during the project. This included giving advice and help with accessing additional grants, bursaries and accessing support for hardship via local charity groups. Our Social Prescribers also intervened with cases of social isolation, providing new slippers to those at risk of trips and falls and distributing hygiene and food packs to patients being discharged from hospital who needed extra support to return to their homes.”

Local groups and charities also benefited from the project receiving bursaries to help 

with community projects. From running social groups, helping with outreach to

providing hot meals. The Essex Integration Project, Mercury Theatre, Mercury 

Tots and Seniors Clubs, Sanctuary Housing, Beacon House and Heads2Minds all 

received funding. 

 

“The Mercury Theatre was delighted to receive a grant from the Winter Resilience Fund. Over the cold months we welcomed the community in as a Warm Space, but also wanted to offer more for Colchester residents struggling with the ongoing cost of living crisis.” Said Abbi Roberts, Development Director at the Mercury Theatre. 

She added: “The grant allowed us to offer bursary places for our weekly tot’s classes, parent and baby/toddler sessions which focused on sensory development and creative play, as well as Seniors Social Club our weekly social group for people 55+ who enjoy the creative arts. Feedback from the participants was amazing and many said having a weekly social activity to look forward to was a life line during an otherwise tough time.”

 

Every year the Mercury engages over 30,000 people, of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, through a wide range of creative participation activities. They partner with a number of local community groups, charities and schools to engage the hardest to reach in our community.

 

Tracy Rudling, CEO at Community360 and Chair of One Colchester said: “The Winter Resilience Campaign shows the importance of collaborative working, enabling partners to provide much-needed help and support over the winter months to the people of Colchester.  I would like to thank everyone who has been part of delivering this amazing project, from our partners, local charities, groups and our volunteers.

 

The success of the One Colchester Hub and its programme of activities, has also demonstrated how collaborating to establish a community focal point can make a real difference to people living in our city.”

 

She added: “It has been particularly tough this year for older and younger people alike with their finances just not stretching to cover basics due to the huge increase in food, heating and electricity costs. I am so grateful that as a city we have the foresight to be able to put in place support to help those who are really struggling. However, our work does not finish just because winter is over, the cost-of-living crisis is not going away which means there are still some challenging times ahead.”

If you are a business, organisation or charity and would like to get involved with this year’s Winter Resilience Campaign, please get in touch. The organisation is looking for organisations who can help with volunteering, sponsorship and support. Contact Community360 0n 01206 505250 or email catwright@community360.org.uk

ENDS

Author: Alliance Admin
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Categories: News

Latest Citizens Advice cost of living data dashboard

Britain is facing its biggest cost of living crisis in decades. At Citizens Advice, we’ve seen more people coming to us for help with crisis support, energy problems and not having enough money to make ends meet than ever before. In this dashboard Citizens Advice share insights from across our service on how the crisis is affecting the people they help.

Citizens Advice have been updating this dashboard every month tracking how the cost of living crisis is changing. If there are insights you’d like to hear from them, please get in contact at coldatadashboard@citizensadvice.org.uk.

View the dashboard here. 

Author: Alliance Admin
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Categories: News

Hiden Charitable Fund

This programme is open for applications from Monday 22nd May 2023 until 4pm on Friday 7th July. No applications will be eligible if received after this.

Please note – you cannot apply to us if you are currently a grant holder and your grant is not due to end until 2024.

 

Eligibility for our UK Programmes

We do not fund individuals, only organisations. To be eligible to make an application your organisation must be based in the UK and be one of the following:

  • Registered Charity

  • Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)

  • Community Interest Company (CIC) (NB must be limited by guarantee, not by shares)

  • Charitable Company (NB you must be registered both as a charity and a company)

  • Excepted Charity (see Excepted charities – GOV.UK for more information on these)

Income Threshold
To be eligible to apply, your total annual income as shown in your most recent accounts should be no more than £250,000.

If your income is above that in your latest accounts but your average income over the most recent three years is under £250k then you can still apply – this is to allow for one-off “good” years.

We are keen to support small organisations and our preference is to fund those already established rather than new ones (though these are still eligible).

  • Individuals (including via bursaries)

  • Non-charitable activities

  • Promotion of Religion

  • Party-political organisations or Party-political campaigning (charitable campaigning is okay)

  • Medical research

  • Registered Social Landlords (eg housing associations)

  • Hospitals or primary healthcare provision

  • Fundraising-only posts (though we can fund a post where fundraising is part of what they do)

  • Statutory services

  • Residential care

This list is not meant to be exhaustive. If you have an activity/proposal where you are not sure if we would fund it, please get in touch and we can discuss it.

We Do Not Fund

Supporting Good Governance and Good Practice

Whilst you may be eligible to apply and your proposal meets our criteria, priority will be given to organisations which demonstrate good governance and good practice. For example:

  • having a history of returning accounts and documents to your regulatory body (eg Charity Commission) on time

  • having at least four Trustees/Directors on your Board and where all trustees/directors are unrelated to each other and to the CEO or Executive Director.

  • having robust policies and practices on safeguarding, equalities, financial management, etc

Charity accounts must be independently examined or audited and comply with The Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) – GOV.UK

We will also prioritise organisations which have a significant number of people on their boards and/or staff team who have lived experience of the issues they are addressing.

Where a grant would be used to support the provision of specialist and/or sensitive services you must demonstrate sufficient track record and expertise in delivering those services. In some cases a recognised qualification or quality mark may be required.

We hope this information is clear – however if you are not sure about anything please get in touch.

 

Types of Grants Awarded

The Fund has signed up to the IVAR Eight Commitments ( https://www.ivar.org.uk/flexible-funders/ ) – a pledge by funders to provide clear information and reduce bureaucracy for applicants. As part of that pledge we aim to provide funding which meets your needs as far and as appropriately as possible.

We offer Unrestricted Grants; or Project/Core Funding.

You can choose which of these to apply for, however please note that to be eligible for unrestricted funding all the work of your organisation must meet our criteria. For example, if you were a general community group where only some of the work you did was with refugees then you could not apply for unrestricted funding as your other work would not meet our priorities. All unrestricted grants must be used for charitable purposes.

Organisations can apply for up to two years’ funding with grants awarded usually between £5,000 – £7,000 in value per year.

If you already hold a grant from us you can apply in this round provided that your current grant ends in 2023 – if it does not end until 2024 then I’m afraid you are unable to apply.

If you applied before and were unsuccessful you can still apply in this round.

Apply here. 

Author: Alliance Admin
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Categories: News

Cyber Security Awareness session – Maldon & District CVS

Your people can be your biggest asset and with security awareness training they can become highly effective barriers to cyber-crime. Security awareness training provides simple and effective knowledge for people to understand their environment and provides the confidence to challenge when something does not look right. The training is focussed on those with little or no cyber security or technical knowledge and is delivered in small, succinct modules using real world examples.

The sessions will cover the following:

  • Introduction to Cyber Resilience
  • Why it is important
  • Different types of security vulnerabilities out there (technical/non-technical)
  • Social Engineering
  • Strong passwords and their importance
  • Ishings (Spear Phishing, Vishing, Email Phishing and Smishing)
  • Social media and what you put out there
  • Keeping devices up to date
  • Local Grown Attacks and their Impact
  • Ransomware

This training is delivered by the Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre. The trainers are highly knowledgeable, personable, and friendly and pride themselves on providing the right environment to feel comfortable and to ask questions.

Author: Alliance Admin
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Fuel Poverty Forums – NEA

NEA’s free Fuel Poverty Forums are aimed at frontline service providers, to examine practical and policy initiatives related to fuel poverty and delivering energy efficiency solutions at a local, regional and national level. The regional Forums showcase innovation, good practice and promote dialogue and discussion on a wide range of sectoral issues to help NEA shape policy developments and campaigns.

The summer forums will be taking place in person in June and July. Attendance is free, however numbers are limited and NEA members will be given priority booking.

To register, click the link below to be taken to the booking form. Registered participants will receive an agenda and joining instructions nearer to the time.

Forums will take place on the dates listed right.

Registered here – Eastern – 12 July, 9.30-12.00 – Online via Zoom

Author: Alliance Admin
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Criminal Exploitation Training – Essex Safeguarding Children’s Board

Criminal Exploitation Training (Virtual Session)

Cost to participants: Free (However, if a delegate fails to attend a course that they have booked, or cancel with less than five working days’ notice, their organisation will be charged)

Target audience: anyone working with children and families in Essex

Learning Outcomes:

 

  • What Criminal Exploitation is
  • The signs of Criminal Exploitation in children & young people and how it progresses
  • Practical guidance for communication with children & young people you suspect of being involved in criminal exploitation
  • What services there are available to support children, young people and families who have been subjected to Criminal Exploitation
  • Time for questions and sharing concerns/ advice

 

Cancellation

If a delegate fails to attend a course that they have booked, or cancel with less than five working days’ notice, their organisation will be charged – £20. A delegate will be deemed a non-attendee if they arrive 15 minutes after the course commences either online or at a venue.

Charging and Cancellation Policy.

Author: Alliance Admin
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Citizens Advice Cost-of-Living Data Briefing

We’re less than a week away from our next cost-of-living data briefing. You can register now for the event. We’ll be joined by Emma Revie, Chief Executive at The Trussell Trust and Dr Sarah Hughes, Chief Executive at Mind alongside Dame Claire Moriarty, Chief Executive at Citizens Advice. They’ll discuss how the crisis is escalating and what support is needed to help people overcome what often becomes a downward spiral of debt and anxiety. Our data will be presented by Tom MacInnes, our Chief Data Analyst.

In our May briefing we heard Veronica’s story. When her fixed-rate mortgage came to an end, like many others, higher interest rates meant that her monthly mortgage payments shot up. It’s put extra pressure on her monthly budget, and with her other essential spending she doesn’t have enough each month to make ends meet.

Join us on Monday 5 June at 12pm to hear more stories from people like Veronica.

Author: Alliance Admin
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Funding Fair – Maldon & District CVS

Maldon Town Hall, Tuesday 4th July, 1-3:30pm

Maldon and District Community Voluntary Service are hosting a funding fair for voluntary and community groups working in the Maldon District. The event will include presentations from both national and local funders who will outline how to apply to them for funds and how they make grants. There will also be an opportunity to network with them and other local groups and to speak to Maldon and District CVS about their funding advice service. The Funding Fair will be held on Tuesday 4th July from 1pm-3:30pm at Maldon Town Hall.

Book here.

Author: Alliance Admin
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Autism Anglia’s independent diagnostic service

Autism Anglia’s independent diagnostic service is an expert provider of NICE compliant autism diagnostic assessments for anyone over 3 years old. Their Multi-disciplinary team are qualified and experienced with a fantastic understanding of different profiles of autism, offering individualised recommendations and education advice.

Autism Anglia pride themselves on their personalised approach for their gold-standard service, providing a named person to guide through the process which starts with analysing results from comprehensive screening questionnaires. Assessments are carried out using ADOS-2 and ADI-R diagnostic tools alongside expert clinical opinion, as well as a review of historical, professional, and school reports where applicable. Autism Anglia offer pre and post-diagnostic support including a detailed report.

Click here to read more here.

Author: Alliance Admin
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Categories: News