This is where we’ll post third sector news and important updates that are useful for your organisation.
Content from CVS Tendring
This alert from the Charity Commission provides information and advice for charities about coronavirus (COVID-19) related fraud and cybercrime.
Content from CVS Tendring
The Government has launched a plan to tackle loneliness and social isolation during the coronavirus outbreak and period of social distancing.
As part of this plan, national organisations working to tackle loneliness and build social connections are invited to apply for a share of £5m funding.
There is also a toolkit, resources and advice page on their website which you can delve into.
Source: Navca
Content from CVS Tendring
The second draft of the CRA’s Reopening Pack is available for download. The pack consists of helpful guidance for when the green light to open up shops begins to shine, and provides some suggestions of things to think about in the meantime.
As the pack is being updated regularly in response to feedback and as government guidance changes, please do send the CRA any comments and feedback.
www.charityretail.org.uk/we-have-published-our-reopening-pack
Source: Navca
Content from CVS Tendring
As you know, we have all been working hard to ensure people who may need a bit of extra help to protect their health and wellbeing during this extended period of lockdown and in response to COVID-19 are able to get it. We are happy to announce the Essex Welfare Service has now been expanded to offer a wider range of specialist support. This now includes caring responsibilities, matters concerning children, young people and families, mental wellbeing, learning disabilities and autism, dementia care, sensory impairments and staying physically active.
We are hoping to further expand the range of services on offer during the upcoming weeks, including a digital directory for information, advice and guidance, and access to support. This will be accessible to the public and practitioners/professionals and we will continue to build the content over the coming weeks and months.
You can download a briefing on this extended offer, what it entails and what it means for you.
Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual campaign which aims to get people talking about their mental health and reduce the stigma around mental illness.
Research from Time to Change found that 9 out 10 people have faced stigma due to mental illness, and this stigma can have a negative impact on recovery time.
For 2020, the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is kindness.
The Essex Map is a community asset map which aims to help people to find the groups, services, and activities which work to benefit the community. The website can be used to find guidance and counselling for a variety of mental illnesses, and there are over 130 listings dedicated to emotional and mental health.
For more information, please visit: www.essexmap.co.uk/listing-category/emotional-mental-health
Mind in West Essex have built a dedicated online learning platform, designed to help you understand and manage the symptoms of common mental illnesses.
The Mind in West Essex Academy includes a free course on Intro to Anxiety, as well as courses for parents and carers of both young children and teenagers to support their emotional wellbeing.
More courses will be added in the coming weeks, and are due to include topics on working from home, depression, sleep, and stress.
For more information, please visit: mindinwestessex.mindlms.org.uk
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, Mind in West Essex have adapted the services they offer and have created support groups using Zoom.
Sessions are available for stress/anxiety and bereavement, and will consist of a 1-hour session per week for 6 weeks, facilitated by 2 members of Mind in West Essex staff.
Stress/Anxiety Groups:
Bereavement Group:
Spaces for these groups are limited. For more information, and to book your place, please call 01371 876641 or email talking@mindinwestessex.org.uk
To help people who are self-isolating and want to talk to someone about their mental health, Mind in West Essex have adapted their counselling sessions so they can be accessed via telephone or video call.
For people with a hearing loss, the systems have been tested to work with a variety of speech-to-text applications including Phonak’s myCall-to-Text phone transcription app.
For more information, please call 01371 876641 or visit www.mindinwestessex.org.uk/counselling
For those who don’t want to have a formal conversation around their mental health, but are feeling isolated or lonely, Essex Befriends offer a free befriending service facilitated by volunteers.
During the coronavirus outbreak face-to-face befriending has been temporarily stopped, however telephone and email befriending is still available.
Essex Befriends is a cooperative project from Action for Family Carers, Mind in West Essex, Independent Age and Hamelin Trust.
For more information, please call 0300 770 1263, email essexbefriends@affc.org.uk, or visit essexbefriends.org.uk
Content from Essex Coronavirus Action
We’ve launched this brilliant course called Essex Resilience* to help everyone try and cope with the added pressure and stress that the Coronavirus outbreak has brought – it will also help you identify some of the symptoms and behaviours that could mean you are being affected in this way.
Using a mixture of Facebook group units and videos that have been developed in conjunction with the Team GB Olympic Rower Jonny Searle MBE, you will also learn how to take small but important steps that could improve your physical health and mental wellbeing, even when you’re juggling working or studying from home and looking after children. You may just be struggling with the ‘new normal,’ and this completely FREE course is backed up with a Facebook group where people can connect, support each other, and exchange ideas.
Visit j.mp/ECAresilience to get started. Everything you need is inside the Facebook group.
*We don’t care if you’re not from Essex – anyone can benefit from it 
If you’ve ever tried to recruit volunteers, you’ll be aware that the “feel good factor” often isn’t enough to get as many volunteer applications as you might need.
A number of organisations across Essex are finding that “payment in time” via projects such as Time Credits or Time Bank are a great way to encourage new volunteers to sign up.
With “payment in time” projects reward volunteers by giving them vouchers for each hour they volunteer. These vouchers can then be used for a variety of activities across the county.
As an organisation, you register with projects such as Time Credits or Time Bank and then record the number of hours each of your volunteers complete in a given time period (a month, for example).
Your in-house facilitator will then distribute the vouchers to the volunteers, who can spend them directly with the activity of their choice.
In short, not a lot. Both programs work in a very similar way, but may have different rewards available to volunteers. It’s best to have a look and see what rewards are available in your area before you make your choice.
You can find more about Time Credits at wearetempo.org or timecredits.com
Information on Time Bank can be found at tol2.timebanking.org/essex
To register your organisation with a “payment in kind” project, you’ll need to contact them directly:
Time Credits: email hello@wearetempo.org or call 029 2056 6132
Time Bank: visit tol2.timebanking.org/essex and select the Time Bank in your district
You may find that some of the rewards are currently unavailable, but volunteers are able to save up their vouchers to spend later or use for an online activity.
Media Trust are working with major social media platforms to offer free social media training for charities.
More information on these courses can be found using the links below:
On Wednesday 20 May, Media Trust will be running a free webinar in partnership with Twitter called Twitter 101. This session will primarily focus on organic content use (i.e. regular posts on Twitter that you don’t pay for), and will also include time for Q&A.
Media Trust have partnered with Facebook Blueprint to bring you an eLearning Pathway covering the fundamentals of advertising with Facebook and Instagram.
Content from Essex Community Foundation
Julie Fosh was appointed the 840th High Sheriff of Essex in April.
She has been unable to undertake any visits to voluntary groups as yet, but is contacting groups each week by telephone to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on their work and to give support and encouragement.
To read more about Julie, click here.
Content from Media Trust
With more of us working remotely than ever before, it is so important that our disabled colleagues are not left out and locked out by inaccessible communications.
Fortunately, the digital platforms and technology we use for work are at their most accessible ever, and are only being developed further as the weeks under lockdown go by.
Click here to view our accessible technology and communications guides