Sport England is looking to support innovative projects that remove barriers to being active during the coronavirus pandemic for those communities that are currently least well-served. Already existing inequalities are currently being exacerbated by the pandemic and those most affected are not able to access sports and activity and are missing out on the health benefits.
Further information and an online application form are available on the website of Sport England.
Applications can be submitted until noon on 24 June 2020.
Alastair Gordon, Head of Profession: Research and Citizen Insight at Essex County Council, is looking for feedback from volunteers who support statutory organisations across Essex.
The note below sets out an invitation to participate in primary research examining their experience of volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a core element of the TCG’s research into statutory agencies’ involvement of volunteers during the pandemic, and they would be grateful if this is shared with relevant volunteers and volunteer groups.
An invitation to share your views and experiences of volunteering during the Covid-19 pandemic
Partners from across the public and voluntary sector in Essex are undertaking research to better understand how the public bodies have involved volunteers prior to and during the Covid-19
pandemic.
We want to gather views to help us improve what we do in the future.
We would like to understand your experiences of volunteering during the pandemic whether your offer to help was taken up or not. The support or helping hand you’ve offered could range from
helping a neighbour with their shopping to holding a formal voluntary role within an organisation, or it could be anything in between!
What’s involved?
We would like you to talk to one of our professional research team (via video or telephone call) share your views and experiences volunteering both before and since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Areas of discussion could include:
What prompted you to volunteer?
How effectively public services have involved you, or used you time and skills?
What would lead you to sustain voluntary activity into the future?
What can public services might do to make it more likely that you will volunteer in the future?
When?
We hope that discussions can take place between 15th June and 10th July. We will arrange discussions at a time that is most convenient for you. Taking part in this research is completely voluntary, and you will be able to stop at any time.
Interested?
If you are happy to take part, please provide some information about you and your household by completing this short survey below. This will help to make sure we talk to a wide range of Essex
residents in this research.
If you would like support to complete this survey over the telephone, please call 03330 321086 between Monday to Thursday 10am – 3pm.
Please note we will be speaking to a limited number of people, and unfortunately this means we will not be able to speak to everyone who expresses an interest.
If you have any questions about the project, we will be more than happy to speak to you, please contact Le.Ho-Everiste@essex.gov.uk
Confidentiality
Any information you share with us a part of this project will not be identifiable to individuals or organisations in our final report.
Essex County Council fully complies with information legislation. If you would like the full details of how we use personal data, and the rights you have about its use, please go to www.essex.gov.uk/privacy-community or call 03457 430430
BBWCVS are looking to understand the impact the pandemic has had on the community in Basildon, Billericay, and Wickford.
They appreciate these are very busy times for us all, but ask that you take 10 minutes to complete this important survey. This will allow BBWCVS to raise the requirements needed for a thriving robust sector at both a local and national level.
Sport England want to hear from you about what they should be considering as they develop their strategy for 2021 and beyond.
Sport England believe that sport and physical activity has an important role to play in restarting the economy, reconnecting communities and rebuilding a stronger society. They want to play a significant part in that.
Victoria Fennell reported that the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System was aware that a sustainable VCSE sector is key to a thriving Integrated Care System. She advised that Covid19 presents some very significant challenges to the VCSE sector and that the ICS is committed to working with the VCSE sector, local government partners and funding organisations to take a strategic approach to help to support partners through the emergency in the short term and to protect the VCSE sector in the longer term.
In order to plan how best we can support VCSE sector resilience in the short, medium and longer term we need to collect some information about the impact of Covid19 on individual organisations. This will help us to:
Better understand and describe the overall impact of Covid19 on VCSE partners working in health
Add detail from the VCSE sector into the health planning for recovery that is underway
Add detail from the VCSE sector to some locality ‘packs’ in development to describe the new service system
Work with colleagues in the NHS, local government and grant funders to take a joined up strategic approach to supporting resilience in the short to long term
Work with you over the next few weeks and months to support your specific organisation as best we can to be resilient through these challenging times.
Survey responses will be analysed to identify themes and published as an anonymised report. Suffolk and North East Essex ICS will store all data in this survey securely. We will not share personal or sensitive organisational information with any third party, however if responses indicate that an organisation or sector may need targeted support, we may contact respondents individually to explore this further, and seek informed consent to share information with any other relevant organisations. The Suffolk and North East Essex ICS will retain the data obtained through this survey for the duration of the formal Covid19 pandemic response and recovery period. You can withdraw your consent to Suffolk and North East Essex ICS holding your information at any time by emailing victoria.fennell@nhs.net
Please note: on some computers you may need to use the scroll bar underneath some questions to see the full width of the survey on your screen.
Third Sector Lab and SCVO Digital are working together to build a playbook for charities needing to quickly build out digital services.
A survey has been produced to find out the top priorities and issues being faced in regards to digital support during the COVID-19 crisis. To provide your feedback, please click here.
Third Sector Lab and SCVO Digital are also offering weekly Zoom calls for non-profits, community groups, social enterprises and other voluntary organisations. These calls are focused on helping the third sector think about how they can deliver information, support, and services using digital tools.
For more information on all of this, please click here.
NCVO is conducting some research into diversity and volunteering to build on work completed last year on volunteer experiences, called Time Well Spent, which you can read more about in this blog.
The overall aim of this research is to inform practice and policy, and help organisations to address this important issue. You can find out more and share your organisation’s experience via this online form.