This is a place where you can find out about opportunities that are available to your organisation. From funding streams to events and training, The Essex Alliance will keep you informed.
The Essex Alliance has been provided with £200,000 to administer a COVID response grants programme to support VCS organisations to continue to meet the increased demand in supporting vulnerable people in communities during the ongoing COVID situation, including those hard to reach communities.
Funding is designed to support activity that helps reduce the transmission of the virus; enable people to stay safe and isolate; and reduce barriers to vaccinations.
There is £200,000 available in the grant pot, we are offering organisations within the Alliance (who have signed up to our newsletter) a max of £5k per project. If you’re not currently a member of the Alliance, please sign up here to be able to apply for this VCS funding.
After successfully distributing 2,000 grants to Localgiving members last year, it was our biggest ever Magic Little Grants programme, we’re incredibly excited to announce that 2022 is going to be even bigger and better than ever before! We will be awarding £500 grants to 2,650 charitable organisations on Localgiving. We are so pleased to have expanded the number of grantees this year as we know how popular these grants have proven to our charities. We would like to extend a huge thank you to the support and contributions from the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Applications for Magic Little Grants 2022 will be open from Wednesday 16th March and applications will still take just ten minutes to complete!
As organizations like yours race to adapt activities in response to an increased need for your services, we wanted to share a few ways Facebook may be useful in your efforts. In this webinar you will learn: – Ways to fundraise on Facebook and Instagram – How to access Facebook and Instagram Fundraising Tools – Recommended Best Practices We look forward to having you join our session. The Facebook Social Good Team
Free online workshop for charities and community groups
11.00am on 30th July 2020
Tim Larden, Ladbrook Insurance
As we emerge from the country-wide lockdown and more charity and voluntary groups are returning back to full operation, we know that groups understandably, facing increasing uncertainty. Some groups entirely ceased activities during the lockdown while others stepped in to provide new support to the vulnerable in their communities. Other groups had to immediately adapt, with remote working and other factors changing the way that services were delivered. In some cases, buildings remain closed or have been closed for some time.
This unique set of circumstances has bought new risks to the fore in the third sector. We will look at how to manage some of these risks and why risk management at this point in time, is more important than ever. How do groups operate safely as we emerge from lockdown. What are your responsibilities?
The session is led by Tim Larden of Ladbrook Insurance. Tim has 20 years of experience working in the insurance sector and runs Ladbrook, an award winning, specialist insurance brokerage that only works with clients in the third sector.
A ‘State of Life’ weekly tracker has been launched in Essex supported by Active Essex and University of Essex. The survey aims to track how the current situation under Covid-19 is affecting our experience of work, health, money, other people, and life in general.
The objective is to create an agile tool and data set to inform decision making at this crucial time.
See the results or take the Weekly Tracker Survey here.
BBW CVS are interested in understanding the local impact of Covid-19 and ask that local voluntary, community, faith & social enterprise organisations complete the survey below to tell them about the impact it has had on your organisation.
Essex Councils for Voluntary Services (ECVS) are co-ordinating the offer of a small team of Employee Volunteers from Essex County Council with bid-writing experience to help complete funding applications for VCSE organisations in Essex which have been adversely affected by the impact of Covid-19 on their activities and income and are at risk. If you would like to be considered for this support please complete this Expression of Interest and an ECVS member will be in touch with you to discuss further. This is at present a time limited activity so we ask that you put your details forward as soon as possible to enable us to assess your requirements against the time, skills and experience of the team providing the support and schedule in as many requests as possible.
The Foyle Foundation’s Small Grants Scheme has re-opened for new applications from 1 June. It will operate until further notice under the following revised criteria for support reflecting the impact of COVID-19. The Foundation says: “We understand that charities are now operating within very different circumstances since the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. We are keen to be as flexible as can be in our support of small charities during this difficult and constantly changing ongoing period, while maintaining a focus on those who can demonstrate a clear (usually local) need for their services and financial viability over the twelve months from the date of their application.”
The Small Grants Scheme is designed to support charities registered and operating in the United Kingdom, especially those working at grass roots and local community level, in any field, across a wide range of activities.
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