Voluntary Action Camden

News about the Olympic Torch in Camden, Free Parenting classes vouchers, the Somerstown Neighbourhood Plan, information on funding, training courses, jobs and volunteering opportunities and more.

 

NEWS

The Olympic Torch will be making its way through Camden on Friday 26 July. Camden is the first central London borough to host the torch and there are lots of opportunities for people who would like to get involved in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

If you would like to volunteer please contact Corinna for an expression of interest form and return to corinna.calori@camden.gov.uk by Monday 16 July 2012! If you have any questions please contact Corinna on 07824 417 847.

Would your organisation like to offer a free parenting course to your service users?

Race Equality Foundation are offering a free course in Camden available to all local families with a child under 5 as part of the CANParent voucher pilot scheme. The course is a condensed version of the Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities programme which has been successfully delivered to over 30,000 parents.

We are looking for community organisation to host the weekly courses. These can either be at the weekend, in the evening, or during the day.

We will provide trained facilitators (available with community language skills) and all course materials, as well as advertising materials. We will also provide refreshments and may be able to contribute to childcare. All you need to do is provide a suitable learning space and encourage your parents, grandparents, foster-carers, step parents and other family members with a parenting role to enrol.

With this course your parents come away with practical solutions to help them with under-fives, from dealing with temper tantrums to thinking about the wider support families can access. Learning takes place through interactive videos, sharing information, and ideas to try at home. The course runs for 4 weekly sessions, each lasting 2 hours.

What participants will get from this course: Confidence; Skills and activities to use with their children; Get the most of time spent with their children; Get along better with all their family; Tap in to community support.

If you would like to host this course or have any questions, please call Leandra Box on 0845 226 8264 or email leandra@racefound.org.uk Parents can register for courses at www.strengthening-families.org.uk

Camden Council will start a new consultation concerning St Pancras Community Centre on 16th July, finishing on 5th October. Full details coming soon. More at the Camden Council website.

Somers Town Neighbourhood Plan

Your neighbourhood needs your ideas! Together we can make it happen…

Please visit our stall at the Start Festival Chalton St, NW1 14th July 2012 (1pm to 5pm)

Find out how to get involved in Neighbourhood planning for Somerstown.

Please contact us by phone or e-mail. 0207 388 6088 somerstown@btinternet.com

Nightstop London, a project of Depaul UK, providing emergency accommodation for young people to prevent rough sleeping. The number of young people rough sleeping has risen sharply from last year, and with the Olympics this summer we are expecting a lot of disruption to young people’s services. We recruit, vet and train hosts, who have a spare room in their house, to host 16-25 year olds on a night by night basis. We are currently receiving a lot of referrals from the borough of Camden and are urgently seeking more hosts from the area. Find out more at the Depaul UK website.

The next Kentish Town area action group meeting will be on: Tuesday 17th July, Kentish Town Library, 262-66 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AA, 7pm-8.30pm. The focus of the meeting will be on the following:

• The impact of welfare reform in Camden –Cllr Theo Blackwell, Cabinet member for Finance and Lesley Piggott, Assistant Director of Finance, Camden Council

• Camden Plan –Cllr Theo Blackwell

Sign up to the Volunteer Centre Camden’s Focus Group and Networking lunch and you could get a free copy of Volunteering England’s Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit. For more information and to register visit the VCC website.

LVSC’s Climate Change Leaders for a Low Carbon London project

Climate Change Leaders is an initiative which started in 2011 to actively engage the mainstream voluntary & community sector (VCS) in carbon reduction activities by working with infrastructure organisations to help them to become leaders and advocates on climate change.

The work is about supporting the link between expert green organisations and the mainstream voluntary sector. For more information read LVSC’s climate change pages

The project is supported by a steering group comprising a range of VCS partners offering:

• Opportunities to network, share information and good practice;

• Access to information, research, advice and web-based resources on climate change;

• Advocacy and campaigning on behalf of the VCS and

• Engagement with London’s key statutory agencies and boards to ensure that the sector’s views are communicated.

For more information contact Sandra van der Feen: sandra@lvsc.org.uk

Hestia’s women’s services department provides domestic abuse services across nine London boroughs. Hestia provide refuge accommodation, floating support services, independent domestic violence advocates, a MARAC co-ordination service and attached to a number of our services is a peer to peer led support groups which service users have called the Butterfly project. In addition to this Hestia also provide a trafficked women’s refuge and a floating support service, which works with victims of trafficking.

For more information contact Beverley Howes | Domestic Abuse Service Manager (Camden)| Hestia Housing & Support | Mobile: 07964 121 973 | Beverley.Howes@hestia.org | www.hestia.org

Upbeat & Kings Cross Timebank & present: KINGS CROSS OPEN MIC – OLYMPIC SPECIAL

Friday 20th July 2012, 6-9 pm at The Crypt, Holy Cross Church, Cromer Street, WC1H 8JU

World Music, International Dance & Special Guests. Come along to perform, join our drum circle, dress up or just to enjoy the evening. Everyone welcome.

Entry: £2.50 or 3 time-credits (Free for performers)

Ticket includes free food. Any proceeds made will go towards running the next Open Mic event

For more information contact: Lucia – T: 078 6077 8133 E: upbeat@upbeatmusic.org

Is a Council home for life? Let Camden Council have your views

For over 30 years, social landlords have only been able to offer lifetime tenancies. The law has changed and social landlords can now offer new tenants fixed term tenancies of five years or longer. This change does not affect existing tenants, who will keep their security of tenure even if they move to another social rented home. If you live in Camden, whether you are a Council tenant or not, Camden Council wants to know if you think they should offer new tenants fixed term tenancies.

The law about who should inherit a Council tenancy after a tenant dies has also changed for new tenancies. The law now only gives partners the right to inherit a tenancy. Should the council allow any other relatives to inherit a Council tenancy.

Please complete the survey by 25 July 2012

Read the factsheet and complete a survey available at: www.camden.gov.uk/homeforlife

Women + Health, Crossroads Care, Volunteer Centre Camden, Pirate Castle, and Camden New Town Festival are recruiting. See Jobs and Volunteers section below.

Camden Shares. The website for exchanges in Camden. Current offers include Italian lessons and IT Training. Current requests include; help with Facebook and piano lessons. You can view all of the available offers at www.camdenshares.org.uk

You can read more about all
of these stories on our news page at www.vac.org.uk/new

FUNDING NEWS

See the Funding pages on VAC’s website for all the latest information.

vInspired Cashpoint is open for business once again, giving young people the opportunity to bring their ideas for social action projects to life.

The concept is simple. Anyone between the ages of 14-25 who has an idea to solve an issue in their community – vInspired wants to help them solve it.

How? vInspired is offering grants of up to £500 to turn young people’s ideas into reality and get their projects of the ground. The great thing about Cashpoint is that once a funding plan has been established, young people are given total freedom to carry out their project in exactly the way they imagined it.

Go to www.vinspired.com to find out more.

The launch of the Innovation and Development Fund

Camden Council have now launched another round of funding from the Innovation and Development fund and are actively seeking new ideas that address ingrained social problems. They are looking for new, bold and better solutions to those issues we have yet to really overcome or areas where the existing solution is simply out of date.

The fund is open to:

• not-for-profit organisations based/operating in Camden

• all Camden residents

• non-constituted groups based/operating in Camden

The Council can invest in ideas put forward by individuals or non-constituted groups, but will then match you with a local voluntary and community organisation that has the skills and resources to support your idea. An applicant may only lead on one application but they may partner on more than one application. See the application form and guidance available here.

The fund is not open to:

• statutory organisations

• organisations making a surplus or profit which is not reinvested for social benefit

• organisations promoting political or religious beliefs/practice

Deadline – Midnight, Sunday 12th August

Small grants for volunteering

Volunteer Centre Camden has been funded by the London Borough of Camden to provide small grants for volunteering. In 2012 the priority for these grants will be providing volunteering opportunities for people aged 14-17. For full details and to apply online please go to the Volunteer Centre Camden website.

VAC EVENTS

VAC
has a full programme of courses coming up: Click
here to find out more. All courses are £25 for members (unless otherwise stated).

VAC are running Quality Assurance Surgeries. Please contact Somanah Achadoo for more information or to arrange an hour surgery session. Sachadoo@vac.org.uk

OTHER EVENTS

Volunteer Centre Camden are able to offer a few places on training courses to help you work more productively. There are a small number of places left on the following courses. If you are interested please email Hayley@volunteercentrecamden.org.uk. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, and non attendance will be charged at £75 per session.

‘Inbox to Zero’ is on 25th July. The course helps you to manage your emails (which hopefully also reduces your stress levels!

‘Making meetings magic’, is booked for 16th August. This will help you make the most of time you spend in meetings, and hopefully reduce the number of hours you spend in meetings too.

‘Emotional intelligence in leadership and management’ will be on 21st August.

Open Day at the new Crossroads Women’s Centre

25 Wolsey Mews, NW5 2DX (between Caversham Rd / Islip St) Saturday 14 July 2-7pm

Friends & neighbours, mums and children, aunties, grannies, dads, other carers and loved ones All Welcome.

Come and see our new women’s centre for all, lovingly renovated. Find out what we do and how you can get involved. Meet the groups based here. Learn how our solar panels work. Tell us your views and experiences.

2-3.00 Drop in, Jumble & Second-hand Book Sale, Tea & Cake

3-3.45 Justice is our right

4-4.45 Caring work: valuing our contribution

5-5.45 Alternative Health

Children’s Activities 3 – 5.45

Tel 0207 482 2496, web: www.crossroadswomen.net email: contact@crossroadswomen.net

The ESF Families Programme provides a wide range of employability support to residents to help them with the skills and confidence required to enter work, for example:

o Accredited courses and qualifications to improve an individual’s prospects of employment.

o Flexible working patterns to enable individuals (for example lone parents) to manage caring requirements.

o Work experience with a longer term aim of achieving Full Time Employment. Lack of practical work experience can be a significant barrier to securing paid employment.

Case studies are available on the Camden Council website that highlight successful examples, and also the referrals forms can be downloaded; http://camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/council-and-democracy/about-the-council/jobs-and-careers-in-camden/esf-families-programme.en

To make referrals, these forms then need to be sent to the council with the signed documents attached:

• E-mail with scanned documents: David.robinson@camden.gov.uk / Fax: 020 7974 4136/ Post: 2nd Floor, Crowndale Centre, 218 Eversholt Street, NW1 1BD

To find out more: You can speak to a Reed in Partnership advisor to learn more about the programme. Please contact niro.sritharan@reed.org.uk, Lawrence.burleigh@reed.co.uk, or Darren.Humphryes@reed.co.uk

How the London Enterprise Panel Works

Tuesday 17th July 2012 | 9.30am – 12.30pm, Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London. N7 6PA

London Civic Forum and London Voluntary Service Council are holding this free event looking at the newly formed London Enterprise Panel. Working within the wider economic environment of double dip recession, public sector funding cuts and growing income inequality, the LEP will work from the vision set out in the London Plan and the Economic Development Strategy to promote economic growth across the whole of London and to make this vision a reality.

The purpose of this event is to provide an opportunity for voluntary and community sector organisations to hear from senior panel members and GLA personnel about the work of the LEP and to gain an understanding of how Londoners can engage with its work.

Attendance is free but registration is essential, as there are limited spaces. To register, please follow this link.

For more information please contact Deirdre McGrath at deirdre@londoncivicforum.org.uk, visit our website or call 020 8709 9770

King’s Cross Festival On Saturday 14th July 2012 at Coram’s Fields 93 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1DN

12.00-5.00pm. This year we have; Music; Dance; Arts & crafts; Healthy Activities; Free Face Painting; Youth & Children’s Activities; Food & drinks; Stalls & Funfair rides.

For more information contact Nasim Ali on 020 7278 5635 Email: nasim.ali@kcbna.org.uk

Gaining Power- Challenges Facing Activists

19th July 2012 – 10.00am – 4.00pm at Resource For London, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA

The next NatCAN conference will be held in London for the first time and we hope that you will be there to join us.

The day will look at the issues close to our hearts and give real accounts of work across the country that has made a real difference to communities. We will be providing lots of time to take part in discussions with others, as requested by members of NatCAN.

Free event, but you do need to enroll on the NatCAN website.Click on this link to attend. Confirmation of speakers and further information to follow.

Don’t forget
that Camden
TDS
run a full programme of course which are subsidised or free for
voluntary sector partner organisations. There is a link to a list of
partner organisations on the home page.

Find more
Training Opportunities at www.vac.org.uk

JOBS AND VOLUNTEERS

Crossroads Service Co-ordinator F/T 35hrs £22-25k + On Call

Crossroads Care Central North London (CCCNL) supports family carers of people of all ages with wide-ranging health and social care needs at home and in the community.

We are looking for a Service Co-ordinator to work as part of a team delivering a wide range of care services and breaks, to carers supporting people at home with care needs. The post holder will be responsible for processing all referrals for the service across Central & North London, including assessments and reviews, managing and supervising a team of community based care staff, rostering, promoting CCCNL’s services with local individuals, GPs, health & social care agencies, businesses and communities in central/north London with the aim of generating new business opportunities. You must have minimum of NVQ3 in Health & Social care or equivalent, a knowledge of carers issues, good oral and written communication and IT skills. It is essential that you are able to work with people from diverse communities and at different levels in a collaborative and inclusive way.

Download info and application form: www.crossroadscarecnl.org (CV’s alone will not be accepted)

Closing date: 5pm 20th July 2012 Interviews: Week beginning 30th July 2012.

Women + Health: Marketing Intern

Women health’s charity seeks marketing intern for exciting new phase of development

Women + Health is an award-winning, community-based health centre that provides an integrated health service offering complementary therapies and counselling to women in Camden. Founded 25 years ago, we are now seeking to expand our client base and increase our profile. See the W+H website for more information: www.womenandhealth.org.uk

As our marketing intern you would be working with staff and other volunteers, helping to create a new marketing strategy for the centre.

The internship would last a minimum of 2 months, and would be for 2 days a week. Wherever possible you would be able to work from home. The position is voluntary, but expenses will be paid.

This role is an exciting opportunity for someone to have a real impact in changing the face of women’s health in Camden.

If you are interested in joining us, please send your CV and covering letter to the Director at Deborah@women-and-health.org

Volunteer Centre Camden seeks Best Practice Support Manager, SO 2, £30351pro rata plus 6% pension contribution. 37.5 per week. Contract until May 2014.

VCC are looking for someone who has an excellent knowledge of best practice in volunteer involvement, and is passionate about sharing this expertise. Successful candidates will have managed volunteers in at least 2 different settings.

The Manager will provide a quality service to volunteer involving organisations in Camden, primarily through one to one support. The focus of the role is to enable groups to grow and develop their volunteer involvement in line with recognised best practice. You will do this through taking a positive, and supportive approach. Managing a team of volunteer membership coordinators’ you will ensure that Volunteer Centre Camden is able to deliver an excellent service, and become recognised as a valued partner. The service developed will be inclusive, adaptable and able to respond well to the external environment. The Best Practice Support Manager will be responsible for monitoring outputs and outcomes, and managing external communications with members and prospective member organisations.

Details of the post and how to apply can be found on our website http://www.volunteercentrecamden.org.uk/pages/recruitment.html.

Volunteer Centre Camden is committed to equality and diversity and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

The deadline for completed applications is 9am 23rd July. Interviews will be held on 6h August 2012.

Completed applications should be emailed to recruitment@volunteercentrecamden.org.uk. Late applications and CV’s will not be considered.

The Pirate Castle – Job Vacancy Role: General Manager

Summary: Reporting to the Trustees, the General Manager has overall responsibility for the charity’s operations, general management and fundraising efforts. Part time applicants will also be considered for the role but Fundraising experience is considered vital. Salary range £30,000 negotiable.

Background: The Pirate Castle is a community charity of long standing and high reputation, located in the heart of Camden Town, London. Following a period of significant investment, the charity has rapidly expanded its operations over recent years, providing charitable, community and private use of its Canal Boats, Canoes and Kayaks and Community Centre Building. For family reasons the current Manager has given notice and the Charity is seeking a replacement. More details about the charity can be found at www.thepiratecastle.org

Please send CV, covering letter and any queries to Charles Brock, charles@thepiratecastle.org

Camden New Town Community Festival 22 JULY 2012 Volunteering opportunities with

The Community Festival has been running since 1999. Its aim is to draw together the members of our very diverse local community. We do this by developing partnerships so that many people can take part in and enjoy a wide range of events over a summer weekend. This year the Festival will happen in Camden Square on Sunday July 22nd with some preparations on Saturday 21st July 2012.

Interested in Helping?

You can help by being a Volunteer Steward on the weekend. We ask you to commit to a 3 hour time slot so we can plan to have enough cover. This will still leave you plenty of time to enjoy the Festival when you are not on duty. You can do more than one slot if you wish. We will give you training.

Contact: David Walters & Judy Powell at Maiden Lane Community Centre on 0207 267 9586. Email: davemlcc@yahoo.co.uk

Volunteer Bank

Volunteer Bank is a new service offered by Volunteer Centre Camden, which shall cater for organisations looking for specific skills in their volunteers.

It is to assist organisations in finding the volunteers they need with the experience to back their skills.

Volunteers and organisations will sign up to the service and organisations will look through the bank to find the volunteers with the specific skills they are looking for.

For more information you can visit the website www.volunteerbank.org.uk or alternatively e-mail Kayleigh at kayleigh@volunteercentrecamden.org.uk

Find Jobs and Volunteering
opportunities at www.vac.org.uk/2010/08/jobs-volunteers/

OFFERS

Fundraising & Income Generation. VAC will continue to offer fundraising support such as:

1. The fundraising pages on VAC website provides quick access to funding information & tools as required.

2. VAC weekly e-newsletter released every Friday, will provide all news updates on funding environment, opportunities and new trends. Please look out for this regularly. If you do not receive it after the 21st of June, please email knunan@vac.org.uk to request it.

3. The popular Grant finder on-line search engine is still available for you to access anytime free, by coming into VAC to be logged in to use it. VAC members only.

FREE VAC and VCC Membership for Unfunded Groups: Voluntary Action Camden and Volunteer Centre Camden have joined forces to offer you a special membership deal. Small organisations with no paid staff and a turnover of less than £1,500 can now join both organisations for FREE. To take advantage of this offer just fill in the membership form which can be downloaded from the VAC website or you can enter your details via our sector survey here.

Looking
for a meeting room to hire? Or a hall for your activity or an office to
let? Don’t forget to try www.camdencommunityspace.org.uk

You can now follow VAC on Facebook.

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To get discounts on
training, room
hire and many more benefits click here to join
Voluntary Action Camden

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If you have an item for the
newsletter, please email it to Kevin Nunan, knunan@vac.org.uk
with a note of which section you would like it to appear under.