The dedicated band of specialist advisers who support England’s 10,000 rural village halls are holding their annual training event in Exeter next week.
The two-day event, from April 29-30, brings together village hall advisers from 34 counties from Devon to Durham to share their knowledge and best practice.
On the agenda for the 39 delegates - including Wendy Dacey of CCB - will be issues that help to keep village halls at the heart of rural communities - from funding and IT to licensing and employment. Speakers at the Rougemont Hotel will include representatives of the BIG Lottery, Awards 4 All, the Charity Commission, Devon County Council and music licensing organisations PRS for Music and PPL.
The event is organised by village hall advisers from across the South West with the support of ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England). ACRE is the national voice for the Network of 38 rural community councils who employ advisers to support the 80,000 volunteers who manage rural community buildings.
It is the first visit to Exeter for the event, which moves around the country and is now celebrating its 15th year.
Wendy Dacey, Village hall adviser for Berkshire, said: “Village halls are hugely valued by their communities for playing a multi-purpose role, serving as a social centre, arts centre, sports centre and in some cases providing education, health or retail services.
“The volunteers who manage them need specialist support, which demands time, expertise and money. The ACRE Network of advisers is working hard to maintain this service against a backdrop of rapidly reducing funding for professional support organisations.
“The annual training event is a great opportunity for advisers to get together and share ideas about how to help village halls survive and thrive.”
Insurance giant Aon UK Limited has supported the event since 2000. Ed Huston, Aon’s Client Relationship Manager said: “Aon are proud to continue our long-standing support of the village hall advisers’ training event. We fully recognise the vital role that is performed by the advisers and we are delighted to be able to help make it possible for them to come together at this important event.”
We found these interesting articles and thought we'd share them with you:
Creating strong communities
Creating strong communities, Part 2
They are one of many analysis articles that can be found on the Building4change website. Building4change is an online knowledge hub, predominantly about sustainability, innovation and best practice in the urban environment, however many of the ideas and principles discussed in the analysis, comment and case study sections can equally apply to new developments in the rural environment.
Reading Voluntary Action is currently recruiting a Chief Executive officer.
Reading Voluntary Action is a charity aiming to inspire and enable individuals and groups to make a positive difference to their communities.
- We encourage networking and partnership building to share: information, skills and knowledge across the voluntary and public sectors.
- We support the development of appropriate projects to meet the needs of communities in Reading. These currently include managing Healthwatch Reading and running Highbridge House as a centre for voluntary organisations.
- We promote and support volunteering in Reading.
- We provide a range of accessible and responsive services to local groups and organisations.
We are seeking a Chief Executive who will provide vision and leadership, expanding our range of services, manage our staff and volunteer teams, support the Board of Trustees and ensure the organisation has the resources necessary to carry out these functions.
We are seeking an imaginative leader with strong managerial skills to help us grow support for Greater Reading's diverse and vibrant voluntary sector.
For more information or to apply for the post please click here
Closing date soon - 10am Tuesday 22 April 2014
Reading Voluntary Action is running a course on Managing Change. It's aimed at manager level employees of voluntary and community oganisations:
"The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change" (Heraclitus)
This is particularly true for voluntary and community organisations which have to respond to changes in funding and the needs/expectations of users. Managers should feel confident to facilitate change to ensure they can continue to deliver effective services which respond to current needs.
This course will equip managers to:
- Understand the possible impact of external changes and what internal change may be needed to respond
- Ensure that staff, volunteers and trustees are on board with change
- Understand how people experience change and how to influence changes in behaviour to support service delivery
- Create a culture of innovation and change for future resilience
This course is part of a management training series which complement each other but can be booked individually as well.
Each course on the series costs £40 for non-members. 50% discount for RVA member organisations.
Tuesday, 29 April 2014 (this is a new date to that previously advertised)
10:00am to 4:00pm
Wheelchair accessible
Highbridge House, 16-18 Duke St, READING, RG1 4RU
For more information and to book go to the RVA website.
Courtesy of RVA Directory
The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens as part of its Growing
Together partnership project (of which ACRE is involved) has produced a number of
written guides for communities. These include briefings and case studies on
Crowdfunding, DIG (Digital Income Generation), Working with Businesses,
Workplace Gardens and Community Shares.
Download all of these and others at the FCFCG resources page
Courtesy of ACREheadlines
The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (Domestic RHI) is now open. This is a government scheme to encourage householders to make more use of renewable energy sources.
If you already have a renewable energy fuel supply or are thinking about having some installed you could recevie quarterly payments from the government.
The scheme is open to anyone who can meet the joining requirements and it’s for households both off and on mains gas supply.
There is also a Non-Domestic RHI which has been running since November 2011 and is open to the non-domestic sector including industrial, commercial, public sector and not-for-profit organisations with eligible installations.
Find out more about the Domestic RHI scheme here: ofgem domestic information
Find out more about the Non-Domestic RHI scheme here: ofgem non-domestic information
Homeowners will be given help to make their home more flood-resilient in the future
thanks to a new government grant scheme that opened last week. People whose
homes and businesses were flooded between 1 December and 31 March can now
apply for a government grant of up to £5,000 through their local authority,
regardless of where they live.
Read more at GOV.UK
Courtesy of ACREheadlines
The National Heritage Protection Plan (NHPP) is being reviewed and they are encouraging people to get involved to help shape future plans. The note below gives more information on how to get involved and a workshop that is being held in Reading on 28th April.
If you have never even heard of this plan - now is the chance for you to have a big input into what it is/how it works and most importantly how money in the heritage sector is spent!!! The plan aims to be a framework for the work of the Heritage Sector and the future business plan of Historic England will be based upon its priorities.
We really want to hear views from across the heritage sector to ensure the plan truly reflects the voice of heritage today so please come along and tell us what the priorities for heritage should be. Information on the current NHPP can be found here http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/protection/national-heritage-protection-plan/all-about-NHPP/ so please have a look and then join us at one of our workshops.
The South East workshops are as follows: Gatwick - Friday 25th April and Reading - Monday 28th April. The morning will include the NHPP consultation session and after lunch (which is provided free of charge) there will be a number of speakers from English Heritage on current updates.
To register please click on the following link - http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/events-organised-by-english-heritage-and-jura-consultants-for-the-national-heritage-protection-plan-consultation-2014-6070009705
If you can't join us for a workshop you can fill out an online consultation form https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NHPPReview
Parenting Special Children are looking for new trustees to join their committed and enthusiastic team. Here are the details.
Parenting Special Children is a small local charity based in Reading offering parenting support to families of children and young people with disabilities in Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham. The charity provides specialist parenting programmes, a Diagnosis Support Service and a Sleep Service all for families of children with disabilities.The charity is user led with the majority of people working with the organisation being parent/carers of children or young people with disabilities.
Treasurer
We are looking for a treasurer who will have time to be involved in leading the charity forward financially over the next two to three years. The role of the treasurer will be to maintain an overview of Parenting Special Children’s affairs, ensuring its financial viability and ensuring that proper financial records and procedures are maintained. The trustees role is not just about governance but but ultimately about making a real difference to families.
Ideally we would require a treasurer to have financial experience and knowledge, and have a solid understanding of the challenges that families of children with special needs face.
Commitment required: bi-monthly meetings & monthly financial updates with CEO and book keeper, annual strategy days.
Trustee with experience of business development & marketing
We are also looking for a trustee with experience of business development & marketing. Charities are needing to ensure that the work that they do is sustainable and so developing a business framework is important. As a charity we have lots of ideas for taking the charity forward but would really value a trustee with the experience of putting ideas into practice, an exciting time to be joining the charity as we move forward.
Commitment required: bi-monthly trustees meeting & monthly update meetings with CEO, annual strategy days.
For more information please contact Ruth Pearse (CEO) ruth@parentingspecialchildren.co.uk or 07876 275731 or one of the trustees admin@parentingspecialchildren.co.uk Website www.parentingspecialchildren.co.uk
On the 26th of March West Berkshire District Council Planning Officers granted permission of 8 homes to rent for local people on an exception site basis at Five Acres Farm at Sun Hill in Woolhampton.
CCB’s Rural Housing Enabler has worked closely with Woolhampton Parish Council, West Berkshire District Council and Aster Housing Association to bring forward the scheme. The long awaited homes will be welcome by local residents who have supported the proposal through a series of setbacks since the original housing need survey was conducted back in 2008.
It is expected that development will start on site shortly as the houses will need to complete by the end of March 2015 to meet funding requirements.
Anyone with a local connection to Woolhampton that has a need for a home there should ensure they are registered on the West Berkshire Home Choice housing Register in order to be considered for a house to rent on this site. Registration can be done online at: http://www.homechoicewb.org.uk/ or in person at West Berkshire’s market Street Office.
Rural exception sites are developments that receive exceptional planning permission in locations where housing development is not normally permitted, provided the homes are to meet an identified local need. The houses are for people with confirmed local connection to Woolhampton, that is:
- They have lived in the village for 3 years or more and/or
- They have immediate family members that have lived in the village for 3 years or more (immediate family is parent or child living in the village) and/or
- They work in the village
The homes have legal restrictions with no Right to Buy in perpetuity, so will remain affordable rents for local people.
Born out of Thatcham Vision, Thatcham’s Lifelong Learning Forum was established with three main aims:
- to ensure that everybody in Thatcham has the chance to know what learning opportunities exist for them in the town,
- to generally improve the provision of local lifelong learning opportunities,
- to give providers of learning opportunities place and space for publicising their work.
The Forum has prepared a small directory of learning providers - they are currently preparing their second edition which will shortly appear on their website www.thatchamllf.org.uk and also in hard copy. It contains information of over forty providers in the Thatcham area. They are aware of many more and will incorporate them, subject to receiving permission for inclusion in their publicity.
Last May they held a lifelong learning celebration on Thatcham’s Broadway Green at which a number of organisations produced displays and provided information about the opportunities that they provide. This year the celebrations are to be held on Saturday 14th June - at the start of this year’s national festival.
The Forum consists of representatives of some of these learning organisations - both state providers and voluntary organisations, with the support of the Thatcham Vision Project Manager, who are dedicated to make these opportunities more widely known. Each year at the Volunteer Festival they seek to extend the number of volunteers so that they can be even more efficient in what they do. If you are interested in further information, please contact them:
Facebook: ThatchamLLF / Email: thatchamllf@gmail.com / Twitter: @ThatchamLLF
The Plunkett Foundation Board is seeking nominations from individuals with
community shop knowledge and experience to join its Board. The community shop
representative will ensure that the views of community enterprises are considered
when shaping Plunkett policies, strategy and day-to-day activities. Plunkett would
like to hear from current community shop representatives such as committee
members.
To find out more and to nominate an individual, please download and complete the
expression of interest form on their website. If you have any questions please call Harriet English or James Alcock on 01993 810730.
Courtesy of ACREheadlines
