Help Finder enables charities to save money on goods and services they normally have to pay for and to source expert support they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. It searches 100s and 100s of organisation to find advice, pro bono support and free goods & services. There are 19 search categories, with everything from fundraising support, consultancy and IT through to volunteering, legal and consumer goods. Watch the 2 min demo video to see how it works and find out more here. If you wish to be included in Help Finder, just send me a link and 50 words. It doesn’t matter, if your support is only country or region specific, as I can tag your location, and it helps if you include your services in the text, as the directory has a key word search.
It’s just part of our comprehensive free programme to support non-profits through the cost-of-living crisis. Charities are really struggling, and we need you to help us help as many as possible by sharing this e mail, including the details below on your website or in your newsletter and posting on social media.
Find the crisis funding and help you need with our #SurviveAndThrive programme – a one-stop-shop that enables anyone to find the grant funding, advice, resources, pro bono support, data and free goods and services their charity needs. There are 3 very simple to use databases:
Funding Finder – click through to more funders than any other grants directory, including categories for Crisis Funding, Core Funding and Small Charities & Community Groups.
Help Finder – searches 100s of organisations to find advice, pro bono support and free goods and services to save you money.
Data Finder – finds data for funding bids, fundraising research, impact reporting, planning and campaigning.
We are very excited to announce the launch of the VVU Community Grants funding for 2023-2024.
As a partnership, our strategic goal is to reduce serious violence, the harm it causes, and to safeguard those at risk (relating to county lines, gangs and knife crime). We recognise that local organisations and groups are at the forefront of some amazing work that takes place to address these issues and we would like to support this work further as much as we can.
Our 2022-2024 VVCS grant round is for local *’not for profit’ voluntary or community clubs or organisations based in (and therefore delivering in) Essex, Southend and Thurrock only, and we are looking to fund projects that meet our stated aims and can run from April 2023- 31st March 2024.
Groups can apply for up to **£20,000 to deliver support and interventions for children, young people, young adults and families (families must include children and young people, and ‘young person’ is defined as up to the age of 25). Projects must demonstrate how they have a positive impact on issues relating to crime and anti-social behaviour and violence and vulnerability. This may include early intervention work, gang & ‘county lines’, and child criminal exploitation projects.
**Our grants funding this year has a total pot of just under £156,000 that we will look to distribute as evenly as possible across the 12 ECC districts/ Quadrants plus Southend & Thurrock. Please bear this is mind when completing your applications.
We would be particularly interested in projects that can evidence they are meeting needs as highlighted by young people and local residents in our Listening Project 2021-2022.
You can read the full report here https://ecvys.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/vvu-listening-2021-2022-youth-report-final.pdf The report only focuses on 7 Districts in Essex, but the fund is open to all (including Southend & Thurrock). Some examples of need highlighted in the report are-
Indoor/ outdoor safe spaces with affordable & inclusive activities for young people to socialise (this can include a one off cost for lighting the outside of voluntary group spaces to create a safer space for young people, additional staff or youth activities).
• Opportunities for young people to learn life skills, participate in community based or volunteering projects and undertake work experience
• Work with young people and their families to raise awareness of youth violence
• Projects that promote greater communication and positive engagement between the police, youth groups and schools
• Targeted youth work aimed at those young people most at risk of exploitation
• Support for victims of youth violence
• Drugs education in informal settings or led by voluntary groups in schools with evidenced links to how drug use relates to young people becoming involved in serious violence
The fund is open to work of all ages from 0-25 but we would especially like to see some applications for creative work around risk taking behaviours with primary school age children and their families.
Please do read the listening report and try to evidence the need for your intervention within your application, referencing the listening report or local needs if your district is not one of the 7 listed.
All applications must demonstrate how their project enables children & young people to-
• Make positive choices that keep them safe
• Raise self-esteem and confidence
• Build resilience
• Improve emotional and physical health and mental wellbeing
• Have a letter of support from the local CSP
*PLEASE NOTE THAT: Your organisation MUST have a recognised constitution and be a- not for profit voluntary or community club or organisation, a registered Charity, A not for profit company or community interest company or other social enterprise. company limited by guarantee, charitable incorporated organisation or Registered society.
Applications open: 15th August 2022 Applications close: 31st October 2022 Completed applications to be sent to rachel@ecvys.org.ukandjames.pearson@essex.gov.uk Short listing, due diligence checks and final panel decisions will happen from November 2022-February 2023 Applicants made aware of grant decisions: End of February 2023 Funds to be with groups For the project start date in April 2023
To download an application form with further guidance on applying please click the link below:
You can also apply online using this link https://forms.gle/qLaoT2atPZMvrioD8 (please note though that any due diligence forms requested will need to be emailed separately to Rachel and Jim (emails above).
Healthwatch Essex is working in partnership with Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB to produce a report on the difficulties in accessing GP services for children and young people under the age of 25. The report will be used in evolving and shaping the new ICS Primary Care strategy and we are looking to engage with as many local residents as possible to get the widest range of people’s experiences we can.
If you are in any way able to help promote the online survey through your professional contacts and marketing streams, we would be extremely grateful. If you can put it in a newsletter, email it to your database, text the link to your service users, pop in on your social media threads, link to it from your website, mention it in meetings – or anything similar you can think of, I would be very, very grateful.
The more reach we can get, the more we can do!!
The brief project outline and link to the survey is below.
I am also happy to provide and images or similar if that would help.
Thanks so much for any help you can provide.
GP Access for Children and young people under 25 has never been more important!
Have you tried to access GP services for your child in West Essex? Whether your experience has been good or bad, we would like to hear from you through our online survey.
We are exploring how to make improvements in the system to ensure every child and young person gets timely and effective access to quality care and support.
You can give us vital, real-life insight, and help make a difference!
Please take just two minutes to complete our survey today. Survey responses are completely anonymous, but if you wish to tell us more about your experience, you can give your contact details at the end.
A new raft of measures and money to help families battle against increasing cost of living pressures has been announced by Essex County Council.
The plans include support to help households pay for insulation and other energy saving improvements at home, a community led ‘winter warmth and welcome’ campaign to provide local places for winter warmth over the coming months, including a grant scheme to help groups fund activities, and additional funding to help vulnerable people with essential costs.
A number of support initiatives are already underway with others due to launch in mid-October onwards. This plan will continue to evolve and will respond to the changing needs of people and communities in Essex.
The plans span across the voluntary sector and public sector across the county and, in November, Essex County Council will be hosting a summit with partners to ensure all public service agencies are working together to support communities.
Essex County Council has produced a summary of their services which may be able to help you during this difficult time. See what cost of living support you could be eligible for.
You can also get in touch with Healthwatch Essex if you need information or guidance about any issue relating to your health and social care needs throughout this period.
To apply for this position please click on the application form button at the top of this page, and complete the form by the closing date of Monday 17th October 2022
Bereavement is everyone’s business shows how bereavement impacts us all. From dealing with complicated administration, to coping with financial and housing insecurity, …plus the challenges of returning to work or school after a bereavement, being bereaved throws up challenges in every area of life.
With 8 Principles for Change, and clear, detailed recommendations, the findings from Bereavement is everyone’s business are offered below in a variety of formats to ensure that everyone understands how bereavement affects their particular community, and how to support change for all bereaved people:
The findings follow one of the largest ever consultations on bereavement support undertaken in the UK, which included over 1,000 adult and 100 child respondents to the UKCB’s surveys and evidence submitted from over 130 organisations.
The Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Partnership is part of the new Integrated care System, and brings the NHS together with other key partners including local authorities, VCS organisations and others, to develop a strategy to enable the ICS to improve health and wellbeing across Mid and South Essex. Further information can be found at this link.
As part of the Strategy development, the Partners invite you to attend one or more workshops, which will explore what is working well in health and care in Mid and South Essex, the challenges we face, and how we can best work together as partners and alongside our communities to address these. The workshops will take place on the following dates and you can sign up by clicking the ‘Register’ button to the right:
Wednesday 28th September, 6.00pm – 8.00pm – MS Teams
Saturday 1st October, 2.00pm – 4.00pm – Witham Community Hub, 17 The Grove Shopping Centre, Witham, Essex. CM8 2YT
Tuesday 4th October, 2.00pm – 4.00pm – St Edmunds Hall, St Edmund’s Close, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS2 4AS
Wednesday 5th October, 2.00pm – 4.00pm – Witham Community Hub, 17 The Grove Shopping Centre, Witham, Essex. CM8 2YT
The workshops will be structured so as to encourage an open exchange of ideas and rich conversations about what we want for our system and the communities we serve.
Please click on the links below to register your attendance at one or more of the workshops.
We look forward to working together with you on this exciting project.
If you have any access needs, please contact Tonino Cook tonino.cook1@nhs.net and we will work with you to see how we can best support your needs.
We’re back with The National Lottery, ITV, UTV and, for the first time this year, the Sunday Mail. We’re giving community organisations the chance to apply for funding of up to £70,000.
After a national campaign the winners will be decided by public vote. The idea is to give Lottery players and the public a say in how National Lottery money is spent.
We’re looking for projects that:
bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
make communities stronger and more inclusive
help people or communities develop the skills and capacity they need to achieve their ambitions
involve the people you support in the design, development and delivery of your project
support people to create meaningful change in their local community or help it thrive
help people and communities connect by engaging with nature
build connections across different cultures, different communities, or both.
We’re looking for imaginative ideas from organisations that have already done good work in their local community. We’ll prioritise smaller organisations with annual turnovers of under £500,000.
We’ll award grants of up to £70,000 to 57 winners across the UK. We will offer up to 38 runner-up organisations awards of as much as £10,000.
This is an exciting opportunity, but it will take time and commitment over several months to get your project the votes you need to win. Before deciding to apply, consider if you’re happy running a public campaign that could bring lots of publicity to your project. We’ll provide free support and training to help you do this.
Area
UK-wide
Suitable for
voluntary and community organisations
Funding size
up to £70,000
Total available
Up to £4.37 million
Application deadline
12 noon on Friday 7 October 2022, or when we have reached our limit for applications for this fund if that’s sooner.
We will be holding a session on the 30th of September at the Happy Hub in Basildon between 12:30 pm and 4 pm. ( Lunch and networking between 12:30 and 13:30)
We are going to use the time as a purposeful session to hold a conversation on Cost of Living and Winter Pressures with our Anchor Colleagues and partners .
We will also use this as an opportunity to commence the discovery phase on how we co-design and shape how a future Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly could work for MSE geography. Our Chairman, Professor Mike Thorne will be contributing to the conversation and setting the scene for the day.
Our communities and partners are our greatest asset, we know there is so much great work going on across the patch and we want to ensure we amplify, connect and identify any opportunities to do the best we can to empower people in our communities to be their own purposeful movement starters.
We would very much like to see you all in person, everyone from our infrastructure organisations, charities, mutual aid groups, digital community leaders, parish and town councils, faith groups, police and fire colleagues and anyone with an interest in communities. We will also be offering a hybrid way to connect into the session.
This will be the first session we convene and we will be running a series of development and learning sessions both digitally and face to face, through the lens of communities of place purpose and interest.
How can we make Essex stand out and compete and be attractive for investment, businesses, talents, residents, visitors and students? We want to showcase all that Essex has to offer – and we want to hear from you.
Over the summer, influential people from across Essex have been coming together to plan how Essex will promote itself in a more joined-up way to make Essex stand out to investors, talents, visitors and students.
We have engaged with over 130 Essex stakeholders via focus groups and workshops, and we have brought together the findings from these sessions into a shortlist of key talking points, issues and insights.
We want to hear from you. Please complete our survey below to let us know your views on how best we can help Essex stand out and compete for business.