The Think Ahead programme is an innovative route into social work, for graduates and career-changers remarkable enough to make a real difference to people with mental health problems.
How does it work?
You will be paid to work in an expert team alongside clinical professionals, study for a master’s degree in social work and develop your leadership skills.
Where you will work
We work with NHS Trusts and Local Authorities across England, who act as host organisations for our participants. Your specific workplace is likely to change during the two-year programme, but it will always be within the geographical area covered by your host organisation.
When you apply, you can let us know where you would prefer to work. We do our very best to support these preferences but may need you to be flexible about where you live and work.
Social workers often support people over a large area and in more rural places you will need to travel by car. You are less likely to be given a place on the programme if you cannot drive because many of our host organisations cover rural locations.
When you apply, you will be able to let us know whether you are able to drive, and if not whether you are willing to commit to learning before you start the programme.
When you will work
The Think Ahead programme is full-time, Monday to Friday, for its entire duration. You will not usually have to work during evenings or weekends, but there are occasional lectures and events that you may want to take part in.
This is an intensive programme, and you may find that you use some evening and weekend time for your academic studies.
In Year One, you will have 25 days leave. In Year Two your annual leave allowance will be set by your host organisation, as your employer.
How you will be paid
You will receive a tax-free training bursary for the Summer Institute and Year One. This will be around £17,200 (£19,100 with London weighting) paid monthly. Year One is a 14-month period, so for each full month you will receive around £1,230 (£1,360 with London weighting).
In Year Two, you will be employed as a newly qualified social worker and receive a taxable salary. Your exact salary will depend on the NHS Trust or Local Authority employing you, typically ranging from around £21,000 – £33,000, location dependent.
There are no programme fees, and all qualifications are fully funded.
We are working with NHS Mid and South Essex to support marginalised communities, helping to address health inequalities for people who have mental health problems.
To be eligible to apply, charities and community groups must be working in Mid and South Essex (Basildon, Braintree, Brentwood, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Maldon, Rochford, Southend-on-Sea, and Thurrock).
There is £185,000 in grants available from the ‘Mid and South Essex Mental Health Inequalities Programme’ to support either revenue costs, projects or capital costs.
Applications from these areas must be for work that:
Focus on historically underserved communities
Help us learn how to improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of mental health support for people experiencing mental health inequalities
Offer innovation and originality in supporting these groups of people to achieve their goals
Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 can be given to individual organisations. Grants of up to £30,000 are available for organisations that are working together in a partnership to tackle an issue in their community.
The panel are keen to hear from community and voluntary organisations who have ideas for projects and initiatives that will reduce the health inequalities for marginalised and historically underserved communities.
How do I apply?
To provide more flexibility, the programme will open for applications on 23 August as a rolling programme with regular panel meetings.
To apply, please read the guidance. You need to complete our online application form here.
If you have any questions about making an application, you can phone us on 01245 356018 or book a time slot for a 1-1 meeting with a member of the Essex Community Foundation (ECF) grants team here.
Find out more:
ECF is hosting a Teams webinar which you can join to learn more about this Programme and ask any questions you may have. We will also be sharing information about the findings of our community listening project and marginalisation, and you will hear the experience of an ECF grant partner.
We are delighted to invite you to join us for the LandAid Eastern Region Pro Bono Breakfast, taking place on Wednesday 19th October from 8:30-10:00am (via Zoom)
At this online event, you and your colleagues will find out more about LandAid’s Pro Bono Programmewhich brokers free support from within the property industry to provide professional services to charities, non-profit and community groups across the UK
Join us to hear from charities and businesses in your region, who have benefitted from their involvement in pro bono work. And find out more about the process of donating and accessing professional time, skills and expertise.
We will also host a panel discussion and Q&A to share best practice and guidance around the challenges faced around pro bono support.
Our programme can help charity partners achieve their property goals at the same time as enabling corporate organisations to create impact aligned with their ESG initiatives on a local level and capture the social value of that support while making a meaningful difference.
We look forward to seeing you at the event.
Very best wishes,
LandAid Team
LandAid is the property industry charity, working to end youth homelessness. LandAid’s Pro Bono Programme was established to add value to the charities they support, brokering free professional expertise to drive real change.
A part time Charity Operations Manager is required The Art Ministry.
We help the community engage in creative art and craft activities to maintain and improve their mental health and well-being. The core of our service provision are weekly sessions for children and adults with special needs, adults with physical, visual and/or mental health issues.
We provide creative activities at numerous local community events. This is a new role, with funding secured for the first six months. One of the most important tasks for the new manager will be to work with the trustees to secure longer term funding.
This is a part time role for 22 hours a week. A great deal of flexibility is required to be able to attend sessions, events and meetings throughout the day, occasionally including evenings and at weekends, but we will work with the job holder to provide at least one no-working day each week day. Some home working will be allowed, such as for administrative tasks.
Candidates must have access to a vehicle that they can use for business use.
The salary is £18,304 a year, equal to £33,280 if it was full time. You must have experience operational manager experience, preferably in the charity sector, as the job holder will help to define this new role and secure future funding for it. The Art Ministry is an organisation committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees, trustees and volunteers to share this commitment. As such we will carry out an Enhanced DBS Check and obtain references.
PATACC is once again pleased to announce that the 2022 Harlow Black History Multicultural Festival comes off on Saturday, 1st October 2022 at the Market Square, Harlow. CM20 1BL.
The theme this year is BLACK HEALTH AND WELLNESS IN HARLOW AT 75
Themes of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and its relevance to the Commonwealth will be shared as well.
PATACC is therefore inviting all potential artists, performers, exhibitors, Information Stall holders, Caterers etc who might want to participate in the 2022 Harlow Black History Multicultural Festival to complete the attached form, providing as much information about their proposed activities, as possible.
Please share this information with all your contacts and invite all friends and family to this event. To get your organisation’s name published on the leaflet please fill in the form as soon as possible.
We count on your usual support to make this year’s festival greater.
Not long ago we were just called Age Concern Colchester, however we are committed to supporting older people to have happier, healthier and wealthier lives across much of Essex, and the new name better reflects our new approach and our wider geography.
Our ambition is limited only by our need to grow sustainably, stick to what we are good at and the needs of older people suffering poverty, isolation and poor health in the East of England. This is an exciting time as we partner with other third sector organisations, the NHS and local government. Our income has grown nearly five-fold in five years and our priorities are delivering on a number of new contracts and ensuring that we overcome the growing pains of medium sized charities.
We want our trustee board to be as diverse as the communities we serve. We only have two essential criteria for our next two trustees, that you share our values and that you live in Essex or Suffolk. We are specifically looking for somebody who can act as vice-chair or somebody who has experience of, or a strong interest in, either raising funds or human resources management. That having been said, we are always looking for new talent and fresh faces..
Application Instructions
Please provide a short cover letter, explaining what you would bring to the role of trustee at Age Well East.
Every child and young person has the right to have fun and enjoy taking part in activities, without the risk of being harmed or abused. Active Essex and the Essex Safeguarding Children’s Board, in partnership with the National Child Safeguarding Charity are introducing ‘Safe to Play’; a new innovative safeguarding in sport campaign, across the county.
Sport and physical activities often place individuals in a position of significant influence over other people. A high level of trust is placed on such individuals by parents, carers and the participants themselves. In most cases, that level of trust is more than repaid through the commitment, dedication and selflessness of people involved in organising and delivering sports and activities, but occasionally that trust can be abused. All organisations and individuals involved in sport should be aware of the risks and act promptly to deal with any concern.
Here in Essex, we strive to make sure that every child has a positive experience when participating in sport, physical and extra-curricular activities. Everyone has a role to play in keeping others safe and people should know how to spot the signs of child exploitation and what to do if they have any concerns. Safeguarding must remain a priority for all those who run, book, manage and oversee sports and extra-curricular clubs and activities.
To launch ‘Safe to Play’, we will be hosting an event on Thursday 29th September at Chelmsford City Racecourse, to build upon this new, innovative safeguarding in sport campaign started by the NWG. Reflecting and having conversations on how to adopt the messaging throughout our county.
The event will take place between 10am and 12pm, with a range of talks and breakout rooms planned, to ensure we embed this campaign and message throughout our sector, because it’s time to get comfortable about safeguarding.
In 2021 we launched the Santander Foundation Digital & Financial Empowerment Fund focused on supporting projects that will help people to become digitally and financially empowered.
The programme has the ambition to support UK charities to give people the digital confidence, knowledge, and skills to enable them to make better, more informed decisions about money and have access to financial services.
The Santander Foundation Grants Programme
We’re proud to support 21 charitable organisations in the UK that work to help people to become digitally and financially empowered.
Who do we want to support?
There are millions of people in our society that are already at a disadvantage – through age, education, income, disability, or unemployment. Without the right support for them, the social inequality gap will only widen.
Many charitable and community interest organisations work with such groups; with people that feel the impacts of financial or digital exclusion the most.
We want to reach lone parents, single pensioners, migrants and refugees, those with long term illnesses and disabilities, those struggling to find sustained employment and households headed by students or part-time workers. These are among the groups most commonly excluded from financial services.
People with low or unstable incomes, or those who have experienced a significant life shock, are particularly affected by financial exclusion. The pandemic will only have made this situation worse, as more and more basic services have moved to the web. We want to help charities build their capacity to help people to become digitally and financially empowered.
How can you apply?
You can apply for a Santander Foundation Grant by completing an application form.
The closing date for applications is 23rd September 2022
The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s vision for Essex is to ensure that safe and secure communities are the bedrock on which we build success and well-being for all. The Police and Crime Plan makes a clear strategic commitment to prevention, a shift in our main effort from rapid response into a model of targeted prevention and early intervention. To support the new Police and Crime Plan and to deliver the vision for the PFCC has created a Crime Prevention Fund.
This £200,000 fund offers grants of up to £20,000 for community projects that help to deliver effective approaches to prevent crime from happening in the first place, to reduce overall crime and to keep our communities safe.
Applications to the fund must demonstrate activity that prevent crime inline with one of the twelve Police and Crime Plan priorities. This can include projects that:
Recognise and welcome the increased diversity of Essex and support communities to work together and prevent crime by encouraging reporting, identifying problem areas and target prevention activity.
Provide extra support and early intervention for people with additional needs or who are at increased risk of becoming victims of crime
Collaborate with rural communities and partners to understand rural communities and their issues in order to prevent crime
Work to reduce the fear women feel in their communities and support projects that make public space free from abuse and harassment
The March 22/23 round has now closed. Details to follow soon about future funding rounds.
Register and join us to hear how you can access this Programme and also find out what we learned from our Community Listening Project.
About this event
This Programme will provide funding to local voluntary and community groups working in Mid and South Essex that are helping to address health inequalities for people who have mental health problems.
The Programme opens for applications on 23 August. Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 can be given to individual organisations. Grants of up to £30,000 are available for those that are working together in a partnership.
Join our Webinar to learn about the Programme and ask questions about applying. You will also hear about our Community Listening Project and how this highlighted the health inequalities that exist for marginalised and historically underserved communities.