Online MHFA Refresher Course 1.30pm-5pm: 16th December (£25)
A contribution is required for each of these courses to cover the cost of course materials. These are given in brackets above.
In January we are running a FREE Developing Resilience workshop in Brentwood that stretches over 4 Tuesdays (10th, 17th, 24th 31st January). These workshops are for parents or carers of children with additional needs.
Colchester’s strategic partnership, One Colchester has launched its 2022-23 Winter Resilience campaign to help those in need stay safe, warm, well and connected this winter.
Thanks to partnership working, funding and community spirit, this project continues to provide advice and support through the One Colchester initiative delivering roadshows in the community and distributing winter packs to those affected by the cold weather, including families on low incomes, people living with long-term health conditions or at risk of social isolation.
The launch took place at Elim Church, Greenstead at a winter warmer community event which was organised by Les Nicoll, who runs the N.E.S.T (North Essex Support Team) charity. The charity helps struggling families and individuals in the community and is a partner in One Colchester running a series of activities and events in the local area.
Tracy Rudling, Chief Executive Officer of Community360 said: “We are delighted to be working once again with key partners who provide much needed help and support when things get tough during the winter months. This also includes funding local projects and conducting outreach across the borough.” She added: “Winter can increase isolation, loneliness and causes financial hardship for many people worried about paying increased heating bills. This year we face the extra challenges presented by the cost-of-living crisis. That’s why it is crucial that we continue working together with partners to support our communities. I would like to thank all the community organisations that have joined us to support the winter campaign including our wonderful army of volunteers. A big thank you also to Les Nicholl, N.E.S.T and all the local organisations involved for the amazing community work they do and for hosting the launch.”
“The Community Winter Warmers Team are proud to host and very much support The One Colchester Winter Resilience Campaign. Said Les Nicoll, N.E.S.T. He Added: “We have been running the Heart of the Community initiative for some
years. It is a successful collaboration of many local organisations, led by Essex Fire and Rescue Service, Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service, Essex Free School Uniform Service and North Essex Support Team. The lead team have been supported by Greenstead Community Centre, Tots 2 Teens, Community360, Precious Bundles, CBC Neighbourhood Team CAP, plus local community churches and other groups.
Over the years we have given away more than 150,000 items of preloved warm clothing, bedding, shoes, and boots. All recycled and distributed to several thousand families and individuals in need in our communities. This has only been achieved by the tremendous hard work, determination, passion and the unbelievable generosity of our friends and neighbours. This is a simple
format, creating the opportunity for the community to get immediate and practical help, as well as signposting to other support agencies and charities.”
The Winter Packs, a crucial part of the campaign will this year include a guide to local support services, including signposting to social groups, and contain practical items, such as clothing, basic refreshments, a torch, blanket and flask and will be distributed to those identified as being in need by partnership members. A dedicated supply of packs will be held at the One Colchester Hub and will also be held at Colchester Hospital for staff to distribute to patients who would benefit from the packs when they are discharged.
Cllr Julie Young, Colchester Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Housing and Communities, said: “Winter is always a tough time, but this year the colder months will be even more challenging for households already facing difficult circumstances and struggling to make ends meet as incomes are squeezed by inflation and rising energy and food costs.“
Colchester has a fantastic community spirit. Along with our partners, we are always here to support our residents and communities with practical advice and support. Nobody should be left isolated or in danger because of cold temperatures and darker days.”
Jo Besant, Associate Alliance Transformation Lead and who was also volunteering at the event said: “The Winter Resilience Campaign is of huge importance to the Neighbourhoods Programme aims, which is all about collaborative working between the local voluntary sector, communities, leaders, boroughs and district councils, health and social care.” She added: “We have already seen the benefits of this collaboration and have been able to support citizens to access the services needed and when appropriate share their story. We are also delighted that one of our Neighbourhood Connectors, who looks after Colchester Central and South is working from The One Colchester Hub.”
The One Colchester Hub will once again be hosting information and health events, clubs and activities. This year the team will also be signposting to support available for cost-of-living issues. The Winter Resilience Steering Group, chaired by Community360, who co-delivers the project, brings together representatives from the public and voluntary sector to facilitate support over the winter months. The project has been funded by The North East Essex Alliance and supported by donations in kind.
The Power of Gaming sessional worker will support the setting up and running community gaming events and carrying out some associated administration and promotional activities.
This will include supporting regular youth club sessions on weekday evenings and supporting the running of holiday clubs as well as working with the Project lead to extend the project reach and support monitoring and feedback.
Hours will be flexible dependent on need supporting the regular youth sessions held at the Youth Centre and school holiday activities.
£12 per hour. This role will run until 31st March 2023 with possible extension dependent on funding.
During Adult Safeguarding Week 21-25 November 2022, Maldon and District CVS are hosting a FREE online 90 minute DBS Barring Workshop on Making Recruitment Safer.
The workshop is led by Georgie Mitchell, the East of England Regional Outreach Advisor for the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). It will cover:
The different barring referral routes
The legislation underpinning barring work
When a barring referral legally has to be made
What regulated activity is and what is harm
How to make a good quality referral
The consequences of not making an appropriate referral
And the impact of being barred
It will end with a Q&A session.
The workshop will be held on Tuesday 22 November 1-2.30pm.
Booking is essential as spaces are limited.
For more information and to book please contact Catherine at M&DCVS on 01621 851891 or email catherine@maldoncvs.org.uk
Citizens Advice Essex is pleased to be partnering with Macmillan Cancer Support, to provide a specialist welfare benefits advice service to help more people in Essex cope with the financial impact of a cancer diagnosis. A diagnosis of cancer can have a real impact on both those affected directly and their families. You can self refer to the service using the form below. We will handle your information in line with our Privacy Policy.
Now hiring for a Alcohol Recovery Practitioner that will work across West and South Essex, helping people to access our services who may face barriers through being more rural. Apply with your CV today!
For any questions get in touch – Claire.Beacham@PhoenixFutures.org.uk
We would like to invite you to the launch of the Greater Essex Careers on 17th November 2022, 10.00am-12.00pm, Writtle University College, Chelmsford. Arrival from 9:00 for refreshments and networking.
What does this mean for Essex?
The Greater Essex Careers Hub is part of a new wave of Careers Hubs rolling out nationally, further supporting schools and colleges across the county to help our young people take their best next step – building on the excellent work of the Southend & Thurrock Careers Hub.
The expanded Hub will strengthen relationships between employers, educators and wider skills stakeholders to enable young people to become work ready, understand and gain the right employment skills and access the local labour market and jobs of tomorrow.
Schools, colleges, Careers Leaders, and Education Leaders can access training and support, collaborate, share best practice, gain local labour market insight and build a community of mutual support focused on learning and continuous improvement in careers education – driving progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks.
What will I learn on the day?
This is a valuable opportunity to hear directly from the local leaders of the initiative and gain insight into how the expanded Careers Hub is delivering for Essex, and what it means for you. It’s also a great opportunity to connect with colleagues from across the county.
The focus for the launch event will be presentations and panel discussions from:
Oli de Botton, Chief Executive, The Careers & Enterprise Company
Helen Clements, Chair of the Cornerstone Employer Group, Social Value Manager at Morgan Sindall
Stuart Heaton, Managing Director, Learn Live Ltd
Lucy Murray, Director of Outreach, University of Essex, Make Happen
Overview
Multiply is a new Central Government 3-year scheme to increase adult numeracy skills (19+), funded by the Department for Education and delivered through Local Authorities. At the end of June, Essex County Council submitted its Multiply investment plan – emphasising applying Maths to real life situations. Essex was awarded a £7.9m Multiply Grant agreed and the First Year allocation is £2.4m.
Multiply in Essex
Multiply supports Everyone’s Essex commitments on Good Jobs, Future Growth, Levelling Up, and Lifelong Learning. It also allows good join-up with Education (e.g. parents’ numeracy skills and Year of Numbers); health/social care (via Anchors); and new work on Financial Wellbeing and the Cost of Living. In Essex, NVQ3 qualifications are 8 percentage points lower than the national average. In addition, Essex is 114th out of 151 top tier local authority areas (or 38 th from bottom) for such qualifications, and as well known, Maths is a key barrier to progression beyond NVQ2.
Essex Multiply Interventions
The training will be delivered by local colleges and training providers and is in the process of being commissioned. The courses will be based on the below areas:
Helping people use numeracy to manage their money. To help to address cost of living pressures. Linked to ECC’s Financial Wellbeing project.
Numeracy skills required in the workplace delivered with employers. Develop Maths skills pledges with partners, anchor institutions and businesses.
Helping parents increase their numeracy skills to help their children & help with their own progression. Bringing together providers & schools – linked to Year of Numbers 2023/24
Engaging the hardest to reach learners – eg. those not in the labour market, care leavers. Working with partners, skills providers & VCS supported by community grants.
Additional relevant maths modules embedded into other vocational courses
Confidence with numbers – tasters or access courses to overcome barriers to entry.
New intensive and flexible numeracy courses targeted at people without Level 2 maths, leading to a Functional Skills Qualification. Delivering a flexible progression route throughout the year – rather than being locked into a September start. (From April 2023)
How Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations can get involved with Essex Multiply
We have budgeted £1m of community grants over the 3 year period to award to voluntary and community sector and public partners to help to support individuals from all communities to engage with Multiply. You are the experts in relation to your client base, and we are approaching you as partners who meet people everyday who have challenges with numeracy. Being interested in what wraparound support you can offer to Essex Multiply, we ask you to consider the following questions:
• How can Multiply complement your existing offer?
• What new opportunities could it create?
• What cohorts do you work with? What places do you support?
• Would any of your staff benefit from Multiply interventions?
• Can your premises be used as delivery locations?
• How can we promote this to other organisations you work with in your area?
Essex Multiply Community Grants
Multiply will enable providers to deliver bite-sized training for adults and we are offering VCS and Partners opportunities to enhance your support to communities and cohorts, notably around the cost of living and life skills to support the Multiply provision.
The quid pro quo is that you will deliver additional outreach, triage and wraparound support and ultimately participants in Multiply training (c. 40-60 starts per £10k grant depending on the cohort – a unit cost of £167-£250).
If you already deliver numeracy training that works for your clients, we would be interested to hear about it)
Call for proposals for year 1 (up to March 2023):
Community Grants of up to £10k – closing date 11th November 2022
Community Grants will also be available in 2023-24 and 2024-25
Contact our Multiply team at multiply@essex.gov.uk for an application form
Amid the current cost-of-living crisis, consumers are cutting spending across the economy. According to a recent YouGov survey, a quarter of adults in Great Britain have even had to cut back on key essentials. How is this crisis affecting charities? Respondents are reducing cash donations to charities, but data indicates that they’re willing to contribute more in other ways.
Charities are an important resource for those in need. Recent data gathered using YouGov RealTime Omnibus indicates that more than three quarters (76%) of respondents believe that “relevant charities should be providing help and support to those who are most affected by the cost of living.” The youngest cohort is most convinced, with 81% agreeing with that statement.
When asked what services should be accessible during the crisis, respondents identified assistance with accessing food (78%), mental health support (71%) and paying for utility bills (73%) as particularly important. Just over half of respondents said that general financial support (57%) and help with childcare costs (50%) should be available.
However, respondents don’t necessarily believe that it’s up to charities themselves to provide everything. When asked what charities ought to do to help those affected by the current cost of living crisis, more than half of respondents cited “lobbying the government” (53%) and “providing support in accessing other organisations and services which can help those in need” (56%). Only 27% believe that charities should “increase the number of services they provide.”
Get quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences using YouGov RealTime Omnibus
As with other forms of spending, the cost-of-living crisis is affecting how much respondents are giving to charity. Overall, 21% say they’re donating less than usual to charities. However, this trend is not as strong among the youngest age group surveyed. Only 17% of 18–24-year-olds say they’ve reduced their giving whereas 12% of them say they’re donating more during the current cost-of-living crisis, significantly higher than the 8% of the general population who say the same thing.
Even if people donate less money, they may participate in charity in other ways. Half of all respondents say they’re more likely to donate goods compared to only 9% who say they’re less likely to do so. A fifth of respondents also say they’re more likely to donate their time (20%) and campaign for a charitable cause (21%). In addition to being more willing to give in some forms, respondents also seem less willing to take from charities. When asked whether they might seek help from a charity in response to the crisis, many more respondents said that they were less likely to do so (23%) than more likely (16%). This may be a sign that UK adults feel that they are able to handle this crisis on their own or that they don’t want to take up resources that they feel should go to those more in-need.
YouGov RealTime Omnibus provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. This study was conducted online on 14-15 September, 2022, with a nationally representative sample of 2000 adults in Great Britain (aged 18+ years), using a questionnaire designed by YouGov. Learn more about YouGov RealTime Omnibus.
Many charities developed digital services during the pandemic, with 53 per cent offering new online services, according to the Charity Digital Skills Report.
So how are these issues likely to affect the people who the sector supports, and what can we do about it?
The sight-loss charity the RNIB is growing concerned about how the digital divide is affecting the people it helps.
Sophie Dodgeon, the charity’s head of policy and public affairs, says the squeeze on household budgets also means that its beneficiaries will struggle to afford assistive technology, such as screen readers or video magnifiers.
This is causing high levels of worry and anxiety.
“Without this technology, many blind and partially sighted people will be more isolated socially, and be less likely to be able to find the best money‐saving deals or choose the cheapest options,” says Dodgeon.
Scottish social innovation charity People Know How is also worried.
It works with low income families affected by the poverty premium, which means paying more for essential goods and services.
This can result in people being pushed into data poverty when they do not have the time or resources to research different internet packages.
Claudia Baldacchino, communications and digital manager at the charity, told me: “This is because data and digital should be seen as a basic human right – something we’ve made an action point in our Connectivity Now campaign to end data poverty.”
Stories such as these show how digital inclusion is a multifaceted issue. People need more than devices.
They also need an internet connection and the digital skills to get online and make the most of the opportunities it offers.
The RNIB is combatting this issue by adding additional funded items to get blind and partially sighted people online as part of its grants offer.
The charity is also providing information and advice about accessing and using digital technologies via its Technology for Life team, as part of its Sight Loss Advice Service to people with who are blind or partially sighted, as well as their families, friends and professionals from the sight-loss sector.
Good Things Foundation has resources to help charities that are concerned about digitally excluded beneficiaries.
The foundation has set up the National Databank, which offers free mobile connectivity data for those who need it across the UK.
Charities can also join Good Things Foundation’s Online Centres Network, organisations across the UK that help people get online and use the internet.
Helen Milner, chief executive of the foundation says: “With the network’s support, community organisations can provide free mobile connectivity data, digital skills support and, in the longer term, a refurbished device.”
Milner and her team are also calling for the government to remove VAT from broadband social tariffs and pass on the cost saving to the consumer.
This winter is going to be difficult for many of the people charities support.
As well as working with organisations such as Good Things Foundation, the best thing we can all do is keep the spirit of collaboration going across the sector that we saw during lockdown.
The more we can all learn from each other about how digital exclusion continues to affect people, the better an understanding we will have of the issue. And that’s exactly what’s required if we are to lobby for effective change.
The digital divide should be back on everyone’s agenda again, because it never really went away.
Digital inclusion is a social justice issue, and we need to champion the right for everyone to get online so they can benefit from the information, advice and services they need to improve their lives.
