Cuts Campaign Conference

Free Haircut for Bradford Volunteers!

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Apprentices give something back to the community for Bradford volunteers
Anyone working within the volunteer sector across Bradford can receive a free haircut and finish at the Business Enterprise Centre on Church Bank in Bradford on Thursday, September 16th between 9am-midday.

Apprentice hairdressers from Christopher Paul Training will be showcasing their skills and giving something back to those who give up their time to help others and the numerous good causes across Bradford.

If you work as a volunteer and would like to book a free appointment, please email Chris Hughes at c.hughes@brassagency.com stipulating in your email the time you are able to attend between 9am-11am on September 16th. Please note that appointments on the morning are limited and must be booked with Chris in advance.

PEACE VIGIL Friday 27 August 2010

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PLANS TO CLOSE BB BLOG

Occasional visitors to the blog will have noticed that there have been no new posts for quite a while. I still think that it's not a bad idea - I just haven't had the time.

What do you think about the viability of a blog as a means to deliver news and information to the voluntary and community sector?

Leave a comment to let me know.

PAUL COLLEY - BCVS PUBLICATIONS OFFICER

DECEMBER BRIEFING BRADFORD

The latest issue of Briefing Bradford is now up on the Bradford CVS website - check it out at:
www.bradfordcvs.org.uk/dec08bb.pdf

READING MATTERS JOBS

It's not often that anyone asks us to post something on the blog - but it happened today. How could we refuse?

Registered charity number 1104360

Reading Matters’ social mission is to support young people to reach their potential by becoming confident and enthusiastic readers. In order to achieve this, Reading Matters offers a range of training programmes and a Volunteer Reading Mentor support network. We are currently recruiting two new members to our team:

PROJECT MANAGER – Bradford & Calderdale
18 hours per week, school term time only - £ 9,744 pa (£24,223 pro rata)
Fixed term contract to end of July 2010 (reviewable at this time)
This post is subject to an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check.
Closing date for applications: Monday 24 November 2008
Interviews: Friday 5 December 2008

ADMINISTRATOR (Bradford based)
8 hours per week, school term time only - £3,478 pa (£19,451 pro rata)
Closing date for applications: Monday 24 November 2008
Interviews: Tuesday 9 December 2008

Reading Matters is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

For an application pack please phone 01274 692219 or e-mail info@readingmatters.org.uk

Or download information from http://www.readingmatters.org.uk/

MAKE BRADFORD HEALTHIER COMPETITION

Bradford and Airedale tPCT are looking for your ideas... they want to encourage local people to send in new ideas that will help improve health and wellbeing locally. The competition is open to individuals, community and voluntary groups, social enterprises and businesses in Bradford district.

"Ten shortlisted ideas will get the chance to discuss their idea with the competition judges on 17th November. Each presenter will get a cash prize of £50; further funding of up to £1,000 each may also be awarded to help some of the winners take the first steps to get their ideas moving."

For further details, see link below or telephone Georgina Bache on 01274 235543.

The competition can be entered online at:

http://www.brad.ac.uk/thinkbusiness/nhscomp/

or pick up a leaflet at your local community centre and return the short form to Community Development, B&A tPCT, Freepost RLZH-XTUZ-YAZK, Douglas Mill, Bradford BD5 7JR (no stamp needed).

The deadline for entries is: 31 October 2008.

LATEST ISSUE OF BRIEFING BRADFORD

You can download the latest (September 2008) issue of Briefing Bradford from here:

http://www.bradfordcvs.org.uk/sep08bb.pdf


Sorry things have been a bit quiet here recently.

The blog is 'under review' (for which read 'wondering whether it is worth trying to maintain', to be honest).

If you have any views, one way or the other, please post a comment (or something).

Twenty-five people a day drop by here - but they may all be wanting to spam me.

THIRD SECTOR REVIEW - CONSULTATION

BRADFORD THIRD SECTOR REVIEW – CONSULTATION EVENT

Date: 23 September 2008

Time: 12.30 – 16.30

Venue: Hilton Hotel, Bradford

Objective:
To share initial findings and to find out what the Council and its Partners, including the Voluntary and Community Sector, need to do to ensure that the Third Sector is able to play an effective role and function in delivering better outcomes for the people of Bradford.

Who should attend?
Third sector/voluntary and community sector organisations and groups in the district

Cost: Free

How to register:
This is a major event with places limited to 150 delegates. To register a place, please e-mail sunil.pujara@bradford.gov.uk with your name, organisation details, address and telephone number.

Alternatively, fill out the online contact form at: www.bradford.gov.uk/thirdsectorreview

or write to Sunil Pujara, Department of Strategy and Performance, 2nd Floor, City Exchange, 61 Hall Ings, Bradford BD1 5SG.

PUDSEY NEEDS ASSISTANCE

The BBC Children in Need Appeal which helps to positively change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK, is looking for Freelance Assessors, Volunteer Committee Members and Volunteer Committee Chairs/Vice Chairs to fill vacancies in the North East, North West, Central (for Midlands), London and South East and the South West.

For more information and to apply, please click here.

Closing date: Friday 15 August 2008.

THIRD SECTOR REVIEW - FOCUS GROUPS

Bradford CVS, like many local VCS organisations, has received an invitation to take part in a focus group which will feed into the local authority's review of (its relationship with) the sector. We reproduce this invitation, in slightly edited form, below:

Bradford Council is currently reviewing its relationship with the Third Sector. The aim of the Review is to see how, by working better together, we can maximise the difference we make to people in the District.

One of the themes of the review is to explore the Role and Function of the Third Sector within the Bradford District and identify what is working well, what could work better, and the types of things the council and our partners, including the VCS, could be doing to strengthen organisations like yours.

As part of the Review, we would like to invite yourself, or someone else from your organisation, to participate in a focus group. We would like to hear from you what the current situation is for organisations like yours. This will give your organisation an opportunity to contribute your views and will help the Review Team to set some recommendations that will ultimately help strengthen your role within the District.

The Focus Groups will run on 19th August 2008, at Carlisle Business Centre. There will be two sessions, 2.30 – 6.00 pm and 6.00 – 8.30 pm. A light tea will be available and we can offer to pay any travel and childcare costs you may incur by participating in this focus group.

If you would like to participate please email susan.long@bradford.gov.uk by Friday 8 August 2008 indicating which session you will be attending. If we have not heard from you by this date we will assume you do not wish to attend. Please advise Sue, when replying to this invitation, of any access issues or special dietary requirements.

For more information about the Review please contact Sunil Pujara on 01274 434989.

ICT SYSTEMS & SUPPORT

ICT SYSTEMS & SUPPORT IN THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR

Are you concerned about support for your IT systems ?
Do you want to improve your support ?

We are holding a short meeting on Wednesday August 6th 2008 at 1pm
to discuss issues such as:

~Problems faced by small voluntary organisations
~Keeping up to date
~Refurbish or Recycle ?
~Technical Assistance
~Training issues etc. etc.

WE HOPE TO FIND A FEW SOLUTIONS

If you want to attend please contact:

Peter Tate, (Voluntary Organisation Support Officer, Bradford CVS)
peter@bradfordcvs.org.uk, 01274-412045 or text 07946 505358.

FUNDING / MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

Black History Month - small grants

Grants of up to £500 are available for running activities to celebrate and promote Black History Month (October). Applications should show how the project/activity will help achieve the key objectives of the district Cultural Strategy (http://www.bradford.gov.uk/government_politics_and_public_administration/local_government/cultural_strategy.htm).

For further information about the fund, please contact Bobsie Robinson at Bradford Council bobsie.robinson@bradford.gov.uk or telephone 01274 431922.

The deadline for applications is 31 July 2008.


Win a Barclays Premier League Player

A marketing/ funding opportunity:

If you can think of a way of involving a Barclays Premiership football player in promoting your group, then there is the opportunity to enter this competition to win a player's help for a day plus a £4,000 donation to your cause.

The competition is open to community groups, charities and schools.

The deadline for entries is Friday 1 August 2008.

For further information please visit http://www.premierleague.com/page/CreatingChances

HEALTH & DISABILITY EVENT (24 July 2008)

Asian Disability Awareness Action in Bradford (ADAAB) is holding a Health and Disability Awareness Event. The event aims to help raise awareness of what services in relation to health and disabilities are available to residents within Bradford and District. The event will also be opportunity for voluntary and community organisations to interact and network with each other.

Health and Disability Awareness Event starting at 10.00am on Thursday 24^th July 2008 at the Pakistan Community Centre, White Abbey Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD8 8EJ. Lunch will be provided.

If you would like to attend, require further information, or if you would like space for a display at the event, please contact:

Amar Latif on (01274) 733678, info@adaab.org.uk

SOCIAL NETWORKING (16 July 2008)

Social Networking - How can it help my learners?

A FREE course running at Forster Community College

Wednesday 16 July 2008 (9:30am – 1pm)

Do you have learners who are difficult to engage?

Are your vocational learners employed in different locations who need to be working with each other?

Do you need to evidence activities quickly and easily in one place?

The course will introduce social networking sites, explore their possible use to aid learning and start you off developing your own social network there and then!

For further details telephone 01274 308707 or call in at Captain Street, Bradford, BD1 4EL.

Forster Community College – School of Management Practice: Innovation and Support for the Third Sector

IN A NUTSHELL (18 July 2008)

An event about e-learning, Quality and CPD in a nutshell.

Aimed at new and existing VCS learning providers, the event will enable you to stay ahead with the new learning landscape. In a Nutshell, will cover what community trainers need to know regarding professional registration, the new qualifications structures for trainers, putting the learner at the centre, the use of MIS, developing e – learning and getting an overview of what is going on.

At Carlisle Business Centre on the 18th July at 9.30-12.30

followed by lunch and networking.

The new learning landscape will have a dramatic knock on for all learning providers. Whether you are an existing provider or you are thinking about providing learning you need to know about the new ideas affecting the provision of learning.

To book a place contact fizzah.akhtar@atlenterprise.co.uk or visit www.atlenterprise.co.uk or telephone 01274 735844.

FREE FILM SHOWINGS

‘Doing Time Doing Vipassana’

Wednesday 18th June, 7.30pm @ Tree House Café, 2 Ashgrove, Great Horton Rd. Bradford (opposite University). (55mins). Entry FREE

A second showing on: Saturday 28th June, 7-9pm , Kirkgate Community Centre, Kirkgate, off Shipley town square (a few minutes walk from Shipley station). Film will be followed by Q&As. Entry FREE.

DTDV documents the introduction of Vipassana meditation into one of the world’s largest prisons, Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Winner of the San Francisco International Film festivals 1998 Golden Spire Award, the film, through interviews with warden, guards and inmates, explores how Vipassana has transformed the jail and changed lives.

Vipassana meditation is a straightforward, practical technique to dissolve inner tensions, agitations and negativities and lead a more positive, balanced, peaceful life. It is a technique of mental purification through self observation. Vipassana is a universal, non-sectarian technique practised by people of any religion and those of none. Courses are offered freely.

For more information, contact:
Simon: 07951 515927 simonbinks71@yahoo.co.uk
See: www.dhamma.org

FREE TRAINING FROM BRC

Funding Crisis? Saving your organisation, a one-day workshop
This workshop is being run twice on: Thursday June 26th or Monday July 7th

A number of Bradford's voluntary organisations are facing closure or the possibility of making staff redundant at present. This seems to have come about following dramatic changes in the local funding environment such as:
* the ending of some funding regimes (e.g. NRF and ERDF)
* restructuring in Bradford Council
* the winding up of Bradford Vision
* mergers in local NHS organisations (notably the PCT)

This one-day workshop will cover a number of courses of action you might wish to take - we will not be pushing any particular line of action - that is up to your group - but we will introduce you to the skills and information you will need:
* How to keep in touch - who to contact to find out what's going on, what funding is available and what help you can get
* How to go about lobbying and campaigning against closure or cuts in your funding
* How to go about merging your organisation with another voluntary organisation or forming a consortium with other voluntary organisations (and what the TUPE (transfer of undertakings) legislation says about this
* How to conduct a fair and just redundancy procedure.

The workshop is FREE and lunch is included.

Both workshops are being held at the Arts and Resource Centre, home of BRC (Bradford Resource Centre & Community Statistics Project), 17-21 Chapel Street, Bradford BD1 5DT.

Contact BRC (01274 779003 or mike@brc-net.org.uk) to book a place on one of these sessions.

Delivered by PERS (Pay and Employment Rights Service), BRC (Bradford Resource Centre & Community Statistics Project) and ABCD (Action for Black Community Development).

Organised by the B-Supported Consortium (funded by the Big Lottery Fund)

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BRC, ALSO FREE:

Using Social Statistics one-day course:
Tuesday 8th, Monday 14th & Monday 21st July 10am-4pm.
Tutor: Mike Quiggin & Bal Athwal

Campaign skills one-day course:
Wednesday 9th, Thursday 17th & Tuesday 22nd July 10am-4pm.
Tutor: Peter Dwyer

Introduction to research methods one-day course:
Friday 11th, Wednesday 16th & Thursday 24th July 10am-4pm.
Tutor: Britta Kristensen & Bal Athwal

Finding market information for social enterprises one-day course:
Friday 18th July
10am-4pm. Tutor: Mike Quiggin

Promoting your group on the internet: A beginners guide, 2 half days:
Wednesday 23rd July, 10am-1pm & Monday 28th July, 1pm-4pm.
Tutor: Britta Kristensen

For further information and booking contact:
Bal / Britta @ Bradford Resource Centre. Telephone: 01274 779003.
Email: bal@brc-net.org.uk / Britta@brc-net.org.uk
http://www.brc-net.org.uk/training.htm

LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP (9 July 2008)

Leading from the front line:
A workshop on empowering approaches to building leadership
in community organisations

10.30 am to 3 pm Wednesday July 9th 2008.
St George’s Centre, Leeds

Empowerment is now high on the agenda in the Third Sector but what does it mean in practice? bassac believe empowering leadership is about emphasising the value of involvement, equality and collective activity. This workshop is based on recent research on how community organisations are supporting the growth of leadership within their organisation and for the communities they serve. It will look at practical methods of empowerment and a framework that can be applied to your work. The workshop will be participative in style and act as a place to share your ideas and experiences.

The workshop is for:
* Staff, trustees and managers from community organisations and development trusts
* Volunteers and experienced members of community groups
* Community and development workers
* Anyone from Third and public sector organisations interested in building community leadership.

Workshop aims:
* To share the findings of the recent research on empowering approaches to building leadership in communities
* To look at how we can apply this to our own work
* To contribute experience and ideas to the future use of the empowerment framework.

The research was carried out principally in Yorkshire and the Humber in late spring 2008 for bassac and the Community Alliance; workshop participants will receive a copy of the draft report prior to the workshop.

The workshop will be run by Steve Skinner, an experienced trainer and community worker who carried out the research. Steve wrote Leadership in Communities for bassac in 2007 available on www.bassac.org.uk

Maximum 20 places – book early! Please book your place by July 1st

To book, contact: tatum@bassac.org.uk

The workshop is FREE and lunch is included. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

Tatum Yip Regional Manager (Yorkshire and Humber), bassac
Direct: 0113 394 2316 Fax: 0113 394 2301
c/o Regional Forum, Suite 10D, Joseph’s Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds, LS3 1AB http://www.bassac.org.uk/

Calling for Change - The Evidence for Supporting Community Voices to Speak Out
Download bassac's new voice research findings: http://www.bassac.org.uk/pages/voice.html

ERDF WORKSHOP (17 JUNE 08)

ERDF workshop, Tuesday 17 June, 10am to 12pm

at the Design Exchange, Bradford

Groups interested in finding out more about the ERDF programme should consider attending this bfunded event.

The new programme is very different to previous ERDF programmes, hence the event title "Come and find out what you can’t do!"

Some of the issues to bear in mind include:

* Projects must have match funding
* In general, grant requests should be a minimum of £1 million ERDF
* Activity is much more targeted at Social Enterprise and supporting organisations to become Enterprising
* Ineligible activity includes Training, Jobs Brokerage, Advice and Guidance, generic Capacity Building
* Capital support is available however, expressions of interest must be with Yorkshire Forward by 30 June 2008 .

If you feel that you have the capacity to fulfil the above requirements or want to find potential partners, please come to the workshop. There will also be an opportunity for you to ask questions you may have about the programme.

If you would like to attend, please confirm your place by emailing Jasvinder Gill by 10 June, email:
jasvinder.gill@bradford.gov.uk.

You can view the application forms and documentation for the new ERDF programme at:
www.yorkshire-forward.com/ERDF