Nexus september 2017

NEWS FROM THE HAMPSHIRE CVS NETWORK 

Action Hampshire

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Basingstoke Voluntary Action

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A Busy Young Carers’ Summer

Communities First Wessex

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Community Action Fareham

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Community First New Forest

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Gosport Voluntary Action

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Hart Voluntary Action

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One Community

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Rushmoor Voluntary Services

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Test Valley Community Services

Young Carers’ Summer—p 1&2 BVA/Mayor’s Community Chest — p3 BVA membership database—p3 Community English Fareham—p3 Housing & Homelessness in Winchester—p4 Winchester Student Volunteering—p4 Living well with COPD in the Gosport area—p4

Community First New Forest’s Young Carers Service has had its busiest Summer activity programme ever this August with over 130 children taking part in something during the school holidays. There was everything from boat trips and kayaking to wildlife parks and indoor trampolining on offer.

Young Carers Support Worker Sue Ward said: “We really wanted to try and offer something in all parts of the New Forest and I think we achieved that.

There’s been a lot of planning and driving around and we’re all really tired now Produced by Hampshire Councils for Voluntary Service Contact Julia Allan 023 8090 2457 jallan@1community.org.uk Featured articles represent the views of the contributing CVS

and need a rest but we’ve had some lovely feedback from our children and parents and that makes it all worthwhile.”

Theresa, a parent, said: “My children had such a great time this summer thanks to Young Carers. It’s been brilliant and I want to say a big thank you to the team and everyone who helps them. Without their ongoing support I don’t know what we would do.”

Lily, a Young Carer, added: “I’ve done lots of different things that I wouldn’t have been able to do without Young Carers. It’s been good to get out of the house and have fun and I’ve made new friends.”

The Young Carers Service currently works with over 220 Young Carers and their families across the New Forest providing support, advice and activities. For more information please contact YC coordinator Marie on 01425 482773 or visit the Community First website. You can also find us on : New Forest Young Carers

@NF_Youngcarers

new_forest_young_carers_

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Eastleigh Young Carers Using Community Transport, One Community’s Eastleigh Young Carers had a similarly busy summer involving the following activities:  Trip to an Ice-Cream Palour  Chocolate party – making bespoke chocolate treats  Well-being day – Practical tips to good mental health and well being  Play day  Trip to Bursledon Brickworks for a clay crafting session  Young Carers Action Group went to Fairthorn Manor  Shopping trip to Glastonbury and Street  SWAC sailing  Riverside picnic  Thorpe Park  Splash down flume park  Craft session  Bowling  Yacht sailing  Dance and drama workshop  Family fun day

BVA/Mayor’s Community Chest Funding For the second year in succession Basingstoke Voluntary Action has been co-ordinating the Mayor’s Community Chest Funding. Various Training defibrillator events and fundraisers have been contributing to the fund with a Mayor’s Variety Show on 7 October, all assisting to support local Charities or Voluntary Organisations.

There are three rounds of annual grants.

The first of 2017/18 recently distributed over £4,000 to local organisations and applications are already being received for the second round closing in December. Funding allocated was for planting bulbs in local woodland, CAB support training for Universal Credit, training young people in life skills, a social weekend for young people with diabetes, defibrillator trainer and astroturf for an archery club to accommodate disabled participants. Full details of the funding is available online and it is hoped to improve on the £11k raised in 2016/17.

BVA’s involvement with this funding has allowed greatly improved interaction with the local community, to understand the current requirements from organisations and signpost to the services BVA offer. In addition it has allowed BVA to advise all applicants of other potential grants available with details on our website.

BVA Membership Database The BVA Group Development Team has been working hard over the last six months alongside day to day tasks to review and transfer their membership database to a new CRM supported by Pipemedia. This provides improved tailored reporting and mailings via tags and categories and also will very soon allow member organisations to have access to update their details as applicable.

The CRM data links to the website, which enables the community to search for relevant organisations, and there is the capability to extract data via CSV files for sharing with associated organisations if appropriate. Next steps are to meet with Community First to align reporting etc and then other CVS organisations in the North of the County to share knowledge and continually improve the system.

New Website For Test Valley Community Services In recent weeks, Test Valley Community Services (TVCS) has launched a new website, more modern and user friendly, which is designed as a community resource not only for voluntary sector groups but also the wider community.

The TVCS Community Directory is now searchable on the site and they have developed a “What’s On” area, enabling local organisations to promote their activities and events free of charge.

To access this service, a simple “Submit an Event” form is completed online, but for those organisations not technologically minded, TVCS staff will do this for them, if they contact the office with the event details.

TVCS has other exciting plans under development for the site, including an interactive calendar of events, but for now you can take a look at: https://www.tvcs.org.uk/Pages/Events/ Category/training-and-events For further information call 0330 4004 116 or email info@tvcs.org.uk

Enrolment day for Community English in Fareham Community Action Fareham’s Community English programme has welcomed new students to its highlyregarded language courses for people whose first language is not English.

Classes include assistance with speaking, listening, reading and writing as well as learning about life in the UK. English tutor Sarah Scammell offers classes for various levels of ability with each student undertaking a pre-course assessment.

“Many applicants this year hold professional qualifications, yet their lack of English holds them back from achieving their full potential,” says Sarah. “Our courses enable these highly skilled workers to make a valuable contribution to the local community.”

Students can join Community English courses at any time throughout the academic year, as long as there is space in the class, however it is better to join a class at the beginning of term.

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From Vision to Reality – Housing and Homelessness in Winchester District In July, Community First facilitated a briefing and workshop of key Housing and Homelessness service providers from across the Winchester District area. A total of 41 representatives from over 20 statutory bodies and partner agencies attended the event.

The purpose of the event was to bring together key stakeholders to better understand how policy changes, both nationally and at the local level, are going to impact on service provision locally. A full copy of the briefing and workshop slides can be downloaded via the following link: https://www.cfirst.org.uk/news/from-vision-toreality-housing-and-homelessness-in-winchesterdistrict/.

Over the coming months, Winchester City Council (WCC) has committed to setting up a bimonthly or quarterly forum, possibly facilitated by Cllr Horrill (Portfolio holder for Housing and Leader of WCC), to facilitate ongoing dialogue between WCC and wider stakeholders. Community First will continue to offer its expertise as a local infrastructure and development service for the not -for-profit sector. As part of this work Community First will invite stakeholders to participate in a feasibility study through a series of interviews and workshops to explore options around a Housing First approach in Winchester District. The findings from this study will be reported back to the forum in December.

To find out more, contact Tom Belshaw, Community First’s Head of Business Development – tom.belshaw@cfirst.org.uk.

Student Volunteering in Winchester Volunteering can have a positive impact on young people. What is increasingly being recognised is that, when recruiting, employers look for “soft skills”, such as communication and teamwork, qualities that volunteering can also develop.

To help students get more involved in volunteering, Community First’s Volunteer Service will be working in partnership with Peter Symonds NEXUS PAGE 4

College, Winchester from this September. During term time the Volunteer Service will be at the college one day a week to provide a brokerage service to match students’ skills and needs with volunteering opportunities.

Drop in sessions will be available every Monday. Students can request an interview if they would like to find out more about what roles are available and whether they match their interests and abilities. An award scheme will also be introduced so that students are able to receive either a silver or gold award, depending on the number of hours they have volunteered.

This is not the first partnership with a college, as Community First has been working with Alton College for a number of years. For further information on the project, please contact Julie Eden – julie.eden@cfirst.org.uk.

Live Well with COPD Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a terminal illness but is also an umbrella term for a variety of lung diseases. Each has its own unique symptoms but all cause the body to be starved of essential oxygen leading to extreme breathlessness quickly followed by the inability to breathe, a very traumatic and frightening experience to those who suffer.

Gosport, Fareham and surrounding areas have a very high incidence of COPD but very little, if any, support. Live Well with COPD (LWCOPD) was formed in July 2016 to fill that gap in the support and education of COPD through monthly meetings at the Gosport Leisure Centre and to raise awareness of the disease within the area.

LWCOPD has recently formed a targeted exercise group, so those with COPD can remain active and improve breathing techniques and therefore quality of life. Members have reported being able to do more and enjoy life once again.

With the help and support of Gosport Voluntary Action, they have been able to secure some funding from the Clinical Commissioning Group to run a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Maintenance Group. This builds on the exercise group, helping sufferers to manage their condition on a day to day basis, reducing flare-ups and reducing visits to GPs and A&E. For more information contact enquiries@lwcopd.co.uk or call: 07468054992.