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Derbyshire Arts Partnership and High Peak CVS are hosting this business advice day for professional artists and arts organisations in the High Peak. The event will provide information and advice about the range of opportunities and business support available to artists and creative companies.

An informal event, the roadshow will help you to access information and resources on a range of areas relevant to your creative business, including Marketing and Audience Development ,Skills development, Business development and support

On hand there will be Advisers from Business Link the Creative and Cultural Skills Adviser from East Midlands New Technology Initiative, Banks Mill Studios, Derbyshire Arts Partnerships High Peak CVS and someone from The Big Lottery

The event is free but booking is essential.
Please contact louise@highpeakcvs.org.uk or call 01663 736 431 to book your place.

Empowering the Voluntary Sector Workshops

A one day workshop exploring how to use the principles of public law to challenge unjust and unfair decision making by public bodies

Many organisations find it difficult to balance the need to work with public bodies and to challenge unfair practice. Empowering the Voluntary Sector workshops delivered by NAVCA provide clear information and guidance to help you to make appropriate challenges.

The aim of the workshops is to equip third sector organisations to use the principles of public law and the Compact to negotiate effectively with public bodies. Issues covered on the day include how to deal with unfair funding cuts and consultation and how identify if a public body's decision-making processes are lawful.

Open to all team members, staff and volunteers, from third sector organisations who are funded by, or seeking funding from, public bodies.

The workshops focus on the experiences of participants, both organisational and personal, in dealing with public bodies and help to identify how to prevent and resolve disputes to the advantage of the third sector.

DERBY Tuesday 1 December 2009
Community Action Derby, Charnwood Street, Derby DE1 2GT

CHESTERFIELD Wednesday 27 January 2010
Friends Meeting House, Ashgate Road, Chesterfield S40 4AG

9.00 am to 4.30pm (workshop starts at 9.30 am prompt)
£35 per person including resource pack and lunch

For more information and a booking form, contact:
Diane Scott, 3D Administrator
Telephone: 07920 202595
E-mail: d.scott@derbysrcc.org.uk
Or download forms from the 3Dwebsite: www.3dsupport.org.uk

St John Ambulance BIG Tea Cosy Tea Party

Looking for new ideas for your club to get involved in?

Last year schools, community groups and work places across the country organised tea parties and helped to raise funds for their local St John Ambulance. This November it is hoped to make the event an even greater success.

Groups can choose any date during November to organise a BIG Tea Cosy event. Here are just a few ideas to get started, or you may have ideas for an event of your own or to combine with an event you are already having in November:

Host a tea party
Hold a cake sale
Tea dance
Tea tasting
Tea auction
Bring and buy
Fancy dress

You could combine your Big Tea Cosy party with an introduction to community first aid courses – contact us to arrange a course.

Visit www.sja.org.uk/bigteacosy for more information. Contact Gemma Taylor on 0845 130 4999 to register. You can choose to raise money for your local St John Division, or for Derbyshire county funds.

The BIG Tea Cosy fundraising pack is now available and includes: invitations, posters, stickers, recipe cards, knitting patterns, disposable collection boxes and balloons. Our new recipe section this year includes celebrity recipes from Fergus Henderson and Mark Hix, and a knitting pattern that would make a great Christmas gift or stocking filler.

St John Ambulance has over 40,000 volunteers, over half of whom are young people, who are committed to caring and saving lives. This November your group could make a real difference too. Please join in raising vital funds for your local St John Ambulance.

Homes for Local People

Countryside campaigners, Friends of the Peak District, is welcoming plans for a handful of new homes in the National Park – which will mean local people can continue to live there.

Lack of housing is a problem in many rural villages, as house prices have rocketed and left people on low incomes unable to afford to stay in the area. Friends of the Peak District campaigns for a living, working countryside with vibrant villages. Its policy on housing is to encourage affordable local homes to be built in suitable locations. All 14 of these proposed new houses will be owned by housing associations who will rent them out to people either living in the villages or neighbouring villages.

In Warslow there are proposals for six semi-detached houses on a disused industrial site. They will be built using local stone and have traditional detailing around the windows and doors, in keeping with the character of the village.

“Most of Warslow is a conservation area, and this site is currently a bit of an eyesore,” says John King, planning officer at Friends of the Peak District. “We welcome these houses which will not only improve the look of the village, but also provide affordable homes for local people.”

Over in Bamford, there are plans for eight new houses on the edge of the village. Although they will be visible from Brentwood Avenue and a nearby footpath, from other view points they will be well-screened by trees and hedges.

“Ideally, we’d like to see any new buildings on brownfield sites, but in Bamford there really aren’t any viable alternatives,” says John King. “The houses will be very traditional looking and are close to the village so they won’t significantly harm the views of the valley. There is also some concern amongst residents about access onto Main Road. However if this can be sorted out to the satisfaction of residents and the highways authority, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

Win a Unique Competition for Small Community Projects!

Community Channel is running a competition to find a groundbreaking small project that makes a big difference in its local community. We want to hear from you if you run – or want to nominate – a project that:

is innovative and inspiring;
makes a positive and proven impact on the local community or society at large;
is small – run by one person or a small team;
has been running for at least one year; and
is a project in Great Britain.

Enter our competition and win a film of your project made by Fran Monks and broadcast on Community Channel. Competition closes on 14 October.

Make a Difference Competition: www.communitychannel.org/content/view/3078/75/

An example of a Fran Monks film: www.communitychannel.org/content/view/3081/75/

Ways of Setting Up Social Enterprises

Bates Wells and Braithwaite solicitors contribute to The Guardian's series of pieces giving legal advice to the sector with a Q and A on setting up a social enterprise. The article provides some useful explanation of the different legal forms, www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/06/social-enterprises-and-the-law

Updating Standards for Trustees

The new skills body for voluntary organisations, Skills – Third Sector, has started a consultation on the National Occupational Standards for Trustees. These standards, developed three years ago with input from trustees from a range of different charities, are being checked to see that they are still 'fit for purpose' and reflect good practice. STS news item, or go to the background notes and questionnaire. No closing date given.

Selecting the Logo for European Year of Volunteering

If you have plenty of time to spare and a keen interest in logos or slogans, the European Year of Volunteering 2011 is inviting votes on the 566 logos and 696 slogans submitted for its competition. www.eyv2011.eu/WelcomePublicVoting.asp Open to 16 October.

Sector Pay Gap Narrows Slowly

The Croner Reward salary survey of the charity sector finds that "the size of the shortfall (in pay) against other sectors is slowly decreasing". The average difference for 2009, based on a survey size of over 300 charities nationwide, is ten per cent but with chief executives receiving an average of 21% less than their private sector counterparts.

www.croner.co.uk/croner/jsp/Editorial.do?channelId=-291912&contentId=1365519 has a bit more – the full report is £310 (or £360 for larger charities).

Problems Piloting Human Resource Services

NCVO has published a report of a pilot project of local sector support bodies providing strategic human resource (HR) services to voluntary organisations. There were various issues in delivering the pilot, leading to sketchy conclusions. One is that HR is still seen as reactive and crisis-led for very small voluntary organisations, with the benefits of a strategic approach not clear. HR Matters Pilot report.

Charity Employees Benevolent Fund to Launch

A Charity Employees Benevolent Fund is to launch in November, after some six years in development. Funding is coming in from various sources, with fundraising from sector workers in the pipeline. CEBF will consider applications about any form of hardship from charity employees, past and present.

From Charity News Alert at www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=3199 or CEBF website at www.britnett-carver.co.uk/cebf/

Tailored Credit Scoring for Voluntary Organisations

From Charity Finance News Alert: GuideStar Data Services, connected with the online database of charities GuideStarUK, has launched a credit-scoring and financial health check tool, the Third Sector Scorecard. This is primarily used to help local authorities and Primary Care Trusts to measure whether charities bidding for contracts are financially sound, and is designed to counteract problems with standard commercial ratings. The tool had also proved useful as an "early warning system" to identify organisations that are getting into financial difficulty.

See news item at www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=3241

Volunteer Resources for Sports Clubs and Others

The Top Tips section of the Running Sports website has been highlighted by Clink Volunteering and Mentoring bulletin as place for helpful tips on involving volunteers, not just sports clubs. There's also material on other areas, such as data protection. www.runningsports.org/club_support/all_resources/top_tips/

Counting Up the Charities

The new discussions forum on NCVO's revamped website answers the seemingly straightforward question "how many charities are there?", complete with useful explanation of why this differs from Charity Commission figures.

v Match Fund

The Match Fund brings together private sector partners and charities to create innovative volunteering opportunities. The benefits are clear: by harnessing the creativity and energy of young people, they can bring communities together and find solutions to society's biggest problems. They can change lives, protect the environment, create safer neighbourhoods, improve the nation's health and give volunteers skills, confidence and experience.

The Match Fund matches up to 100% of any new investment in youth volunteering – that's double the money, and double the impact of the investment. Private companies large and small, charitable trusts and foundations and individuals are seizing the opportunity to build volunteering initiatives with the promise of more bang for their buck.

To date, v has pledges of £36m from the private sector – making a total of £72m that has and will be invested into diverse and high impact projects across England. They want to do more. They want to create opportunities so inspiring that volunteering becomes a valued part of the lives of most 16 to 25 year olds. They want to reach out to some of England's most disadvantaged and disengaged young people. They want to create real change in communities, tackling the big issues that the nation's youth tell them they're concerned about.

Next deadlines:

Friday 11 December 2009 (for projects starting April 2010)
Friday 5 February 2010 (for projects starting between April and June 2010)

v, 5th Floor, Dean Bradley House, 52 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2AF
Telephone: 020 7960 7000
Website: www.vinspired.com/v/funding/match-funding/overview

Volunteering Conference Report

A Conference Report has been produced for the recent partnership event on Volunteering. One East Midlands and England Volunteering Development Council would welcome further comments on the regional priorities that the conference identified for EVDC. www.oneeastmidlands.org.uk/news.php?readmore=449

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