This project aims to support small and medium community organisations in areas of capacity-building needs identified by the groups themselves. As part of our 2008 progarmme. we are now in the process of recruiting 10-15 community groups to provide them with free1-2-1 targeted technical support to build up their governance and operational structures, help them with business and project planning and management and increase their access to resources and funding. The groups will be selected on ‘first come, first serve” basis. If you wish to be considered for support please fill in the online form: Outreach Capacity Building Support. (Click here )

• What are the full range of investment and funding opportunities available to third sector organisations of all sizes and how best can these be accessed?
• How can third sector organisations build their relationships with local authorities and forge effective and lasting partnerships through Local Area Agreements and public service delivery?
  · How can the third sector make the most of its unique role as a force for local change and empowerment, and campaign effectively for the people it serves?
• Investigating innovative methods of fundraising and how to ensure best practice and transparency?
• How to increase the profile of volunteering and ensure that volunteering opportunities are available and visible to all, particularly those at risk of social exclusion?
• How can social enterprises ensure that they have the skills and structures to win public service contracts and use their unique characteristics to their full advantage? How can we raise the profile of social enterprise?

Age Exchange aims to improve the quality of life of older people by emphasising the value of their reminiscences to young and old, through pioneering artistic, educational and therapeutic activities.

Age Exchange is internationally known for work in all fields of reminiscence, including theatre, publishing, exhibitions, inter-generational and dementia care projects and training workshops.

For further information click here.

If you wish to discuss these courses please contact berniearigho@age-exchange.org.uk

Rights of Women works to attain justice and equality by informing, educating and empowering women on their legal rights. They core services include two advice lines which offer free, confidential legal advice to women. They also specialise in providing high quality, practical and accredited legal training in the area of women’s rights.

They offer the following list of training for autumn/winter 2008:

• Meeting the needs of trafficked women: immigration and criminal law
  London 10 September 2008, 9.30am – 1pm
  
• Pathways to Justice: BMER women, domestic violence and relationship breakdown
  London 5 November 2008, 9.30am – 1pm

• Forced marriage: the new law
  London 6 October 2008, 9.30am – 1pm
  
• Protecting women from persecution: claiming asylum in the UK and financial support throughout the process
  London 22 September 2008, 9.30am – 4.30pm
  
• Finding refuge: gender-based violence and seeking asylum in the UK
  London 1 October 2008, 9.30am – 1pm
  
• Supporting survivors of domestic violence: law and practice
  London 27 November 2008, 9.30am – 4.30pm
  
• Supporting survivors of sexual violence: law and practice
  London 3 December 2008, 9.30am – 4.30pm

Please contact the Training Officer with any enquiries on 020 7251 6575/6 or training@row.org.uk.

9 and 11 September 2008

AdviceUK London Team is holding 2 free seminars in September for advice organisations looking at workforce sustainability and governance issues. Please distribute this information to your members and feel free to advertise it in your mailings, website and other media.

Workforce sustainability - Getting the balance right
How can advice centres invest in workforce development in the current funding environment?

The Sustainable Advice Project (S.A.P.) and the Governance Project will host a joint seminar on workforce sustainability. Advice organisations and Trustees will have the opportunity to meet together with other members and at the same time hear from a range of speakers that will seek to address questions on how members can meet the challenges and opportunities presented by workforce sustainability.
The sessions will focus on the following issues around workforce development:

• Attracting the right people - skills recruitment and retention
• Overcoming barriers to staff development
• Addressing skills and training needs
  

Click here to download info and booking form. If you are interested in attending or have any queries please complete the Booking Form and return to: Siobhan Hogan, Advice Services Development Worker, tel: 020 7407 662 or email: siobhan.hogan@adviceuk.org.uk for further information.

Wednesday 3rd September 2008, 9.30am-4pm
Paddington Arts

ENYAN (English National Youth Arts Network), is pleased to announce this FREE one-day seminar providing clarity around existing youth and arts related policy with particular reference to facilities and provision. Hear from the Greater London Authority who will be providing an overview of how the above has been integrated and will be delivered specifically within London.

This event also features a live youth consultation workshop with a diverse range of young people from across the city, facilitated by the British Youth Council, providing a fantastic opportunity to pose your questions and find out what young people actually want!

For further information regarding ENYAN please contact Anna Rubycz, ENYAN Development Manager, hello@enyan.co.uk or call 023 8063 0960.

Closing date: Friday 12 September 2008

Women’s Design Service invites all women to submit entries for an art competition on the theme “safe”. We are looking for artwork, in any medium – painting, photography, sculpture - which expresses women’s feelings about safety in the built environment.

1st Prize £50 art materials voucher, 2nd prize £20 voucher & 3rd prize £10 voucher

Some ideas may come from thinking about streets or buildings which make you feel anxious or public spaces that are welcoming and make you feel secure. What makes the difference? Is it the lighting? The CCTV? The kinds of people? The advertisements? Stories you have read in the local paper? The layout of the streets? In the first instance we are asking you to send photographs of your work to be uploaded in a gallery on our website. Please email them in JPEG format to Hannah hcarty@wds.org.uk All entries will be exhibited on our website.

We will then be asking a panel of artists to choose 10 works to be exhibited at our Urban Buzz event in the Octagon at Queen Mary University of London on October 2nd 2008. The three winners will then be announced. If you are one of those 10 then we will be asking you to deliver the actual artworks to us by the end of September.

For further information and an application form please contact WSD on 0207 490 5210 or email:hcarty@wds.org.uk

Middlesex County FA is looking to engage more closely with emerging communities in the County. In the past two years they have put structures in place to underpin this work. They have established a Race Equality Advisory Group to look at strategies to increase their support of ethnic minority groups. They have also been working to achieve the Foundation Level of the UK Equality Standard for Sport and hope to become the first County FA to reach this status.

They are now planning to introduce a Football Development Officer for Emerging Communities. In order to gain funding for this position they want to determine the needs of ethnic minority groups involved in football within the County.

You can help them in this process. They are looking to contact second tier organisations and individual groups. If you want to support this project please contact Bob Hill via email Bob.Hill@MiddlesexFA.com for a survey form.

ASAP has just published a report called ‘Unreasonably Destitute?’ The report shows that some categories of refused asylum seekers are forced into destitution through no fault of their own, because UKBA is enforcing unreasonable and impractical eligibility criteria for section 4 support.

For a press release and a copy of the report click here

Closing date: Monday 1st September 2008

Through the generosity of The Peter and Michael Hiller Charitable Trust, the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies is pleased to announce that Scholarship Funds will be available to students wishing to pursue the Centre’s MA/PhD Refugee Care courses in the 2008-2009 academic year.

For further information and an application form, please contact: The Centre Administrator, Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, C04 3SQ UK, Tel: +44 (0)1206 873640; Fax: +44 (0)1206 872746; Email: cpsadmin@essex.ac.uk ; website: http://www.essex.ac.uk/centres/psycho/

Closing Date to apply: 31 October 2008. Decisions will be made by April 2009 in most instances.

City Bridge Trust want to support work which minimises violence and helps young people recover from violence or bullying where they have been the victims. Parents need more help in supporting their children if they have been victims, but equally need help with what to do if they suspect their children are involved in violence or bullying. They will fund organisations for up to a maximum of three years for work which meets at least one of these priorities and where you can demonstrate a track record in the field. This programme will be carefully evaluated and the learning from it disseminated widely.

The priorities are:

• Work with young people aged up to 21 years which provides practical alternatives to using or experiencing violence including ‘bullying’. This might be personal safety training, self-defence techniques, anger management, conflict-avoidance skills and peer-group support.
• Services supporting parents with practical information and skills to support their child as a victim of violence or bullying.

Or:

• Services advising parents on how to deal with a young person on the periphery of, or involved in, violence or bullying.
• Work which gives emotional and practical support to children affected by crime including domestic violence.

Projects will then be expected to commence within six months of a grant being awarded.

For further information please contact them on 020 7332 3710 or citybridgetrust@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Closing date:Monday 18 August 2008. Interviews will be held in early and mid September.

Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people and we are now looking for new members for our Board of Trustees whose Chair is Sir David Bell.
Crisis campaigns to end homelessness and provides innovative, practical services to prevent people from becoming homeless and to help homeless people rebuild their lives.
We are currently looking for a number of new trustees and would particularly welcome applications from people with experience of homelessness and knowledge of housing and major regeneration projects. We would also like to augment the board’s finance skills and experience.
In the last five years we have extended our learning and skills expertise to engage homeless people, and help them find homes and jobs. Our plan now is to build on this by enhancing our Crisis Skylight centres in London and Newcastle and to open new centres in cities across the UK.

To receive an application pack, please email human.resources@crisis.org.uk or write to Human Resources at Crisis, 66 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LT.