I’m not going to lie to you, I have not had the greatest of weeks. Our daughter has been ill and it’s involved multiple trips to A+E, a drive through coronavirus test (negative) and not much sleep. It’s been a bit grim. Certainly not one for the highlights package although thankfully she seems to be on the mend.
Anyway, now is not the time to wallow, and indeed there is another positive. For some unknown reason it appears my main coping mechanism when stressed is to clean, so our house now resembles a show home. Another few days like this and I’ll be flyering for Dave’s Cleaning Services throughout the neighbourhood. It could be the start of a whole new life!
See you on the other side.
Community Business leaders – you’ve been working flat out since Covid hit. Do you need some free help right now? Community Business Online Boost is a short, free, high-impact programme starting in September for community businesses in England hit hardest by Covid-19. We’ll help build new skills, resilience and provide peer networks so you can keep adapting to the challenges and opportunities the pandemic throws your way. Priority places for people from Black, Asian & minoritised ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and those supporting the arts, health & social care sectors, BAME community and deprived areas. Apply by 2nd September.
Are you interested in becoming a Mental Health First Aider? SSE Fellow Jo-Anne Shellum is offering Mental Health First Aider training through the MHFA England Online Learning Hub. Learning takes place through four live training sessions, spread across two weeks, with self-learning activities in between. Courses are running in September and October and you can currently get a place at a discounted rate of £180 per person. Further details here.
New funding! The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust has announced a new phase of support for organisations in the light of the Covid-19 crisis. According to the blurb, ‘JRCT is keen to support work that responds to the dual harms of the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism. Specifically, we wish to encourage work within or across our existing programme areas that scrutinises the responses and policies of powerful institutions and actors, and which envisions and builds support for transformative social change based on justice, peace and sustainability’. You can find out more here.
Calling all SSE Fellows. SSE is keen to hear about your experiences of our recruitment processes. We’ve been examining our diversity data and we think we can do better. And your feedback is crucial. Fellows (people who’ve been on our courses) are invited to an online 1-2 hr focus group taking place late September. Help us shape our processes to make them more inclusive, for the benefit of social entrepreneurship. We will offer a small payment for your time.We’re particularly keen to hear from you if you identify as LGBTQ+, are a person of colour or are a disabled person.
Interested? Please get in touch with [email protected] for more info and to register your interest.
Bates Wells launch Crisis Decision Tool. Law firm Bates Wells have launched a new tool to help charities and social enterprises that are currently facing financial difficulties. If you are looking for guidance around collaboration, merger, cost-saving measures, income generation and more then it’s well worth taking a look. Which you can do here.
Ch-ch-changes? We’re very excited to be delivering a new ‘Creating a Theory of Change’ course with nef consulting from next year. Nef have been running our extremely popular Measuring Social Impact course since way back in 2013 so this feels like a natural step to take. You can find out more here.
Digital Manchester. Community Tech Fellowship are looking for eight people in Greater Manchester who may have very little experience in technology, but a lot of experience of working in communities, and curiosity about the ways in which technology is shaping everything that we do. The programme will bring together a series of 8-10 sessions and workshops for people to debate, share, learn from each other, problem solve, and make sense of the future for civil society in Greater Manchester. It starts in September, details here.
West Midlands start up survey. SSE Fellow Kathyrn Kimbley is looking for individuals who are thinking of starting a social enterprise or who have recently started a social enterprise in the West Midlands. She’s undertaking research to looking at the journeys of nascent social entrepreneurs and nascent conventional entrepreneurs and trying to identify the factors that influence and impact upon their journeys. There is a ten minute survey to take here.
More new funding. The Volant Trust is accepting applications to their Covid-19 Response Fund. Registered charities, community interest companies and community organisations that ‘demonstrate a strong focus on alleviating social deprivation and helping vulnerable groups who have been particularly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic’ can apply. Details here.
What’s changed in Social Investment? That’s the question that Good Finance will be answering on a free webinar on Tuesday 1st September. They’ll explore the various new funds and schemes that have been launched to support social enterprises and charities navigating the new normal. Sign up here.
