New funding round opens for voluntary groups in West Lancashire

West Lancs CVS is pleased to announce a new round of grants for the local voluntary sector, made possible by funding from West Lancs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The CCG investment of £100,000 into the West Lancs voluntary sector will create a series of grant pots for organisations to apply into for funding. Groups can apply for projects which use behaviour change approaches to improve health and wellbeing across the three Primary Care Networks (PCN) areas of West Lancashire: Skelmersdale and Upholland; Ormskirk and Aughton; and Burscough, Parbold and the Northern Parishes.

This funding round is a repeat of last year’s grants, when CCG investment first enabled the creation of a grant funding pot for the West Lancs voluntary sector. In that 2018-19 funding round, CCG grants were awarded to a wide range of organisations working to improve health and wellbeing across West Lancs. These included a Connected Counselling service, a partnership involving the Birchwood Centre, Yewdale Counselling Service and West Lancs Bereavement Counselling Service which supports people undergoing counselling locally to also tackle life issues such as debt, housing problems, family problems, thereby enhancing the impact of counselling on the individual. Among the small grants awarded was one to Upholland Scouts for a canoeing project to engage hard to reach teenagers, another to a Wellbeing Cafe in Burscough run by Burscough Community hub, and an innovative outreach project by SWICAN offering welfare rights advice to isolated areas of the Borough.

Greg Mitten, West Lancs CVS Chief Officer says,

‘We are delighted that the CCG has committed to invest in the voluntary sector again this year through these grants. I have no doubt that the projects developed by voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise groups will be highly effective in finding new ways of working in partnership with our community to support health improvement. This is about developing partnership working, utilising our local community assets and thinking ‘outside the box’.

The total grant pot is £100,000 and there are three sizes of funding pots available to local charities and voluntary groups:

  • Funding Application A – Partnership proposals – from £10,000 to £20,000.
    Read the guidance for Fund A and download the application form for Fund A.

  • Funding Application B – Individual grant proposals – from £1,000 to £10,000.
    Read the guidance for Fund B and download the application form for Fund B.

  • Funding Application C – Small Funding Pots – up to £1,000.
    Read the guidance for Fund C and download the application form for Fund C.

The closing date for Funding Application C is 5pm on 20 November 2019

The closing date for Funding Applications A and B is 5pm on 4 December 2019

 

Larger organisations will be encouraged to work in partnership alongside local smaller organisations, as well as making good use of community venues and services.

If you would like to apply please read the summary document.

Please read the guidance for each pot carefully and adhere to the word limit (use it as a guide to how detailed the answers should be).

If you have any questions please contact Vicky Attwood.

New CVS training programme

Details of our 2019-20 training programme have just been published. Courses include:

  • What’s your digital plan?
  • Step up into volunteering
  • Your group, your neighbourhood (ABCD)
  • Recruiting and retaining volunteers
  • Introduction to volunteering
  • RSPH Level 2 Understanding health improvement (Health Champion training)

Full details can be found here.

In addition to the above courses, we can also offer training on request to groups on:

  • Accurate Record Keeping
  • Health champion ‘bite-size’ tasters
  • Introduction to Fundraising
  • Safeguarding Children

We can also supply information on availability of  Emergency First Aid at Work and Food Hygiene courses.

For information on any CVS training opportunities, please contact Helen Jones on 0165-733737 or email helenj@wlcvs.org

CVS presented with LGBT Quality Mark

CVS Annual General Meeting

You are warmly invited to the West Lancs CVS’ AGM to be held on Wednesday 3 April 2019 at Evermoor Community Hub, Skelmersdale from 10am (9.30am registration) until 11.30am. 

To book your place, please complete the booking form and return to Vicky Attwood.

CVS Annual Volunteer Awards Evening 2018

To celebrate Volunteers Week 2018, West Lancs CVS held its annual Volunteer Awards Evening on 31st May.

A selection of volunteers from across the Borough were awarded 100 hour certificates, 200 hour certificates, and Outstanding Contribution to Volunteering Awards.

The evening was hosted by the Mayor of West Lancashire, Councillor Noel Delaney. The presentations were held in the Mayor’s Chamber, with refreshments served in the Mayor’s Parlour afterwards.

The awards were then followed up by representatives from each organisation saying a few words about the powerful impact of volunteers on the Voluntary Community and Faith Sector. It is true to say that a number of organisations just would not be able to run without the dedication and hard-work of their volunteers.

Greg Mitten, Chief Officer of West Lancs CVS along with Janice Howard from West Lancs CVS Volunteer Centre would like to say a big thank you to West Lancs Borough Council for hosting the ceremony and providing the delicious food, thank you to the Mayor of West Lancs Borough Council Noel Delaney and his Mayoress Mrs Ann Stubbert for presenting the awards to the volunteers and making the evening really special.

Thank you to the organisations who attended the evening, along with their volunteers and for saying wonderful things about the impact of volunteering in our Borough:

Thank you to Cath Thompson from the West Lancs Clinical Commissioning Group for attending on the night.

Last but not least, thank you to all of the Volunteers, not only the volunteers who attended on the night, but all of the volunteers across West Lancashire, who work tirelessly, giving up their free time to try and change the lives of others. Well done to all of you and a huge well done to the volunteers who were presented with awards.

26 volunteers were presented with awards!

To find out more about how to join the West Lancashire Volunteer Centre Certificate Scheme, please contact us on 01695 733737 or email vc@wlcvs.org

CVS AGM and funding information event

Well done to all those who braved February’s snow and made it to the CVS AGM and funding information event!

The presentations can now be found on our Funding Advice page – and they include:

  • The Eric Wright Trust – launching its Small Grants Pot on April 1st
  • The Halsall Foundation – new Lancashire funder

GDPR training and resources

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will start to be enforced from May 25th 2018 and this has a number of implications for voluntary sector groups.

A number of you have asked whether we can provide training on GDPR so we have arranged a training course for Wednesday 28th March 2018 (venue to be confirmed). There may be a small charge for this but we will confirm this when we know how many are attending. Limited numbers are available so please book quickly to avoid disappointment. To book a place please email Jill Bradley or call 01695 733737.

For more information and resources about GDPR, please see our new information page.

Lancs LGBT Quality Mark awarded to CVS

We are pleased to report that West Lancs CVS has achieved the Lancashire LGBT Quality Mark. The Quality Mark is designed to help measure how well an organisation is meeting the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans service users, volunteers and staff.

For more information, including its benefits and the cost, see http://lancslgbt.org.uk/quality-mark/