Posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
As part of its commitment to developing volunteering in Solihull, the Solihull Partnership has set aside funding for a project to:
- Establish a Volunteer Bureau in Chelmsley Wood
- Establish a Volunteer Bureau in Solihull Town Centre
- Develop a Reference group for the delivery of National Indicator 6 (Volunteering)
- Encourage membership of the Volunteer Management Forum
- Develop an electronic/virtual Volunteering Forum.
The partnership has asked SUSTAiN, as a lead for the Stronger Communities Strategic Group, to run a commissioning process to select a delivery partner for this work from the third sector. Further details will be available in a few weeks time.
Organisations wishing to express their interest in receiving an invitation to tender for this project at this stage should email Dave Pinwell at davep@solihull-sustain.org.uk
Posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010
SUSTAiN has released a new programme of training for the coming months, aimed at local voluntary organisations of all sizes:
Child Safeguarding – understand the basics and consider what you need to do to ensure children involved with your group are safe.- Commissioning 1 – Understanding the “Pre-Qualification” process; often the first step to successful tendering.
- Commissioning 2 – How to write and present effective tenders. (Workshop Full)
- PQASSO – New dates for quality assurance training (now one day)
- First Aid – HSE approved training “Emergency First Aid at Work”
And for a full list of events, courses and workshops across the local area, see all training opportunities.
Posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010
The Colebridge Trust and Solihull SUSTAiN will soon have a new facility that puts Solihull’s voluntary & community groups in the driving seat, after being awarded approximately £29,500 from Capacitybuilders for a new community bus.
The new bus will provide a mobile exhibition space to help groups promote their services, recruit volunteers, raise funds and much more.
Charles Rapson, Enterprise Manager for Colebridge Trust & SUSTAiN says: “We already have interest from several organisations in the town who enjoyed the facility our previous bus provided. We have also had interest from Council and Care Trust departments who see the bus as a very cost effective way of getting information out to communities and encouraging people to get involved in the way the town is run. The beauty of a mobile space is that it can help groups in every part of this large borough”.
Charles hopes to have a bus on the road in early spring.
“The funds couldn’t come at a better time as the former bus has finally gone to the great car park in the sky after serving the community very well for over 20 years – first as a mobile library and then as a community facility”.
Dave Pinwell, SUSTAiN’s CEO
Funding comes as part of a pot of money earmarked by the government to improve facilities and resources the community could benefit from. Capacitybuilders, who manages the Capital Investment Programme on behalf of the Cabinet Office of the Third Sector, were impressed by the novel way SUSTAiN and Colebridge Trust approached this problem in Solihull.
