£30 Million is now available from the Community Development Foundation (CDF) to fund community projects of which:

• Smiths Wood has been allocated £68k over 4 years
• Fordbridge/Kingshurst has been allocated £34k over 4 years
• Chelmsley Wood has been awarded £34k over 4 years.

New and existing community groups operating in or for the benefit of these wards are invited to apply for a minimum of £250 up to a maximum of £2,500 to help them deliver local priorities. These have been established by local panels made up of residents and Ward Councillor, contact details of whom  have been included to in the briefing packs.

Community First is a matched fund programme, which means that every £1 provided in funding by the Government must be matched by a similar amount of in-kind donations (this means donations of cash, services, free products or volunteer time).

The deadline for submitting your proposals is Friday 1^st June 2012, 12.00 noon.

Download the Guidance Notes, Ward Briefing & Proposal documents

• Guidance Notes – How to request funds from your local panel
• Briefing Pack (Chelmsley Wood)
• Funding Proposal (Chelmsley Wood)
• Briefing Pack (Fordbridge and Kinghurst)
• Funding Proposal (Fordbridge and Kingshurst)
• Briefing Pack (Smiths Wood)
• Funding Proposal (Smiths Wood)

If you wish to discuss your application prior to submission, please contact  Janet Johnson at SUSTAiN on 0121 711 3148 or 07500 081 220 or via janetj@solihull-sustain.org.uk

This year the Solihull Volunteer Forum is  organising two events to celebrate National Volunteers Week and to give you an opportunity to thank your volunteers for the contribution they make.

Volunteer thank you event

On Wednesday June 6th the Solihull Volunteer Forum  will be hosting a Volunteer Thank You event at the Council House, Solihull. The event which will be held between 7pm and 9pm will include reception drinks with the opportunity to meet other volunteers and share experiences, followed by presentations by the Mayor of Solihull and hopefully the chance to tour the Mayor’s Parlour. Now in its fourth year, our volunteer thank you evenings have proved very popular and booking is essential to avoid disappointment.

Please visit the SVF website and register your volunteers for attendance and presentation of thank you certificates at this event by no later than Wednesday
16^th May 2012 to thank them for their contributions.

Jubilee volunteers’ tea party

In celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee and National Volunteers Week, the Solihull Volunteering Forum will be hosting an informal tea party from 4pm to 6pm on Friday June 8th 2012. The event which will take place at the Loft, Bluebell Centre, Chelmsley Wood is a thank you for people who volunteer in Solihull. Volunteers attending the event will be treated to a traditional British tea party with the opportunity to chat  with other volunteers. The event will also feature  a fashion show hosted by George at Asda and a free raffle with a West Midlands Safari Park Family Ticket as first prize.

If you would like your volunteers to attend this free event,please complete the application form on the SVF website by Wednesday, May 16^th 2012  as registration is essential and places are limited.

Volunteers Week is nearly here and provides an opportunity for organisations to celebrate their successes and say a big thank you to all their volunteers who give up their time and share their skills to make a difference in the community.

Are you holding any events during Volunteers Week to celebrate volunteering or raise the profile of your organisation with potential volunteers?
If you are please let us know. We would love to hear about how organisations in Solihull are celebrating volunteering.

Not arranged anything yet?  You still have time to organise something. Visit the Volunteering England website  for ideas and resources to help with planning and holding your event.

Contact Maureen Shepherd, Volunteer Centre Manager on 0121 704 6789 or email maureen.shepherd@wayc2.org to share your events or for more information.

Macmillan Cancer Support is looking for a buzzing  volunteer to join our local Fundraising Team over a 3 month period as an intern to help and support in the preparation for our biggest fundraising event the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.

This event takes place on the last Friday of every September and in 2011 raised over £10 million throughout the UK. This year with the help of a dedicated intern we want to make the event even bigger and better!

Not only is this opportunity a superb platform to build essential skills working on the ground with the local fundraising team,  but the candidate will also be part of a UK wide intern training programme. Skills developed will be a great stepping stone for the future in a variety of sectors!

Please download the document below for more information.

Our WBCM internships in a nutshell

For further details and to apply please go to www.macmillan.org.uk/internships.

The deadline for applications is Sunday 13 May 2012. 

Sally Bourner, Solihull Police Commander, now issues a regular video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wANMwPqJ6KQ&feature=youtu.be on what’s happening to reduce crime and fear of crime in Solihull.

You can also follow her Twitter messages @SolPolCommander

This month has seen a change to the minimum qualifying period of continuous employment necessary to claim unfair dismissal and entitlement to written reasons for dismissal. This is increased from one year to two years.

The Unfair Dismissal and Statement of Reasons for Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 2012 came into force on 6 April 2012, and amended the Employment Rights Act 1996.

However, this change is not retrospective and applies only to employees whose continuous employment commences on or after 6 April 2012. Employers will now have two classes of employees with differing rights to claim unfair dismissal, dependent upon when periods of continuous employment began.

Employers will need to carefully consider which class an employee actually belongs to in cases affected by:

• transfer into the organisation with an existing period of continuous employment (e.g. under TUPE);
• a gap in employment which may or may not break continuity, depending on circumstance.

Community First is an £80m government-funded initiative that will run for four years, until March 2015. The programme will help communities come together to identify their strengths and local priorities in order to plan for their future and become more resilient. It will fund both new and existing community groups.

Community First is coming to Solihull and the website is under construction. We will let you know when it goes live.

For details of the funds available and application process, see http://solihull-sustain.org.uk/2012/05/community-first-funding/

Community First is funded by the OCS, part of the Cabinet Office, on behalf of the Government and delivered by CDF, in partnership with:

STOP PRESS
Speaking up works – Downing Street has now promised that the government will launch a formal consultation in the summer into a cap on tax relief for philanthropists.

Many charities depend upon major gifts from philanthropists. And in turn, these gifts are incredibly important: £11 billion was given to charity last year, with almost half of this coming from just 7% of donors. And many of these gifts are used to set up grant-making trusts and foundations that support small charities.

Today’s gifts are tomorrow’s grants.

These donors are given strong encouragement to give by an income tax relief called Gift Aid.

Until now, that is. In the March 2012 budget the Chancellor announced a cap on income tax reliefs that will affect charities both large and small and the philanthropists who support them. There’s a detailed explanation here.

You can pledge your support for this campaign by visiting

http://giveitbackgeorge.org/back-the-campaign/

Community groups can now benefit from a fantastic free resource operating in Solihull.

Giving World Online links people in need with businesses who have an unwanted surplus and is now expanding its operations to the Solihull area.

A spokesman for Giving World Online said:

“We realise that with all the funding cuts at the moment many charities are really feeling the pinch.

This is where we come in, by offering free essential goods which have been donated such as toiletries, baby clothes, cleaning materials, toys, educational materials, computers, outdoor wear, furniture, electrical, bedding, and books.

And, it’s so easy to obtain these essential goods, all a charity has to do is to register on our website and the rest is easy.

There is no hidden catch, the only costs which may be incurred is for the transportation of the goods.

Our message to charities is register now and see what wonderful essential items  we have on our website that can benefit your members and help boost landfill at the same time.’’

The charity based in Leicester, recently received a Big Lottery grant to develop and advance Giving World Online across the nine English regions.

Contact Giving World online at 0116 251 6205 or go to www.givingworldonline.com

The Solihull Family Information Service web pages have lots of useful information for parents and carers all in one place and enable practitioners to find information on behalf of the families they are working with.  They have recently been revamped so they are more attractive and informative.

The web pages are easy to read with relevant topics including local activities, childcare, health, money and benefits, education and employment and information for parents who have a child with disabilities.  They also have specific information by age of child and lists of local and national services that can help.

You can visit the new web pages on the Solihull Council website at www.solihull.gov.uk/familyinfo

Please also share the web pages with the parents you are working with.