Posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010
The Children and Young People’s Trust (CYPT) has launched its 2010-2013 Children and Young People’s Plan. The plan looks at improving the lives of children and young people in Solihull and the CYPT would like your views on what you think we should include in the new plan. The consultation process runs from 5 January to 31 March 2010.
Read the consultation document (pdf)
After you have read the consultation document download and complete the consultation response form or fill in the form online.
Parents – Please take the time to fill in an online questionnaire
Children and young people – Please take the time to fill in an online questionnaire
Posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
A group of young people from Solihull raised more than £1250 for local youth charity This Way Up by holding an art auction.
Held on 27th February at Hockley Heath Memorial Hall, the arts and crafts auction was a great success.
This Way Up works in eight secondary schools in Solihull, prociding a ‘listening ear’ to young people struggling with parental separation and bereavement. The charity relies mostly on donations and a team of regular supporters.
Organiser, Verity English, said: “We wanted to raise money to support young people who struggle with issues of loss. the great thing about This Way Up is that they go into schools and meet with teenagers where they are.”
For more information about the work of the charity, contact Mandy English at This Way Up on mandy@twup.org.uk.
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 Saturday, February 20th, 2010
- Partnership Manager — Stronger Communities
- £28,500–£30,500Pa — Fixed term, 18 months to Sept 2011
- Post: Partnerships — Ref: SCSM
- Closing date for applications: 15th March
- Interview dates: Wednesday 14th & Friday 16th April
You can apply online over at wmjobs or the Solihull Council website or, if you prefer, an application pack to be posted to you. The contact details are as follows:
Solihull Connect Contact Centre,
3610 Parkside,
Birmingham Business Park,
Solihull,
B37 7YG,
Tel: 0121 704 6800 (24hour answer phone) or email: connectcc@solihull.gov.uk
Person Spec
The Solihull Partnership is looking for a highly motivated individual to join its partnership team. You will have a thorough understanding of the key issues facing the Third Sector and will manage the Stronger Communities agenda in Solihull, working together with a range of partners across the Solihull Partnership, including local voluntary and community organisations and relevant service areas across the Council. You will have specific responsibility for developing and delivering consistent approaches to the management of volunteering across the Partnership.
You will have knowledge and experience of issues that impact on the third sector, including volunteering and will ensure that there is strong third sector involvement in the work of the partnership. You will be at ease in carrying out research, developing solutions and implementing project plans that assist in meeting evidenced needs.
A key part of this role will be to coordinate the delivery of LAA targets for volunteering, cohesion and third sector capacity building/development. You will be required to translate strategy into practice, continue to build strong relationships and carry out meaningful stakeholder engagement, which will inform and support the delivery of stronger communities’ priorities within the Sustainable Community Strategy for Solihull.
You will preferably be educated to degree level and will be able to demonstrate relevant experience working in or with the third sector.
Downloads
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 Friday, February 12th, 2010
How many times have you come across small gestures of generosity, the help and support that changed somebody’s life? We all experience and know about it. The nice neighbour who holds our spare keys in case we get locked out, the person on the bus or in the queue who starts an encouraging conversation on a bad day, the many nice smiles strangers give us, the neighbour who takes our parcels in when we are at work.
Come and visit us at http://volunteeringinsolihull.blogspot.com/ and add your stories of small acts of kindness that have made all the difference.
Posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
The closing date for applications to the Solihull Together Small Grants scheme has now passed.
All applications received are now being considered; decisions on successful candidates, together with the allocation of available funds, will take place by the end of April 2010 at the latest.
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.
Posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010
Solihull based IT & Telecommunications consultants Ortiga came to the aid of the Solihull Carers Centre when they needed a new telephone system. The Carers Centre’s problem was how to best stay in touch with the people they support and each other when they are spread across three different office locations and have 10 home-based Care Support workers. Solihull Carers Centre contacted the voluntary sector support provider SUSTAiN for some help.
SUSTAiN contacted a number of telecommunications companies on behalf of the Carers Centre and outlined their requirements and their financial constraints. Tim Gain from Ortiga came up trumps. “I was so impressed by what Solihull Carers do”
, said Tim, “that I was determined to find something that did everything they needed, was highly reliable and that they could afford.”
It took a few months of negotiation with suppliers and by using surplus equipment that could be bought at a bargain price, Ortiga put together a sophisticated internet based VoIP system that did the job. In the process, Ortiga managed to save Solihull Carers well over £2000.
“This will make such a massive difference to us and will help us provide an even better service to the thousands of people who care for others in Solihull. The new system will do 10 times what our current system does but will cost more to operate; so any help with fundraising would be greatly appreciated.”
Maggie Leaver, CEO at Solihull Carers Centre
Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Solihull Children and Young People’s Trust is due to launch its 2010–2013 Children and Young People’s Plan later this year. The plan looks at improving the lives of children and young people in Solihull. It covers any service or organisation which affects children’s outcomes, from health to housing, education to employment, culture to care.
The Trust wants you to be involved in developing the new plan and has set a consultation period from 5 January to 31 March. We want to know what you think is important to improve outcomes for Solihull’s children and young people.
Please read the consultation document and send in the consultation response form by 31 March. They can be found on www.solihull.gov.uk/cypt
If you are a parent we would also like your views and you can fill in a parents’ questionnaire via this link. There is also a survey for children and young people.
