Do you support any of the following groups:
•    older people;
•    people who are socially isolated;
•    those with sensory, mobility or dexterity impairments;
•    people who have mental health conditions;
•    those with English as second language/BAME; or
•    people with Learning Disabilities?

The Digital Switchover is coming and some of the people you support may be worried about the switch to digital TV. We can answer any questions they may have.

This is a reminder that April is fast approaching when the Digital Switchover will take place.

As the time draws near it is very likely that some of your clients or members will want to get some help or advice.

Gary Davis is working with Voluntary Action Lewisham and is able to provide presentations to organisations or individuals between now and April.

He is also able to provide supporting leaflets explaining the switchover and how to retune

There are still small grants available of up to £500 which can be awarded to organisations who may want to organise a specific event; this could be used to hire a hall, buy refreshments or transport costs.

Contact gary@slcvspartnership.org.uk or Tel: 07877 768307 for more information

Crime and its effects are a major challenge within society, and VCS organisations have an important role to play in combating

crime and making our communities safer.  VAL has committed to work with Clinks, a national organization, to develop a local network of organisations to address crime and community safety issues and to link into a broader, London-wide network.  These issues include work with young people at risk of engaging in criminal or anti

-social activity, reducing the number of Lewisham residents appearing in court, support for the victims of crime, collaborative work with the police, probation and court services, and new approaches to achieving justice.

An initial meeting has been arranged for Thursday 1st March, 2.00-5.00pm, at the Civic Suite. If your organisation is in any way involved in crimin

al justice or community safety  issues, or would like to be more involved, please book this date in your diary. The event will include presentations, details of some existing local work, the support available through Clinks, and discussion about these important issues.

To book your place, please phone Sheila on: 020 8314 9411 or email:

sheila@valewisham.org.uk

As an infrastructure organisation you many find it challenging  to show your impact. One of the ways in which this can be done effectively is to create case studies as they’re a great way to communicate the work you do and the difference you make.

NCVO have information on their website that may be helpful:

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/networking discussions/blogs/23540/11/11/22/create-case-study-show-your-impact

This report on the findings and lessons learned from visits to local authorities in 2011 produced by DWP is recommended reading for those interested in the housing benefit reforms.  The visits explored the potential impact of the changes to LHA and changes to shared accommodation rates for under 35 year olds.  DWP produced a LA toolkit and the organisation of good practice into four areas: communicating with claimants, using discretionary housing payments; working with landlord and working with housing teams and other stakeholders. The report is available at: www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/lha-reforms-good-practice.pdf

Selected resources on housing benefit changes and related impacts of welfare reform in London.

For the last 4in10 seminar, reported above, we assembled a recommended further reading list which we hope you will find useful. It contains links to a selection of key information documents and briefings, and can be found at: www.childrensrightswales.org.uk/UserFiles/resources/Exploring%20Housing%...

VAL’s offices will be closed from midday on Friday 23rd December, and will re-open on Tuesday 3rd January.

Towards Sustainability

Towards Sustainability is a report looking at the factors that affect how sustainable voluntary and community groups are.

Sustainability is a pressing concern for many organisations at the moment, however, the report illustrates that funding is only one of the issues that affects sustainability.  

The report also offers suggestions for improving sustainability and provides links to useful resources.

It has been written by the CRIB Project at VAL with funding from the Big Lottery.

Summary | Full Report

The election of VCS reps on the LSP is now underway. There are 5 places available.

The election is to choose which 5 organisations (not individuals) should represent the voluntary & community sector at the LSP for the next 3 years. It is the responsibility of the elected organisations to choose a member of their committee, staff or volunteers to carry out this responsibility on their behalf, and to make the necessary arrangements to receive and give relevant information from/to the wider sector, in particular the organisations with whom they are networked.

In the nomination process, 9 organisations were nominated: 

• African Welfare Organisation
• Contact-A-Family
•  Deptford Community Forum
•  Lewisham Education Arts Network
•  Lewisham Ethnic Minority Partnership
•  Lewisham Refugee Network
• Quo Vadis Trust
•  Voluntary Action Lewisham
•  Volunteer Centre Lewisham 

Voting papers have been distributed with the July/August edition of Grapevine, and must be returned by noon on Wednesday 20th July, using the envelope supplied.

In order to vote in the election you must be either an Associate Member or Full (paid-up) Member of VAL. Each member organisation is eligible to return one voting form indicating their five preferences.

The five organisations receiving the most votes will be elected. To ensure impartiality (particularly given that VAL is one of the organisations standing for election) the voting papers will be opened and counted by a member of the LSP team.

If you require any further information about the election, please speak to Martin or Sheila at VAL.

Martin: 020 8314 8876, martin@valewisham.org.uk

Sheila: 020 8314 9411, sheila@valewisham.org.uk

The  LVP Project in conjunction with Chapter One Promotions presents a one day workshop on the link between writing and recovery in mental health on 7th July at 9.15am - 4pm at Seniors, 260 Stanstead Road, London, SE23 1DD.

Facilitated by Jason Pegler, Author and CEO of Chipmunka - The Mental Health Publisher  

Insights into getting published by Johanna Bertie from Chapter One Promotions

• Open discussions lead by Errol Hall
• Learn more about Writing and Recovery in Mental Health
• Sharing Creative Work
• Question & Answer sessions

Lunch will be provided alongside the chance to relax and network at the Coffee and Cake Networking session.

Opportunities to purchase signed copies of Jason Pegler’s books:

‘A Can of Madness’, ‘Curing Madness’ and ‘The Ultimate Guide To Well Being.’

Booking is essential for this event. To reserve your FREE place contact 

Errol Hall on 0208 694 6519 or email: errol.hall@slam.nhs.uk

Buses: 75 & 185 * Nearest train stations: Catford Bridge & Forest Hill * Venue has full disability access with lavatory suitable for smaller wheelchairs only.  

The BIG Fund (part of the BIG Lottery) has announced dates for briefing events in London for the Transition Fund.

The Transition Fund is a £100 million fund to help charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises affected by public spending cuts adapt. It helps to make organisations "which deliver high quality public services be more resilient, agile and able to take opportunities presented by a changing funding environment".

The briefing events are open to organisations which meet the following criteria:

1. Civil society organisations with an income of between £50,000 and £10 million
2. At least 60% of your income is from taxpayer funded sources
3. You must spend at least 50% of your taxpayer funded income on service provision in at least one of the following areas – health and social care; homelessness; education and training; offender rehabilitation; welfare to work/ employment services; children and families; debt counselling and legal advice
4. Your free reserves must not be more than six months
5. You face significant cuts; you will experience cuts of least 30% of your taxpayer funded income in 2011/12, as compared to your most recent set of signed annual accounts
6. The minimum grant size is £12.5k and grants will meet no more than half your taxpayer funded income. This means that you will have lost at least £25k
7. The majority of the grant expenditure will be on change activities
8. You are delivering the majority of your services in England. For further eligibility informationwww.biglotteryfund.org.uk/transitionfund To register for the event, please emailtransitionlondon@bigfund.org.uk by 8 December 2010 clearly stating in the subject line which two hour session you are able to attend (copy directly from the bullet points below), along with your name, phone number, organisation, address and any access requirements. Demand is expected to be high for these events and there are a limited number of places in each session, so please indicate all of the dates and times you are available.

• 13 December at 10am – London
• 13 December at 2pm – London
• 14 December at 10am – London
• 14 December at 2pm – London

Due to space constraints, registration is limited to one person per organisation. Spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

If you are unable to attend a briefing session, all of the information you need on eligibility and applying is available on the Big Lottery website. After the regional briefing sessions all of the information from the events including the presentation will be uploaded to the BIG website.

VAL's Policy Briefings

Voluntary Action Lewisham’s Policy Briefings are designed to give our members the latest National Government, Local Authority and statutory sector policy changes that will have an impact on voluntary and community organisations. The briefing comprises three sections the first focuses on issues affecting children and young people’s organisations, the second focuses on issues concerning health inequalities and social care; the final section has policy information regarding the sector in general.

To see the latest briefing click here

London Action Trust has now taken over the running of the Access Funds website - www.access-funds.co.uk.  Access Funds is an online resource offering Grants information for the British charitable and non-profit sector, and contains directories of funding programmes and guides to funding.

Subscribers to the Access Funds website can access the following;

• Information on the latest grant programmes (new information added weekly)
• A monthly Bulletin email, an easy to use monthly round up of funding opportunities sent directly to your computer
• Easy to use search facility, which will help you track down the grant programmes most appropriate for your organisation
• A tailored Email Alert Service, which provides customised grant information sent by email
• My Grants – a section where you can easily store information on Grants, so that you can return to the grant details at any time, without having to search for the information again
• Grants Closing Within 6 Weeks – so you can see at-a-glance which grants have deadlines approaching

If you visit www.access-funds.co.uk  you can register for a free 7-day trial.  Please note that the 7 day trial does not include email alerts.

If you decide to take up a 12 month subscription, please quote CVS2009 and you will receive 13 months for the price of 12.  This offer runs until January 31st 2010. 

12 month Subscription prices: Voluntary/Community Group - £50 first member from organisation, Business/Statutory Organisation £60.00 first member from organisation. Subsequent members from organisations can subscribe for £25.00.  For more information go to: www.access-funds.co.uk

The Office of the Third Sector has released reports on individual local authorities as part of its National Survey of Third Sector Organisations. The survey was carried out by Ipsos Mori on behalf of the Office of the Third Sector and covers Third Sector Organisations' views on how supportive their local authority is. In Lewisham 277 organisations were interviewed.