News

Step Forward into Volunteering and Employment is a new service, which will support individuals living with Severe Mental Health Experiences (SMHE).

It will be delivered through a personalised 1-1 development plan by our Step Forward team here at Cumbria CVS, working in partnership with a range of local mental health providers.

The team have been very busy for the last 4 weeks, moving the project forward and preparing for the launch on October 10th to coincide with World Mental Health Awareness Day. The logo, which was created by Richard and reviewed and modified by the SMHE Advisory Group, has been given a tagline to reflect the discussions that were captured during the meeting – “Supporting you, whichever direction you decide to take”.

Happy holidays from the South…

After soaring temperatures across the UK recently, we come to the end of another academic year.

Our south-based project ‘Inspiring Barrow’ successfully completed their sixth year of delivering after-school provision, ending with a celebration event with school year 7 who participated in the project. It continues to be a huge success, working with primary school children in years 5 and 6 and secondary 7 and 8, across the Borough.

Become Green Together, a programme to help community organisations, charities and social enterprise organisations in Cumbria and the North East become more environmentally sustainable, has opened for applications and is keen for organisations from Cumbria to apply to take part.

The initiative forms part of the Going Green Together campaign, delivered by a partnership of the VONNE Climate Action Alliance (VCAA) members, VONNE, Cumbria CVS, Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS), genee, SmartCarbon and SIDE Labs. The Going Green Together partners secured over £300,000 of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and County Durham Community Foundation earlier this year to deliver the Going Green Together campaign over the next 15 months.

Events, charity news, surveys, feedback, reports, services and much more – in one handy place!

If you’ve seen something you think we should be sharing, let us know! Email us: info@cumbriacvs.org.uk

We Move: Race Equality & Migrants Rights Summit – 2-4 September 2022

Organised by the Runnymede Trust, this in-person event in Leeds will bring together academics, corporations, policymakers, trade unionists, civil society, journalists, students and the general public to explore how we harness the opportunities for positive change, address the threats to, and maintain the recent momentum for, racial equality.

In July, Cumbria CVS was invited to be part of the recruitment exercise for the new CEO for Westmorland with Furness (WwF) Shadow Authority.

This was a really interesting exercise on several counts: getting to meet prospective candidates and discuss their approach to partnership working and future interaction with the VCFSE sector; being involved in a discursive, discussion-based recruitment process based on how we assessed candidates’ ability to work in meaningful partnership with multiple partners; and to work with a fascinating group of colleagues who were also on the panel. I always feel it is an enormous privilege to be invited to sit on the “other side” of the table to the candidates, and on this occasion in particular, it didn’t disappoint.

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If you’ve seen something you think we should be sharing, let us know! Email us: info@cumbriacvs.org.uk

Three ways to improve your fundraising

Charity Digital explores ways that charities can improve their fundraising, from collecting better data to building lifelong connections with their donors.

The end of June marked Refugee Week, although it feels that the conversations around how we support refugees is an all year round one.

The theme of this year’s week was around ‘healing’ with people and organisations coming together to celebrate care, community and new beginnings.

Third Sector organisations have always come together around the themes of care and community and its no surprise that the sector has been responding to the needs of this community, whether they are Syrian, Ukranian, Afghan or one of the many other nationalities who have been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution or natural disaster. This support ranges from providing accessible activities, English language conversation cafes, celebration of culture events or just a person to talk to through a regular drop in.

Events, charity news, surveys, feedback, reports, services and much more – in one handy place!

If you’ve seen something you think we should be sharing, let us know! Email us: info@cumbriacvs.org.uk

Inspiring Eden – Jobs Fair 1 July 2022

The Penrith Jobcentre team are seeking attendance from clients they are supporting but the event is open to all, including older workers who may have left the labour market and may like to return to work, college and school leavers, and the refugee community.