On Wednesday 12 February 2020 from 8-9pm, Cumbria CVS will be lead a twitter hour on volunteering to link with Student Volunteering Week (10-16 February 2020). The topic is: Volunteering Opportunities for Students so please join in and tweet your volunteering opportunities and photographs of students volunteering. Let’s celebrate and promote Student Volunteering Week 2020.
Please tag @Cumbriacvs and use the hashtag #cvsvolunteerhour
News
The ‘Forces Link’ Carlisle and Eden project has been in operation since June 2019 and was set up to help increase opportunity and support for our local ex-service community and their families.
The project has had a positive first 6 months and has really benefitted from being part of the Cumbria CVS team. The links and level of knowledge within the team has made life much easier and allowed the project to reach places that wouldn’t have been possible had it been based elsewhere. So, I start my update with a massive thank you to the team and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve in the coming months.
Do you have an innovative health and care project that you’d like help developing and that would lend itself to a collaborative approach?
Cumbria CVS have two Health and Care Project Funding Officers for North and South Cumbria newly in post who can help get projects off the ground! Our role is to support third sector and statutory health and care organisations to develop projects which support integrated working and to identify and secure funding for these projects from national and regional sources.
Before starting at Cumbria CVS just four short weeks ago, I took it upon myself to draw up a “transition plan” – a rather grandiose title for a simple one-page note, setting out what I needed to understand, who might be able to help me and what ideas I might be able to assemble in my first 100 days, in order to pick things up as quickly as possible and begin to frame my ideas. It’s been going well to date – and whilst I wish it was due to my own hard graft, I cannot take the credit. Everyone I have spoken to over my first month has been welcoming, positive and engaged.
We are delighted to announce that David Allen will join Cumbria CVS as Chief Executive Officer on 29 July 2019.
David has over 20 years experience of working at a senior level in national charities, and has worked across the UK, including 10 years based in the North West of England. Most recently, he has served for five years as Chief Executive Officer of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK.
Cumbria Arts and Culture Network Chair and Deputy have now been appointed: Richard Foster (Brewery Arts) will assume the role of Chair, supported by Catherine Coulthard (Prism Arts) as Deputy – congratulations to both!
The Cumbria Arts and Culture Network will meet on 2 May – part of this meeting will be devoted to the Chair exploring with network members how they can work together and support each other.
If you are interested in joining the mailing list for this and other networks (including network updates and invitations to meetings), please contact Laura Rutter: laurar@cumbriacvs.org.uk or 01768 800350.
The Kickstart programme began working with Year 8 children in January 2019 across five secondary schools in the Barrow and Furness area. This is an expansion of two schools from last year with the addition of Dowdales School (Dalton in Furness) and Ulverston Victoria High School.
The programme designed to improve communication, confidence, leadership, resilience and teamwork, has been engaging with the schools through after-school provision.
I would like to start this month’s EBulletin by letting you know that after very careful consideration I have decided to leave Cumbria CVS. Since I joined it has been a wonderful two years of progress and challenge, and I am very proud of all that Cumbria CVS has achieved, and the strategic direction of this great organisation.
But as some of you may know at a personal level it has been a challenging time for me away from work, which over the last year has taken its toll on both my health and well-being. Over the last few months I have been well supported by the trustees who have been invaluable in their care and consideration in working with me through my decision-making process. I will certainly miss everyone involved in delivery at Cumbria CVS, the amazing staff and volunteers, our supportive funders, resourceful and innovative partners, fabulous member organisations and all those who make the work of Cumbria CVS possible.
With conventional services overstretched, teenagers in the Cumbria coastal town of Maryport teamed up to assist their peers. Frustrated by the waiting times for mental health services, they formed a group, We Will, to campaign for more understanding and skilled support for young people suffering mental ill health.
The group of teens knew they would need help to plan and organise their campaign, so a year ago they approached Kate Whitmarsh, development worker at the community group Ewanrigg Big Local, which has a mandate to grow grassroots initiatives proposed by anyone resident in the area.
