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.
News
Third Sector Representative for Cumbria LEP
Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (Cumbria LEP) is the strategic body through which Cumbria-wide economic activities, priorities and objectives are supported and coordinated. It is a business-led partnership between the public and private sectors, with responsibility for steering growth strategically in local communities.
Cumbria CVS is pleased to announce the first Twitter Hour of 2019!!
Join us on Tuesday 5 February 2019 #cvsvolunteerhour 8-9pm
During this hour, we will be looking at Volunteering Opportunities in Cumbria so please follow us @CumbriaCVS and share your volunteering opportunities using the hashtag #cvsvolunteerhour
Governance is defined as being: ‘The systems and processes concerned with the overall direction, effectiveness, supervision and accountability of an organisation’ (Good Governance: A code for the Voluntary and Community Sector).
Ensuring we have the best stewardship for our charities is no new aspiration. It is a good balance of strong and capable management and effective and supportive governance, together providing a winning formula that creates opportunity and enhances the success of an organisation. Achieving this has to be the goal of every trustee, every chair and every senior manager of a managed charity.
Funding Support
Over the last 12 months, funding (advice) has been one of the main areas of support delivered by the CVS development team, accounting for 62% of enquiries dealt with and they already account for 67% of the enquiries for the first quarter of 2018. This may help to explain the continued popularity of our Funding Events, which we hold across the county throughout the year and which provide a great opportunity for local groups and organisations to liaise with local and national funders and access much needed funding advice and information. We were very pleased to see so many of you at the funding event at Kendal Rugby Club in late June and look forward to welcoming many more of you to Whitehaven next week.
Cumbria CVS has officially opened their Changing Places toilet at Shaddongate Community Centre.
The facility was officially opened by Laura Cadman, CEO, Cumbria CVS and Glenys Marriot, Cumbria Neurological Alliance today, Thursday 14 June 2018.
The facility is open Monday – Thursday 9am – 5pm and Friday 9am – 3pm.
Volunteers’ Week 1-7 June is an annual event and celebrates the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK. The week plays a huge part in raising the profile of the millions of volunteers who regularly contribute to society while inspiring others to get involved too.
Cumbria CVS is running Volunteering Fairs across Cumbria during Volunteers’ Week to help local organisations recruit new volunteers. Please see the above details for our Volunteer Fairs during this week.
It’s hard to believe that we are almost half way through 2018. When did the New Year become June? The last five months have truly flown – and in that time we have witnessed a period of more exciting developments.
For Cumbria CVS, our staff team has grown in response to funding: we are pleased to welcome Clare Edwards as the new Health Partnership Officer for North Cumbria (see next article); we have successfully recruited to the new Community Resilience Co-ordinator post and are also strengthening our Building Better Opportunities team with the appointment of a new Project Manager and Lead Key Worker. We have also been delighted to welcome a new volunteer to our team at Shaddongate who is helping us look after our fabulous building.
Building relationships with the Third Sector as health and care services become more integrated will be a priority for the new health partnerships officer.
Clare Edwards, who has a long history of representing Third Sector organisations, has taken up the new role which is funded by the NHS, but based with Cumbria CVS.
Clare said, “I know from first-hand experience just how tough it can be to get a meaningful dialogue going with staff from the health sector but I also know how exciting it can be when relationships work and great new services are developed.
