VolResource Blog

The audience at Third Sector magazine's "Britain's Most Admired Charities" awards this week, including many from large well-established charities, got a bit more then they were expecting.

From Communtiy Newswire, 4/11/05:

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith has launched a blistering attack on the nation's big charities, claiming a "cosy relationship" has developed between the giants of the voluntary sector and the Whitehall departments who supply them with grants and contracts.

Speaking at a charity awards event in London last night the MP for Chingford and Woodford Green said Britain's big charities had increasingly come to mirror the civil service in their "risk-averse, bureaucratic, ideologically monochrome and politically correct" mindsets.

More at
Community Newswire

Posted by John Howes at 08:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maybe I'll start tracking news coverage of 'ChangeUp' related development around the country. What's happening does appear to be extremely varied.

Extract from Hexham Courant:

PLANS are afoot for a radical overhaul of Tynedale’s voluntary and community organisations.

With a £50 million grants shortfall looming in the North-East due to changes in Lottery and European funding, the voluntary sector has to pull in its belt.

On top of that, the Government wants to see a tighter, more efficient network nationwide.

Now a mapping exercise has been launched to establish just what it is that each of Tynedale’s 365 such organisations do.

News item on The Hexham Courant

Posted by John Howes at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The voluntary sector is settling for leftovers, says Usman Khan, chair of the social care charity Turning Point, in a Guardian opinion piece.

Fundamental changes in how public services are to be delivered are taking place "without a meaningful contribution from the third sector", he says. "There seems to be very few of the necessary conversations happening between the sector's leadership, the government and the regulators. In fact, while key decisions are being made, the sector is busy arguing over what to call itself, with voluntary, not-for-profit and charity just three of a long list of terms up for debate."

More at this link:
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Voluntary sector | Doing a disservice.

Posted by John Howes at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Community and voluntary groups in Neath Port Talbot have recently gained access to a new small grants scheme.

Neath Port Talbot County Voluntary Service Community Development Fund has £100,000 per year for the next three years from the Welsh Asembly's Community Facilities and Activities Programme (CFAP). Local groups needing relatively small amounts of financial support will be able to access funds in the scheme rather than apply directly to the Welsh Assembly Government for help

xPRESS Digest: New grants for community and voluntary groups in Neath Port Talbot

Posted by John Howes at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of the ChangeUp Volunteering Hub activity Volunteering England has secured £100,000 to assist in the replacement of existing shop front and other external signage with new Volunteer Centre branded shop front and other external signage. The money will be allocated on a rolling programme on a first-come first-served basis for any Volunteer Centre that meets the grant criteria and demonstrates value for money when compared with other applicants and Volunteering England's own experience of replacing signage for the pilot Volunteer Centre sites.

The application form and full information are available on the web-site

From xPRESS Digest

Posted by John Howes at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Redditch Borough Council and Redditch YMCA have agreed to run two local community centres in partnership, which had been duplicating services. Otherwise they could both have ended up closing.

See ourpartnership web page.

Posted by John Howes at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)