A new five-year project, to strengthen and develop refugee community organisations across England, has been launched by the Refugee Council and Refugee Action with money from the Big Lottery Fund.

See news item on Community Newswire at http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=4396124 or go direct to the Basis Project web site at http://www.thebasisproject.org.uk.

The new Advisory Body for the Office of the Third Sector, taking over from a number of groups advising government on third sector policy, now has a chair appointed, Baroness Jill Pitkeathly.

Interviews for other members begin early next month, with the aim for it to be functioning by the end of May.

Cabinet Office news release, with links to more about the Advisory Body.

CIPD, the personnel professional’s body, has updated its introductory factsheet on the National Minimum Wage.

It provides basic information on current rates, the operation, scope and enforcement. http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/pay/general/nmw.htm.

A study from Work Research has come up with a three way categorisation of Online Video:

- Snippets, material of 5 seconds to 5 minutes on the likes of YouTube, not taking all the viewer’s attention.
- Boutique, mini videos from 2 to 5 minutes, task-based viewing where content is instructional or helps with information gathering around keen interests.
- Catch-up, from 5 minutes to feature length, where PC becomes a second TV.

No immediately obvious voluntary sector angle on this, except that it may help to decide whether a charity video is aiming for the first or second category. From PublicTechnology.net.

A “ground-breaking initiative” bringing together a huge range of individuals and organisations has created a UK Vision Strategy,  launched at a conference on 18th April.

Third Sector reports RNIB chief executive and chair of the coalition’s advisory group Lesley-Anne Alexander as saying “I was astounded that there are 733 UK charities that have something to do with sight loss, and that we didn’t all get along with each other.” There are now more than 650 signed up to the Strategy, which could be an example for coalition building across other interests.

Third Sector: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News//802084/ (registration required), RNIB’s UK Vision Strategy pages: http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/public_rnib003464.hcsp.

Ahead of Depression Awareness Week*, employment advisory body Acas has outlined advice on how to spot and deal with mental health problems at work - http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2053. This also coincides with the release of their guide, ‘Health, work & wellbeing’, which includes a checklist to assess how well you are doing against key indicators.

The guide can be downloaded as a large pdf (1.94MB) from http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=854&p=0, or see news item at http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2039.

* Depression Awareness Week, http://www.depressionalliance.org, from 21st April.

Third Sector National Learning Alliance, a new body set up to represent the views of third sector learning providers, is aiming to compile a collective response to the government’s consultation ‘Informal Adult Learning - Shaping the Way Ahead’.

They want responses by 21st April, but there are also three events taking place in Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle. See http://www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk/DisplayPage.asp?pageid=12392.

Note: TSNLA is due to have its own web site soon.

The first UK Social Networking Guidance, providing advice for industry, parents and children about how to stay safe online, has been developed by a taskforce of representatives from industry, charity and law enforcement agencies.

Get ‘Good practice guidance for the providers of social networking and other user interactive services 2008′ from Home Office website.

The Management Centre frequently publishes short tips and tools for the not-for-profit sector.

This month’s selection includes one ‘Dealing with the aftermath of a merger’, with some useful tips on motivation and taking charge of change: http://newsweaver.co.uk/managementcentre/e_article001062447.cfm.

NCVO’s Sustainable Funding Project has rewritten and restructured its online information on trading and social enterprise. It covers issues such as getting started, governance, charity law, culture and generating ideas.

Start at http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sfp/?id=2114.

The Community Assets programme, funded by the Office of the Third Sector but managed by the Big Lottery Fund, has announced a shortlist of 37 schemes in England which propose greater control over buildings and other under-used community assets.

These now have up to six months to develop detailed plans to be able to take up the ‘in principle’ grant offers. OTS news item.

Baring Foundation’s Strengthening the Voluntary Sector programme for 2008 focuses on strengthening the independence of advice and advocacy organisations in the cities of Bristol, Coventry, Manchester or Sheffield or in the counties of Kent or Lincolnshire.

Applications by 30th June 2008. http://www.baringfoundation.org.uk/News.htm