Ofcom’s next regional round for applications for community radio licences covers West Midlands, East Midlands and Lincolnshire. It opens 10th October with a deadline of 15th January.

Go to http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/tlproc/ or download the pdf information (176kb)

Six voluntary sector organisations across the East of England, which got two year funding to ‘build the capacity’ of frontline organisations in supporting individuals to move towards employment, have put together what they have learnt from the experience.

They have aimed to keep the report “lightweight” and readable and of wider interest. ‘Guide to Capacity Building’ in pdf, 1.1MB, from Community Action Dacorum, http://www.dacorumcvs.org.uk/projects/CBGuideWEB.pdf.

New findings on the impact of the voluntary sector in Norfolk will be used as a baseline when measuring its future development. There were some 5.5 million volunteer hours provided last year, and the sector now employs a larger proportion of the paid Norfolk workforce than agriculture.

More, and pdf download (a large 3.3MB for a graphic-led 4 pages), of ‘The Sector Counts’ at http://www.nvs.org.uk/about_news.php?id=72.

Learning to Drive is an e-learning facility for trustees and others interested in good governance, Developed by Suffolk Association for Voluntary Organisations on behalf of the Governance Hub, it launches this month (October).

Much of it appears to be available already (two more courses to come?) at http://www.savo-elearning.org - registration required.

An easy-to-use evaluation system to tackle the tricky issue of identifying soft outcomes around service user learning, helping demonstrate how an organisation is enabling them to progress, has been developed by Norfolk’s voluntary sector working with the Research Centre, City College Norwich.

SOUL (Soft Outcomes Universal Learning) has a new web site at http://www.theresearchcentre.co.uk/soul/index.htm.

(Source: Performance Hub Update)

The Third Sector Leadership Centre, a project of the Workforce Hub, is running an action learning sets programme for leaders of voluntary and community organisations in eastern and northwest England. Through action learning, participants share their perspectives on leadership challenges and find new and creative solutions. A commitment of one day a month over the next six months is needed, along with the support of the organisation’s board/committee.

See http://www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk/DisplayPage.asp?pageid=9726 or email: perry.seymour@henleymc.ac.uk for further details. Application deadline 17th July.

The Institute of Continuing Education, Cambridge University’s adult education department, has come up with a range of practical open-entry courses for volunteers and professionals engaged in voluntary and community work.

The nationally accredited courses will be offered around the eastern region from September. See http://www.cont-ed.cam.ac.uk/Subjects/community/.

(Source: Workforce Hub ebriefing)

The first podcast (audio files over the web) aimed at the UK voluntary sector, as far as we know*, has been produced by the Fundraising Technology blog. It’s a good example of getting the basics right.

The East of England Development Agency has also taken to this new media, with a fortnightly series of essays exploring “the nature of creativity and its value to business.” Might just be some inspiration here for voluntary organisations too - http://www.spaceforideas.uk.com.

And a short Third Sector magazine report back from a talk on podcasting held at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness recently is headlined ‘Case studies are the best podcasts’. It cites Unicef as, since July last year, having had 12 million downloads of their podcasts giving in-depth treatment of issues. Third Sector: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity_news/full_news.cfm?ID=18751; Unicef: http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/video_podcast.html.

* Note - after posting this item in our email newsletter, we have to concede that the Podcast from Podnosh/Grassroots Channel probably qualifies ahead.

A total of 30 UK online centres across England have been selected as part of the first phase of a net:gain project (funded under ChangeUp).

This aims to build the ICT capabilities of voluntary and community organisations, helping them to develop and implement strategic ICT plans.

News Links

• Press release
• Or see the names and location of the centres on net:gain site