News

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Recognition for infrastructure organisations in South London

Voluntary and community organisations in South London are more efficient and effective than ever thanks to local infrastructure organisations.

That’s the indication following the presentation last week of the NAVCA Quality Award to Community Links Bromley, the sixth and final member of the South London CVS Partnership, which includes Croydon Voluntary Action and organisations in Richmond, Kingston, Merton and Sutton. The award was received in recognition of the quality of work supporting local voluntary and community organisations.

The award is open to local infrastructure organisations working behind the scenes to make sure voluntary and community groups get the support they need. Organisations have to demonstrate that they deliver high quality services to the sector and outline the difference they make to local people.

Charmaine Sainsbury, from the South London Council for Voluntary Service Partnership, said: “We’re delighted our partners have received the recognition they deserve. Organisations like theirs play a vital role in ensuring that the voluntary and community sector can continue to support the most vulnerable in our communities – particularly during difficult economic times, when many are finding that they have less money but increased demand for their services.”

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Live life your way questionnaire-

Croydon wish to set up a community based social inclusion service for people with mental health difficulties from the black and minority ethnic communities.

Similar to other social inclusion services set up last year, this service aims to offer a ‘safe place to go’, where service users and carers can feel supported. Over time, the aim is for this service to become user led.

The questionnaire gives you an opportunity to have your say.

The information you provide will help mental health commissioners (professionals who ensure there are a range of services that meet local needs) what type of social inclusion day opportunities service you need.

http://www.croydon.nhs.uk/yourhealth/Pages/live-life-your-way-questionnaire.aspx

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And the winners are…….

On Wednesday 11th November 2009, Croydon Voluntary Action Youth Advisory Team won the Croydon Champion’s Award for ‘Team of the Year’ at a prestigious ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Croydon.

The nomination for this award came as a result of the group’s involvement in tackling the negative image of young people in the media through hosting a successful event called, Media Vs Young Success on March 28th 2009 at Tiger Tiger in Croydon.

The aim of this event was to challenge the Media’s negative perception of young people by (a) Raising awareness of the issue that young people receive very little or no positive coverage in the media, (b) Recognising and praising Croydon young people for their involvement in positive leisure-time learning and (c) To encourage other young people to be apart of the solution and not the problem in the media.

On the night the young people gave a presentation on their work and all donations from the event raffle will be given to the project on behalf of Croydon Guardian.

For more information please visit our facebook ‘CroydonSummeruni’

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1000s of Everyday Conversations
with the local NHS

The Croydon Primary Care Trust (CPCT) is developing its strategy for patient and public involvement (known as PPI) in health. A draft strategy called '1000s of everyday conversations' is available. It's been out since May 2008 and has already been discussed by loads of people at many events. Just to give you a hint of what you can find in the strategy here’s the main values that the PCT are planning to commit to:

• We will build on the best
• We see PPI as part of the solution
• We will remove the barriers to engagement
• We will deepen and extend local partnership work
• We will tap into what happens at the frontline
• We will make better use of data about the patient experience (Insight)
• We will foster a new approach to involvement in commissioning

You can contribute to an online discussion at: www.talk2croydon.co.uk/buzz/patient-and-public-involvement-health.

David Gilbert, the CPCT Interim Director for Patient and Public Involvement, wants to make sure this strategy does not sit on the shelf. There will be lots of work going on to make sure recommendations are followed through with specific opportunities to engage on projects. One of the early projects will be about 'health aspirations' under the banner of 'Do Something Different'.

Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) is working closely with CPCT to ensure Croydon people and voluntary groups can benefit from this new era of community empowerment in health.

You can contact David Gilbert on 020 8274 6000 David.Gilbert@croydonpct.nhs.uk, www.croydon.nhs.uk/
Or contact Jo Gough on 020 8683 5901 or jo.gough@cvalive.org.uk

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Up, up and away!

Croydon has a new Infrastructure Development Plan. Feel forgiven for not recognising immediately what this is, but rest assured that it contains a vision for how VCS support needs should be met in Croydon for the next ten years.

Readers may be familiar with the ChangeUp agenda, or even with Capacitybuilders. This is the Government programme challenging agencies like CVA to review whether their services can be delivered in more effective ways. Joined by Croydon BME Forum, Croydon Disability Forum, CNCA, Volunteer Centre Croydon and our LBC and PCT partners, we consulted you in November on your priority support needs.

Headline services the Consortium are now planning to deliver in response to your feedback include the following:

Infrastructure Business Plan 2008-11

Infrastructure Development Strategy 2008-14

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Community Campaign Day

With a measly eight public holidays a year (10 in Northern Ireland), Great Britain has fewer holidays than the average for EU member states. In fact, only Romania has fewer days than we do. Public holidays are an immensely popular part of life in the UK. These national days of celebration also play a vital part in ensuring that we have a proper balance between our working lives and the rest of our lives. We need time to pursue our hobbies, to exercise, to learn, to get involved in our local communities and to have fun. read more... http://www.communityday.org.uk/ http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/index.asp?id=7532

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Welcome to online democracy in action

Talk2Croydon offers the people of Croydon a platform to discuss public services, start discussions/ campaigns and voice opinions. As well as being able to raise issues that matter to you, knowing that the site will be viewed by the borough's decision makers, will mean you'll be able to find out what changes as a result.

Since arriving on the scene in September 2007 Talk2Croydon has made a big impact. By July 2008, 557 members registered on Talk2Croydon with 5,021 visits and an average time of 16 minutes spent on the web tool. Of those visitors that chose to define their ethnicity, 86% defined themselves as White British, 6% as Black/Black Caribbean and 5% Mixed White and Black Caribbean. The majority of visits came from UK with 62 from USA, 15 from Belgium and 11 each from Germany and India.

By logging on to www.talk2croydon.co.uk you can...

start a buzz
an online discussion or campaign around a particular topic,
or add your views to an existing buzz/ poll or survey

link up
with Croydon projects, network with others who share similar work or concerns.

The site is a hub for public engagement activities and includes a searchable database of activities, a calendar of events and a skills database. GET INVOLVED visit www.talk2croydon.co.uk.

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New CVA Project to Strengthen Parent and Family Support

A new project, funded by the Parenting Fund, is off-the-ground at CVA and aims to build the capacity of parenting groups by providing one-to-one in-depth group work, customised workshops, and access to workforce development opportunities. The project will also promote action learning for senior managers and frontline workers.

CVA will organise an in-depth course to develop expert community-focused facilitators that will provide sessions for local parenting groups and enable them to meet the new national occupation standards.

One of the aims of the project is to encourage a rigourous debate which will lead to the re-framing of the existing Children and Young People's Network and ensure that family support/parenting groups have a say in developing local policy and planning with the Children's Trust. It is also hoped that the project will bring about a more effective dialogue between statutory, voluntary, and other providers.

For more information contact Bhupendra Solanki, CVA Capacity Building Manager on 020 8683 5916 or via email at bhupendra.solanki@cvalive.org.uk.

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Campaign on CRB Checks Successful

The main priority of the Volunteer Organisers' Forum in recommendations to the Compact was to ensure ongoing resources for an umbrella body to do free Criminal Record Checks for voluntary groups which involve volunteers with children or vulnerable adults. This was agreed in the 2003 Compact. However when the council changed the way it carried out its Human Resources function and with the number of checks on volunteers on behalf of voluntary organisations rising to 600 annually, they have been questioning whether they can provide this service free of an admin fee.

We are very pleased to announce that after extensive lobbying through the Community Network and other sources, Croydon Council has agreed that CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks for staff and volunteers will be carried out without an administration charge for organisations which the council supports through commissioning arrangements, direct funding or through funding administered through partnership arrangements within the Local Strategic Partnership. Any other cases would be decided on individual merit.

A letter from Councillor Margaret Mead and Councillor Enley Taylor to the Volunteer Organisers' Forum stated that: "Increasingly volunteers are supporting vulnerable people, both young and old. It is essential that voluntary organisations can have confidence that the people they are recruiting as volunteers can work with vulnerable people with the minimum of risk. Withdrawing the facility of free CRB checks would be an impediment and potential disincentive to voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) to seek those vital safeguards. We have concluded that the cost to the Council does not outweigh the risk of imposing a charge to VCOs for the service."

The council will continue to operate an "approved list" system and the Lead Signatory in the council is liable for any checks and must be satisfied that external organisations have appropriate child protection and/or vulnerable adult protection policies and procedures in place before they can join the list.

Those organisations who are already on the approved list will continue to receive free checks.

New groups should contact their funding officer or, if they do not know who their funding officer is, they should contact David Freeman on david.freeman@croydon.gov.uk . They should not contact the Human Resource department direct. Groups can also get advice from the Volunteer Centre's Good Practice Team on 020 8253 7070.