Please complete the survey by Thursday 31 July You can access the survey by clicking here.

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1 VConnect ~ Volunteering News & Views ~ 16 July Diversity and Equality Survey 2. Advice NI Training Calendar July - December Small Grants Scheme 4. Children in Northern Ireland Children's Disability Training 5. The More You Know, The More You See 6. Free Suicide Awareness Training 7. Bryson Care Quality Homecare 8. SHSCT Promoting Wellbeing Training 9. Voluntary Arts Week Cuan FM Live Summer Broadcast & Family Fun Day 11. Consultations 12. Free Volunteer Management Review 13. Last Chance for Nominations 14. Develop a Sense of Community in Your Neighbourhood - Set up a Timebank! 15. AccessNI Filters 16. Transport Buddy Travel Training Programme 17. Keeping Adults Safe Trainers' Celebration Event 18. Investing in Volunteers 19. Volunteer Now Training & Events Volunteer Now Diversity and Equality Survey Volunteer Now is carrying out a short survey of volunteer involving organisations around the theme of Diversity and Equality. We would appreciate it if you would take 5 minutes to complete the survey and tell us about your organisations experience. Please complete the survey by Thursday 31 July You can access the survey by clicking here. Many thanks for your help! Advice NI Training Calendar July - December 2014 Advice NI are delighted to launch their latest training brochure which is packed with lots of new and exciting courses and training programmes. They offer training in the following areas:

2 Wiser Adviser; Case Recording; Age Awareness; Welfare Reform; Tendering & Commissioning; Lone Working; NVQ's in Advice and Guidance, Customer Service and Business & Administration; Training Assessment & Quality Assurance (TAQA). The training includes accredited and non-accredited courses delivered face-to-face, blended learning and e-learning methods. Click here for a full copy of the Advice NI Training Brochure. For more information, please call or . Small Grants Scheme The Networks Involving Communities in Health Improvement (NICHI) Project is now inviting applications to its small grants scheme for innovative projects that aims to improve health and social wellbeing. The scheme is open to community and voluntary groups that operate within the ten Council areas of the Northern area - Antrim, Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Moyle, Larne, Cookstown, Magherafelt and Coleraine. Grants of up to 1,000 are available for projects that aim to improve health and social wellbeing by making healthy choices easier, reducing health inequalities and building local communities. NICHI particularly welcomes proposals which address poverty and/or social isolation and which target the top 30% most disadvantaged Super Output Areas in the PHA Northern Locality. The fund is open for applications from Thursday 26 June until Tuesday 19 August Please contact your local Network (details below) for an application pack which will provide further information on who can apply and what can be funded. Groups in Antrim, Newtownabbey & Carrickfergus - contact Sarah Best, South Antrim Community Network on or ; Groups in Ballymena, Ballymoney, Larne & Moyle - contact Veronica McKinley, North Antrim Community Network on or ; Groups in Cookstown, Magherafelt & Coleraine - contact Ann Marie McStocker, Cookstown & Western Shores Area Network on or . The NICHI Small Grants Scheme is supported by funding from the Public Health Agency. It is separate from and in addition to the recently advertised Grants Scheme for Promoting Mental and Emotional Wellbeing and Suicide Prevention. Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI) Children's Disability Training Following on from a very successful and positively evaluated Pilot Programme in early 2013,

3 Children in Northern Ireland are delighted to present this second phase programme of training workshops to enhance the childcare provision for children with disabilities. The programme is aimed at childcare providers such as Day Care Staff, After Schools Staff and Registered Child Minders as well as members of the extended family of a child with a disability who could offer additional support to the primary carer e.g. Grandparents. It will help to establish and sustain an increase in childcare providers who are able to understand and respond to local need, who are diverse and able to offer childcare for children with a wide range of disabilities, who are able to integrate with other childcare providers and family members and who are confident in their ability to offer childcare services for a child with a disability. For further information please contact Children in Northern Ireland on or . July 30 - Downs Syndrome Awareness, Bushtown House Country Hotel, Coleraine 10.30am-1pm 31 - Dyslexia Awareness, Newry Conference & Banqueting Centre, Newry 10.30am-1pm August 4 - Makaton Taster Session, Ballymena Business Centre, Ballymena 10.30am-12.30pm 6 - Understanding Childhood Acquired Brain Injury, Roepark Resort, Limavady 10.30am-1pm 12 - Makaton Beginners Level (2 Days), Children in NI, Belfast 9.30am-4.30pm 16 - Structured Play with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Antrim 9.30am-4.30pm 18 - Downs Syndrome Awareness, Children in NI, Belfast 10.30am-1pm 22 - Strategies for dealing with Challenging Behaviour, Roepark Resort, Limavady 9.30am- 4.30pm 26 - Child Protection Awareness when working with Disabled Children, Limavady 10.30am-1pm 27 - General Disability Awareness, Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre, Armagh 6.30pm-9.30pm 30 - Music Therapy, Silverbirch Hotel, Omagh 10.30am -1pm September 2 - Dyslexia Awareness, Children in NI, Belfast 10.30am-1pm 4 - ADHD Awareness & Strategies for Supporting YP with ADHD, Newry, 10am-4.30pm 9 - Understanding Childhood Acquired Brain Injury, The Jethro Centre, Lurgan, 10.30am-1pm 17 - ADHD Awareness & Strategies for Supporting YP with ADHD, Belfast, 10am-4.30pm 22 - We are more alike than different: Disability from a Disabled Persons Perspective, Children in NI, Belfast 10am-12.30pm The More You Know, The More You See The Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) have launched 'The More You Know, The More You See' child sexual exploitation awareness campaign which aims to increase public awareness of this form of child sexual abuse. For more information visit their website.

4 Free Suicide Awareness Training The free training below is PHA funded, in partnership with Dare2Stretch Training. Suicide Talk Level 1 on 10 September, 10am-12pm in Cookstown Library; Suicide Talk Level 2 on 17 September, 10am-1.30pm in Cookstown Library, Bereavement Support Awareness on 20 November, 10am-1.30 in Cookstown Library. For booking or more information, please contact Denise Doherty on or . Bryson Care Quality Homecare Bryson Care has a new service aimed at older people within the Belfast area. They can help with: Laundry; Ironing; Bed change; Shopping; Light housework; Attending appointments; Respite; Safety check & more. For more information, please contact Paul Farrelly on or . SHSCT Promoting Wellbeing Training The Southern Health & Social Care Trust Promoting Wellbeing Team have several free training courses in September: Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training on 1 & 2 September, 9.30am-4.30pm in Clinical Education Centre, Craigavon; Blind Cord Safety on 11 September, 9am-12pm in Medical Education Centre, Craigavon Hospital; Cycle Leader - National Standard Level 2 on 11 & 12 September, 9.30am-4pm in Win Business Centre, Newry; Fire Safety Among Vulnerable Clients & Patients on 23 September, 10am-12.30pm in St Luke's Hospital, Armagh; Walk Leader Training on 25 September, 10am-3.30pm in Dobbin Street Community Centre, Armagh. For more information and a booking form, please contact Mairead Casey on or .

5 Voluntary Arts Week 2015 The creative dust has barely settled on the 2014 Voluntary Arts Week, but Voluntary Arts have already started planning next year's event! Dates have been confirmed as May 2015 which gives you plenty of time to start planning how you could get involved. The idea behind the week is to showcase the wide range of creative cultural activity taking place across the UK and Republic of Ireland - and to encourage other to get involved. There are so many ways to get involved - visit the Voluntary Arts Week website for a range of resources you can download to inspire you. Cuan FM Live Summer Broadcast & Family Fun Day To launch Cuan FM's Live Summer Broadcast, they will be holding a Family Fun Day in the grounds of Kircubbin Integrated Primary School on 2 August from 1-4pm. There will be a range of activities including bouncy castles, face painting, BBQ, stalls, live music and a fun dog show with excellent prizes. Cuan FM will broadcast from Saturday 2 - Saturday 9 August from the grounds of Kircubbin Integrated Primary School. You can listen live on 107.2FM or via their website. To advertise, sponsor a show or donate a prize call To book a stall table, please contact Peninsula Health Living Partnership on Consultations Home Accident Prevention Strategy Consultation closes on 9 September 2014 and Consultation on Proposals for New Mental Capacity Legislation for Northern Ireland closes on 2 September These consultations are available to view here. FREE Volunteer Management Review Would you like a FREE health check to see how you are managing your volunteers? Are you an organisation with an annual income of under 100,000? Are you based in Belfast, Fermanagh, Newry & Mourne, Armagh, Dungannon, Downpatrick, North Down, Ards, Lisburn, Castlereagh, Newtownabbey, Antrim, Carrickfergus, Ballymena or Larne? Would you like to get one step closer to achieving the Investing in Volunteers Quality Standard? Volunteer Now are currently offering a limited number of free health checks to organisations in relation to their volunteer management practice. By using the Investing in Volunteers framework, a member of staff from Volunteer Now will benchmark your organisation against the standard and provide you with a development plan clearly outlining any areas for improvement/gaps in practice

6 and signposting to where you could get help to address them. You can use your health check to plan your development and improve your volunteer management practice. It also means that, if you wish, you are one step closer to achieving the Investing in Volunteers award. If you choose to address your development plan within six months of a health check, we will offer to assess you for the Award at a reduced rate! If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Sandra Faulkner on or . If you would like a health check but don't fit the criteria for a free check, please contact David Fitzsimons on or . For more information on Investing in Volunteers, click here. Last Chance for Nominations The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service is the highest Award given to local volunteer groups across the UK to recognise outstanding work done in their own communities. It is the MBE for volunteer groups. Any group doing volunteer work that provides a social, economic or environmental service to the local community can be nominated for the Award. Organisations eligible for nomination should have been in existence for at least three years and be delivering the majority of their services through volunteers. It is expected that nominated organisations will be operating to a high standard and using best practices in the sphere of both volunteering and service delivery. Groups may be nominated by someone who is not directly associated with them but is aware of the excellent work which they do. You can download a Northern Ireland information leaflet here or contact Sandra Adair, Volunteer Now on or . An online nomination form is available here. You can contact the Northern Ireland Representative for the Award, Walter Rader OBE by . Whilst the nomination process is an open rolling one, the closing date for consideration of nominations for 2015 is 30 September Develop a Sense of Community in your Neighbourhood - Set up a Timebank! Members of a Timebank 'earn' time credits by giving practical help and support to others and are able to 'withdraw' their earned credits when they need something themselves. Everyone's time is valued equally, so for example, one hour of gardening = one hour of IT lessons. Set up in 2013, the Lighthouse Centre Timebank in Belfast has around 40 members. Click here to view a video of their members sharing their testimonies. Underpinned by the concept of coproduction, Timebanking recognises the skills, talents and contributions of people and supports them to make them play an active role in their local area.

7 This new way to get involved is more flexible and with its focus on reciprocity, attracts people generally underrepresented in volunteering. Click here to view a video from 3 experts on coproduction and Timebanking. If you would like more information on Timebanking or want to discuss setting up a Timebank, please contact Sinead Quinn on or . AccessNI Filters From 14 April 2014, AccessNI standard and enhanced disclosure certificates have had old and minor convictions and other criminal information such as cautions removed. For more information on filtering, download the AccessNI Service Information Sheet here. Transport Buddy Travel Training Programme FREE travel training programme for organisations supporting vulnerable clients. Volunteer Now have been delivering volunteer led Transport Buddy Services for a number of years. We are now delivering a pilot programme with support from the Department for Regional Development to support organisations across Northern Ireland to establish their own volunteer led Transport Buddy Services. The aim is to assist vulnerable client groups to gain the skills and confidence to travel independently. Volunteer Now will provide a mentoring service, working in partnership with your organisation, for one year to help you establish your own Transport Buddy Service. This programme will include: Volunteer health checks for organisations (where appropriate); Train the Trainer Travel Training; Provide a Transport Buddy Toolkit to enable organisations to establish Transport Buddy Services; Assistance with the recruitment of volunteers; Assist organisations to work towards accredited OCN training for clients; Ongoing mentoring and support; Networking/good practice meetings; Recognition events. Benefits for your organisation: Free training and ongoing support to establish a transport buddy service; Help your clients to gain the skills and confidence to travel independently, access job, educational and social opportunities; Involve volunteers in delivering this service to your clients. There are limited spaces available for organisations who would like to take part. If you are

8 interested, please request and complete a short application form and submit it no later than 8 September Contact Jill Hunter for an application form and further information or . Keeping Adults Safe Trainers' Celebration Event A celebration event took place on 17 June in the Dunadry Hotel, Antrim to recognise 20 individuals who achieved accreditation as Keeping Adults Safe Trainers through Volunteer Now. The celebration event provided the opportunity to highlight the work of the Keeping Adults Safe Initiative which is currently supported through funding by the Health & Social Care Board and to recognise those involved in the success of this programme. The policy, legislative and procedural context in which adult safeguarding activity takes place in Northern Ireland has steadily developed over the course of the last 15 years. Those present were congratulated by Volunteer Now Chief Executive Wendy Osborne OBE for being part of this wider safeguarding landscape, and for being part of the driving force to see real improvement in the lives of vulnerable people. The key note speaker for the event was Joyce McKee, Regional Adult Safeguarding Officer, Health & Social Care Board who spoke on 'Learning the Lessons from Safeguarding Investigations'. The Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety sent a letter congratulating those present and acknowledging the contribution to adult safeguarding made by Volunteer Now. For more information on the Keeping Adults Safe Initiative, please visit our website. Investing in Volunteers Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer management. If you would like to benchmark the quality of your volunteer management and involvement, prove and improve the effectiveness of your work with volunteers and enhance your organisation's reputation, Investing in Volunteers is the ideal quality standard for you. Some other quality frameworks include volunteer management, but none of them cover the management of volunteers in such comprehensive detail. Investing in Volunteers is the best tool to help organisations involving volunteers achieve this good practice, as well as receive recognition for it. The Investing in Volunteers Standard was designed and has been proven to improve the experience of volunteers and all those who work with volunteers. Enabling people to volunteer in a positive and supportive environment with proper management systems in place will also help with people recruitment, retention and productivity.

9 Over 650 organisations, national, regional and local have already achieved this quality accreditation throughout the UK and to date 75 organisations have achieved the Investing in Volunteers award in Northern Ireland, with the first organisation in the Republic of Ireland achieving the award in They each retain the award for three years, having demonstrated policies and procedures which value volunteers and support a positive volunteering experience. The Award has been achieved by both small local organisations involving 6-8 volunteers and large regional organisations involving hundreds of volunteers. To find out more about how Investing in Volunteers can work for you, check out the Northern Ireland section of the UK Investing in Volunteers website or contact David Fitzsimons to discuss how you can get involved on or . Volunteer Now Training & Events Keeping Children Safe: Training for Staff and Volunteers - 11 September, 10am 4.30pm, Enniskillen ( 15 per person) This one day certificated programme is suitable for staff and volunteers that work directly with children and young people and will explore abuse issues, dealing with concerns and disclosures and how to create safe environments. It is of interest to anyone working or volunteering directly with children, for example, youth leaders, and coaches. Keeping Children Safe: Safeguarding Children & Young People with Disabilities - 13 September, 10am pm, Carrickfergus ( 15 per person) This one day certificated programme is suitable for staff and volunteers that work directly with children and young people who have disabilities. It will explore abuse issues, dealing with concerns and disclosures and how to create a safe and inclusive environment. Keeping Adults Safe: Training for Staff/Volunteers - 7 October, 10.30am pm, Downpatrick This is a FREE one day certificated course which will raise awareness of vulnerability and assist voluntary, community and independent organisations working with vulnerable adults to achieve the minimum standards of best practice as outlined in the publication Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults - A Shared Responsibility. Keeping Adults Safe: Training for Staff/Volunteers - 16 October, 10.30am pm, Limavady This is a FREE one day certificated course which will raise awareness of vulnerability and assist voluntary, community and independent organisations working with vulnerable adults to achieve the minimum standards of best practice as outlined in the publication Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults - A Shared Responsibility. Training the Trainers of Volunteers, 16, 17 & 25 September, 9.30am-4.30pm, Belfast This three day course is for people who are responsible for designing and delivering training or presentations but who have little or no experience in doing so. It is also ideal for people who

10 deliver training but have not had the opportunity to learn about professional structures and approaches. Developing a Timebank, 2 October, 10am-12.30pm, Belfast This FREE training workshop is for organisations, communities and individuals interested in developing a Timebank. Key issues will be explored such as key roles, recruiting and supporting members, developing partnerships and projects, making and recording exchanges and sustainability. Looking for volunteers? To register your organisation's volunteering opportunities FREE of charge go to Volunteer Now Out & About Go to to find out where Volunteer Now staff will be visiting this month. We also promote events from across the sector, to add your event communications@volunteernow.co.uk Membership Membership of Volunteer Now is open to all organisations and individuals with an interest in volunteering. There is no fee. By becoming a member you add your voice to support volunteering. Sign up for FREE membership at Submit your Article If you have volunteering related news, events, publications etc. to share, communications@volunteernow.co.uk VTraining Volunteer Now also publish a free enewsletter called VTraining that includes all Volunteer Now training courses and workshops. To subscribe, please julieann.ashe@volunteernow.co.uk To view VConnect and VTraining as a pdf on our website go to Disclaimer

11 We are a distributor of content supplied by third parties and users of VConnect. We do not necessarily endorse nor are we responsible for the accuracy of any opinion, advice or statement supplied by third parties and they do not necessarily reflect any views or policies of Volunteer Now. We accept information in good faith. Supported by the Northern Ireland Executive through the Department for Social Development. Volunteer Now delivers services across Northern Ireland. We have offices in Belfast, Broughshane, Enniskillen and Newry. Registered Office: 129 Ormeau Road, Belfast, BT7 1SH. T: E: info@volunteernow.co.uk W: Charity (Inland Revenue) No. XT Company Limited by Guarantee No. NI Registered in Northern Ireland. Click to view this in a browser If you no longer wish to receive these s, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe Volunteer Now 34 Shaftesbury Square BELFAST, BT2 7DB INT Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy.