LOCAL & NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Social Work Placements: In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, all social work student placements were suspended in March 2020. The Scottish Government are reaching out to third sector organisations across Scotland, those who have previously offered placements and those who have not, to consider providing placements at this crucial juncture. Placement providers are paid for hosting student placements on a fixed fee scale. For
placement agencies in the voluntary sector and private sector, this fee is £28 per student, per placement day. SOCIAL WORK PLACEMENT
VOLUNTEERING
Core Skills in Volunteer Management is normally a four-day long course run for volunteer managers and coordinators by Volunteer Edinburgh. CSVM provides a comprehensive introduction to volunteer management in all its varied forms. We can say from experience that the course content is both informative and challenging. Facilitators are also highly skilled and critically aware of best practice and other topical issues in the field of volunteering. We recommend that anyone involved in volunteer management considers doing some if not all of CSVM, which has recently gone digital – for obvious reasons. At present there are two 7 hour courses available, each running over a period of two weeks, taking seven hours to complete. Courses include virtual contact with other volunteer managers and the trainer, as well as coursework and the use of online forums. There is a small fee for each course, but it would be money will spent and would help to ensure that organisations are fully up to speed with the implications of working with volunteers in the current context. For more information contact javier.tejera@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk or see VOLUNTEER EDINBURGH
SERVICE UPDATES
MYPAS: SMART F&F meetings support Family and Friends of young people living in East Lothian and Midlothian who use substances, to establish healthier relationships. The programme supports those affected by a young person’s substance use to concentrate on themselves and learn new ways of dealing with the challenges, thoughts, and emotions that they experience. The meetings focus on positive communication, disabling and enabling, and trust and self-care. SMART F&F
VAWG: The Violence Against Women and Girls update contains a wide range of information on relevant services and policy updates. VAWG
FUNDING
Firstport: The Social Innovation Competition is focussed on The Great Outdoors, and specifically offering 3 prizes of £5,000 to ideas that encourage people to enjoy the outdoors in a responsible way, seek to combat climate change and promote more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. I think this could be beneficial to your audience, and would be really grateful if you would share this news with them. INNOVATION
Robertson Trust: The Robertson Trust is one of the largest funders in Scotland. Their new funding streams are now live:
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Wee Grants: Following the success of our Wee Grants for Wee Groups pilot last year, we have used the learning to inform our Wee Grants offering. These awards are for constituted community groups and charities with an annual income of less than £25,000 and offer funding of up to £2,000 for one year only.
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Small Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £100,000, these offer restricted or unrestricted revenue funding of between £2,000 to £15,000 per year for up to five years.
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Large Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £100,000 and £2 million, these offer restricted or unrestricted revenue funding of between £15,000 to £50,000 per year for up to five years.
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Community Vehicle Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £2 million, these offer funding of up to £10,000 for a vehicle to support your work.
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Community Building Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £2 million, these offer funding of up to £75,000 towards ‘community hubs’.
There are also three webinars to introduce the new funds. FUNDING WEBINAR
TRAINING AND LEARNING
Age Scotland: Making Online Group Activities Dementia Friendly Over the past few months, community groups and organisations have increasingly turned to videoconferencing platforms to keep their activities going and their members connected. This is challenging in itself, but becomes even more challenging if we want to include people with dementia in these activities. In this session we share what has been learned so far and discuss new ideas, suggestions and experiences from participants. It is a really great opportunity to learn and think about the steps you need to take to include people with dementia in online group activities. Our course will be held on Monday26 October 9:30 – 12:00 DEMENTIA FRIENDLY
COVID 19 Debrief Peer Support session based on the Good conversations model on Thursday 15th October 2020 at 10am – 11.00am using MS teams.
During the session you will have the opportunity to learn some key principles and skills to be able to support a colleague to reflect on their experiences over the past few months, challenges and coping, hopes and support. You will be clear about boundaries , confidentiality and limits. No previous experience needed but if you have already attended Good Conversations training this will be a refresher and re focus. You will then offer to ‘buddy up’ with a colleague and once the person has had their COVID Debrief you will share the ‘script ‘and they will get a chance to debrief you. Please let Sarah know by 8th October 2020 if you would like to attend by email : Sarah.Latta@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
SURF is hosting five online regional events this Autumn, all designed to provide information, enhance place-based trust and share learning on cooperative responses to COVID related challenges in regeneration. They will encourage open, inclusive and constructive cross sector discussion. Participants will have the opportunity to share their COVID experience and to join a national conversation on how we can move forward together. SURF
