In this article from Charity Comms, Emma Bracegirdle from Holly Cuthbert offers five simple ways that teams can better their charity’s communications in 2025. Take a look here.
Ioan Marc Jones from Charity Digital has gathered together all of the social media trends set to define 2025. Take a look here.
SAY is working with ‘Click Start London’ to provide an amazing opportunity for young Londoners from 18 – 30 years old to secure employment or apprenticeships in the digital/tech sector. We would particularly like to encourage females and those from underrepresented groups to take part.
‘Click Start’ is a free 4-week Artificial Intelligence (AI) & digital skills course that has live opportunities with industry-leading companies, including Amazon, BT Group, Cisco, QA, and small and medium businesses across London.
The 4-week programme is in-person and will be delivered at University of East London (UEL) Docklands Campus, University Way, London E16 2RD from 10th February – 7th March 2025. The course provides training in the fundamentals of AI, digital marketing, social media management, business ownership, client-facing skills, and data analysis with certificates in Google Digital Garage and Excel. Candidates will also receive class-based and 1:1 sessions on improving CVs, cover letters, interview techniques and building confidence and professional work skills, and will get the opportunity to work collaboratively with real life tech companies to pitch ideas to boost their businesses.
For up to 6 months after the course, candidates will receive employability support to empower them towards an apprenticeship, job or other positive outcome. As well as this, throughout the programme and at future networking events, candidates will be supported to explore pathways into digital careers and apprenticeships with industry-leading companies, including Amazon, BT Group, Cisco, QA, and small and medium businesses across London.
To be eligible for the programme, candidates must be:
During the 4-week programme travel and lunch will be covered for candidates. If you are interested in taking part, or have any young people interested, please complete or ask them to complete the online registration form below. Places are limited and in high demand, so please register as soon as possible to secure a place – https://forms.office.com/e/prhRdjVEjL
In this article, Andrew Purkis, DSC’s Policy Trustee, writes about the Children’s Society’s public rejection of a donation by the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury and how it raises questions. Read the full Civil Society article here.
Small grants are available to fund projects to improve the lives of the elderly across the UK. Home Instead Charities awards grants of up to £1,500 to small, local registered charities and up to £500 to grassroots organisations for well-being events, activities or pastimes that prevent social isolation and loneliness amongst adults over 55. Eligible projects may include regular events such as a cinema club, knitting group, or lunch club; one-off activities like a day trip or Christmas lunch; or other initiatives such as yoga classes or guest speaker sessions. The Fund accepts applications four times a year. Applications can be submitted four times per year in January, April, July and October. Funding for Activities to Improve the Lives of the Elderly (UK)
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is launching its new annual notification service for volunteer subscribers to the Update Service, allowing subscribers to confirm that they still require the service.
From Sunday 8 December 2024, subscribers to the Update Service will be emailed 30 days before their renewal date to ask if they wish to stay subscribed. Renewal dates are based on original joining dates. In preparation for this change, DBS advises volunteers to check that the email address attached to their subscription is linked to the individual who is subscribed.
The renewal email will ask volunteers to access their Update Service Account and confirm that they wish to continue with the service. For those who confirm, this request will be repeated annually. If no confirmation is made, their volunteer subscription will automatically be cancelled.
Volunteers who do not renew their subscription will not be able to keep their DBS certificate(s) up to date and organisations will not be able to check them. They will need to reapply for a DBS check if they need one in the future.
Help contribute to a new London-wide 2025 campaign on community! The Mayor of London is developing a new campaign, to celebrate London’s values of diversity and unity.
As part of this campaign, we are looking for short stories about how Londoners have felt valued and celebrated in our city, and examples of how as Londoners we rally together, and stand up for our shared values. You can take part by filling in this quick form as soon as possible but no later than 13th January: https://londongov.typeform.com/lovedandwanted
This could be an opportunity to celebrate and share your community work.
By sharing your story with us you will consent to part of it being used on marketing materials around the launch of the campaign, along with your first name and location in London. If you’ve got any questions, please contact Alice Owen on alice.owen@london.gov.uk.
We run online training courses. 10.00 to 12.30. Ninety five pounds. Our website contains descriptions, reviews and booking links – nfpworkshops.co.uk
06 Jan Bid Writing
07 Jan Managing Staff
08 Jan Leadership Skills
20 Jan Trust Fundraising
21 Jan Recruiting and Managing Volunteers
22 Jan Fundraising Strategy
03 Feb Introduction to Fundraising
04 Feb Project Management
05 Feb Coaching Skills
17 Feb Corporate Fundraising
18 Feb Charity Finances
19 Feb Community Fundraising
03 Mar Bid Writing
04 Mar Managing Staff
05 Mar Leadership Skills
17 Mar Major Donor Fundraising
18 Mar Recruiting and Managing Volunteers
19 Mar Individual Giving
In 2023, 67,337 applications for asylum in the UK were made, relating to 84,425 individuals. 33% asylum applications were refused at initial decision in 2023. The race riots that swept the UK in the summer of 2024 have shone a light on the extremely precarious situation that many asylum seekers and refugees in the UK are facing. Children and young people are particularly vulnerable.Thousands of teenage asylum seekers in the UK are thought to be spending up to a year out of education in a “no man’s land” due to schools being reluctant to accept them if they arrive after the start of the school year, according to a report by Refugee Education UK (REUK), with young asylum seekers left vulnerable to victimisation, trafficking and exploitation.
The Labour party, in its general election 2024 manifesto, asserted that the asylum “system needs to be controlled and managed and we need strong borders” and committed to creating a new Border Security Command, with hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers, and cross-border police officers, in order to tackle the criminal gangs who are smuggling asylum seekers across the English Channel in small boats. Labour pledged to “restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly; and the rules are properly enforced,” including by: hiring additional caseworkers to clear the backlog of asylum claims; setting up a new returns and enforcement unit, with an additional 1,000 staff, to fast-track removals to safe countries for people who do not have the right to stay in the UK; negotiating additional returns arrangements to speed up returns and increase the number of safe countries that failed asylum seekers can be sent back to; and working with international partners to address the humanitarian crises which lead people to flee their homes, and to strengthen support for refugees in their home region.
Minnie Rahman, Chief Executive of migrant and refugee charity Praxis has said that the scenes in summer 2024 of “asylum accommodation set alight in Rotherham and widespread destruction by the far right have been terrifying and deeply traumatising,” adding that “we must also realise that the anti-migrant feeling didn’t come from nowhere. When from the top down, our policies treat migrants as “other”, and the government uses them as a scapegoat for policy failures in housing, public services and the economy, the prejudice inevitably filters down.” Following the summer riots, 54 refugee organisations wrote to Labour Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, calling for urgent protections to be put in place for asylum seekers living in hotels who may be at risk from further far-right attacks. REUK, meanwhile, have highlighted the very limited number of programmes aimed at supporting the integration of refugee children, and have called for the government to include asylum seekers and refugees in its Children’s Wellbeing Bill, which aims to tackle school absences, and to introduce a strategy for speeding up the integration of these children into the education system. Diana Sutton, Director of the Bell Foundation, notes that schools feel “unprepared and unsupported” due to funding cuts and an “English as an additional language policy vacuum”.
This symposium will provide local authorities, charities, policymakers and other key stakeholders with an opportunity to discuss the state of asylum and refugee policy and the new Labour government’s plans for reforming the system, dissect British attitudes towards irregular migration, and assess what should be done to create a more humane system which adequately supports and protects asylum seekers and refugees seeking sanctuary in the UK.
Programme
To register for the briefing, please click here.
sobus
20 Dawes Road, London, SW6 7EN
Telephone 020 7952 1230
Email info@sobus.org.uk
Registered Charity No.1071089
and Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England No.03471416
Sobus is a new Community Development Agency for Hammersmith & Fulham. It has been created through the merger of the Community and Voluntary Sector Association Hammersmith & Fulham (CaVSA) and the Fulham Community Partnership Trust (FCPT). Building on the strengths of both organisations, sobus aims to provide a wider range of support services for local charities, community groups, social enterprises and start up businesses.
