‘Many years ago I was going through one of the worst periods of my life – both personally and professionally. Absolutely everything that could go wrong did and all at the same time. My marriage had ended, I was in debt, my job was under threat, I’d finally realised I would never have children and I was being investigated by the police for allegedly running over a baby in a car park (I hadn’t – it was a malicious insurance scam).’ Read more here.
Most voluntary and community sector services are closed over Christmas and New Year, but some key services will be open during this time – please see the information attached.
Statutory services are of course open over Christmas and New Year and we have included their contact details here too.
Sobus will be closed until Tuesday 3rd January.
Wishing you all a peaceful and joyous festive season and a very Happy New Year.
‘The government has committed to an investment of £600,000 into Vision for Volunteering – a ten-year initiative supported by over 300 organisations from across the volunteering community that aims to make England the best place in the world to be a volunteer by 2032.’ Read more here.
‘The recruitment market has certainly seen some changes in recent years. The lockdown years of 2020 and 2021 saw redundancies, furloughs, and people across all sectors working remotely through necessity. Since the UK opened back up, many have reassessed what they want from their jobs, looking for the flexibility in working practices brought by the pandemic to continue.’ Read more here.
The 10th December marks the end of 16 days of international activism of violence against women and girls (VAWG). The United Nations describes this as “the most widespread and pervasive human rights violation worldwide affecting more than an estimated 1 in 3 women”.
As a Community Organiser, it has been humbling and a privilege to speak to a number of women and young girls that have shared their stories of their lived experiences. It is clear that more funding and work needs to be done to support organisations that provide services to vulnerable women and girls. It is the hope that we could strive towards a day when these campaigns and services will not be need. Will this ever happen?
At the local level exist some outstanding organisations dedicated to offering support to the rights of women and girls. See below for a list of organisations operating locally and links to more information.
Organisations operating in London Brough of Hammersmith and Fulham
- The WILDE Foundation – black minority ethnic led organisation: https://www.wildeinternationalnetwork.org.uk/
- Advance: https://www.advancecharity.org.uk/
- Standing Together: https://www.standingtogether.org.uk/
Useful Links:
- London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham and VAGW Strategy: https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/crime/violence-against-women-and-girls-vawg
- Refuge: https://refuge.org.uk/
- Women and Girls Network: https://www.wgn.org.uk/
Help us improve planned surgery for adults with bone and joint problems in north west London. Click here
Having recently attended the NCVO & SCVO webinar, ‘How to manage rising energy costs with Utility Aid’, I’d like to share with you the really useful information that they provided below.
Utility Aid
- Utility Aid is one of NCVO’s trusted suppliers. Contact them for further help and support on 0808 1788 170 or email: NCVO@utility-aid.co.uk
- There is an online library of blogs and useful information which organisations can access
- National Charity Tender: take a look at this opportunity to reduce costs through collective purchasing power.
NCVO (for organisations based in England)
- Our Small Charity Helpdesk is available 9:30am-5:30pm to answer any queries you may have on setting up or running a charity (including anything related to the cost-of-living crisis)
- We have online help and guidance in a range of areas
- Sign up for newsletter updates NCVO – Get email updates from NCVO
- Join us at future NCVO events and training
- Our recorded webinars can be found on our you tube channel
SCVO (for organisations based in Scotland)
- Online support with the Running Costs Crisis
- If your organisation is looking for support with day-to-day running our Information Service is here to help. We can chat through your problem, offer information and guidance, and support you to take action. The service is open Mon-Friday from 9am-5pm e: enquiries@scvo.scot tel: 0800 169 0022
- Join SCVO events and training
Help us to ensure charities get ongoing support with their energy bills
- Last week we wrote to Secretary of State, Grant Shapps, to advocate for ongoing support for charities. If you are worried about your charities’ energy bills, please write to your MP. You can find a template letter to use (as well as a copy of our letter) on our website. This is urgent because the energy review is due to be published before Christmas.
- If you would like to speak to the NCVO policy team about our work to influence government, please email policy@ncvo.org.uk. It is always helpful for us to hear about your experiences to strengthen our case.
- Your experiences make a difference. If you are happy to help us by sharing your story with the media, please contact our communications team. Communications@ncvo.org.uk
Join us – NCVO and SCVO are membership organisations
- If you are a charity or voluntary organisation in England, join NCVO. Become one of our over 17,000 members. Membership is free to organisations with an income of under 30k.
- If you are a charity or voluntary organisation in Scotland, join SCVO. It only takes a few minutes
- to complete our application form and membership is free to eligible organisations with an annual income of under £100k
The Charity Excellence Framework was set up to advise and help charities with a huge online resource base including a completely free funding finder. It links you to 400+ other less well known free funding directories and online funder lists, enabling you to:
- Click through to more trust and foundations than any other directory and;
- Making finding the right grant funding quicker and easier by finding online funder lists, where someone has already done the hard work for you.
- Latest Funding.It’s updated weekly, with the latest funding opportunities displayed using its ‘Recent Additions’ search category.
- Small Charities.Its small charities & community groups search category makes finding grant funding much easier for small organisations.
- Core Funding.It’s core funders search category finds grant makers that fund core costs, including many less well known and niche grant makers; there are 150+.
- It’s the only UK directory that searches globally, so you can find funding in areas, such as the US and Europe.
This week, NCVO and the Civil Society Group wrote to Grant Shapps MP, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, urgently calling for the government to ensure voluntary organisations get continued support from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS). They’ve also drafted a letter that you can download and use as a framework to write to MPs. Learn more and take action 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.