Looking for funding for your group or organization?

Below are some funding opportunities that may be of interest to your group:

Volant Charitable Trust (UK)Registered charities whose purpose is to alleviate poverty and social deprivation with particular emphasis on children and women’s issues have the opportunity to apply for funding through the Volant Charitable Trust. The Trust which was set up by the author J K Rowling also supports research into the causes, treatment and possible cures of Multiple Sclerosis. However this funding stream is currently fully committed and is currently not considering further applications for funding in this area. Applications for projects in Scotland are dealt with by the Scottish Community Foundation. The next application deadline is the 10th January 2014.

Tesco Charity Community Awards (UK)

The Tesco Charity Trust has announced that its Community Awards for grants for children’s welfare and/or children’s educations (including special needs schools) will re-open for applications on the 1st December 2013. Through the Awards, one-off donations of between £500 and £4,000 are available to local projects that support children and their education and welfare. The Tesco Charity Trust Trustees also consider grant applications at their tri-annual meetings. These grants range between £4,000 and £25,000 and are to support local, national or international projects in areas where Tesco operate. The closing date for applications will be the 30th January 2014.

People's Postcode Trust Small Grants Programme

The People's Postcode Trust has announced that its small grants programme is due to re-open for applications on the 7th January 2014 and close on the 22nd February 2014. Through its small grants programme, the People's Postcode Trust offers grants of between £500 and £10,000 to small organisations and community groups for projects lasting up to 6 months in the areas of Poverty Prevention; Advancement of Health; Community Development; Public Sports; Human Rights; and Environmental Protection. Previous projects supported include Birkenhead YMCA which received a grant of £6,271 to set up a community garden project for homeless people; and the Moray Art Centre which received a grant of £2,000 to run a play therapy group for children with autism. Eligible regions for this funding round will be Scotland, Wales and the North of England.

Volunteering Development Grant (Scotland)

Community based organisations that want to start new projects that involve volunteers can apply for grants through the Volunteering Development Fund. Grants are available for projects that increase the diversity of their volunteers (especially those experiencing disadvantage); and improve opportunities, skills and personal development through volunteering. The grants, which are being administered through the Voluntary Action Fund, provide two funding schemes. The Volunteering Support Scheme which provides grants of up to £10,000 to individual organisations and the Volunteering Support Cluster which provides grants of up to 30,000 to clusters of four to five organisations. The closing date for applications is the 28th February 2014 for the Volunteering Support grant and the 31st January 2014 for the Volunteering Support Cluster grant.

£15m Online Skills Programme Opens for Applications (UK)

The Big Lottery Fund has launched a new £15 million funding programme to improve the basic online skills of people who rarely or never use the internet. The Big Lottery Fund is looking for applications from national organisations or partnerships that can show how they could use between £5 million and £15 million to deliver face-to-face training and support to tackle the digital divide. It is estimated that there are 11 million people in the UK who currently lack the online skills to confidently make full use of digital tools available to them and 7.1 million people who have never been online. In addition, a third of young people not in education, employment or training rarely or never look for jobs online and 17 per cent would not apply for jobs that require basic computer skills. The closing date for application is the 24th January 2014.

Scotch Whisky Action Fund: Tackling Alcohol Related Harm

The fund, established by the Scotch Whisky Association, aims to invest in groups and organisations that wish to reduce the impact of alcohol-related harm in Scotland’s communities. They are looking to support and develop a range of projects/initiatives which deliver targeted interventions designed to tackle alcohol-related harms across three themes: Young people (aged under 18), Families, and Communities. The fund  recognises that the misuse of alcohol through excessive or inappropriate consumption can have implications for health and a range of social problems, including anti-social behaviour, accidents, violence, family break-down, problems with money and work, which can impact on individuals, families and communities. The Fund would particularly welcome applications from new/innovative or pilot initiatives which aim to test new approaches within these themes and which will offer learning that others can use. Applications from existing projects which can demonstrate success in reducing harm are also welcome.The deadline for the first round of applications is 31 March 2014 with decisions expected in June 2014.

FiCD News: Recent workshops

Strategy without Tears Workshop

22 October, 2013

The workshop ‘Strategy without Tears’ was organized by Faith in Community Dundee at Central Baptist Church. Its aim was to give faith community members an insight into effective but simple planning processes derived from business models, which would eventually assist in the identification of priorities and the successful delivery of these priorities.  A total of 16 people attended the event, with participants from Regeneration Areas like Menzeishill, Douglas, Mid Craigie, Kirkton and Downfield.

The trainer for the workshop was Brian Porteous. Brian emphasized that a good strategy has to be really simple, highlighting the importance of unpacking any strategic planning into relevant and workable forms. He spoke about the fundamentals of developing strategies and having a better understanding of vision (Where we want to get to), goals (What we need to deliver) and action (What we are going to do). Action Plan must be S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) so that one can check on progress, Brian added. 

The participants were encouraged to look beyond ‘now’ and visualize where they want to be in five years’ time in terms of their goals and vision. Brian underscored the value of working collaboratively with members of a church or group to achieve synergies, growth and ownership of the vision. Effective engagement can ideally be achieved when wide involvement is sought before decisions are taken and where discussions are made ‘early and often’, he mentioned.

The photos of the event are available online on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.702457159784154.1073741828.548872068475998&type=3

Fit for Funding Workshop

6 November, 2013

Fit for Funding is an interactive training designed to equip people with the skills necessary to put together good applications for funding. It’s aimed at people who have an interest in fundraising or for securing long-term stability for a project or piece of work. Based on the model developed by the Transformation Team in Glasgow, Faith in Community Dundee organized this training on November 6, 2013 at Kirkton Community Centre.  

The first session emphasized effective planning and communication as key requisites to any successful fundraising. A group may have a real and convincing issue and a really good idea to tackle it – but they will not get funded if they are not well planned and can convince funders that they’re worth investing in. The participants were also provided with a Project Planning Checklist – a handy summary of information they may need to provide to the funders and demonstrate that they know how to run their organization.

The second session looked at planning for fundraising – identifying sources of funding, ways of raising funds, considering ethical issues and writing a funding plan. The participants explored what ethical considerations might be needed to consider before planning any fundraising for e.g. accepting funds from proceeds of gambling, alcohol sales or production and so forth. The last session dwelled on exploring what makes an application successful. Developing and maintaining productive relationships with funders was highlighted.

The photos of the event are available online on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.722266017803268.1073741829.548872068475998&type=3

Understanding your Community Workshop

21 November, 2013

A workshop was organized in collaboration with the Transformation Team (part of Faith in Community Scotland) on November 21, 2013. The workshop was aimed at helping faith groups and other organizations understand their neighbourhood and community better.

The first session ‘Getting to know your community’ emphasized becoming aware of the existing facilities; as well as weaknesses and strengths within a local community. This session highlighted: the importance of doing community research , accessing right sources of information, understanding the ‘Asset-based’ approach and doing a mapping exercise to discover how local people view their community.

 The second session ‘Making sense of statistics’ used different websites to gather statistical information and its usefulness in knowing local areas better, as well as strengthening any funding applications. This session highlighted: ways in which profiles and statistics can be used, use of Data Zones and Intermediate Geography areas (using Google earth) and use of various websites to access information.

The last session elaborated on the different methods for gathering information, use of the appropriate methods and design of questionnaires to carry out research in the community. This session highlighted: attitudes and ways of gathering information, top 10 tips for questionnaire design and carrying out the survey. It also underscored the importance of health and safety issues while doing surveys in the community.

A practical guide to community-led action research developed by the Scottish Community Development Centre is available online: 

http://www.scdc.org.uk/what/community-led-action-research/ARC/

FiCD News December 2013

Faith in Throughcare (FiT) lunchtime meeting

 9^th December, 2013

On the 9^th of December around 30 people gathered in Central Baptist Church Hall to hear from members of the FiT team from Glasgow. FiT is an initiative that works through faith communities in Scotland’s poorest neighbourhoods to support people who are being released from prison to settle into more fulfilling lives within local communities.

It was great to hear from Professor Fergus McNeill who talked about the challenges faced even if you want to ‘desist’ from crime after leaving prison.  And then to hear from Davy and Charlie who talked positively about the support they had recently received from FiT after leaving prison and their hope for the future.

This is the latest in a series of meetings as we explore the possibility of beginning something similar in Dundee. If you would like to be kept informed or to be involved of the development of the work in Dundee please let us know.

Teaching Others Financial Capability

29^th November & 13^th December, 2013

More than 20 people have participated in training for teaching others financial capability. This has been delivered by the College Development Network in Scotland and was provided in the Steeple Church on the 29^th November and 13^th December.  Those who complete the programme are then able to deliver financial capability training in their own charities or faith communities.  There were a wide range of projects participating in this training and Gordon of FiCDundee is also completing the programme with a view to running a programme in a local community.  Gordon said: “I’m developing sessions on training entitled ‘Making Ends Meet’.  I envisage providing this training with other volunteers who could then continue it in their own community. It is all about helping people to manage their money in increasingly difficult circumstances. This will also be developed in conjunction with the local authority and financial inclusion charities.”

Dundee Drop In (DDI) services (update)

DDI is a group of church based projects that provide crisis help to those who are struggling to make ends meet. The projects provide drop in facilities that offer food, the chance to socialise and signposting to other services.  They include projects like Parish Nursing, St. Salvador’s food cupboard, Lochee Drop Inn, Eagles Wings, The Bus Stop at the Gate, The Big Issue Group, The Bridge at the Friary, Graham’s Kitchen and Street Chaplains.  Some time ago the projects agreed, with support from Dundee University, to undertake research with those who use these range of services.

Very recently the draft questionnaire was completed and with the involvement of participants from DDI services and students it is hoped to have questionnaires completed by April.  There is also financial support from the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership to pay for expenses and printing.  This research has the potential to be a very important source of information for the city and it is intended that understanding will be further developed through individual discussion following on from the questionnaire.

Feature Project: Lochee Life

Lochee Parish Church successfully applied to the Church of Scotland to participate in "A Chance to Thrive". An initiative intended to support local churches in priority areas to engage with their community in a way that makes a difference to the lives of those who live there. An evaluation of interviews with local people identified that people in Lochee are proud of their history and saddened by the decline of their locality and the problems of substance misuse and unemployment that are prevalent in Lochee.

The aim of Chance to Thrive in Lochee is to encourage social participation of the community in creativity that will contribute to making Lochee a brighter place in which to live and which will contribute to a sense of achievement, pride and belonging in the people of Lochee. We hope to integrate all sections of the community through sharing and recording their story of Lochee - Celebrating Lochee Life, past present and future. Such an undertaking required us to find a substantial sum of money, as being selected as a Chance to Thrive congregation did not entitle us to any special funds. What it did was galvanise us into action. NHS Tayside Cash for Communities fund awarded us nearly £10,000. This funding has allowed us to contract Microdot Films to work with us, meeting people and recording their stories.

We decided to launch Celebrating Lochee Life to coincide with the Lochee Christmas Light night on 5th December. That was the day of the storm in the morning, the snow at lunchtime and the frozen pavements by mid afternoon.

By about 4.30pm the Church hall was full of school children who had completed a treasure trail of Lochee High Street, in which almost every trader had participated enthusiastically. The children from the after school club had worked with our team on posters for the shop windows. The children had a craft session which included drawing round their hand and writing on it their hopes for the future of Lochee. The Hands of Hope are now hanging on a Christmas tree in the hall. As soon as it was dark we projected images of Lochee people onto the exterior wall of the church using a street projector which we had on loan from the City Council. One of their staff volunteered his time to operate it for us. The projection ran for four hours and was appreciated by many, including the Lord Provost.

In the High Street we had a pop up shop where the Lochee History Society, the Lochee Crafters and the Healthy Living Initiative all had displays and information. We handed out hot drinks and Christmas pies, we had a quiz and a colouring competition going on and we had a story wall where we encouraged people to post their stories. The Microdot crew started filming those who were happy to give their story on camera. There was a great buzz and as one lady described it- "it had a real party atmosphere." In the New Year we will be offerring  a variety of opportunities for people to record their stories. We aim to have a book and a film ready to launch at the 2014 Festival of Lochee Life. By that time we hope that we will have some community members in our group and that we will be working towards another community venture that contributes to the lives of Lochee folk.

Directory of Faith based projects tackling poverty in Dundee NOW AVAILABLE

At Faith in Community Dundee we are pleased to announce (drum roll........) that the new and up to date Directory of Faith based projects tackling poverty in Dundee is now available. It can be downloaded from the Faith in Community Scotland Website here.

The Directory lists projects both alphabetically and by city ward. Containing information on a wide range of projects- from youth groups, to lunch clubs, to community cafes- we believe that it highlights the important contribution that projects initiated by faith groups are making to tackling poverty in Dundee.

We hope that the Directory will be used in a number of ways. Firstly to inform people about what faith groups are doing to tackle poverty in the City. And secondly in helping faith groups themselves to understand what else is being done in their area and across the city so that they can learn from others or support particular initiatives.

While we have tried to be as thorough as possible we recognise that there may be other projects that we do not know about yet. If you identify a project that we have not included please do not let us know 

If you are a faith community that is looking to do something to tackle poverty and exclusion in Dundee’s poorest communities then please do get in touch. Or you may already be doing something but would welcome a bit of support. Either way we would be delighted to discuss with you what support we could offer your group.

A big thank you to all of the groups that have provided information about their project for the Directory.

‘The Generation Game? Family, Poverty and Unemployment’

‘Meet the families where no one's worked for THREE generations - and they don't care’

Headlines like this are not unfamiliar in the press, and newspapers and many public figures have been speaking about families with a culture of worklessness. Where do these ideas come from and are there really many families where three generations have never worked and communities where there is a culture of not working? These are particularly pertinent topics with the current changes to welfare and what is being said to justify it.

I attended the Poverty Alliance seminar on the 15^th October entitled ‘The Generation Game? Family, Poverty and Unemployment’ ,which explored these questions. We heard from three speakers and then had time to discuss with them and each other. I found it a very informative day and have outlined the key points made and discussed below.

So where does the idea of a culture of poverty come from and why is it so popular?

Dr John Welshman is a historian and the author of ‘Underclass-A History of the Excluded Since 1880’. His research has found that the idea of an underclass where worklessness is the norm is not a new concept, but one that has been reinvented many times since the early 18^th Century. In recent times in the 1970’s there was a focus on the ‘cycle of poverty’, in the 1980’s there was a debate around the idea of an ‘underclass’. The Labour Government in the 1990’s talked about the ‘socially excluded’ and in the 2010’s it switched to a discussion around ‘troubled families’. Today many policy makers talk about a small number of families being responsible for a large number of problems in society, in a similar, but much more explicit way than found previously.

Dr Welshman has identified that across all of the discussions of an underclass over the last two centuries lie key concepts. These include the belief in intergenerational continuities.  He argued that the concept of a workless underclass is a social construction that policy makers support because of ideological and political reasons. It is popular because it can be reassuring if you believe that the bulk of problems are caused by just a few. Also because it implies that it is about more than poverty. As Dr Welshman said, though 130 years of research has demonstrated otherwise, the idea of an underclass and a culture of poverty refuse to be killed off because it is ideologically and politically useful, (for all political parties).

Contributing to the 130 years of research into the idea of a culture of poverty are Professor Tracy Shildrick and Professor Robert Macdonald whose latest research has been funded and published by the Joseph Rank Foundation. They shared with us about this research which sought to answer two questions:

Is it true that in the UK there are families where three generations have never worked? And is there a culture of worklessness?

To answer these questions they used a critical case-study approach with families experiencing extensive worklessness in deprived neighbourhoods in Glasgow and Middlesbrough. Despite extensive searching, they couldn’t find any families with three generations who had never worked. And they quoted other research that found that only 0.5% of workless people were in families where two generations had never worked. Even the Department of Work and Pensions, who have spoken of three generations of workless families, has said that there is no statistical information to support the idea of families where three generations had never worked but that their evidence is based on personal experiences. 

While Shildrick and Macdonald found no evidence of three generations of families that had never worked, what they did find is families with lots of periods of unemployment.

S

o was this large amount of unemployment because of a culture of worklessness that has been passed down the generations? The researchers interviewed 20 families with at least one unemployed parent and one unemployed child in lengthy one to one interviews. What they found was strong pro-work attitudes, with the older generation keen for their children to have different lives to them, and the younger generation keen to find work but having little success in job searching but saying that they don’t want to end up like their parents. They found no evidence of a culture of worklessness.

What Shildrick and Macdonald argue is that a much more common experience for people is a cycle of work and unemployment. This is exacerbated by a complex web of hardships and traumas. As one interviewee said they just ‘stack, stack, stack’. Hardships may include ‘failed’ schooling, anti-social behaviour/offending, problematic drug and alcohol misuse, physical/sexual/emotional abuse, violence/domestic violence, mental and physical ill-health, poverty. It was suggested that often interventions are unsuccessful because they don’t see the underlying troubles. 

To see a copy of the Joseph Rowntree Summary of the research ‘Are cultures of worklessness passed down the generations?’ click here.

The final speaker we heard from was Dr Sharon Wright who highlighted policy trends around unemployment from the 1990’s to the present.

Policy trends highlighted included the declining value of benefits, an extension of the conditionality of benefits, stigmatising anti-welfare rhetoric and the application of NIARU (Non-accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment, an economic theory that says that it is necessary for unemployment to exist to prevent inflation. Alongside these, practise trends have included the downgrading of Jobcentre Plus support to ‘self-help’ to minimise footfall and the contracting out of Work Programme Support. The National Audit Office has concluded that the effects of these include pre-programmed systems undermining personalised help, users being asked to engage in inappropriate activities or enter unsuitable employment. As she said, it is important that we remember that we are in a time when there are fewer jobs than there have been in previous decades, and so we cannot just tell people to find a job when in 2013 there have been 5.1 unemployed people chasing every vacancy. We need to understand properly what is going on in the lives of people who are long-term unemployed to develop appropriate policies that help them to find the work that they are looking for. Recent policy design has misdiagnosed the problem as people simply not having a job and so mis-designs the cure.

Key points that came out of all that was said on the day are that there is no evidence for many generations not working, and that the concept of a culture of worklessness does not exist and is unhelpful as it ignores much more important issues at play such as the cycle of ‘work, no work’ and the web of hardships that may lie behind this for many unemployed people.

What then we may ask can we as individuals and organisations do to counteract the rhetoric of work-shy, lazy,  unemployed people that is often heard from the press and policy makers? 

Key suggestions that were made included:

·         Challenge the myths

o   speak up and challenge people when they talk about  families with three generations of unemployment and a culture of worklessness

o   Challenge journalists who write about it-write letters

o   Provide the media with alternative stories. (One journalist present said that the media are looking for stories and will most likely welcome them)

·         Find out the local jobs plan for an area and work together with schools etc to make sure that the right skills are developed in young people.

As the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report says, ‘Policy-makers and politicians need to abandon theories - and resulting policies - that see worklessness as primarily the outcome of a culture of worklessness, held in families and passed down the generations.’

Becky Stojanovic, FiCD

Laying the Groundwork in Church-Rooted Community Transformation

Clare Radford Community Theologian

Faith in Community Scotland

Two phrases are common to many groups as they begin to awaken to the possibilities of community transformation: ‘we want to make a difference’ and ‘we have to do something’.  These desires are good, they provide energy, a starting point, but they are vague: they say nothing about the actions to be taken, or indeed the kind of difference that people want to make. Work needs to be done to focus these desires, without clarification we can be tempted to mistake any activity for real engagement. ‘We must do something’ becomes ‘we must do anything’; projects for the sake of projects.

Work must also be done to recognize the various sources of these interests to ‘do something’. With many church groups, there can be an element of fear. The sentence is often completed in the following way: ‘we have to do something or we won’t survive as a church’. There is the fear that if we don’t do something, then we will be irrelevant, obsolete, overlooked, and possibly even closed and empty. This fear needs to be acknowledged, worked with, transformed. It is not wrong to experience fear, but it is not a helpful motivating factor; it may jolt us into action, however it is not a solid basis for developing a compassionate church. We have to take the time to tease out the motivating factors that can be the converse elements in our fear: we wish to be engaged where people are; we desire to be part of a thriving community; we want to contribute to making this neighbourhood a better place to live.

This work can perhaps be described as a time of discernment, a laying of the groundwork, addressing ourselves to the questions of ‘what shall we do?’ and ‘how shall we do it?’ It is often frustrating and time-consuming to go through this period of discernment, especially when the mood is for action, yet it is key for the rootedness of the activities that follow on. Rootedness is different to success; it is about the flexibility to be resilient in adverse conditions, and about a commitment to a particular place. Good groundwork is not just talk, but includes action; it is not just ‘huddling inward’, but also the initial steps ‘out’.

My colleagues and I accompany church groups in laying the groundwork; three of us have just been involved with one group for an intensive six-month period. These times of discernment are different, responding to the unique circumstances, commitments and characters in each group. However, there are three crucial ‘conversations’ that we would encourage to happen with each group.

Conversations with other community members…

A church group may have strong connections to the local area, or they may feel that they do not know it at all. In either situation, it is important to consider what assumptions the group makes about the neighbourhood, and that they test these assumptions.  This is done through mapping exercises, and community surveys, but also in going to speak with individuals and groups in the wider area: other faith groups; schools and colleges; shops and businesses; health centers and housing associations. This helps to build relationships with those in the area who may already have an interest in making the community a better place to be, and to invite and encourage their contribution. Holding this conversation is key for getting beyond assumptions about what is needed in the area, ensuring that what takes place isn’t about ‘doing to’ others, but walking with them.

Conversations with other church members…

As people develop different interests and enthusiasms in a group, part of laying the groundwork is connecting to a sense of common identity and purpose in deciding what the best routes are to take together.  Key questions here are about the values or presence that make a group who they are, and what they have to offer. If we want to be an hospitable presence, what does that mean in practice? How does that impact how we treat other people? If we want to be a peaceful presence in a busy community – what should our drop-in be like? Holding this conversation is key for recognizing that our methods are as important as our tasks: running a drop-in is not the same as being welcoming.

Conversations in prayer….

Prayer roots our activity in God’s activity, helping us to recognize that there is a bigger picture of God’s love and grace being outworked in the world, and it is this love and grace in which we participate when we take action for community transformation. Prayer engages us with the sacred, the sacred that is beyond our determination or control and can be found inside and outside the church walls. Prayer also connects us to a sense of worship, that we bring our celebrations and our laments about our church and community to a God who always hears us. Holding this conversation is key for recognizing that spirituality and activism belong together in church-rooted community transformation.

Laying the groundwork is not an automatic, step-by-step process. It is not the case that if you complete 12 exercises then you will be ‘ready to go’; there’s no pass/fail test. This makes it complicated to judge how long things will take, and when the right time will be to move on to the next stage. However, as has been indicated, laying the groundwork includes building relationships with others in the community and the church. As a result, this discernment should bring us closer to reality rather than further away from it, and any development of projects should flow from these three ongoing conversations.

Upcoming Events of Faith in Community Dundee

Funding Information

 

Rosa’s FGM Small Grants Programme

 

Rosa is proud to announce a three-year small grants programme to tackle Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the UK. Funded by Comic Relief, the grants of between £500 and £5,000 will be available to voluntary and community organisations across the UK. The grants will help funded organisations to:

·         become more confident, more knowledgeable and more skilled in tackling FGM within their communities;

·         improve their skills in engaging with, and lobbying, statutory bodies to encourage appropriate responses to FGM;

·         contribute to a unified movement across the UK bringing together a range of organisations engaged in tackling FGM.

 

Grants will be available for training, mentoring, research, networking and delivering advice and support services. The first of five funding rounds will open on Tuesday 27 August and will close to applications on Monday 30 September. Round two will launch in mid-December. Application forms and guidance notes are available upon request.

For further details please contact Rosa at FGMsmallgrants@rosauk.org

Dream Fund 2014

 

This year's Dream Fund is now open for applications. Organisations have until September 20th to submit a one page summary outlining the proposal for their 'Dream' project. Registered charities and community organisations in Scotland, England or Wales can join forces to apply for up to £250,000 to deliver a new and innovative project up to 24 months in length that meets one of the following funding criteria:

1.    Encourage healthy living

2.    Social Enterprise

3.    Environmental Sustainability

 

For more details, click here - http://www.postcodetrust.org.uk/dream-fund.aspx

Voluntary Action Fund – Volunteering Support Cluster

 

The Volunteering Support Cluster grant scheme supports clusters of four to five voluntary and community organisations in Scotland to: Create new or enhanced volunteering projects. Increase the diversity of volunteers, especially those from disadvantaged groups. Improve opportunities, skills and personal development through volunteering. Enhance their services and improve their capacity to deploy, support and train volunteers. Grants of up to £30,000 are available to fund a Volunteer Co-ordinator/Manager (or similar role) who will work across the cluster to help develop volunteering opportunities, management and practices. Applications are invited from organisations with an annual income of under £250,000, although priority will be given to those with an income under £100,000. The Round Two deadline for applications is 5pm on 31 January 2014. For more information, please visit http://www.voluntaryactionfund.org.uk/   Volunteering Support Grant   Background - The Volunteering Support Grant (VSG) offers funding to third sector organisations to create new or enhanced volunteering projects, increasing the diversity of volunteers, especially those from disadvantaged groups, and improving opportunities, skills and personal development through volunteering. The grant also supports third sector organisations to enhance their services and improve their capacity to deploy, support and train volunteers. Funding of up to £10,000 is available for up to 12 months activity. VAF particularly welcomes applications from organisations that have little experience of volunteering.   Eligibility criteria - To be eligible to apply for a Volunteering Support Grant applicants must be:   A Third sector organisation (voluntary organisation or community group), whose Board of Trustees or Management Committee are predominantly volunteers; Working in Scotland with an annual income of below £250,000 in their last financial year; and Organisations that can start the project within 10 days of receiving funding. Organisations do not need to be registered charities, although their constitution/set of rules should make clear that funds will only be spent on purposes established in the constitution, and not distributed amongst members. To know more, please contact our Volunteering Team on 01383 620780 or VSFenquiries@vaf.org.uk.   Comic Relief – UK Grant Programme   Objectives of the Scheme - Comic Relief is committed to bringing about a just world, free from poverty. Comic Relief’s grant making strategy is based on the following themes: Better futures. Healthier finances. Safer lives. Fairer society. Available Funding/Support - Grants of over £10,000 are available. There is no set upper limit but most grants are expected to be for between £20,000 and £40,000 per annum. A small number of larger grants may be made but only where the work has either regional or national significance, is delivered by a number of partners or is clearly breaking new ground. Grants are made for a maximum of three years. Comic Relief will only consider one proposal from an organisation at a time.   Applications may be submitted at any time. For more information, visit their website: http://www.comicrelief.com/

 

Other News

Nilupul wins Heritage Lottery Fund support

 

Nilupul Foundation, a charity based in the heart of Dundee in Reform St, has received £44,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for WHA’S DUNDEE.  Led by young people, the Wha’s Dundee project will celebrate and preserve the unique and diverse migratory history of Dundee’s ethnic minority population, investigating just what it means to be Dundonian in 2013.

In collaboration with  other local organisations, (The Shore, Hot Chocolate , DEAP, the Macara Youth group at the Dundee international Women’s Centre (DIWC) and the Yusuf Youth initiative (YYI)), local young people are learning film making, and interview skills to help them gather together these fascinating personal histories which will be at the heart of a new documentary film and digital media archive to be showcased on November 9th at the Hannah Maclure Centre, Abertay University during the  5th NEoN Digital Arts Festival running from 2nd-9th November 2013.

 

The ‘Wha’s Dundee’ project will run throughout the summer and young people interested in getting involved can find out more by contacting Julie on 01382 872020. www.facebook.com/whasdundee.

Change Makers – A brand new social enterprise project in Dundee

 

Change Makers is a brand new Dundee social enterprise project which aims to inspire and empower young people, particularly from the Black & Ethnic Minority background to make a difference to their community through campaigns. The idea is to ‘Think Change. Promote Change and Be Change’. Everyone wants to make a difference and resolve the world’s problems, so Change Makers gives young people an opportunity to be heard and to showcase their views to the community. Along with helping to make a difference, Change Makers helps give confidence to young people through personal development. Change Makers helps young people find the right kind of training, volunteering and employment opportunities.
 

At the moment, Change Makers is promoting the One World Week campaign, which although a global initiative, is hoping to inspire the Dundee community and its residents to make a global difference but at a local level. Change Makers hopes to communicate with various different parts of the Dundee community, whether that is charities, youth groups and community centres to hold a series of events and activities which raise awareness on the issues of local and global poverty, environment and global injustice.  One World Week takes place on the 20^th-27^th Oct this year.

NHS Tayside’s first Community Chaplain in Dundee

 

As of the 3rd of June 2013 NHS Tayside Department of Spiritual Care employed their first community Chaplain for Dundee, Alan Gibbon. In Dundee the Community Chaplain has responsibility for Chaplaincy in Mental Health; Children with Complex Needs; Chaplaincy in GP’s Surgery’s under the “Do You Need To Talk?” programme and developing the service of community Chaplaincy in Dundee.

Alan is keen to get to know community projects in Dundee and would welcome the opportunity to come along and introduce himself and to explore the possibility of how you might work together in partnership and collaboration.  Alan can be reached on alangibbon@nhs.net or by calling 07917183773.

A little background - Alan was born and bred in Dundee and after a time working as a welder and in insurance Alan decided to pursue a career in Ministry.  He spent a year at Dundee College in 1996 before studying Theology at the University of St. Andrews graduating in 2000.  He did further training with the Congregational Federation being recognised on their Roll of Ministry in 2002. 

Alan was ordained into Perth Congregational Church in August 2000 where he ministered for 2 years before moving to Knightswood in Glasgow in September 2002 where he ministered for a further nine years.  As of July 2013 Alan has become a minister of the United Reformed Church. During this time Alan developed a keen interest in Chaplaincy through his work with the schools. 

Alan first worked with NHS Tayside as the part-time Chaplin to Blairgowrie Community Hospital in October 2010 before taking up the full-time post as Chaplain at Rachel House Children’s Hospice in Kinross in July 2011.  He has now returned to NHS Tayside as of June 2013.  In 2013 Alan completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Chaplaincy at the University of Glasgow and he is now going on to study for the diploma.

Lord Provost to unveil new Peace Pole for Dundee

 

A weekend of special community activities and events have been planned to celebrate International Peace Day this year. Events will also highlight the success of local community-led initiatives which work to address inequality and suffering in the city. Festivities begin as darkness falls on Saturday 21^st September with a Light Projection in the city square sharing a very unique message of peace.

The highlight of the weekend will be the public unveiling of a new Peace Pole by Dundee’s Lord Provost, Bob Duncan, in the city square at 3 pm on Sunday 22^nd.  The Pole will be a lasting monument to the shared wish for world peace from the people of Dundee. The unveiling will be accompanied by a peaceful reflection led by local Buddhist teacher and interfaith champion Lama Jiga and the celebrations continue with a stunning World Peace Flag Ceremony.   

 

The planting of a Peace Pole in Dundee has long been championed by local Peace Day organisers and community charity, Nilupul Foundation, Dundee Interfaith Association and many other local community organisations and faith groups and the long awaited pole arrives in the city this year with the full support of Dundee City Council. Commenting on this year’s events, Dr Julie Wardrop of Nilupul Foundation said: “We are thrilled to be finally planting a Peace Pole in Dundee and we hope that all of this year’s Peace Day events will be an inspiration.  At a time when Dundee is transforming physically and culturally, these events symbolise fresh hope for the future of the city and its people.  May Peace Prevail On Earth”

IF you would like to volunteer at this year’s event please contact Julie at Nilupul Centre on 01382 872020 or e-mail: info@nilupul.org.

Passage from India and the Priority Areas Committee win EAPN Award

Passage from India and the Priority Areas Committee of the Church of Scotland were one of the three organizations that won the European Anti-Poverty Award (EAPN) 2013 in the NGO category for Transnational Learning & Inspiration. They will be presented the award in a ceremony on September 30, 2013 in Brussels. The Passage from India project started with a visit to India by 13 women from 7 deprived communities from Glasgow where they visited self-reliant groups. Since their return they have formed themselves into Self-Reliant Groups in their home communities.  

Self-reliant groups are autonomous groups based on the principles of self-help, solidarity and collective enterprise. They are usually small groups of women who aspire to change their socio-economic circumstances. They initiate small microfinance schemes to support members of the group. As the groups have grown and extended, a lot of training and mentoring has been part of the approach to develop personal empowerment, self-confidence and economic aspirations of the women. Currently, there are more than 50 such groups across Scotland, involving over 350 women from deprived communities and they have formed an association.

Big Lottery – Support and Connect Fund supports the Council and four local projects in Dundee

There were 59 projects across Scotland funded to the tune of £9M by the Big Lottery Support and Connect Fund recently. 

Dundee City Council has been awarded £339,237, which will be used to address the impacts of Welfare Reform.  In response to growing hardship, the project will create a Task Force of 7 officers, a team of frontline, multi-skilled staff, working in local communities, to address the key issues people face. The aims of the project is to (a) provide early intervention and local support to mitigate impact on existing advice agencies, reducing number of basic enquiries (SNS Level 1) they receive, enabling them to focus on more serious ongoing case work – addressing growing issues of supply not meeting demand and (b) ensure a joined up approach to supporting people through welfare reform, where possible in their communities.

Four other projects in Dundee have also been funded; the detail is as follows -

Transform Community Development - £128,560 - Funded through Support and Connect this group will expand on their current Fareshare project to allow them to deliver food to individuals as they currently only provide to organisations and charities. They will build on relationships with Local Authority Housing and Social Work Departments to ensure they reach hard to reach groups across Dundee.

Dundee North Law Centre - £169,687 - Funded through Support and Connect, with 20 months funding the centre will develop their Fighting for Forgotten Families project, supporting vulnerable families on low incomes affected by welfare reform. Support includes welfare advice, employment tribunals, weekly family support activities and joint working with a range of organisations/agencies. They are talking about supporting over 5,000 families.

Deaf Links - £110, 263 - Funded through Support and Connect this group’s 'Connect Hear Advocacy Project' will provide a dedicated welfare benefit and financial advocacy service to support 100 deaf and deafblind people in the Dundee, Angus and Perth & Kinross local authority areas (Tayside) who are experiencing hardship due to welfare reforms. They will receive specialist support to enable them to have equal access to mainstream support services.

Perth CAB - £288,104 - Funded through Support and Connect this Citizens Advice Bureau will lead a partnership project with Angus and Dundee CABs to expand their welfare advice services, provide outreach clinics and provide home visits. They will also link up with 12 other partner organisations.

Hear about the impact of Welfare cuts through SCVO Welfare Reform Group

 

In recent months, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has been bringing together representatives of a number of different organisations working alongside people experiencing the impact of welfare cuts. The overall picture is, according to many within the Group, ‘pretty grim’. The Group would be very interested in hearing from faith groups working in local neighbourhoods where they are encountering similar or different issues as we try to raise awareness of just how bad things are becoming for some of our very poorest citizens and challenge government – at all levels – to make changes. You can make contact through Martin (e: mjohnstone@cofscotland.org.uk; t 0141 248 2905).