14/07/2010 by kath.

No don’t worry it was far from painful and we didn’t need an anaesthetic either . . . I’m talking about attending a social media surgery in the beautiful “Old Market Hall Shrewsbury” . . .

The ancient beamed venue was juxtapose the 21st C modernity of all things social media, providing a wonderfully relaxed setting; amidst the comfy sofas and welcoming cups of coffee, we patients met our surgeons and their tools for the evening - laptops situated on tables around the room.

what is a social media surgery?

Nick Booth from Podnosh organised the first social media surgery for voluntary and community groups in Birmingham in October 2008. find him on twitter @podnosh

A social media surgery is a pretty informal gathering of people who want to learn how to use the web to
communicate campaign or collaborate. They are deliberately relaxed. You will get to sit alongside someone
who understands good ways to use the internet and they’ll show you useful free tools. If you like what you see
they can also help you set up your blog, or facebook page or twitter account. Most social media surgeries have
an event every few weeks, so you can keep coming back for help.

This particular event was the first in Shropshire and was organised by Shropshire Infrastructure Partnership and Likeaword Consulting

See more here

It was a great opportunity to gather any information necessary; to piece together the puzzling pieces, of still to be learned social media techniques, hints and tips. A ‘non-rushed’ environment meant that you were able to take the time you needed to ask the ’surgeons’ your queries and with the aid of the lap-top see it in practice too.

I really enjoyed the experience and got some great tips on how to improve my skills in this area.

Posted in Shrewsbury, podnosh, Networking, CVS, news, information | Print | No Comments »

28/06/2010 by kath.

Cabinet Office Structural Reform Plans

Posted in third sector | Print | No Comments »

24/06/2010 by kath.

Queen’s Award!!

Congratulations to the Shropshire Aphasic Society on being one of the few voluntary groups in the area to receive The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. The group, who recently celebrated their 10th Anniversary, have worked tirelessly to help dysphasic adults. People with dysphasia may have difficulty talking, understanding, listening, writing or doing numeral calculations. They may be mildly or severely affected and everyday tasks, such as shopping or answering the phone, may be impossible.
Jim and Maureen Launchbury, Treasurer of the Group, says:

“After all our hard work, it is wonderful to be recognised with such a prestigious award. We are all thrilled to be going to Buckingham Palace on 20th July”.

Well done from all of us at the CVS - many congratulations. Keep up the good work!

Posted in CVS, Telford, news, information, voluntary | Print | 1 Comment »

21/06/2010 by kath.

Donors give for ‘personal’ reasons, says report

By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 18 June 2010

Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy research says background and tastes are more important than the urgency of an appeal

The majority of donors support causes that mean something to them rather than choosing the most urgent ones, new research from the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy has concluded.

The organisation’s latest report, called How Donors Choose Charities, is based on interviews with 60 committed donors.

It says their giving decisions were influenced by their personal and professional backgrounds, their tastes and passions, their perceptions of competence in the charity sector and their desire to have a personal impact.

“The methods used to encourage donations tend to assume that philanthropy depends on objective assessments of need rather than on donors’ enthusiasms,” the report says.

“Fundraising literature often focuses on the dimensions and urgency of the problem for which funding is sought. The assumption underlying this approach is that donations are distributed in relation to evidence of neediness, when in fact much giving could be described as ‘taste-based’ rather than ‘needs-based’.”

The report also says few donors look at charities’ accounts before deciding whether to donate to them, but that many distinguish between ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ causes as a way of ruling out certain charities.

Posted in funding | Print | No Comments »

17/06/2010 by kath.

When Nick Booth came to the CVS recently for a training course on all things bloggy . . . little did we know that we were going to be starlets!! Well ok, not exactly but we were shown how easily the flip-cam can be used to capture the moment.

The results of a quick social media game run with Podnosh. Designing a social media strategy to get village halls in Telford and Wrekin to collaborate better.

Telford & Wrekin CVS - Village Halls Network from Podnosh on Vimeo.

This second example, shows how social media could be used to

reach older volunteers and inspiring them to volunteer
themselves. . .

Telford & Wrekin CVS - Older People Network from Podnosh on Vimeo.

This was a great session; I admit we were caught on the hop a bit with the filming; but once we got into it, it was good fun. It just shows how easy it can be to get good content for sharing innovative ideas.

Well we are armed and ready to do something similar ourselves now; watch out for more videos . . .

Posted in Networking, CVS, Telford | Print | No Comments »

15/06/2010 by Ella.

By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 15 June 2010

Government will review plans to register staff and volunteers with the Independent Safeguarding Authority

The vetting and barring scheme, under which staff and volunteers working with children and vulnerable adults would have to register to be checked by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, has been halted and will be remodelled, the Home Office has announced.

Under the scheme, which was introduced by the Labour government, people working or volunteering for charities and community groups would have their details placed on a child protection database once they had been approved by the ISA.

Volunteering groups had expressed fears that individuals carrying out activities such as regularly driving other people’s children to sports clubs could be required to register, although a subsequent ISA report said this would not be necessary.

Voluntary registration was due to begin on 26 July. But the government will tell charities, voluntary groups and education authorities that a new system will be put in place.

An announcement from the Home Office, which promoted the proposal under the Labour government, said it would “remodel the scheme back to proportionate, common-sense levels”.

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, said in a statement: “Vulnerable groups must be properly protected in a way that is proportionate and sensible.

“It is vital that we take a measured approach in these matters. We’ve listened to the criticisms and will respond with a scheme that has been fundamentally remodelled.”

The scheme was designed to prevent people who posed a known risk to children and vulnerable adults from gaining access to them through their work or volunteering. But charities and voluntary groups warned that it could create a climate of suspicion and put people off volunteering.

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo’s, said: “This will be a popular move, but the government would be rash to dilute the scheme dramatically.

“The scheme has the potential to restore parental confidence in the safety of children, and that is paramount. A robust system is needed to ensure effective barriers are in place to prevent people from negotiating themselves into positions of trust in order to sexually abuse children.”

Fiona Dawe, chief executive of youth volunteering charity YouthNet, welcomed the news.

“While the protection of children and young people is of utmost importance, this needs to be balanced with fair access to volunteering for all members of the public,” she said.

Justin Davis Smith, chief executive of Volunteering England, said: “Although we welcome a more centralised scheme for child protection checks, we believe the scheme can be streamlined much further, reducing the unnecessary bureaucracy for volunteers.”

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15/06/2010 by kath.

Well actually we are giving awareness of the BASIS Project to those groups in Telford & Wrekin that are interested in joining us for the next phase in the project. The ideas were flowing: We asked . . .

to name but a few . . We’ve got good place to start from and a bunch of enthusiastic people to work with and share what we have been learning over the past year; starting with a website and tailor the social media and networking to work best for your individual organisation.

The application process for recruiting our first 5 groups is nearly over now; the closing date is 29th June and after that it’s launch day, at the Voluntary and Community Forum taking place in Meeting Point House, on the 15th July.

Posted in BASIS, CVS, Telford, news, information, voluntary | Print | No Comments »

10/06/2010 by kath.

We are on a mission!!
We don’t really want to ask you ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’ BUT ‘What have WE done for YOU lately’? This can be anything from volunteering opportunities, help with funding your organisation or advice about starting your own group . . .please share it with us either by
emailing us
or by commenting on here . . .
Thank you!

Posted in CVS, volunteering, news, information | Print | No Comments »

07/06/2010 by kath.

If somebody asked you; how many hours you can volunteer for, IF you are receiving job seekers allowance . . . what would be your answer??

Our Volunteer Centre Manager, Beverly Harris, has been busting some of these myths on the Telford & Wrekin Volunteer Centre Facebook Page over the past couple of weeks. Recently, Twitter had quite a conversation about this c/o Jim Hawkins of Radio Shropshire fame. There were various tweets regarding some of the misinformation people have been given from Job Centre Plus. As a result of this, Bev has been asked  to put us right; regarding the somewhat varied responses on both Facebook and Twitter.

Here she is on Jim Hawkins’s programme. Radio Shropshire June 8th 2010. (This will be available for 7 days)

Listen to Bev here!  interview starts at 1hour & 23 mins into the programme

Why not join in the conversation on our Telford & Wrekin Volunteer Centre Facebook Page

Posted in volunteering, news, information, third sector | Print | 1 Comment »