[WiLT] Fw: Voice4Change England e-newsletter 9th January

Fri Jan 9 18:11:01 GMT 2009

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin Ball" <Martin at voice4change-england.co.uk>
Subject: Voice4Change England e-newsletter 9th January

Dear Partners, Subscribers, and Friends,

I am forwarding information on events and activities that might be of
use or possible interest to your work.

Do you want to help frontline BME organisations become more successful
and sustainable? If so, then you could become one of 25 'strategy
champions', receiving free training and support, and £4,000 to help
BME organisations to develop stronger strategies.  Beyond Survival:
the BME Strategy Programme is an exciting new initiative run by brap
and NCVO.  It is now recruiting 'champions' to attend eight training
sessions in Birmingham or London between April 2009 and May 2010 and
to then support five frontline BME organisations to develop their own
strategic planning skills. The deadline for applications is 15th
January 2009 and you can o find out more from
http://www.strategy-impact.org.uk/beyondsurvival

The BIHR annual conference Changing the Face of Human Rights is taking
place on 28th January 2009 in London, The event aims to challenge the
current narrow and/or negative public discourse about human rights,
and explore how, and by whom, a wider and more positive vision and
understanding of human rights can be achieved. More information about
the conference can be found on our website at
www.bihr.org.uk/events/conferences . To support the voices of the most
excluded being heard then 30 free places will be available for
representatives from voluntary and community sector organisations with
little or no income to attend a pre-capacity building day happening on
27th January. If you are interested in applying for a place on the
pre-capacity building day you will need to check you are eligible and
complete the application form available at
http://www.bihr.org.uk/documents/general/application-form   The
deadline for applications is 12pm on 16 January 2009.

The Social Enterprise Coalition's annual conference Voice 09 will take
place 10-11th February in Birmingham. The event will look at how the
ever increasing interest in just how social enterprise is helping
revolutionise the way in which businesses operate and how the movement
can best respond to the uncertain economic climate and ultimately,
create opportunities for themselves and their communities. Speakers
will include senior politicians, and national & international experts
on social enterprise. To book your place now
<http://www.tcp-events.co.uk/voice09/delegateregistration.html>  and
for more information, please visit www.voice09.org
<http://www.voice09.org/>

Working for Equality 2009 an information and networking event for
agencies supporting equality organisations is taking place on 12th
February at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, London. Organised by
HEAR, London's only regional equality and human rights network, and
Capacitybuilders the free event will inform, discuss and consult on a
number of significant new developments which will impact on agencies
supporting equality organisations in the voluntary and community
sector. Further information and details of how to book are now
available at http://www.rota.org.uk/pages/NetworkEvents.aspx

The Black Training and Enterprise Group's new project Apprenticeships
for Me http://www.bteg.co.uk/apprenticeships.html aims to make sure
that London's young people from black and minority ethnic communities
have the same chance as those from white communities of being part of
the Apprenticeship agenda. Anybody interested in learning more about
the project can attend a networking and lunch event taking place on
Friday 20th February in central London. Further details are available
from emma at bteg.co.uk

Bassac's Get it together! Collaborating for stronger communities
conference takes place 25-26 February 2009 in Leicester. Discuss how
collaboration, collective action and cooperation can strengthen the
voluntary and community sector, and lead you to challenge national
policy and deliver lasting local change. Participants will meet
frontline community organisations tackling marginalisation and
exclusion directly. To find out more and to book a place go to
http://www.bassac.org.uk/members/conference

The Race Equality Foundation are hosting a Mainstreaming race equality
in health services conference on Tuesday 10 March 2009 at the Kings
Fund, London. This conference aims to provide delegates with a better
understanding of what it means to 'mainstream' race equality, enable
delegates to engage with the evidence of what works and have the
opportunity to explore how they can better meet the requirements of
equalities duties and inspections. Further information is available at
www.raceequalityfoundation.org.uk. To register interest in this event,
please email Tracey Bignall at tracey at racefound.org.uk

NCB are running a series of free seminars for Black, Asian, Minority
Ethnic and Refugee (BAMER) and faith-based voluntary and community
sector (VCS) organisations on the theme of collaboration and
partnership. The programme has been developed following feedback from
BAMER and faith-based organisations who identified collaboration and
partnership as one of the main barriers to successful commissioning.
The event will also offer the chance to meet colleagues, exchange
experiences and share knowledge with others working in the children's
services field. Free places can be booked online at
www.vcsengage.org.uk. For further details email info at vcsengage.org.uk
or telephone 0207 843 6085.

The 'Make a Difference' Campaign Roadshows are a series of nine
regional events organised in partnership between NCVO's Campaigning
Effectiveness and Novas Scarman Group as part of the Campaigning and
Advocacy workstream funded by Capacity Builders. The events are open
to voluntary sector organisations, support provider/umbrella or second
tier organisations, front line organisations and individual
campaigners and are an opportunity to meet others involved in
campaigning in your area, network, learn new skills and take part in
workshops specific to the needs of your region. Further details from
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/campaigningeffectiveness/events/index.asp?id=11026

As part of the Income Generation Programme of the National Support
Services, ACEVO and Social Enterprise London are delivering the
Understanding Social Enterprise Programme to VCS infrastructure
organisations across England. The USE training programme will help
participants assess the factors which may result in an organisation
becoming a social enterprise and determine the most appropriate
organisational model for a social enterprise. For further information
and a registration form contact Joyce Francis on 020 7022 1930 or
Joyce at sel.org.uk

Third Sector European Network has come together with the Women
Resource Centre, CSV and the NCVO Public Service Delivery Network to
gather views about the current commissioning environment. This brief
survey will be used to understand whether there is a perception that
commissioning seems to have become increasingly contract driven and,
if so, what could be usefully done by government to ensure that the
unintended consequences of commissioning are overcome and the
potential of the sector is fully utilised. In order to participate
please click:  Third Sector Experience of Commissioning Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JbQzO8eOFb2uVAILC1qJZQ_3d_3d.
Responses by the 30th January 2009 please.

The Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Voluntary and
Community Organisations are undertaking a project on support for LGBT
(lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender) composite groups and would
be very grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to complete a
survey Survey Links
http://www.questionpro.com/akira/gateway/1084725-28086200-0 to gather
information about how you support LGBT Composite groups. LGBT
composite groups are those whose beneficiaries have an LGBT identity
and one or more identity from another equality strand such as
disability or religion/belief. For example, the beneficiaries of a
group that supports Asian lesbians would have both an LGBT identity
(lesbian) and a BME identity (Asian).

Please contact me if you have any problems with accessing any of the
links.

All best,

Martin

Martin Ball
Head of Campaigns
Voice4Change England
A national partnership for the Black and Minority Ethnic Third Sector
c/o BTEG, 2nd Floor, Lancaster House
31-33 Islington High Street
London N1 9LH
Tel:  020-7843 6131
Fax: 020-7833 1723

For updates and information about our work please go to
http://www.voice4change-england.co.uk

Voice4Change England (V4CE) is a national policy body dedicated to
strengthening the Black and Minority Ethnic Third Sector as a positive
force for change and building a thriving future. It provides
co-ordinated policy advocacy for BME groups at local, regional, and
national levels to all types of policy-makers.

You can learn more about how you can get involved in V4CE by becoming
a Subscriber from http://www.voice4change-england.co.uk