INFORMATION
Free furniture and equipment - Newton Abbot Library and Adult Education Centre is undergoing extensive refurbishment and there is an amount of furniture and equipment available free to voluntary and community groups who are able to collect it. For details contact Anna Matthews on 01392 38 5290 or e-mail anna.matthews@devon.gov.uk

EVENTS

15th March Making Sense: A Practical Discussion to Improve the Way Government and the Voluntary Sector Work Together – an event from Compact Voice to be held in Bristol 12.30 – 5.00pm. Compact Voice is bringing you free events designed to help you navigate what’s happening at the intersection of government and the voluntary and community sector. Come and hear local and central government representatives and voluntary and community sector leaders’ presentations on key policies. You can also participate in cross sector discussions about issues directly relevant to you and engage with a panel of experts from across both sectors. The delegate list will be split 50/50 between public and voluntary sector to enable fair representation, meaningful discussions and new networking opportunities. www.compactvoice.org.uk/events.

19th March Hot Topics Event – this event is one of four FREE regional events being organised by NCVYS and is being held in Exeter. It aims to provide a forum for young people to talk about issues that are important to them. All travel is paid. NCVYS aims to listen to all views, suggestions and ideas on how to champion the work that young people and organisations do regionally to meet the needs of young people and address the issues that they face on a regional level. If you have young people who’d be interested in attending or for more information see http://www.ncvys.org.uk/Regional_Events.html

Training on sub-contracting and pre-qualification questionnaires – two training events to be held in Exeter. This training will be subsidised by the VCS Commissioning project but there will be a £10 booking fee, refundable on attendance. Places will be limited so they are keen to offer this training to organisations which are genuinely interested in either sub-contracting or completing a PQQ.

¨ 21st March Sub-contracting: the benefits and pitfalls – This half day course would introduce organisations to some of the key issues around sub-contracting.

¨ 24th March Pre-qualification questionnaires – This half day course is aimed at organisations who are new to filling out Pre-Qualification Questionnaires.

For details ring 01392 202055 or info@devonconsortium.net

24th March Working Together to Safeguard Children in Devon – want to find out more about working together to improve safeguarding practice?  Wish you had some additional support or innovative tools to help you improve your practice?  CRB process a minefield?  This FREE event will be a stimulating event bringing colleagues together from the community and voluntary sector who work across early years and young people’s provision.   Responding to the safeguarding audit, this interactive event will build knowledge and confidence, share best national and local practice and engage participants in interactive workshops, demonstrating tools and techniques to improve the safeguarding of children and young people. The event is being hosted by Young Devon. For details and to book go to http://www.saferdevonchild.org/default.html

25th March Strengthening volunteering in the South West – a cross sector responsibility is a FREE event being held in Taunton that is for anyone from any of the sectors who has an interest in shaping the future of volunteering, who wants to think about volunteering within the current political and economic context and who believes a collaborative approach is the way forward. The aim is to bring together the public, private and the voluntary/community sectors to look at where people can develop better working relationships and jointly pool interests and resources around volunteering to ensure the sustainability of the sector. The event is about:

· How volunteering can benefit all the sectors, and that our mutual aims are best served by working together
· Launching European Year of Volunteering in the South West
· How volunteering is a key part of a progression route for many people towards paid work, developing skills and confidence along the way
- How we can use The Games 2012 as a catalyst to inspire a new wave of volunteers
· And it’s about us deciding how we want volunteering to develop and agreeing how best to make that happen

The day is being organised by South West Forum, England Volunteering Development Council South West and the regional Volunteer Centre Network. For details contact debra@southwestforum.org.uk or ring 01392 247901

30th March Safeguarding Standards Champions Seminar – Safe Network would like to recruit Safeguarding standards champions from across the region and have designed this seminar, being held in Taunton and facilitated by NSPCC and Children England, to help with recruitment and dissemination of the new Safeguarding Standards resource. The role of champions will be to help roll out the Safe Network core safeguarding standards for the voluntary and community sector be involved in disseminating other Safe Network resources and in helping to cascade knowledge and awareness around children’s safeguarding to frontline groups in their local area. This FREE seminar will cover:

· an introduction to Safe Network, its offer and the core standards.

· the detail of the standards and the resources that support them

· the modular learning that supports the roll out

· Champions partnership and branding arrangements with Safe Network

The day is aimed at those whose specific remit is providing support to the sector and delegates should have:

· some knowledge and experience of training or facilitating learning or groupwork

· knowledge and understanding of children’s safeguarding issues

· ability to support community groups and voluntary sector organizations

· the backing of their organisation to become involved in the Safe Network champions programme

For more information about Safe Network and the standards see http://www.safenetwork.org.uk/resources/safe_network_standards/Pages/safe_network_standards.aspx and for details of the seminar contact Kerstin Neason on 07817233009 or email kneason@btconnect.com

31st March Level 1 Tackling Domestic Violence and Abuse – this is an extra training day from ADVA  in Exeter. Bookings need to be made through an online booking system accessible from www.adva.org.uk (follow the links for Professionals and Training).  To book, please click the link for the online booking system at the bottom of the page for each course. Enquiries regarding bookings can be made to Claire Birch on 01392 38 2567 e-mail claire.birch@devon.gov.uk. This course is FREE for delegates from statutory and voluntary agencies within Devon (excluding Torbay and Plymouth). However, a cancellation charge of £155 is incurred if less than three weeks’ notice is given.

12th April Ethical Ventures: ‘A Different Way of Doing Business’ – Introduction to Social Enterprise & Launch of Cascade’s Social Enterprise Start-up Training Programme – The new ‘Ethical Ventures’ programme which will be launched at this event is designed to support those in emerging or fledgling social enterprises – and those considering starting one up – by offering workshops that provide new learning opportunities in affordable bite-sized chunks. Each workshop will provide an intensive ‘flying visit’ to the basic components that Cascade (a social enterprise itself) believes start-up social enterprises need to engage with. This workshop will run from 9.30 – 12.30 and will be held in Taunton and costs £25 per person.

• Learn more about social enterprises – what we do & how we do it
• Guest speakers: Julie Harris (RISE) & Muhammad Ali (CEMVO)
• Successful Somerset social enterprises – short case studies
• Find out more about the ‘Ethical Ventures’ training programme
• Meet the trainers and other social enterprise business advisors
• Lots of free information to take away
• Great networking opportunity (& delicious refreshments!)

For details contact lauren@cascadetrainingplus.co.uk or see www.cascadetrainingplus.co.uk

See also the VYS website events section – http://www.vysdevon.org.uk/events/

Wondering if your faith will stand the test?

Wish you could be more confident in helping others investigate Jesus?

Feel that “witnessing” is something you wouldn’t do to your dog, let alone your best friend?!

• Living & Telling will equip you to share your faith as a way of life, on campus and beyond.

• It will enable you to rely on the Holy Spirit to empower your character and witness.

• Make your story accessible to people you meet, and pray constructively for them.

• Learn how to help others make a commitment to Jesus, should they want to.

Living & Telling Exeter – 10am to 4:30pm – Monday 11^th & Tuesday 12^th July 2011

Cost: £10.  Overnight accommodation available on request.

The course is led by Tim Moyler of Agapé, a movement active in evangelism and discipleship with students at universities around the country, together with special guest speakers.

For a booking form, promo postcards or further info, email: tim@moyler.org

(You can also register your interest at: Facebook – Living & Telling Exeter 2011)

Some feedback from last year:

“It’s an amazing course…  Really encouraging…  I feel more ready now.” AW

“It has increased my confidence in talking about my faith and I made some friends too!” ET

“(You) did a wonderful job answering questions…” DD

“I’m excited to see how God will use me now.” EM

“Wish I was doing it again… last year was so inspiring!” LS

Feedback from previous years’ Living & Telling:

“Thank you sooooo much – the course was amazing and was life changing… and everyone that didn’t come YOU MISSED OUT AND SHOULD DEFO GO NEXT YEAR!”  JB

“I really recommend it.  I think it’s relevant to all Christians…  Really positive and encouraging… I will definitely be spreading the word between now and next year!” RD

“It really helped me build up my faith and confidence in sharing it.”  BA

“It was good for shy people as there was no pressure to answer questions and it was an informal atmosphere…  It really seems that thought was put into the content.”  HS

“A lot better than I expected…  Brilliant.”  GM

“Thank you for inviting me.  It’s been a great couple of days. I can’t wait to put it into practice now…” LS

Click here to download Booking-form-schools Godly Play Study Day

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