All Learning, Skills and Employment

Spirit of Manchester

I've mentioned previously that there's a danger that this blog becomes a series of rants about things I'm angry about. Well not today, at least!

Our State of the Voluntary Sector report shows there are over 3000 voluntary and community groups in Manchester. I don't know them all but I do know a lot of them and one of the great pleasures of my job is that I get to see some of the amazing things happening in groups across Manchester and meet some fantastic people.

Opportunity to Help Troubled Families

The closing date to be part of the preferred providers list for services to Troubled Families has been extended for 2 weeks to 5pm on Fri 2nd August. Applications can be made through The Chest and the name of the opportunity is "Framework Agreement for the Provision of Troubled Families Interventions". Read more here.

News Type:

Sector News

Shared Topic Areas:

People/communities experiencing racial inequalities

Children and Families

Commissioning

Funding

Health and Wellbeing

Learning, Skills and Employment

Framework Agreement for the Provision of Troubled Families Interventions

Manchester City Council (MCC) is very keen for organisations to apply for a new opportunity advertised on The Chest to be part of a preferred providers list for services for Troubled Families. The closing date is 19th July. They are hoping that a large number of organisations, small and large, offering a very wide range of services are successful in meeting the basic quality requirements.

News Type:

Sector News

Shared Topic Areas:

People/communities experiencing racial inequalities

Children and Families

Learning, Skills and Employment

Survey on sustainability education at MMU

The Environment Team at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) is currently carrying out a research project around attitudes towards Education for Sustainable Development in relation to employability.

The results from the survey will inform the university's actions on embedding Education for Sustainable Development into the curriculum. It could impact on 30,000 students per year.

News Type:

Sector News

Shared Topic Areas:

Community Engagement

Learning, Skills and Employment

8 things you should know about the Voluntary Sector in Manchester...

1. In 2012/13 there were 3,093 community and voluntary organisations, co-operatives and social enterprises in Manchester

2. In 2012/13 the total income of the sector was £477 million

3. Medium and large organisations receive 95% of the total sector income

4. 1,987 organisations are micro (with an annual income under £10 thousand)

5. There are 94,300 volunteers in the sector

6. Volunteers give 370,000 hours each week

7. The contribution of volunteers in the sector is valued at £332 million each year

News Type:

Sector News

Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities 2013-2014

The main purpose of the Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities (NLDC) fund is to reach disadvantaged communities and individuals; to enable them to participate in learning, with progression towards further learning and/or sustainable employment as a key theme.

The City Council’s and MAES’ priority is to tackle the issue of worklessness amongst key groups in the most deprived wards of the City, particularly those residents in receipt of out of work benefits. Therefore this is the target group for this funding.

News Type:

Sector News

Shared Topic Areas:

Capacity Building

Funding

Learning, Skills and Employment

State of the Sector 2013

This morning I was in the happy position of being able to present our new research into the state of the voluntary sector in Manchester. It has been a long-held ambition of mine to be able to show the full extent of the enormous contribution which voluntary organisations, community groups, social enterprises and the community work of faith groups make to the city.

Spring Online – Grants of £100 available for taster events

Spring Online is a campaign which helps thousands of people learn about and use computers, the internet and other modern technology.

This year (22-26 April 2013) the campaign is being delivered in association with Carphone Warehouse.

More than 2,000 free digital taster events are held across the UK each year for Spring Online. The events take place in a wide variety of venues and are run by volunteers: individuals and organisations that are as passionate about digital technology as we are and keen to make a difference in their communities.

News Type:

Sector News

Shared Topic Areas:

Learning, Skills and Employment

Wisdom Councils and 'community voice'

If you've chatted with Walt over the last few months, or been involved in one of LSEN's discussions around community learning, you might have heard Walt talk about Wisdom Councils. Wisdom Councils are an approach to community engagement and eliciting 'community voice', which we in LSEN have been excited about for some time, and which we can see has real potential for organisational and community development and learning.

Shared Topic Areas:

Learning, Skills and Employment

Work Programme is performing well below expected targets

When the Work Programme was first introduced as part of the new Welfare to Work agenda the LSEN organised a number of meetings, seminars and events to inform voluntary organisations about the opportunities and risks of getting involved in the Programme as a sub-contractor.

It became clear, early on in these discussions, that the Programme did not recognise the difficulties many people at a distance from the labour market would find in re-engaging in sustained employment.

Shared Topic Areas:

People/communities experiencing racial inequalities

Commissioning

Equalities

Learning, Skills and Employment

Mental Health

Physical Disability

Young People