Welcome to the E-Training Bulletin - a listing of training opportunities and consultation events of interest to voluntary organisations and community groups in the Bedfordshire and Luton area. If your organisation provides training opportunities for voluntary sector staff, trustees or volunteers and you would like a listing in this bulletin, please click here.

August 2008

09/09/08 Funding Workshop – Fit for Funding
This funding workshop aims to help meet the demand from groups for funding and development advice and guidance.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 9 September, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

10/09/08 – Vision 4 the Future

Vision 4CYP The Network of Voluntary and Community Providers of Services to Children and Young People are holding a free event. Come along to find out how you can develop yourself and your staff in line with national recommendations for good practice in working with children and young people.

Delivered by: Vision4CYP
Date/Time/Venue: 10 September (10.00am to 1.00pm) Lewsey Learning Centre, Luton
More info: 01582 733418, e-mail.

11/09/08 Tax-Effective Giving

Are you raising funds from individuals? Are you making the most of the tax relief available? This course will give you an overview of Gift Aid, Payroll Giving, Share and Legacy Giving and how tax relief can help you maximise any income.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 11 September, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

16/09/08 Introduction to Marketing

Often regarded by smaller organisations as too expensive and used as another word for publicity, marketing is much misunderstood. As an activity that puts service users first in identifying and meeting needs, marketing should be at the heart of all organisations. This course will look at how you can target your effort for maximum effect and how to stand out from the rest!

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 16 September, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

16/09/08 – Social Enterprise Awareness Event
Social enterprises have become a very important tool and structure within the voluntary and community sector over the past several years and in an ever-changing environment there is a need to establish and support the social enterprise culture within Luton to build the capacity of the sector.

Delivered by: Voluntary Action Luton
Date/Time/Venue: 16 September (10.00am to 3.00pm), Salvation Army, 1 Vicarage Street, Luton
More info: 01582 733418, e-mail.

17/09/08 Becoming Outcomes Focused

If you want to know what outcomes are, this is where to start. This course will explain how using an outcomes focus can help you plan your work and give you the skills to identify outcomes appropriate to your work. The course will also help you decide what to monitor and how to collect and use outcomes information.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 17 September, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

18/09/08 & 25/09/08 – Marketing your Organisation, Products and Services

Voluntary organisations, community group and social enterprise are increasingly functioning in a competitive marketplace as a result more and more organisations need to turn to marketing to help them to identify and better serve their target beneficiaries needs and to increase and sustain demand for their services. Through a comprehensive approach to marketing, this workshop will look at how groups can achieve optimal use of their resources and increase their income to ensure long-term sustainability.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 18 & 25 September (9.30am to 12.30pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

26/09/08 & 27/09/08 – Community Matters Annual Conference and AGM 2008 Empowering Communities
There will be a wide range of sessions and activities and a healthy ‘market place’ of stalls, demonstrations, mini-seminars and virtual visits.

Delivered by: Community Matters
Date/Time/Venue: 26 & 27 September, Hinckley Island Hotel, Leicestershire, LE10 3JA
More info: e-mail, website, Tel: 020 7837 7887

30/09/08 Creative Ways to Generate Income

For many organisations, the prospect of trading is appealing. Earning a commercial income from the sale of products or services can mean the end of having to rely solely on funding for money.

But how do you develop a product? Will it conflict with your charitable aims? And even if we manage to come up with an idea, how will we market it?

This course will start you on the right path. You will learn how to generate ideas for a product or service, how to find an outlet for it and how to attract clients. It will mean a lot of hard work when delegates return to their organisations but the rewards will make it worthwhile.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 30 September (10.00am to 4.00pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

30/09/08 Due Diligence in Mergers & Consortia Working – Community Lunch
Due diligence’ is the legal, accounting and strategic steps that any organisation takes to assure themselves that a merger (or other close working relationship) is in the best interests of their organisations and beneficiaries.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 30 September (12pm to 2pm), CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

01/10/08 – Basic Budgeting

Do you need a budget to support your funding application? These half-day courses are aimed at people without a financial background to help them understand why budgets are necessary and how they are produced and used.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 1 October, Wilstead Village Hall
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

04/10/08 Funding Workshop – Fit for Funding

This funding workshop aims to help meet the demand from groups for funding and development advice and guidance.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 4 October, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

07/10/08 – Outcomes Star (Measuring Soft Outcomes)

Many organisations find that identifying the outcomes of their work are not always easy to measure. The Outcomes Star technique has been developed to help organisations  measure the ‘soft outcomes’ they achieve. This course will enable you to use the Outcomes Star confidently and reliably.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 7 October, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

09/10/08 – Progressing into Partnership
Working in partnership may be the key to survival for many organisations. Many funders are looking for more groups to be working in partnership. This half-day course will give you an understanding of the policy background, different partnership models and the steps to take to get into partnership!

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 9 October (9.30am to 12.30pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

14/10/08 - Empowering the Voluntary Sector to Influence Public Bodies

Did you know? If a public body tells you that it is going to act in a certain way, the courts interpret this as a promise, and may regard it as an abuse of power (and therefore unlawful) for the body to subsequently change its mind or break its promise to you. This is one of the basic principles of public law, the rules that govern how public bodies should behave.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 14 October (10.00am to 4.00pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

15/10/08 - Funding Workshop - Demonstrating Need and Understanding Outcomes

This workshop will build on the skills you gained from the Fit for Funding workshop and will:

• explain how to identify and explain need for your work
• define aims, outcomes, targets and milestones

Through using practical examples and an interactive workshop we aim to make sense of some of the most common problems groups have when making funding applications.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 15 October, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

15/10/08 – Being a NEW development worker (or 29/10/08)
For people who are new to supporting groups, or revisiting the job after time away. This day focuses on

• the role of the development worker
• working hands-on with groups
• safety nets for development workers
• ethical issues of development work
• where to get further support
  

Delivered by: Skild, NAVCA
Date/Time/Venue: 15 October – London, 29 October – Birmingham
More info:e-mail, website, Tel 0114 278 6636.

16/10/08 Getting Tender Ready
If you want to know about tenders, contracts and how your organisation needs to prepare itself for this brave new world, this is the place to start. The workshop will focus on public sector funding, so it is a must for those holding or wanting funding these sources.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 16 October, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

21/10/08 - Funding Options
This half day course is a more detailed look at the funding options available to organisations that are considering trading or carry out some form of social enterprise activity. An excellent follow-on course if you are going to attend our ‘Reducing Grant Dependency‘ course. This course will not cover grant funding.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 21 October, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

21/10/08 – Developing Third Sector People and Skills
This conference will include presentations, round table and panel discussions that will focus on the importance of skills in the sector – and the need to find practical ways to fund skills development when public funding is so difficult to achieve. There will also be plenty of opportunities for networking.

Delivered by: NCVO
Date/Time/Venue: 21 October (9.45am to 4.00pm) Central Hall, Westminster SW1H 9NH
More info: Tel: 020 7520 2490, e-mail, website.

28/10/08 - Writing Newsletters
Newsletters are a valuable communications tool and this course will help you master the basics of writing, editing, design, image and targeting the audience.  This course is aimed at anyone who is interested in producing newsletters, whatever their level of experience, but please note it does not cover instruction on computer use.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 28 October, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

01/11/08 - Funding Workshop – Fit for Funding

This funding workshop aims to help meet the demand from groups for funding and development advice and guidance.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 1 November, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

04/11/08 & 11/11/08 – Basic First Aid (Certified)
This workshop will provide you with a British Red Cross certificate in Basic First Aid, valid for three years, as a nominated person to take charge in an emergency. It is suitable for small organisations that require a member of staff or volunteer to have basic lifesaving skills.

These are a two-part evening workshop; you would have to attend both evenings in order to receive your certificate.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 4 & 11 November (7.00pm to 9.00pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

04/11/08 - Minute Taking Skills
Taking and writing minutes of meetings is an important skill. It is essential to have an accurate record of discussion and decisions made if organisations are to function effectively. This workshop will allow people to develop their understanding of what’s involved and their skills in producing good minutes.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 4 November, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

05/11/08 – Options for Premises
A practical day for development workers supporting groups that have premises, or are thinking of getting premises. It will include

• how to provide information on and explain the different options for buying or renting premises
• identifying criteria for suitable premises
• helping groups think about building and location access issues
• raising awareness of the full range of legal requirement involved in occupying a community building.

Delivered by: Skild, NAVCA
Date/Time/Venue: 5 November – London
More info: e-mail, website, Tel 0114 278 6636.

06/11/08 –Full Cost Recovery
Does all your funding cover the ‘core’ or ‘central’ costs of your organisation? How much each activity should be contributing towards those costs? What proportion of your ‘core’ costs should you be adding to your funding applications? Full Cost Recovery is the answer!

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 6 November, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

06/11/08 Funders Briefing – Bedfordshire & Luton Community Foundation
A speaker from the Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation will explain the varying criteria and grant sizes of their five funding streams, including the new Grassroots programme. This scheme offers financial support to small voluntary organisations and community groups throughout the area, enabling them to continue or expand their work.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 6 November (9.30pm to 12.30pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

18/11/08 - Making a Good Funding Application
If you are new to writing funding applications this is a great course about the skills required, what funders are really looking for, and the ability to avoid common pitfalls.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 18 November, Rufus Centre, Flitwick
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

20/11/08 – The SOUL Record

The SOUL (Soft Outcomes Universal Learning) Record is an effective method of measuring soft outcomes / informal learning in a way which benefits the client. It is useful for the client to help them to see the progress they are making, the worker as an ice breaker and a diagnostic tool; identifying where a client or learner may need some extra help or support, and for an organisation in providing evidence of the fantastic work being undertaken with their clients.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 20 November (10.00pm to 4.00pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

20/11/08 – Diversity – Making it Real
This session will help to develop the personal knowledge and skills of development workers to help tackle inequality and discrimination within their own organisation, and the organisations they support. It will;

• explore discrimination and oppression and promote social justice
• look at the differences and similarities between equal opportunities and diversity
• introduce UK legislation on diversity
• provide practical strategies to put things into action
  

Delivered by: Skild, NAVCA
Date/Time/Venue: 20 November – Birmingham
More info:e-mail, website, Tel 0114 278 6636.

25/11/08 - An Introduction to Charities and VAT
This morning course will be run by Association of Charity Independent Examiners and will include

• an overview of VAT and how it works generally
• how it applies to charities
• when should a charity register for VAT – when is it legally required and when is it advisable?
• issues for preparing and scrutinising charity accounts

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 25 November, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

27/11/08 - How to Write a Business Plan
A good business plan can help you demonstrate sound planning within your organisation and to potential funders. This introductory session is for voluntary organisations and social enterprises wanting to put together their first business plan. It will explain what a business plan should include and how it can help with developing and sustaining the work of your organisation.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 27 November (9.30pm to 12.30pm) Bossard House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

01/12/08 - Funding Workshop – Fit for Funding

This funding workshop aims to help meet the demand from groups for funding and development advice and guidance

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 1 December (eve), CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

02/12/08 - Roles and Responsibilities of Managing Volunteers

Volunteers are the lifeblood of the sector. Managing your volunteers correctly can mean the difference between survival and closure. This course will cover:

• how to improve the way you support and value volunteers
• how to develop the policies and procedures which support good practice
  

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 2 December, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

04/12/08 - Monitoring and Evaluation
If you want to convince a funder to support you, you will need to demonstrate how you will monitor and evaluate your work. This course will focus on the practical frameworks needed to monitor a project or service and how to use that information to evaluate what you are doing.

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 4 December, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.

05/12/08 - Volunteer Coordinators Networking Event
We are pleased to announce this further opportunity for volunteer managers and co-ordinators to share ideas and good practice. You will have the opportunity to meet others and informally discuss issues around volunteering.

Delivered by: Voluntary and Community Action South Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 5 December (12.00pm to 2.30pm) Delta House, Leighton Buzzard
More info: e-mail, website.

09/12/08 – Skills for Development Work (or 12/12/08)
Sick of the same old SWOT analyses and discussions that go round and round? This day is for people who’ve been supporting groups for a while, and want some new ideas and techniques. It introduces;

• tools, games and exercises to use with groups on common topics
• techniques to get groups working creatively and effectively
  

Delivered by: Skild, NAVCA
Date/Time/Venue: 9 December – London, 12 December – Birmingham
More info: e-mail, website, Tel 0114 278 6636.

09/12/08 - Health and Safety
All organisations, irrelevant of their size, need to ensure that they are operating within Health and Safety regulations. This course will cover:

• Health and Safety responsibilities and legal requirements
• how to embed Health and Safety considerations into the planning, decision-making processes and culture of your organisation
  

Delivered by: Community & Voluntary Service (CVS) Mid and North Bedfordshire
Date/Time/Venue: 9 December, CVS Mid & North Beds, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford
More info: Jan Warnier, 01234 354366, e-mail.