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  • Supporting young learners and their families through a partnership of local organisations

    Supporting young learners and their families through a partnership of local organisations

    Young people and their families have been affected heavily during the coronavirus outbreak and in its aftermath – with many families juggling home school, working from home, stresses of everyday life amplified by the health, job and finances worries. Those living in areas of low income have been affected particularly hard.

    3VA is working with six local organisations and number of schools in Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden to deliver emergency support in June and July. This programme is funded by the Office for Students through the Sussex Learning Network as part of the Uni Connect programme.

    Our partner, Tubbs Computer Supplies, provided 36 refurbished computers to families in Shinewater and Willingdon Trees in Eastbourne in a space of just over 4 weeks. Machines which otherwise would go to landfill have been refurbished and delivered to families who don’t have suitable IT to help their kids access online learning and resources.

    Towner and CraftyAnnies made nearly 300 activity learning packs for young people distributed across Eastbourne and Seaford and across Wealden District with the help of amazing local volunteers. Packs provided an attractive alternative – something to break the boredom and engage with quality educational content away from the formal school’s resources, helping young learners stay motivated.

    Holding Space in Eastbourne is offering free support to parents and children and young people who struggle with mental health and wellbeing as a result of all the challenges related to

    the coronavirus outbreak, helping everyone cope with the situation and supporting children’s learning and development. Four families are already receiving professional help.

    3VA is proud to have brokered this partnership of amazing local organisations and to have helped secure almost £25,000 of funding to deliver the work this summer.

  • Recovery & Rejuvenation Recap

    Recovery & Rejuvenation Recap

    Thank you to all Eastbourne groups who attended our first large event on Zoom!

    Recovery & Rejuvenation. What are the challenges and opportunities for local charities and voluntary and community sector in Eastbourne post Covid-19 brought together 53 attendees. Most of these were from the local voluntary & community sector, including many of the smaller organisations. We were joined by Caroline Ansell, MP for Eastbourne & Willingdon, and representatives from Eastbourne Borough Council, health, business and elsewhere – a good mixed group with the focus on community responses and hopes for the future.

    Faiza Shafeek representing local event company and Rotary Club said:

    “Really enjoyed the Recovery and Rejuvenation Event Zoom meeting. Bravo. It was very well run and covered some really important post C-19 recovery issues.”

    Adam Chugg, 3VA CEO, chaired the event. He opened the event saying:

    “As we all know, there has been an amazing local response to this national emergency, and small local grassroots groups have led the way. Three months in, and with the initial emergency phase coming to an end, it’s a great time to reflect on what has been achieved, what we learn from this, and consider how we move forward.”

    The message from four speakers focused on local business, the economy returning and reviving and the people of Eastbourne showing a strong local sense of community. Key areas for the recovery phase include continuing mental health support, encouraging people to use existing support and growing more, tackling the rise of loneliness and overcoming digital exclusion. Building on local social capital to create local digital connectivity to support and enable our communities has been a common theme.

    A small group discussion explored what do we as a sector want to keep doing because it’s been working well and any new ideas that will help when it comes to rebuilding. Key issues included:

    Supporting rise in digital, both for the organisations and the service users & residents
    Training in safeguarding, especially in the new ways we deliver services and for organisations returning to providing some services and opening facilities has been requested.
    Developing joint understanding and responses to ways in which BAME communities are affected by the outbreak and its fallout.
    Many attendees expressed how blown away they were with the level of joint working shown during the crises. There has been a strong message coming saying keep collaboration going, create spaces to make it happen.

    Notes and videos from the event will be available on this page shortly.

  • Covid-19 Update 3: a message from our CEO

    Covid-19 Update 3: a message from our CEO

    When the Covid-19 crisis began, and as the government announced lock down, 3VA issued a statement detailing how we were responding to the national emergency. We are now updating this statement to reflect the actions necessary as lock down relaxes and the next stage of the response gets underway and as our role, priorities and commitments evolve.

    Meeting emerging social needs

    We are reaching out to our local voluntary sector in Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden that is responding to social needs and, especially, likely to see demand increase or at the very least remain high over the weeks ahead. This includes groups supporting people with disabilities, young people, BAME communities, victims of domestic abuse, those who are digitally excluded and older people. We want to maximise the capacity of these groups to meet the demands to come.

    Capturing what is going on

    Alongside this, we are also gathering intelligence from grassroots groups on what is happening on the ground to inform how stakeholders best respond to meet the challenges ahead and to inform how we can best support our local sector.

    Supporting for a return to activity

    As lockdown is relaxed, community groups have to decide whether to reopen facilities, explore if they can restart commercial activities, identify how best to support their clients and maximise resources when many of the ways they generate income remain impacted. We are working to support these decisions by, for example, updating the comprehensive Covid-19 information sections on our website, highlighting support and useful resources in our weekly e-Newsletter and convening online training or network meetings on key issues.

    Planning for the way ahead

    We are continuing to support grassroots groups online via Zoom, WhatsApp and one-to-one support. We are also hosting and convening opportunities for sector groups to discuss plans for the future, both together and with other stakeholders.

    Maximising the voice of the sector

    Our local sector led the way in responding to this national emergency, so it’s vital it is involved in – and listened to – in planning for the future. We are doing all we can to get the voluntary & communities organisations and social enterprises involved in decision-making processes and also to express the voice of our sector ourselves.

    Maintaining Covid-19 readiness

    Finally, having played a key role in the emergency response, we of course remain prepared to respond to any spikes or re-emergence of the infection, should this be the case.

    Our sector continues to play a vital part in responding to, and re-building from, this global pandemic and 3VA will do all we can to maximise the part they can play.

  • Volunteer Coordinators’ Forum: volunteering during a pandemic

    Volunteer Coordinators’ Forum: volunteering during a pandemic

    We all recognise that the volunteering effort in East Sussex and across the U.K. since the coronavirus outbreak started to impact has been incredible. People who were already giving their time freely and people coming forward for the very first time have been amazing. We have witnessed people coming together and the response of our sector has been magnificent.

    For those of you whose role it is to engage and involve volunteers…what does it all mean?!

    If you are from a group based in Eastbourne, the Lewes District or Wealden and are in role engaging and involving volunteers, it doesn’t matter if you have been doing it for five years (or more!), months or minutes …

    We would like to invite you to participate in our first free online Volunteer Coordinators’ Forum, Volunteering during a pandemic on Thursday 11 June from 10:00 am to 12 noon.

    During this online meeting you will have the opportunity to;

    • Get the latest national and local news updates about volunteering.
    • Meet other people in a role like yours and explore potential new ways of networking.
    • Discover how you could recruit volunteers who have come forward to 3VA and offered to help with the crisis.
    • Learn which volunteer roles should require a background police check and why.
    • Find out more about a new volunteer support service, 3VA is working on with Holding Space.
    • Take part in a question and answer session about what volunteering currently looks like during the pandemic and how it might develop.

    Participation in the Forum is completely free but to make the meeting manageable online we will be limiting places for up to 15 people, so to be sure of your place, please book early.

    Pre-booking is essential, but easy! To secure your place please book online and if you would like to know more before making a booking, please contact Lee Shepherd on 07535 992 638 or email lee.shepherd@3va.org.uk.

  • Volunteers’ Week 2020 – #CheersforVolunteers

    Volunteers’ Week 2020 – #CheersforVolunteers

    Someone once said that if you want to truly measure the positive impact that volunteers have on our well being across the UK, then just mobilise them to go ‘on strike’ for a day and then you will fully realise the enormous contribution that they make!

    A bit drastic perhaps and we probably all know that most volunteers would never consent to taking that kind of action. But, we should never ever take that contribution for granted. In normal times, without willing and wonderful volunteers, hundreds more people would be lost at sea without RNLI volunteers and tho

    usands more people would be more isolated and lonely without the friendly ear of a befriending volunteer. And those are just a couple of examples of the hugely beneficial and valuable voluntary contribution that thousands

    of people make to so many facets of our society.

    Now, more than ever during the coronavirus outbreak, the role played by volunteers has helped our nation to try to come to terms with and cope with the impact this crisis is having upon everyone in this country and other parts of the world too. We are all hearing of communities coming together and the ‘glue’ in that coming together is volunteering. Every day, stories reach us here at 3VA of incredible acts of kindness and people are courageously and selflessly joining with people who already volunteered previously, to come forward for the first time and lend a hand.

    As many of you will know, 3VA has over the years run numerous volunteer training workshops and forums and we have been wonderfully supported in our work by our own dedicated team of volunteers and we wanted to mark what would ordinarily be national Volunteers Week (1-7 June) by offering our profound thanks and admiration for everything that volunteers are doing locally in our communities and further afield too.

    We can’t gather together face to face to acknowledge that this year and that in itself hurts. Ideally, we would like to shake each and every volunteer by the hand and thank them personally for their contribution. It’s feels hard not to be able to do that. For now we will have to content ourselves with messages like this and sharing volunteering stories with the #CheersforVolunteers.

    So…to everyone out there who has made and is making a voluntary contribution and to those people who are supporting volunteers to do that, all of us at 3VA want to offer an enormous ‘thank you’…what you are doing is not taken for granted, no matter how big or small you may feel that your contribution is…it matters and makes a real difference to everyone’s well-being…you are all stars…you are all heroes!

    Wishing you a safe and happy Volunteers Week from everyone at 3VA.

  • Covid-19 update 2: a message from our CEO

    Covid-19 update 2: a message from our CEO

    It cannot be said too many times just how amazing the responses are that 3VA and seeing and working with in our local area. So many have stepped up to volunteer and so many voluntary groups, both old and new, are doing so much to support those around them or particular people or communities of greatest concern to them. It’s fantastic!

    At 3VA, we are doing all we can to support this effort – including the comprehensive Covid-19 information on our website, the expert support of our team, the weekly Zoom meetings we are hosting for local groups and the register of new volunteers who can add to the effort where needed. Please do draw on these resources or come to us if you need any help on finding out what is going on, how to help safely, where to get additional funds if you need them, or to help with planning for what is still to come.

    I am pleased to announce that we have, this week, made some important additions to our 3VA team supporting you. Three temporary community development officers – one for each of the areas of East Sussex that we serve – will all be adding their knowledge, skills and energy to our work with our local VCSE. In particular, we are very conscious that many social needs within our community are rising and will continue to rise as the effects of Covid-19 and lockdown are felt. If you are part of a group meeting some of these needs – such as vulnerable children and families, people with disabilities, mental health, domestic violence, digital exclusion, social isolation, those economically impacted – we would love to hear from you about how it is going and if we, or others can provide any support at this time. Please email info@3va.org.uk and we will get back to you.

  • Covid-19 update 1: a message from our CEO

    Covid-19 update 1: a message from our CEO

    There continues to be an amazing response to the Covid-19 crisis across communities throughout Eastbourne, Wealden and Lewes District. 3VA is connected to many of the groups responding, but if we have not connected with you…tell us. We’d like as many local groups as possible to be part of the networks of Covid-19 groups that 3VA is supporting and connecting with via WhatsApp and Zoom meetings and offering specific support where needed.

    We also want support for these terrific supporters. Whether you are a business with resources or volunteers to offer or an advice or counselling service that can offer call backs to those who are volunteering on the front line, we would love to hear from you.

    Since March, we have been doing all of the following:

    • Sharing what we know of community responses via our website and social media.
    • Making sure NHS/Government advice to everyone on staying safe and minimising risk of infection was on our website, which has acted as a one-stop shop and source of trusted information for our local sector.
    • Offering advice to any groups responding and to individuals who want to volunteer – people stepping forward to volunteer have been connected to local community responses, from delivering hot food to making masks.
    • Compiling a wide range of resources to help VCSE organisations, including funding opportunities.
    • Reaching out to new groups that are springing up and offering support.
    • Putting up on our website our expert advice/resources/materials about volunteering for groups and for individual volunteers. We have backed this up with online safeguarding training, and a volunteering forum on zoom.
    • Finding out how people are responding through surveys with small groups and larger organisations and through our own local intelligence. This has included capturing the responses of the local VCSE and also encouraging groups top complete the Sussex Community Foundation survey.
    • Connecting people together including new responders and existing sources of support in the community, through regular zoom meetings, whats app groups and enabled peer conversations.
    • Enabling peer support and connections between voluntary sector leaders responding to the crisis.
    • Working with partner organisations from all sectors on the most effective responses to this crisis, including playing a pivotal role in the successful implementation of community hubs in Eastbourne, Wealden and Lewes.

    New sources of funding, such as the Sussex Crisis Fund, are available for voluntary groups responding to Covid-19. More information about these is on the coronavirus response funding page of the 3VA website – and, if you need help with applications, ask us!

  • Volunteer rights in the UK

    Volunteer rights in the UK

    At 3VA we are always happy to help groups with queries relating to recruiting and retaining volunteers. Recently, in light of ongoing speculation and (at that time) the uncertainties surrounding Brexit we were asked about how voluntary & community groups should approach asking potential volunteers about their rights to volunteer in the UK.

    We approached the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) about this and we were very pleased and grateful to receive the following advice:

    Unlike with paid employees, there is no obligation for organisations to check if prospective volunteers have the right to volunteer in the UK. The onus is on the prospective volunteer themselves to check if they have a right to volunteer. With this in mind, we would advise putting something on the form along the lines of ‘if you are not a UK, EU or EEA national, please check that you have the right to volunteer in the UK’ (then you can link to this section of the NCVO website that shows which categories are permitted to volunteer).

    However, an important point to bear in mind is if there is any possibility that a volunteer could be deemed to be working under a contract, either as an employee, paid worker or voluntary worker, then a right to work check should be carried out by the organisation. Charities are liable to strong penalties under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 if they are deemed to be employing people who do not have the right to work in the UK. Further rules are set out in the Immigration Act 2016.

    Legally then, the onus is on the potential volunteer and not the organisation to check their eligibility. At 3VA we are aware of and committed to supporting a shared value within the voluntary & community sector about wanting to make volunteering as accessible as possible to everyone and not to create or enhance potential barriers to people wanting to volunteer. For that reason, we would encourage groups to adopt the wording suggested by NCVO in any volunteer applications you use and to back this up by supporting people to access the relevant information on the NCVO website. Please do be aware though of the potential risks associated with doing anything (unintentionally or otherwise) that might be deemed as creating a ‘contract’ with a volunteer and if you are in any doubt about that, please feel free to contact us on 01323 639 373 or at info@3va.org.uk.

    You may be interested to know that we run regular training workshops on engaging and involving volunteers (FREE to 3VA members) and our next event is How to attract & retain more volunteers in Lewes on 13 February. We will also run two free Volunteer Coordinators’ Networking Forums (VCNF) in spring/summer time – check our website or the newsletter for dates.

  • Join us for our AGM: Sustainability for the Years Ahead

    Join us for our AGM: Sustainability for the Years Ahead

    3VA is delighted to invite you to our AGM, ‘Sustainability for the Years Ahead’,  on Thursday,  23 January 2020,  9:30am to 1:00 pm at Welcome Building, Mallory Hall, Compton Street, Eastbourne, BN 21 4BP.

    We will be hearing from keynote speakers, including the National Lottery, about funding and sustainability, hearing success stories from our local voluntary sector and learning about new ways to support sustainability such as crowdfunding and social value. 3VA will also share some of our key work and successes of recent times, carry out our legal business and celebrate with you our first 10 years!

    Agenda

    Arrivals, Registration and Networking

    Welcome to the meeting by the Chair
    Getting started: “Your vision on the sector in 2030”

    Part One: Sustainability Over the Years Ahead

    Keynote speakers and panel discussion:
    • Kevin Richmond, Sussex Community Foundation
    • Jane Haddock, Big Lottery
    • Tbc, Directory of Social Change
    • Miriam Wilkinson, 3VA
    Panel Discussion will be chaired by Rachael Wood, 3VA Trustee.

    Part Two: Celebrating Local Success

    We’ll hear and celebrate some local success stories from our local sector.

    Part Three: New Ways to Sustainability

    • Crowdfunding
    • Social Value – new support from local businesses

    Part Four: 3VA in Action

    3VA in Action Film; Youth Leadership Role
    Formal 3VA AGM

    Book now

    3VA is proud to be hosting the event in the impressive Welcome Building, which is part of the beautiful Devonshire Quarter – a hugely exciting project for Eastbourne. The area has received a £54 million transformation, helping put Eastbourne on the map as a top cultural, sporting and conference destination. Join us and enjoy the new superb conferencing facilities, surrounded by a top-class art gallery, theatre and the new public plaza.

  • Breathing life into Shinewater Park could reduce loneliness

    Breathing life into Shinewater Park could reduce loneliness

    3VA has been successful in securing funding from the Coop Foundation’s Space to Connect programme, for a project focusing on reducing social isolation by utilising the Shinewater Park area. 3VA aims to reinvigorate and revitalise interest in the Park and will be working closely with, and be guided by, community partners such as Friends of Shinewater Park. 3VA is already planning family activities to kick start the use of this wonderful area and on the 7th December, 3.30pm to 5.30pm at Shinewater Community Hall, Milfoil Drive where a Family Christmas Forest School Workshop will see participants making fantastic Christmas decorations inspired by the park.

    Space to Connect is a partnership between the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DMCS) and the Co-op Foundation. It builds on the commitment to unlock the potential of community spaces as part of the Government’s loneliness strategy.

    Jim Cooke, Head of the Co-op Foundation, stated:

    “Shared spaces for people to meet and socialise are vital for tackling loneliness and helping communities work together to address local challenges.”

    Jo Wunsch, Community Development Officer at 3VA added:

    “Input from all members of the community with ideas on ways to bring people together is vital, so whether you like visiting the park, shared interest groups, learning new things, taking part in sports or community events and fun days, we’d love you to get in touch”

    For further information, please email Jo Wunsch at jo.wunsch@3va.org.uk or on 01323 639 373.