News

Volunteer Scotland has made their new report, “Who Contributes The Most To Volunteering In Scotland?”, available online. The report is based on their analysis of the Scottish Household Survey 2018 data for formal and informal volunteering, and aims to provide new evidence on “volunteering intensity” across key variables such as gender, age, deprivation, income, education and health.

Diabetes UK has launched a new short survey on what their campaign priorities should be in Scotland. The survey asks what is most important for people right now in managing and living well. Diabetes Scotland will use response to inform the key campaigns they focus on in the next Parliament, and will close at the end of February.

Eden Project Communities is taking their annual Community Camp online this year. The Community Camp is aimed at anyone wanting to make a difference in their community, and offers practical support to help people get started. This year’s camp will run from Monday 1st March – Monday 29th March. Each week, attendees will attend a “Welcome to the Week” plenary and take part in other sessions involving a workshop, practical activity, and a chance to apply learning to their project or idea. Places on the Camp are fully funded; however they are specifically for community members only.

Tatties Tae Tables is a new volunteer initiative which receives donations of bulk potatoes (and potentially other vegetables) from local Scottish producers, sorting, bagging and then delivering them free of charge to charitable food providers. They aim to connect the current supply of excess produce with the need for food. They are crowdfunding through GoFundMe, and reaching out to third sector groups across the country to provide them with donations of potatoes (in 1 or 2 tonne palleted deliveries).

The deadline for the £500 thank you payment to social care staff working in the third, voluntary, charitable and private sector has been extended and is now 11:59pm on Sunday 28th February. Those who are eligible and have not submitted their application are encouraged to do so as soon as possible.

Our team at CVS Falkirk would like to say THANK YOU to everyone who attended, participated and contributed to Tuesday’s Forth Valley Third Sector Conference. It was incredible to see over 200 of you there on Zoom to hear from our keynote speaker Aileen Campbell, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Communities – we’d like to thank Ms Campbell for her praise and recognition of the third sector, and for taking the time to join us. We’re sure you also enjoyed listening to Jim McCormick on the Robertson Trust’s approach to the future, and that you found the presentations from local groups based in each Forth Valley area as inspiring as we did. Special thanks go to our colleagues at SVE and CTSI, our partners in the conference for the last 3 years.

Are you passionate about delivering real change in local communities? Do you enjoy working with others? If so, why not apply to join Falkirk Council’s Community Choices Advisory Panel? Community Choices is Falkirk Council’s version of participatory budgeting, an initiative that gives local people a direct say in how a portion of the Council’s budget is spent. The deadline for applications to join the Advisory Panel is Friday 26th February.

Falkirk Council is working alongside Falkirk Health and Social Care Partnership to launch the Community Choices initiative – a fund of over £3 million over two years where you can apply for funding to bring about the changes that will make a difference to your community. Smaller budget proposals (up to £1500) can apply to the Small Grants Programme. Bigger projects (over £5,000) can apply to the Capital Grants Programme. Initial expressions of interest should be submitted by Friday 5th March.