News

The School Holiday Food Fund has been set up to support local projects tackling food insecurity in Falkirk communities. Applications for the Fund will be during school holidays in October, and possibly December 2020. Groups can apply for up to £1,000. Groups wishing to apply must be constituted; partnerships involving unconstituted community organisations can apply, but the lead partner must be constituted.

Forth Environment Link (FEL) has developed a Climate Conversation Survey which seeks to better understand how they can offer support to community groups, organisatons, and local businesses to build resilient and adaptable communities that respond to the changing environment. The survey invites local Falkirk communities, residents, local businesses and groups to provide their views on climate change and the ways they want to help their own communities reduce their carbon footprint.

The Virtual Meeting of the Scottish Public Information Forum (SPIF) takes place on Thursday 24th September, 2pm – 3:3pm. SPIF has been organised to celebrate International Right to Know Day, and will be part of global celebrations promoted by UNESCO, focusing on to the right to information in times of crisis. The meeting is open to members of the public and those in the public or private sectors, or civil society.

The Neighbourhood Alert and Neighbourhood Watch Scotland has highlighted a bank transfer scam currently in use, which people should be aware of. Neighbourhood Watch Scotland was alerted to the scam by Fettes Sawmill Ltd (based in Muir of Ord), whose full account of the incident was posted to their Facebook page.

As a result of COVID-19, contactSCOTLAND-BSL has not been able to hold face to face awareness-raising sessions tostaff, volunteers and end-users of the service. They are keen to continue to provide these sessions, especially as demands on the service have increased, and have announced several upcoming webinars, taking place using either Zoom or Microsoft Teams, with the first on Friday 18th September at 2pm.

Volunteer Scotland is holding a review of the current Volunteer Friendly Award (VFA). They would appreciate hearing thoughts and ideas from a range of different volunteer-involving organisations and groups regarding VFA. They have created 2 surveys to gather this information: one survey for organisations and groups who have already achieved, or engaged with, the Award, and one survey for those who have not yet been involved. Each survey should take 10 – 15 minutes; the deadline for responses to both surveys is Friday 2nd October.

Our team at Volunteer Falkirk would like to invite you to join our upcoming “Pop-In” remote volunteering support sessions – each session will be a space for creating, developing, adapting and troubleshooting all aspects of your volunteering programme. The first session will be held on Friday 25th September, 1pm – 3pm. Each session will be held on Zoom, with a slight difference to the format to other Zoom meetings you may have joined, to allow you to maximise your time and avoid “Zoom burnout”.

The National Lottery (TNL) Community Fund Scotland has announced their current funding programmes will remain open for an extra 18 – 24 months, though they will be adapted as needed. They were due to pause and redevelop their funding offer this year, as it reached the end of its 5 year cycle. By remaining open for applications, they hope they can better support the third sector through COVID-19 and recovery.

The next round of the Catalysts for Change Fund opens for applications on Monday 21st September. The fund offers grants up to £5,000 for projects led by community nurses who work with the local community to improve the health and wellbeing of marginalised groups. These projects might directly address community responses to COVID-19 (such as psychological trauma (toxic stress) made worse by the pandemic), or they could incorporate any nurse-led initiative to improve health equity. The deadline will be in late November, and confirmed after the round opens.