kva newsletter summer 2012
DESCRIPTION
Newsletter for the voluntary and community sector in the Royal Borough of Kingston, published by Kingston Voluntary ActionTRANSCRIPT
Newsletter
Big Society audited for first time
Civil Exchange has published the
Big Society Audit 2012, which
claims to be the first
independent audit of David
Cameron’s Big Society.
Backed by Joseph Rowntree
Charitable Trust, it looks
at changes made to open up
public services and empower
communities, and reflects on the
previous government’s work and
the impact of wider social
changes. Key findings include:
1. The concept of the ‘Big
Society’ has deep roots, cross-
party interest and is more than
just a passing fad;
2. Disadvantaged and urban
communities have much lower
levels of social capital than their
wealthier and more rural
counterparts;
3. Public trust and civil
engagement are high, whilst
participation and trust in
national politics is low;
4. It has the potential to shift
power from government to civil
society.
Recommendations include:
1. Both central and local
government need to increase
their understanding of the
voluntary sector to help jointly
deliver the Big Society agenda.
2. Under current commissioning
arrangements there is an
implicit bias towards the private
sector, which is the main
beneficiary of public service
contracts. As this is likely to
continue, arrangements should
be revisited to ensure voluntary
and community groups are able
to compete.
Caroline MacFarland, Managing
Director at think tank
Respublica, believes the
Government’s localism agenda
will be instrumental in bringing
about real change at a local
level. “The new set of
community rights granted in the
Localism Act could be a catalyst
of a genuine partnership
between local authorities and
their communities.”
The newsletter for Kingston’s
voluntary & community sector
July 2012
In this edition
News 2-4
Funding 5-6
Go Kingston
Volunteering news
7-10
Health & Social
Care news
12-13
ICT Hub 14-15
KVA contacts 16
Kingston Voluntary Action, Siddeley House, 50 Canbury Park Road, Kingston KT2 6LX Tel: 020 8255 3335
Fax: 020 8255 8804 Email: [email protected] Website: www.kva.org.uk Registered Charity No. 257551
Incorporating the
GO Kingston
Volunteering
Newsletter
Pages 7 — 10
Read the report at http://tinyurl.com/brnewgb twitter.com/KingstonVA
Keep up to date with
KVA online:
For members of the public
to find your organisation in
our searchable online direc-
tory your page needs to
simply convey what you do.
Your online page is directly
related to the information
we store on our database
about your organisation, so
please make sure it is up-to-
date and says exactly what
you want it to say about
you.
You will find a yellow data-
base entry form inserted
within this newsletter.
Please complete this and
post it to us by 16 July.
You can also tell us if you do
not want to be included in
the directory, and about the
kinds of information you
would like to receive from
us.
www.kva.org.uk Page 2 News
A campaign to raise money for charities working on a common theme, ‘pathways out of poverty’, will be launched this October by KVA and London Community Foundation.
The Love Kingston fundraising campaign is part of KVA’s Transforming Kingston’s Infrastructure project, funded by the Big
Fund on behalf of the Office for Civil Society.
Love Kingston aims to increase charitable giving by engaging a new range of donors, both corporate and high net worth individuals.
Donations raised will be divided between six local charities, to be announced shortly.
Love Kingston fundraises to find pathways out of poverty
What does your online directory entry say about you?
Families face uncertain future over housing benefit changes
Nick Smith from RBK’s Housing Department delivered an excellent presentation at the KVA Children and Young Peoples VCS Seminar on 23rd May on the huge changes to welfare benefits and the impact on families in Kingston. The cap on Housing Benefit and the move towards Universal Credit will bring enormous challenges for
families in the borough. Nick advised organisations that are working with families who receive a letter from the Department of Work and Pensions stating that their Housing Benefit entitlement may change, to contact the Housing Advice and Options Team at RBK on 020 8547 5003 or [email protected]
They can also contact the Citizens Advice Bureau on 0844 826 9701.
You can find Nick’s full presentation on the KVA website:
www.kva.org.uk/news/latest-news/changes-to-housing-benefit/
Contact Judith Naylor at KVA on 020 8255 3335
Alternatively you can
complete the form online:
www.kwiksurveys.com
?u=KVAdatabase2012
Elaine Miller, Love Kingston fund-
raising manager, speaks at the
Voluntary Sector Forum (pg 4)
Page 3 Summer 2012 News
As chief executives and
managers find themselves
under more pressure than
ever to find funds in the
current economic climate,
they are being encouraged
to seek the help they need
to manage change, start
trading or get ready for
commissioning.
KVA are delighted to be
offering 10 voluntary sector
managers in Kingston an
opportunity to receive fully
funded mentoring from
highly skilled commercial
sector professionals.
The support is being
offered through a
partnership with Cranfield
Trust, who have a well-
developed network of
highly skilled volunteers
who donate their time,
management knowledge
and business experience to
help charities develop
sustainably.
The Transforming
Kingston’s Infrastructure
initiative, funded by the Big
Fund on behalf of the
Office for Civil Society,
aims to support managers
of groups concerned with
poverty, social exclusion or
disability.
Sanja Kane at Kingston
Voluntary Action explains
that mentors can offer
many benefits:
"Mentors can give you
advice and guidance, act as
a sounding board, bring an
external view to your issue,
help you think more
strategically, and help you
manage change in your
organisation".
"For busy managers,
considering selling their
group's goods and services,
or getting ready for
commissioning, can be
daunting”.
“It's helpful to talk through
fears, ideas and plans with
someone who knows what
you need”.
"Chief executives and
managers could make good
use of a business mentor,
even if they have years of
experience and training
behind them".
Business mentor matching for voluntary sector managers
For further information
please contact Sanja
Kane at KVA on
0208 255 3335
As part of our strategic
approach to workforce
development in the sector,
KVA has continued its
partnership with Kingston
College to offer another
seven managers from local
voluntary and community
organisations an opportunity
to gain a leading
professional qualification.
The Chartered Management
Institute (CMI) Diploma at
Level 5 in Management and
Leadership gives attendees
higher level management
skills that are grounded in
advanced management
theory and practice.
Benefiting organisations
include Home-Start
Kingston, EnhanceAble,
YMCA London South-West,
Superhighways, Kingston
Citizens Advice Bureau and
KAG Advocacy.
Local managers to receive leading management qualification
Last year’s Big Lottery funded
CMI attendees receive certificates
Social enterprise and trading start-up support now available
www.kva.org.uk Page 4 News
The shift from a grants eco-
momy towards the free mar-
ket economy can be a worry
for voluntary and communi-
ty groups who have long re-
lied on funder relationships
to make ends meet.
Yet with the right support it
could be simple to sell what
you do best, reduce grant
dependency and plough
your profits into the projects
you really want to do to help
the people, places and caus-
es you care about.
Kingston voluntary sector
managers are being urged
to generate unrestricted in-
come from their goods and
services with the free one-
to-one support of a highly
skilled business professional.
A new partnership between
Kingston Voluntary Action
and the Cranfield Trust will
offer one-to-one support to
five local organisations who
are considering trading ac-
tivities or becoming a social
enterprise.
Cranfield Tust will match
managers with an experi-
enced commercial expert
from their well developed
national network of volun-
teers.
The substantial advice and
support on offer can help
managers diversify funding
streams and increase sus-
tainability, as Sanja Kane
explains:
“To help you understand the
costs, investment require-
ments and skills needed for
commercial trading, a con-
sultant can work with you to
carry out feasibility studies
for new ventures or activi-
ties, develop your business
plan, or get your marketing
strategy up and running”.
“More than that, the guid-
ance of an experienced trad-
er can give you the confi-
dence, inspiration and
knowledge you need to turn
your ideas into practical ac-
tion".
For further information
please contact Sanja Kane
at KVA on
0208 255 3335
Do you want to know your tweet from your post? Need to know how to write a winning funding bid? Struggle to say no to a volunteer? If you would like training on the topics that matter to you, please let us know what would be most useful to you for our forthcoming Autumn course programme. There’s a simple online survey for you to complete. All completed surveys will be entered into a prize draw, and the winning organisation can have a fully funded place on the course of their choice. http://kwiksurveys.com?u=TNA2012
Fundraising online, the new Love Kingston fundraising campaign, Heritage Lottery Fund, the RBK grants review and staying represented in health and social care planning were topics for the Voluntary Sector Forum on 14 June. It was great to see so many friends and new faces at the forum. We’ll look forward to seeing you next year. If you were unable to come you can still read the presentations delivered on KVAs website and listen to Jill Darling’s speech about the RBK grants review. www.kva.org.uk/events-and-training/voluntary-sector-forum/
Training needs analysis Voluntary Sector Forum
With many small charities and community groups struggling to find traditional grant funding, it is a good time to make direct contact with potential new donors. So KVA has teamed up with the London Community Foundation to offer Kingston’s voluntary organisations an exciting way to raise money from individuals and the private sector. Transforming Kingston’s Infrastructure project (TKI) can give you access to the local online giving community, through a new website called Localgiving.com Localgiving.com allows
donors to find a charity in their area that supports the cause that they really care about. It provides charities with a webpage and the online fundraising tools and training to reach them. More than £2 million has been raised through the site so far! Match fund challenges also give groups the chance to double the money they raise. Localgiving.com is the only fundraising website in the UK allowing groups that are too small or unable to register with the Charity Commission to receive Gift Aid. Laura from Yorda Adventures said that KVA
‘just made my day’ when she found at our first start-up surgery that Yorda were eligible for Gift Aid, despite being a community investment company. This means that any donations received will be boosted by 25%, no matter what the group’s size or structure. Registration and one year subscription is free for the first 50 Kingston groups to join, thanks to the funding secured by KVA. The annual subscription costs £60 + VAT for groups outside of Kingston. Get online today.
Page 5 Summer 2012 Funding
Start fundraising today with Localgiving.com and save £72!
Contact Sanja Kane on
0208 255 3335
In March 2011 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) introduced a new R68(i) - Gift Aid and tax repayment claims form, which replaced all previous claim forms. The R68(i) claim form instantly calculates the correct amount of Gift Aid you can claim, using the dates and amounts you enter. It also helps charities and community amateur sports clubs avoid common errors and means HMRC can process your claim faster. www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/charity-stubb
Real Time Information (RTI) is the new reporting system being gradually introduced for PAYE by HM Revenue and Customs. It aims to make the PAYE system easier for employers and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to operate, and support the introduction of Universal Credits. It may end the use of P45 and P46 forms, but checks on personal data will be far more rigorous. It’s a good idea to audit your data so your future online submission is not rejected and you do not pay penalties. www.hmrc.gov.uk/rti/employerfaqs http://preview.tinyurl.com/dyuw6nd
Gift Aid claim form reminder New PAYE reporting system
www.kva.org.uk Page 6 Funding
Comic Relief
Local Communities Programme
Funding for local groups to increase local
services; build skills of local people;
increase community cohesion; respond to
local economic needs; increase access to
sport and exercise for people who face
social exclusion and isolation.
£1,000 to £10,000
Deadline: 7 September 2012
www.londoncf.org.uk/grants
Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)
All Our Stories
Have you ever wondered what your local
area was like in the past? Or how people in
your community used to live?
Explore your heritage and share what you
learn with others.
£3,000 to £10,000
Deadline: 31 July 2012
www.hlf.org.uk
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
Merger Fund
A fund for organisations in the early stages
of thinking about a merger. The fund aims
to help organisations and their potential
merger partner(s) to think through the de-
cision to merge, rather than to cover the
costs of any subsequent merger.
£100,000 fund for 10-15 grants
Deadline: Ongoing
www.esmeefairbair.org.uk
Money Advice Trust (MAT)
Innovation Grants Programme
Funding for charities that provide free, inde-
pendent, effective advice to people on how
to deal with debt and manage their money
in a wiser way. Priorities: sharing best prac-
tice; supporting people excluded from
society or homeless/facing homelessness.
£1,000 to £3,000
Deadline: 11 July 2012
www.moneyadvicetrust.org
Sport England
Inclusive Sport Fund
An Olympics legacy fund to grow sports
participation of disabled people aged 14
and over at a grassroots level. Projects
should be innovative, scalable and replica-
ble, and make it easier and more fun for
disabled people to take part in sport and
physical activity more often.
£10,001 upwards for revenue grants
Deadline: 31 August 2012
www.sportengland.org/funding
Social Investment Business
Investment & Contract Readiness Fund
A fund to help charities and social enter-
prises win public sector contracts and at-
tract social investment. Grants will help you
purchase investment and contract readiness
support from an approved provider to raise
a £500,000 investment or win contracts of
at least £1 million.
£50,000 to £150,000
Deadline: end of July 2012
www.beinvestmentready.org.uk
For funding advice, a funding search or support with applications contact Zahida Saddiq:
[email protected] or 020 8255 3335.
Celebrating 40 years of volunteering in the Royal
Borough of Kingston upon Thames
GO KINGSTON VOLUNTEERING
The heavens held and the sun shone on
Saturday the 9 June 2012 for the first-ever
Voluntary Sector in the Market Place event.
15 local voluntary and community groups got
together to show the public of Kingston the
work they are involved in.
Lots of people visited the stalls for information
and advice about the services on offer from the
voluntary sector. Many came to offer their time
and get involved in volunteering.
Maria Jarvis, Go Kingston Volunteering
manager, said “We recruited lots of potential
volunteers for the Torch Relay and the cycle
races that are coming through Kingston.
We also spoke to a lot of people about
becoming a volunteer with the Buddy Scheme,
a befriending project for people with learning
disabilities. We need lots more male volunteers
to help out as currently we have more female
volunteers than males, yet the majority of
service users are male.
The event gave us a good opportunity to do
some much needed outreach work. In terms of
volunteer recruitment and raising awareness of
the work we do the event was a great
success”.
Voluntary Sector in the Market Place a shining success
GoKingstonVolunteering @GKVolunteers
Good news for good practice project as funding is secured
City Bridge Trust has agreed to fund Go
Kingston Volunteering’s cross borough good
practice in volunteering project for another
year.
This will enable us to build on the work
already achieved and continue to provide
support and training courses on volunteer
management to organisations in Kingston.
Contact Hedley at Go Kingston
Volunteering on 0208 255 8685 or
Page 8 GKV Newsletter www.gokingstonvolunteering.org.uk
Ready, get set...Go volunteer!
The Olympic Torch has been making its way
across the UK for more than a month,
cheered on its way by thousands of support-
ers and even a marriage proposal!
More than 100 people have signed up to vol-
unteer with KVA to see the Torch carried
safely through Kingston’s streets on 24 July.
This is an incredible opportunity for your
volunteers or staff team to do something a
little different as a team, and be a part of the
amazing buzz surrounding this once-in-a-
lifetime event in Kingston.
If you’re not able to join us for the Torch
Relay, there are opportunities to volunteer
for the Olympic cycle races on 28 and 29 Ju-
ly, and at the many Cultural Olympiad events
happening in the borough.
You could also help out at the Kingston
Disabled Ten Pin Bowling Championships as
part of the Paralympics 2012. The Paralym-
pics have proved popular, and a number of
events have already sold out.
The Torch, it is said, is a symbol of sharing
peace, unity and friendship. The similarity
with volunteering is striking. So put your
hands together, and welcome the Games.
Get in touch with Hedley today to take part.
It was an immense privilege to serve this
event and hear the recollections of former
Hawker employees. I learnt a lot about King-
ston and its great history and gave me a real
pride in the town - even more so seeing King-
ston aircraft finishing of the Queen's jubilee
weekend flying over Buckingham Palace . It
really encourages me to continue a relation-
ship with the project. There is of course sad-
ness we no longer manufacture aircraft here
but the question is how do we properly com-
memorate our heritage?
Peter Watson
I worked at Hawker Siddeley Aviation at
Ham Common in the early 1970’s, I still have
fond memories of the Hunter refurbishment
programme, the Harrier production, and the
exciting new prototype Hawk. Via the “Go
Kingston” initiative, I was happy to volunteer
to be a steward for the weekend at the King-
ston Aviation Festival. The public feedback to
the generally unknown Sopwith history in
Kingston during WWI was amazing. Everyone
wanted to know why there wasn’t a perma-
nent museum in Kingston, and I hope now
there will be. I enjoyed every single minute of
it, when can we do it again!
Chris Stephens
Volunteers talk about the Kingston Aviation
Festival, first event of the Cultural Olympiad:
Page 9 Summer 2012 GKV Newsletter
How can you involve volunteers in your organisation?
There are many positive reasons for
involving volunteers in your organisation,
but doing so is an investment of both time
and resources.
It can be difficult to know where and how to
start the process. Pat Stanley recently
delivered in-house training sessions to
Kingston Race and Equalities Council &
Kingston Centre for Independent Living
(KCIL) in Kingston.
The sessions helped them consider why they
need volunteers, what policies need to be in
place and what practical steps need to be
taken to ensure a thriving volunteer
programme.
Both organisations found this session
helpful. If your organisation is interested in
having an in-house session contact Pat.
The session was particularly useful as
for the very first time (almost) the
whole KCIL team plus a representative
from the KCIL Board was able to get
together to consider what it means to
have volunteers working alongside
staff to deliver services and represent-
ing the organisation through a host of
other activities. Everyone had some-
thing useful to contribute.
Theo Harris – CEO KCIL
Several workshops will be delivered as part of the KVA autumn training programme. In the next month you will receive a training needs analysis to establish the viability of different courses. Please spend a few moments completing these forms to ensure we run what organi-sations say they want.
Tell us about future volunteer management training sessions
Volunteer management: what do you really want to know?
Volunteer coordinators are
often overlooked in their
organisations, yet managing
volunteers can be a difficult
task.
Arguably it can be more
challenging than managing
staff.
The volunteer coordinators
forum aims to provide an
opportunity for networking,
exchange of idea on
managing volunteers and a
training session. This was
held last month and
focussed on “developing a
volunteer policy”.
I t l o o k e d a t w h y
organisations need such a
policy and what should go in
it. 16 organisations attended
and at the end of the
session had templates and
ideas for developing the
policy for their own
organisation.
If you have any ideas for
future forums contact Pat
Stanley.
A good overview –
stimulating
A good networking
opportunity, essential
part of local community
For any help with best practice in volunteer management contact Pat Stanley, Good
Practice Adviser on [email protected] or 020 8255 8685
Page 10 GKV Newsletter
Looking for volunteers?
Are you an organisation in Kingston
looking for new volunteers? Need to
promote your vacancies?
Go Kingston Volunteering can
support your organisations to
recruit, involve and manage your
volunteers.
Contact our team on
or 020 8255 8685 for more details.
www.gokingstonvolunteering.org.uk
Go Kingston Volunteering and Kingston
Voluntary Action said a big thanks to all our
hardworking volunteers in Volunteers Week
(1 to 7 June 2012).
Volunteers Week is an annual national event
to recognise the amazing contribution
volunteers make to local communities across
the UK.
“This year we took our volunteers out for a
very special lunch” said Maria Jarvis,
manager of GKV, “to recognise and reward
our volunteers for their time and
commitment throughout the year”.
Paul Cox, Chair of KVA added that “This is
just a small token of our appreciation for the
contribution our volunteers make week in
week out”.
Volunteer roles range from general
administration duties, to project managing
and volunteer interviewing.
Many of our volunteers have been with us
for years although we have recruited new
team members to cope with the changes of
rebranding from Kingston Volunteer Centre
to Go Kingston Volunteering.
“Our volunteers form the backbone to our
organisation” said Hilary Garner, Chief
Executive of KVA, “and without their
continuing support we would struggle to
deliver some of our key services”.
Some of the things our volunteers said
about us:
Did you thank your volunteers in national Volunteers Week?
Find out more about our volunteering opportu-
nities through the summer of 2012 and beyond
by seeing our online news report. The report
was put together by Kingston University
students. Thanks!
www.gokingstonvolunteering/news/
volunteer-roadshow
It’s nice to know you’re appreciated
I like the way everyone says thank
you at the end of the day
I like coming in because everyone is
so friendly
Page 11 Summer 2012 Health & Social Care
What the Health and Social Care Act 2012 means for Kingston
Following Royal Assent in March, after
protestations from many professional health
bodies and numerous amendments, the
controversial Health and Social Care Bill has
now become the Health and Social Care
Act.
Mainly the Act will establish and make
provision about an NHS Commissioning
Board, clinical commissioning groups;
health and adult social care services; public
involvement in health and social care
matters; scrutiny of health matters by local
authorities; and cooperation between local
authorities and Commissioners of Health
Care Services.
What this means locally…
Kingston Clinical
Commissioning Group
The Kingston Clinical Commissioning Group
(KCCG), already established as a Path-
finder, is preparing to take on
commissioning responsibilities.
The group has currently established its own
constitution and representative body and is
working towards becoming a fully-
fledged clinical commissioning group with
statutory powers.
Fully committed to meaningful
engagement with patients, carers and their
communities, it will launch as an
independent statutory organisation by April
2013 once it has achieved specific
standards set by the Department of Health.
For further information about KCCG visit
www.kingstonccg.nhs.uk
Kingston Health and Wellbeing Board:
During the past year an interim Health and
Wellbeing Board (HWB) has been active
throughout the transition period,
establishing new partnership working
arrangements with the Kingston Clinical
Commissioning Group and developing
Terms of Reference for the Board.
Since the Health Bill gained assent the
Kingston HWB has dropped the ‘interim’
status and now will fulfill functions
according to statutory requirements.
Board meetings are held in public at the
Guildhall and details of the meetings and
papers are available on the RBK website.
Public Health
As of 1 April 2013 local authorities will have
a new statutory duty to promote the health
of their population.
By that time final arrangements will have
been put into place to transfer Kingston’s
Public Health functions and staff from
Kingston PCT (which will formally cease to
exist) to the local authority.
The net result of these steps will be that
local authorities have key responsibilities
across the three domains of public health –
health improvement, health protection and
healthcare public health.
The Director of Public Health in Kingston
will have a significant role in the local KCCG
health commissioning process.
Continued on page 12
www.kva.org.uk Page 12 Health & Social Care
In April members of the Kingston Health and Wellbeing Board, including voluntary sector representatives, participated in a seminar to progress Kingston’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy. A number of possible topic areas for the strategy were discussed, some of which had been drawn from recommendations from past
Joint Annual Public Health Reports, priorities from the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and priorities identified by the emerging Kingston Clinical Commissioning Group. The four key priorities identified were:
Mental health
Older people and people
with long term conditions
Addressing the needs of
socially excluded and disadvantaged groups
Children
A number of further areas were identified as key priorities, but it was agreed that as these already had detailed strategies or action plans they would not be dealt with in detail by the joint HWBS, therefore avoiding the risk of duplication.
Priorities now identified for Health & Wellbeing Strategy
The Workplace Wellbeing Charter was launched in Kingston by Edward Davey MP on 18 May at the Guildhall. The Charter is a voluntary self-assessment scheme that promotes the positive links between health and work to help more people with health conditions stay in or return to employment.
The Charter introduces clear, easy to use wellbeing standards, provides tools to measure and evaluate progress and identify and share good practice. Real life examples show that health and wellbeing is a worthwhile investment that leads to significant financial and performance benefits.
The Charter is open to any organisations based in England. NHS Kingston can support you to take part.
New self-assessment scheme for workplace wellbeing
For full details visit
www.wellbeingcharter.org
.uk or contact, Maryam
Karim at NHS Kingston:
Continued from page 11 Healthwatch Under the new act Healthwatch England will start in October 2012 and in April 2013 Local LINks will be superseded by new Local Healthwatch organisations.
Local authorities are now accountable for commissioning and funding Local Health-watch organisations. They will need to con-sider how to do this in a way that compli-
ments wider community engagement mech-anisms. From April 2013 local authorities will also take on the responsibility of commissioning local NHS complaints advocacy service for people requiring support in making a com-plaint in their borough as well as providing information, advice and sign-posting. These services will be accessed through, and in some cases may be provided by, local HealthWatch.
Page 13 Summer 2012 Health & Social Care
It may be raining but ignore the Heatwave Plan at your peril
Recent Government
assessments have
suggested that summers
are going to get hotter in
the future.
Coordinated long-term
planning between agencies
to protect people and
infrastructure from the
effects of severe hot
weather and thus reduce
excess summer illness and
death is essential.
The Heatwave Plan has
been developed in
partnership with the Health
Protection Agency, and is
supported by the Met
Office.
It sets out the risks to
health of exposure from
severe heat, steps
individuals can take to
protect their health, and
advice for agencies and
organisations to help reduce
risk in the most vulnerable
people.
For a copy of the Plan,
the accompanying
factsheets and a public
information leaflet visit
www.dh.gov.uk/health/
category/policy-areas/
public-health/
Who is at risk?
The heat can affect anyone,
but some people run a greater
risk of serious harm. These
include:
Older people, especially older
women and those over 75.
Babies and young children.
People with serious mental
health problems.
People on certain medication.
People with a serious chronic
condition, particularly breath-ing or heart problems.
People who already have a
high temperature from an
infection.
People who misuse alcohol or
take illicit drugs.
People with mobility prob-
lems.
People who are physically
active, like manual workers
and sportsmen and women.
Learn English at Home Job Vacancies
Health Education Coordinator (HEC) (female)
Salary £18,500 – £19,000 (21 hours per week inclusive of outer London weighting)
We are looking to appoint a HEC to promote key health messages and integrate non English speaking
residents into the local community. We are looking for a flexible, self-motivated person with experience of working in the voluntary/community sector. The post holder will coordinate and organise health courses and workshops for LEAH volunteer tutors, students and non-English speaking residents. The post holder will be part of the staff team helping to develop and enhance the work of the organisation.
Director (Female)
£30,53-£31,000 (28 hours per week inclusive of outer London weighting)
For further information or to apply for either post please download the information packs from www.leah.org.uk/jobvacancies If you would like an informal chat please call and speak to Razia Tahir.
Closing Date: 5th July
Interviews: Health Education Coordinator post: Tuesday 17th July Director Post: Monday 16th July
Tel:0208 255 6144
Over the next year, as part of the Transforming Kingston’s Infrastructure project, we will be working hard to promote and encourage voluntary organisations to take advantage of online (or cloud) tools which could really help you better deliver services. This can sometimes be a challenge, as adoption of these may necessitate a new way of working, but we can guarantee that there will be benefits for your organisations and clients. In this newsletter, we look at tools for collaboration and information sharing.
Transforming your use of ICT over the coming year
www.kva.org.uk Page 14 ICT Hub
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Congratulations go to King-ston Welcare who won Su-perhighways recent survey draw. We are already underway with their day of free consul-tancy. Following a meeting with Wecare’s Chair (right), Sandy and Administrator, Yasmin, we arranged to take
photos and video footage at the recent launch of their Parents Place project, provid-ing great content to revamp their website with. We have also identified other areas for improvement in-cluding looking at appropri-ate systems to improve rec-ord keeping.
Superhighways consultancy winner
To set up your shared calendars
using Windows Live ID go to:
http://tinyurl.com/cxb7u8a
If you are a small organisation without Exchange Server, you may have realised that you can’t by default share your Outlook calendar with your colleagues.
You can share your calendars using Windows Live ID. Please get in touch if you need further help - Superhighways
recently did this for Home Start Kingston and they find it invaluable.
Sharing Outlook calendars if you don’t have MS Exchange
Dropbox is an online tool that allows you to upload and store your documents, photos, and videos in one place, that you can access any time, from any place with internet access. KVA caught up with Linda Soutter of the Charter Quay Resident’s Association to find out more about the benefits of using Dropbox for your group. 12 CQRA members are using Dropbox to store and edit documents needed for joint legal actions they’re taking against their landlord.
To get all the complex information that you have to have for legal bundles (it’s vast), and with us all having limited time, and working at different times…if we hadn’t had the Dropbox set-up we would never had done it.
If you were just trying to send documents to and fro [by email] you would never have kept track of it ...on Dropbox you edit it, alter it, whatever you want to do and that’s the document, there is no other and that’s the final one.
Despite a lack of personal familiarity with the online tool, the group’s leader, a retired IT consultant, soon had them using it for all their files.
I was terrified at the beginning. I thought this looks dangerous, this doesn’t look secure and I made him provide the evidence...I was very quickly convinced that compared with any other method of holding data it was more secure.
Just having it on your laptop in your living room is very dangerous compared to that, let alone on bits of paper in the office. That can be broken into in 10 seconds.
He puts up the idea, the rest of us edit it to make it understandable and we’ve won four cases against these people and retrieved more than half a million pounds from them so far.
It’s so easy to use, you can take the documents in and out of it. You don’t have to have any knowledge at all apart from the usual knowledge of how you set up a file on your computer. It’s so reliable. You can get into it if even you’re working from some-where else. It doesn’t disappear: it’s backed up. If you think you want to go back to an earlier version it keeps all the earlier versions.
One thing I did learn from that is that you need to have very good housekeeping rules about how you name the documents, how you set them up, how you can retrieve them.
Having used Dropbox with great success, Linda realised that trustees at the other charity she worked for, Kingston Bereavement Service, could use it to update policy documents. Despite some initial reservations, the trustees signed up to Dropbox.
They were all like “I’m IT phobic, I don’t know anything” but it’s so easy, nobody can fail to do it. You just follow the instructions and do what it tells you, and they’ve all managed to do it without any hitch at all.
The next stage is to set up a general one for the whole staff of the charity so that we can share documents. Only this time I’m going to make sure we do the filing as we go along.
One of the most important things about Dropbox for the voluntary sector, is that it's FREE! You get easily enough capacity to deal with all the documents a small charity needs without reaching the threshold at which they start charging.
Transforming your ICT using
Visit www.dropbox.com or contact
Superhighways on 020 8255 8040 for
information on tools that can help you
collaborate.
Page 15 Summer 2012 ICT Hub
Newsletter Information
The Newsletter is distributed free of charge four times a year, to
all known voluntary organisations in the Borough, key personnel
in the statutory sector as well as to local councillors, libraries,
doctors’ surgeries and schools.
The Newsletter, along with the KVA website, provides
opportunities to promote voluntary and community
organisations and events.
To advertise in the newsletter or include an insert contact Sorrel
Parsons for costs and deadlines.
If you would like to amend your contact details or prefer to
receive the newsletter by email, please also contact Sorrel.
The current and back issues of the Newsletter are available in
PDF format on the KVA website. The newsletter can be put on
tape if required.
Next Edition: October 2012
Deadline for Copy: 10 September 2012
Mission Statement
KVA leads community engagement, creating
opportunities for organisations and
individuals to become empowered to reach
their full potential so that they may make a
difference in their communities.
Kingston Community Furniture
020 8942 5500
Adrian Collins Project Manager
James Deane Operations Manager
Selo Turanli Driver / Warehouseman
Kingston Eco-Op
020 8942 5503 Bart Ricketts Eco-Op Project Co-ordinator
Chris Williamson Workshop Supervisor
Sue Illsley Support Worker
John Legate Bike Mechanic
Sam Carey Support Worker
Superhighways
020 8255 8040 Kate White Manager
Colin Cregan ICT Support Worker
Nine Htet ICT Support Worker
Sue Quilter Admin Worker
GO Kingston Volunteering
020 8255 8685 Maria Jarvis Manager
Richard Craig Buddy Scheme Co-ordinator
Pat Stanley Volunteer Good Practice
Advisor
Hedley Featherstone GO Kingston Volunteering
Project Worker
Kingston Voluntary Action
020 8255 3335
Hilary Garner Chief Executive
Lynda Evans Deputy Chief Executive
Keith Morton Business Manager
Maria Tunmer Health & Social Care Manager
Zahida Saddiq Capacity Building Manager
Sanja Kane Transforming Kingston’s Infra-structure
Project Co-ordinator
Sorrel Parsons Information & Communications
Co-ordinator
Judith Naylor Children & Young People First
Project Worker
Julie Woodhouse Community Accountant
Polly Healy Administrator
Rianne Eimers HealthWatch Kingston Pathfinder
Manager
Debra McCarthy HealthWatch Kingston Pathfinder
Support Co-ordinator
www.kva.org.uk Page 16 About Kingston Voluntary Action
Disclaimer: information contained in the Newsletter and inserts come from a wide range of sources. Opinions or statements expressed
may not necessarily reflect those of KVA. KVA aims to ensure all information is correct and up to date.
Membership of KVA
Membership is open to all voluntary and
community groups who are based or
work in Kingston. For details of how to
become a member contact Polly Healy,
Share your stories If you have some great news or
know of a resource that’s useful
for the voluntary and community
sector please get in touch with
me, Sorrel Parsons, the new
Information and Communications
Coordinator at KVA (left) on 020
8255 3335 or