Kindle (The community sector partnership for children and young people) have written a short document called 'Commissioning and the Community Sector' that provides an introduction to commissioning for small and medium sized voluntary and community organisations working with children and young people.  It focuses on these organisations because, due to their size and capacity, they may face challenges that make being involved in the process of commissioning particularly difficult.   

The next meeting will be Wednesday 10th February from 10 - 12 at Wai Yin Chinese Women's Society, 61 Mosley Street, Manchester.

This is a regular meeting of voluntary and statutory agencies who deliver Advice Services to migrant workers.  The main item on the agenda will be the Migration Impact Fund - Barbara Guest, Head of Manchester Advice, will introduce the project.  Other items for discussion include Homelessness and Destitution, European networks and General Advice issues.

Key community anchor organisations and social housing providers are invited to demonstrate the value of their existing or emerging neighbourhood regeneration partnerships.  Grants of up to £30,000 are avilable to develop or extend a programme of joint activity that will contribute to definable, sustainable, inclusive and optimistic neighbourhoods.  The Together for Communities programme will run until March 2011.  The deadline for expressions of interest is 15th March 2010.  For more information please contact Chris Wadhams (0121 784 4854 or cwadhams@hotmail.com) or

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Charity Builder is a new site which is designed to help not-for-profit groups become compliant with the law quickly, easily and free of charge.  CBUK will guide you through key areas such as HR and H&S but it doesn't just signpost advice.  It actually helps you produce contracts, policies and job descriptions and because the content is written by lawyers you will be kept up to date with any changes in legislation.  You will also find practical guides to insurance, governance and volunteering.

The TUC has a brief new guide called 'Lone Working: A guide for safety representatives', with links to further resources.  The voluntary sector was one area identified where working alone was considered a major hazard in a 2008 survey.  This is a quick and easy to guide to read if you are considering the risks involved in lone working for your employees.

The Social Investment Business has launched a new capital grants programme, which is available to social enterprises delivering health and social care services. Grants from £100,000 to £450,000 are available for social enterprises that require funding into capital assets.

The grants are part of the Department of Health's Social Enterprise Investment Fund.

They can be used for:

Securing premises
Purchasing vehicles
Updating systems
Refurbishment
Equipment

Organisations are invited to submit grant funding applications for the provision of a range of "short breaks" services. The main requirements of the programme are summarised in the service specification and all services will be expected to be outcome focused as documented in the Quality and Performance Monitoring Framework document. Rochdale Borough Children's Trust is inviting suitable organisations to bid for grant funding as from 1st February until 24th February 2010.

Community Voices programme will fund charities that help isolated people access digital media

The Media Trust has opened a new £250,000 grants programme to fund charities that run digital media projects for people from disadvantaged and isolated communities.

The fund is part of the charity's Community Voices project, a two-year, England-wide project funded by the Communities and Local Government department and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

It will give out 26 grants worth between £1,500 and £14,000 each, as well as one grant of £61,000.

Deadline: 26th February

Salary: £28,179 - £28, 353

Commitment in Communities (CIC) is seeking a dynamic Development Manager to help build and establish sustainable Methodist responses to inequality and exclusion across Greater Manchester and the North West.

The successful candidate will work alongside the existing staff to develop strategic networks and partnerships that will enable Methodist Churches to engage in serving community needs.

Application forms are available from CIC on 0161 226 7162 or by email admin@c-i-c.org.uk

Only Connect is a visit scheme sponsored by Triodos Bank. It enables you to visit another voluntary and community organisation (VCO) to learn about their experience and the key issues to consider when generating earned income.

They pay £150 for your time and travel to visit another organisation to learn about how they have diversified their income into trading or public service delivery or by using loan finance. They will pay the host organisation £200 as a consultation fee for their time spent with you.

Parks for People offers grants for projects that regenerate public parks of national, regional or local heritage value. The definition of a park for this programme is as follows: an existing designed urban or rural green space, the main purpose of which is for informal recreation and enjoyment. It includes parks, gardens, squares, walks and promenades.

Your project must deliver all the following five outcomes:
• increasing the range of audiences;
• conserving and improving the heritage value;
• increasing the range of volunteers involved;

The Santander Foundation brings together the charitable donations formerly made in the UK by Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley savings business.

All its funding must directly help disadvantaged people through one or both of these charitable priorities:

• Education and training
• Financial capability

The Community Foundation for Greater Manchester are inviting applications for grants up to £10,000 from a fund of over £5 million that they are distributing on behalf of Comic Relief, using money raised from Red Nose Day and Sport Relief - up to 31 March 2011.

Comic Relief grants of up to £10,000 support community groups who are using a range of activities, including sport, to:

In accordance with the expressed wishes of Sir Paul, the trustees have now decided to wind down the Trust over a period of between five and ten years. This means that they will be increasing the level of annual spend and will be looking for opportunities to award a number of more substantial grants that will have an enduring impact.
The Trust is currently focusing its support on registered charities in England.

The Trust will only consider applications for work in one or more of the following areas:
• Reducing Reoffending
• Improving Prospects

The Community Development Foundation is working with Office of the Third Sector (OTS) to deliver the new Hardship Fund.

The Hardship Fund will provide grant support to third sector organisations in England delivering front-line services to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society that have been affected by the recession.
Grants of between £50,000 and £250,000 will be available to organisations with an income of at least £200,000 that are in financial hardship which is impacting on their ability to deliver services in the following areas:

Foundation is a new, innovative and powerful carbon reduction fund for the region which will help identify, launch and fund a range of projects across Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. Together these will have a substantial impact on local communities as well as on our region's carbon emissions. Individuals and businesses that wish to compensate for the environmental impact of their actions can make a contribution to Foundation.

There are now two overarching themes to the Foundation's grants:

Rural Issues - they accept applications from local and national charities or not-for-profit organisations which are addressing issues in needy rural areas. 'Rural' in this context means cities, towns, villages and areas with 10,000 or less inhabitants. They are interested in, for example, projects providing transport for the elderly, disabled or disadvantaged; contact networks for young disabled people; projects which encourage a sense of community such as community centres and village halls.

Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) is one of the larger independent grant-making foundations in the UK. Paul Hamlyn Foundation have launched a new applications process for their UK Open Grants schemes.

When you have read about their new process, and their programmes and selection criteria, you can start to make your application using their new system. This is accessed from 'Apply/log-in' on the left-hand menu of the website below. This will take you through an eligibility check and registration process.

Under this scheme, Biffaward looks to award grants to projects that provide or improve community spaces, cultural facilities and places for outdoor recreation.
You may have a building that needs improvement in order to increase the range of services on offer to the local community. Or maybe an open space such as a park, play area or woodland that needs transforming to benefit local people of all ages. In a nutshell, they want to make sure that everyone has access to high quality local community facilities. Grants between £5,000 and £50,000 are available.

The last deadline for Ecominds is approaching. They will now only accept applications for small projects (up to the value of £20,000) until 12pm Wednesday 30th June.  Rounds for large and medium projects are now closed.

Ecominds is an open grant programme run by Mind as an award partner of the Big Lottery Fund. The programme has £7.5 million to distribute to around 125 new and existing projects focusing on mental health and the environment around England over the next five years.