15 July: Weekly Bulletin for the Voluntary and Community Sector in Milton Keynes

15 July 2019

CVS Free Workshops

Dates for free workshops:

Outcomes and Impact – Wednesday 17 July, 6.30pm to 9pm at CVS, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford MK40 2AA. This free workshop will help you to make clear links to your aims, outcomes and activities in your funding applications. Many funders now require you to do this, and if you’re not, or not doing it well, it could affect your chances of success. Click here.
Committee Skills Workshop – Tuesday 30 July, 10.30am to 1.30pm at Community Room, Arrow Close, Luton LU3 3LS. This interactive workshop covers: committee roles; having effective meetings; and the tasks involved in running an organisation – including planning and budgeting. With practical examples to try out and plenty of time to ask questions, the session is ideal for new committees or ones that want to review how they are doing. Click here.
Trustee Skills Workshop – Wednesday 31 July, 6pm to 9pm at CVS, 43 Bromham Road, Bedford MK40 2AA. Whether you’re a new trustee or an existing one who wants a refresher, this workshop is for you. We will cover the Charity Commission’s newest guidance including the 6 main trustee duties, with some useful case studies, along with plenty of time to ask questions. Click here.

To book any of the courses above, email info@cvsbeds.org.uk giving the name of the person attending and the organisation that they are representing.

Dyslexia Training Workshops

Station Square Public Consultation: Have your say

Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP) would like to gather views on the potential redevelopment of Milton Keynes’s Station Square to create a gateway to the city that responds to future growth. A link to their survey, consultation materials and a virtual tour of the Station Square Exhibition created for the MK Futures 2050 event can be found on the MKDP website.

Milton Keynes Council Open Consultations

See all MK Council consultations

MK Futures 2050 – Summer Exhibition

Board 1 MK Futures 2050 A Journey to 205

CA:MK development officers, Julie and Josan, attended the MK Futures 2050 exhibition, ‘Milton Keynes: A Journey to 2050‘, in Middleton Hall on Thursday 4th July, all about the future of Milton Keynes. Look East (West) interviewed them both on what they thought of the growth of MK. It was aired at 6:30 pm that evening. Josan talked about her desire to see Milton Keynes grow inclusively, while Julie spoke about the challenges and opportunities the fast growing city offers residents.

Summer Networking Event 2019

A huge thank you to everyone who came to Our Summer Networking Event last Friday 5th July. It was brilliantly attended by new and old friends from the Voluntary and Community Sector. It was great to share information about the growth of Milton Keynes and enjoy seeing some real life examples on our CMK walking tours!
Read more here

24 HOUR LITTER PICK – McDonald’s Milton Keynes July 24th

After months of planning, McDonald’s in Milton Keynes have announced more information on our biggest Love Where You Live event yet, with our annual 24-hour litter picking event taking place on Wednesday 24 July! Now, we are calling for as many volunteers as possible to turn out during the 24-hour period to make the event their biggest and most productive litter pick yet, and we’d like you to register here if you would like to get involved!

At 10am on Wednesday 24 July, volunteers will congregate at the Xscape branch of McDonald’s before heading off on a 24-mile route around Milton Keynes, taking in well over 20 city estates in the process. The group is set to be the biggest in the event’s history!
REGISTER HERE

GSK IMPACT Awards

The GSK IMPACT Awards provide funding, training and development for charities doing excellent work to improve people’s health and wellbeing. They are funded by GSK and managed in partnership with The King’s Fund. The awards are open to registered charities that are at least three years old, working in a health-related field in the UK, with a total annual income of between £80,000 and £2.5 million.

2020 GSK IMPACT Awards are now open for applications. View the application guidelines and find out how to apply. The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 23 September 2019.
Find out more

Community Boat Trip

Following six very successful seasons with the John Bunyan Boat on the River Great Ouse at Bedford, Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway volunteers are planning to run a small passenger boat on the Grand Union Canal, based at the new Campbell Wharf Marina in the centre of Milton Keynes.
Find out more

New parliamentary group launches to increase philanthropic giving

A new All-Party Parliamentary Group has launched with the aim of increasing philanthropic giving in the UK. The APPG on Philanthropy and Social Investment held its first meeting on Monday in Parliament, where the group published a report outlining its priorities.
Find out more

BBC Three Counties People Awards

The BBC is inviting nominations for its Three Counties People Awards to celebrate the exceptional people of Beds, Herts and Bucks. The awards are held to recognise those outstanding people who always go the extra mile, who care about their community or who consistently give up their time to help others. Examples of categories are Young Achiever, Carer, Volunteer, 999 and Diversity & Equality. The ceremony takes place at the Grove Theatre, Dunstable, on 25 September. For more details on the awards and how to nominate, please visit the Awards section of the BBC website.

Volunteering opportunity of the week: Carers Milton Keynes Volunteer Therapist

Qualified therapists in massage or reflexology required for a couple of hours a month to deliver relaxation treatments to unpaid family carers at our offices based in Margaret Powell House.
In house volunteer training will be provided and all roles are subject to an enhanced DBS check. Massage table and reflexology chair will be provided for treatments. Travelling expenses and parking reimbursed to volunteers.
Find out more

Calling all volunteers!

Heritage MK are working together and with Milton Keynes Council to help the residents and visitors of Milton Keynes connect with the history of the UK’s most successful New Town.

Although Milton Keynes new town heritage itself is only half a century old, there is a rich history of people living in the area of the city. From the Victorians to the Romans and even the Stone-Age, promoting this rich history is the work that the member organisations of Heritage MK specialise in.

In 2019, we have three exciting projects in conjunction with the Council asking for volunteers. These are:

New Town Heritage Explorers – Exploring our unique buildings, places and spaces through events and activity creating a national case study for Milton Keynes as a leading new town reinventing itself and planning for its next fifty years.

MK Skate – Social history research, city centre trail, and a major exhibition about the important role Milton Keynes has played in UK skateboarding culture. The project will also showcase and preserve the amazing archive three generations have collected for the city.

A Festival of Creative Urban Living – www.afcul.org. An amazing set of installations on Midsummer Boulevard East at the heart of the City Centre, celebrating ‘The Built, the Unbuilt and the Unbuildable’. The Festival Programme will take place from 27 September to 13 October and will ask people to show the world what is great about ‘MK’ and what they would like to see for its future, starting with the reshaping of the city centre.

Each project will require a number of volunteers from researchers, transcribers, events coordinator, exhibition stewards, visitor hosts to photographers, filmmakers, cycle tour guides and much, much more. For more information, or to sign up your interest, go to the Heritage MK volunteers website at:
https://heritagemk.volunteermakers.org

Willen Hospice: Community Fundraiser

35 hours per week – includes evenings and weekends
£21,000 – £23,000 pro rata per annum

As part of our wider dedicated Fundraising team, you will proactively work with our two community fundraisers to deliver an effective community fundraising programme. The programme generates vital income for the hospice by engaging with supporters and volunteers in a range of community settings.
Find out more

MK Community Foundation Community Grants

Community Grants up to £5,000
Deadline 2 August 2019

MK Community Foundation award a range of grants to charities and community groups that help to make a positive impact in Milton Keynes and benefit local people.
Find out more

Space to Connect Fund launched – new £1.6 million partnership with the Co-op Foundation

The Space to Connect Fund is a £1.6 million partnership with the Co-op Foundation to help community organisations identify, improve and protect spaces where people can connect and co-operate. This Fund builds on the Government’s commitment to unlock the potential of community spaces as part of its Loneliness Strategy.

The Fund is now open for applications, with grants of up to £50,000 available across England. The invitation to tender is also now open to become our ‘Space to Connect’ Evaluation and Learning partner. Up to £160,000, including VAT, is available and we aim for the contract to start in October 2019 and run until June 2021.

The closing date for tender responses is midday on Friday 30 August 2019.

Wolverton Summer Festival
14th July 2019 12-8pm

Cinema at the Sky Room: This Week

MK Gallery is partnering with Curzon Cinemas to bring audiences in Milton Keynes the very best independent film programme, from art house films to classic movies.
Find out more and book here