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Connecting the cost of living to the environment

Prices are rising fast and the pressure is growing on our household finances. Food and fuel are getting more expensive, with prices rising at their fastest rate in 30 years. We are all feeling the pinch and have to make choices about what we spend our money on. In addition to this cost-of-living crisis, we are still grappling with a climate emergency, with many of us determined to do our bit to reduce our environmental impact.

We have thought abour how we can help bring communities together to connect the cost of living to helping the environment. We would like to run an information sharing/training workshop with partner organisations to showcase how we can all save money while improving our environmental impact.

The cost of going green can sometimes be difficult to understand. Big-ticket items such as new environmentally friendly central heating systems may be beneficial both financially and ecologically in the long-run, but require significant up-front investment. There has to be some truth to the idea that if we consume less, we can reduce our impact on the environment while spending less money. After all, consumption costs.

The difficulty though is finding the balance where we can make savings to our household expenditure and reduce our environmental impact, without having too detrimental an impact on our quality of life.

The purpose of this West Berkshire based event is to offer a one stop shop for people who want to feel galvanised to make changes in their daily lives to help themselves and their community move towards a net zero future, while doing all they can to make their household income go further. It’s all about making small changes that can have a big impact.

We are currently in the process of pulling together and finalising details of this free, online workshop to run week commending 27th June. Please register your interest by emailing Gemma.Pearce@ccberks.org.uk

Mortimer’s Jubilee Party When: Friday 3rd evening & all day Saturday 4th June

Mortimer’s Jubilee Party is taking place in and around The Fairground over the long weekend in June. Its fun, its free and its for all the family.

Events include Jubilee Village Procession; Battle of Britain Flypasts, Moulin Mortimer; Fun Fair; Fireworks; Commonwealth Kids Sports Day; Proms in the Park; Vintage Cars; Stalls; Food & Bar.

Cookham High Street Jubilee Party, June 5 @ 12:00 - 16:00. FREE

Cookham High Street will be closed off to traffic on Sunday 5th June 2022 to celebrate 70 years of Her Majesty’s reign and decorated with Jubilee flags and bunting. The High Street will have 75 trestle tables placed end to end in 2 adjacent rows set up along the length of the road with 500 chairs either side of the tables for people to sit. The community are invited to attend free of charge and are welcome to bring “ Jubilee Picnics “ along or enjoy hot food from the High Street restaurants and public houses who will be operating as normal . Children’s entertainment ….Live Music …..Bandstand Sing a Long …..Cake Competition…….and much much more.

READING is set to host a four-day extravaganza of events, parties and activities this June, in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, including a record-breaking 57 community street parties.

Eton Street Party. All are welcome but only those with tickets will be able to sit down at tables.Go to website for further details at www.etoncommunity.co.uk

The Emmbrook Trail Join us 28 May-6 June 2022 for a trail around Emmbrook to spot as many scarecrow displays as you can. Details on how to buy maps coming soon and all proceeds go to Emmbrook Infant and Junior School PTA.

Queen’s Jubilee Events in West Berkshire - including events at Shaw House, West Berkshire museum and libraries.

Slough Black Collectives brings you a Commonwealth Jubilee Celebration on Friday 3rd June @The Curve Slough

In Hungerford they are enjoying Beacon Lighting, a Jubilee picnic & entertainment and a Make & Bake competition

Sometimes it can be easier to reach out to someone else who may be feeling lonely. As part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport alongside the Department for Health and Social Care are continuing to encourage people to ‘Lift Someone Out of Loneliness’ by taking a simple action to help someone who may be feeling lonely. If we do this regularly, we can all help to lift each other up.

Find out how you can help to lift someone out of loneliness.

We know there are some fantastic organisation’s in Berkshire and while you may not need them now it is always good to know who and where we can turn to when we or a loved one needs a bit of support. Some are running special events this week including;

Stepping Stones @ Bracknell Recovery College, Friday 13th May @ 6pm. Do you sometimes feel isolated? different from other people? unable to cope? How can we help you? Suitbable for people aged 18 to 35 years who live in Bracknell Forest area. Click here.

Wokingham Recovery College offers free mental health and wellbeing courses, workshops and support groups. Anyone over 18 years of age living in Wokingham Borough can access these courses. Click here for their summer timetable. For those battling loneliness in Wokingham BC, The Friendship Alliance provides community spaces, cafés and pubs and will offer to host a “Friendship Table” on a regular basis, encouraging people to meet up, connect with others and feel supported.

Slough CVS have been running a variety of courses this week with other organisations. On Monday 23rd they’re running a free webinar for young people to help with their mental health and wellbeing. Click here for details. On Thursday 9th June they’re running a workshop looks on how to stress less effectivey. Click here for details.

Recovery in Mind is on a mission to improve the lives of adults living in West Berkshire with mental health challenges by delivering free of charge, inspiring and empowering courses. Take a look here

Sport in Mind ® is an award winning mental health charity that was formed in Reading, Berkshire in 2010 with a simple mission:

"To improve the lives of people experiencing mental health problems through sport and physical activity"

Take a look at their programme of events here

Ready Friends, project is all about supporting local people, communities and voluntary sector groups to reduce loneliness and social isolation in Reading. For further details click here.

Village Halls & Community Buildings

Low Carbon Community Buildings & Small Businesses Workshop

Monday 13th June 2022, 7pm - 9pm, online

All you need to know from an independent expert Tom Macdonald, Berkshire Project Officer from the Low Carbon Workplaces grant scheme.

About this event

Migrating to renewable power and renewable heating systems? Need to reduce fuel costs? All you need to know from an independent expert Tom Macdonald, Berkshire Project Officer from the Low Carbon Workplaces grant scheme. Every Hall or Small business is different and no single solution fits every hall, Tom will guide us through the many options and answer your questions.

The session will also cover;

• smart energy management

• energy saving options

• renewables & energy generation

• case studies

To book your place please click here.

Plunkett launches an online directory of assets of community value – ACVs Keep It in the Community (KIITC) is an online database of all community assets in England, such as pubs, shops and land, that have been nominated or registered as an Asset of CommunityValue (ACV).

First set up by mySociety, Keep It in the Community is now hosted by the Plunkett Foundation – one of the organisations involved in its original conception. The information on KIITC is supplied by members of the public and checked by Plunkett against council records.

The top 3 types of asset registered on the Keep It in the Community register are:

• Village halls

• Pubs

• Green spaces

Other types of asset include shops, cafes, post offices, sports clubs, allotments, religious buildings and libraries. There is data relating to 6,700 assets on Keep It in the Community register, of which 3,700 have an active ACV registration.

Read more via this link, or please contact Joe Hesketh (joe.hesketh@plunkett.co.uk) our Data Officer for more information about the platform and data we hold.

This payment is for all those in council tax bands A-D. For those paying by direct debit, this £150 payment should be made automatically in April 2022. If you don’t pay by direct debit, you need to contact your council to give them your bank details. They should be writing to all those who qualify, but this will ensure that you get it sooner.

If you support families in your work, please do pass this information on, as it has provided some reassurance to those worried about rising costs. You can also refer low-income families for telephone advice by emailing helen.dean@ccberks.org.uk.

For more advice for families on cutting costs of energy and water bills, please see Helen’s web-page on our website - https://ccberks.org.uk/our-projects/energy-advice-and-fuel-poverty/

Think CO - An introductory workshop to carbon monoxide (CO) risks at home - Free Carbon Monoxide awareness workshops

The Gas Safe Charity continues to offer more of their popular and free carbon monoxide awareness workshops.

Aimed at front line staff and volunteers, they help people who work in the homes of vulnerable people be more aware of the risks and to help prevent poisoning taking place.

The interactive workshop lasts an hour. For further details please click here.

Is the government doing enough to stave off the cost-of-living crisis in rural areas?

The Queen’s Speech made great play of the government’s commitment to strengthening the economy, levelling up and helping people with the cost-of-living crisis. But the proposed legislation appears bereft of new ideas for tackling disadvantage in rural areas.

Two Bills stand out. The Levelling up and Regeneration Bill, intends to “empower local leaders to regenerate their areas, and […] give residents more involvement in local development”. And the Energy Security Bill aims to “deliver […] transition to cheaper, cleaner, and more secure energy”.

At face value, these proposals sound laudable. We have long argued that rural communities should be given more powers to determine the future of their area. And the move to a Net Zero economy is a widely acknowledged necessity.

We should be excited. But unfortunately, we are not. There is very little by way of new financial support for the most vulnerable households, ambitions for energy security are limited to regional investment in large scale infrastructure, and proposals related to the planning system seem to place more emphasis on design and environmental impact than increasing the supply of affordable homes. The only glimmer of hope is the commitment to ensuring people have access to cash, a proposal expected in a Financial Services and Markets Bill. To the read the rest of this article from our national body Action with Communities in Rural England please click here.

Training Opportunities

Tuesday 21st June, 7pm, online

Free, online webinar for anyone from a rural or urban community in Berkshire interested in exploring the options for providing AFFORDABLE housing for people with a connection to their neighbourhood.

• This session will coverThe definitions of Rural affordable housing

• Ways to effectively communicate and engage well with your community

• How to gather valuable data to be confident that there is ‘need’ in your community

• Understanding how to read and use the data effectively

• What outcomes you can expect from a successful survey and how you can use it to progress. To book your place please click here

Showcasing Community-Led Housing Models. Monday July 4th 2022, online webinar. For further details click here.

An exciting opportunity to attend an online training workshop examining successful community-led housing models & case studies.

May Funding Opportunities

Please click on heading links for further information.

With thanks to Berkshire’s wonderful CVS’s for the information contained in this article; Volunteer Centre West Berkshire, Slough CVS, Wokingham & Bracknell InVOLve and Reading Voluntary Action.

Persimmon Community Champions Fund - We have supported thousands of community groups and charities over the years and need your help to ensure thousands more local good causes can benefit.

People’s Postcode Lottery Society Trust Funds - The aim of the Trust is to support small charities and good causes in the South of England to make a difference to their community for the benefit of people and planet.

The Dulverton Trust is an independent grant-making charity. We support UK charities and CIOs (charitable incorporated organisations) tackling a range of social issues, protecting the natural world, and preserving heritage crafts.

Englefield Charitable Trust - You do not need to apply on a special form but it would help us very much if you can answer the following questions as succinctly as possible in your application email. We receive hundreds of applications a year. The criteria are broad and include education, sport, community, social welfare and medical support, churches and faith groups, agriculture and conservation, heritage and the arts and the armed forces. Capital grants are preferred but revenue grants will be considered.

Versus Arthritis – Together Fund - Grants of £1,000 to £5,000 are available to support people with long term health conditions (particularly musculoskeletal conditions) to get active.

Parkinson’s UK Physical Activity Grants - Grants of up to £2,500 are available to support physical activity projects for people with Parkinson’s.

Magic Little Grants – deadline 31 October 2022. Localgiving is the UK’s leading independent non-profit online fundraising platform for charities and community groups.

The BlueSpark Foundation - Grants to schools, community groups, clubs, societies and not-for-project organisations which support the education and development of children and young people. The majority of grants awarded will be up to £2,000 but a handful of grants up to £5,000 may be considered.

Ibrahim Foundation - The professional staff works closely with the grants committee, which is comprised of both board members and non-board members representing a broad spectrum. Grants are awarded twice a year for works that help transform the UK. The grants range from £500 – £10,000. Extraordinary projects may receive grants up to £50,000..

Sported – Barlcays Community Football Fund - Sported have partnered with Barclays to launch the new Barclays Community Football Fund, offering small grants, training, kit and exclusive ticketing offers to make football more accessible in communities across the UK

Putting Communities First: Strategy Renewal Survey

The National Lottery Community Fund is starting a conversation about how it can best support UK communities to prosper and thrive in the future. We know that communities across the UK are facing a difficult time so we want to use this questionnaire's answers and the resulting conversation to explore how to best continue supporting communities

in the years ahead. This short survey closes on Friday 20th May and is part of the first phase of this conversation. We want to hear from people all across the UK, including individuals, informal groups and organisations, both those we’ve funded and those we haven’t, as well as any others who have views on the best ways might support communities in the future. By sharing your thoughts and ideas you can help ensure The National Lottery Community Fund, and the support we provide, remain fit and future-focused. Click here to share your views.

Agriculture & Rural Development Grants

Grants are available to large charitable groups and organisations in the UK for projects that further the objectives of the National Farmers Union Mutual Charitable Trust, particularly those that educate young people in rural areas and the relief of poverty in rural areas. We support charities in the UK working in agriculture, rural development and insurance.Next application deadline is 27th May. Click here for more info.

The Happiness Fund

Grants are available to support grassroots, neighbourhood-based community projects in the UK which improve mental health and wellbeing, inclusion, and learning and skills development in local communities. Deadline for applications is 17th June. Click here for more details.

GreenFest returning to West Berkshire in 2022

GreenFest is a community-driven sustainability event packed with expert speakers, thought-provoking exhibitions, a market showcasing sustainable products, live entertainment, and local food.

Additionally, there will be a wide range of professional sustainability advice on offer, activities, workshops and games for the children. And best of all, in GreenFest tradition – it will all be free! Our goal at GreenFest is to dismantle the misconceptions and barriers around sustainability and make it accessible for all. For further details please click here.