VAI Newsletter: 17 March 2022 - Celebrating 50 Years!

VAI News & Information

Voluntary Action Islington:
Help us make a volunteering opportunity more inclusive - we offer you £75 per group to participate.
Volunteers needed from diverse communities to help primary school children with their reading. Coram Beanstalk needs help to revise their materials. The VAI will support the delivery of 2-3 online focus groups and conduct semi-structured interviews on how to reach those who would like to help our local children. If your group wants to get involved in either the online focus group or interviews, your group will receive £75 for your contribution.
Register on Eventbrite for the one-hour online focus groups:
• Wednesday 23 March 1pm
• Tuesday 29 March 11pm
If you would like to attend a 30 to 45 minute semi-structured interview, please contact our new Volunteer Outreach Officer, Ruth Miller on ruth.miller@vai.org.uk to arrange a time.

New members of the team at VAI
Tim Adams, Volunteer Recruitment Officer, has joined the team to develop and co-ordinate volunteer recruitment and encourage the benefits of volunteering with organisations.
Ruth Miller, Volunteering Outreach Officer, will be promoting local volunteering and community participation opportunities to Peabody residents to improve their wellbeing, employability skills and isolation.

Calling all Islington Community Members!
We have 45 spaces on a FREE Introductory course on Community Organising. This course is a starting point for anybody who is interested in community organising and wants to learn how to engage people in social action. Participants will be introduced to the foundations of listening, power, and action.
Following this introduction we have a small number of places on the full 6-month online training programme where participants will graduate from accredited courses on Community Organising and Network Building, delivered by professional trainers from Community Organisers and The Social Change Agency.
We are looking to offer this training to a diverse group of people, representing different backgrounds, cultures and experience who can take their learnings back into the community and kickstart some form of positive social action. We are recruiting 15 participants from each of the 3 locality areas of Islington - North, Central & South.
More information here or contact our Networks Coordinator Charlton at charlton.brown@vai.org.uk to register your interest.

VAI & Islington Council Community Conversations meeting – 2 March 2022
Our recent meeting held on Zoom on the 2 March 2022 was well attended and included the latest data on Covid in Islington and how to live with the virus now restrictions have been lifted. Take a look on our website to view the recorded meeting via YouTube. You can also download the following documents: minutes of the meeting, Islington vaccinations & Covid data, and NCL vaccination conversation guide. Available here

Voluntary Action Islington’s website is providing resources for the vaccination uptake.
To increase the uptake of the Covid-19 Vaccine in Islington. VAI has introduced a vaccination resources webpage. It's for VCS organisations to inform of the benefits of being fully vaccinated and to protect their families, friends, community and vulnerable. View page here.

Voluntary Action Islington are pleased to announce a LinkedIn training workshop.
This workshop will be delivered in-person at our offices at 200a Pentonville Road N1 9JP. The 90 minute session will cover the fundamentals of LinkedIn, exploring its purpose, functionalities and advantages when it comes to building your professional network and individual or company profile. It is aimed at the voluntary and community sector in Islington. More info & book here.

Volunteer Centre Islington:
Join us ONLINE for our Islington & Camden Volunteering Spring Fair
Thursday 7 April, 12.30-2pm via ZOOM.
Co-hosted by Voluntary Action Islington and Voluntary Action Camden
Organisations in Camden and Islington that are looking for volunteers can join the Spring Volunteering Fair. Volunteers looking to join the volunteering fair should book tickets here
Please Note: Tickets are only needed for people who want to find out about volunteering in Camden & Islington. If you are a non-profit that wants to recruit volunteers in Camden or Islington at the fair, then get in touch with Marta Aparicio @ Volunteer Centre Islington (marta.aparicio@vai.org.uk)

Call out for VCS Organisations to upload their volunteer opportunities to Simply Connect.
Now that restrictions have lifted we are seeing more volunteers coming to our centre in Islington and looking for volunteer roles. This is a call out to all Islington VCS to register or update their volunteering opportunities on Simply Connect here.

Trustees and committee members are needed in Islington organisations:
The Middle Eastern Women & Society Organisation Trustees Recruitment
MEWSO is a community-led voluntary organisation, set up 12 years ago and remains committed to improving the lives of women from minority backgrounds across London. We work with survivors of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ people and migrant women with no access to benefits and provide a range of wellbeing activities and advice on domestic violence and welfare for about 500 women each year. MEWSO is a member of several key local networks too, where our team contribute with expertise on socio-cultural taboos affecting women with migrant backgrounds. Visit website.

Disability Action In Islington Housing Disability Panel Member
The HDP is a diverse panel which examines issues facing disabled residents in social housing in Islington. For the past twelve years the panel has been feeding back to the council on housing services, policies, practice, and logistics. As well as working with the council, the panel works with external groups and organisations to identify issues and barriers which disabled individuals and communities face on a daily basis and makes recommendations for improvements and solutions. Role available in multi locations. More details here.

Eagle Recovery Project Trustee recruitment
Trustees with a background of either financial accounting or diversity equality & inclusion or have a commitment to working with people in recovery from addiction issues to enhance the knowledge of existing trustees to better understand and support the management team in their running of the Charity. More details here.

Islington People's Theatre Trustee/Board member
Love drama and theatre? Have a background in participatory arts? Are you interested in working with socially engaged theatre with communities in Islington. We are a newly established cutting-edge Applied Theatre Community Interest Company based in Islington and are looking for Trustees/Board members for our Community Interest Company. We're looking for volunteers with experience of fundraising, looking after social media accounts and finance. .Role available in multi locations. More details here.