Imago trustee in list of most influential disabled people
We are so pleased that one of our trustees, Andy Barrow, has been named on the 2020 Shaw Trust Disability Power 100. This is an annual publication of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK. You can find out more about the Power 100 here. Andy is a Triple Paralympian, three-time European gold medallist and former captain of the Great Britain wheelchair rugby team. Andy now runs his own company providing bespoke workshops, training and seminars on themes of performance and diversity.
Carers News
Imago supports over 9,000 Young Carers in Kent, East Sussex, Southwark, Havering and Bexley. We have continued to support our Young Carers throughout the lockdown, mostly online but we are now able to offer socially distant activities such as a Ghost Hunt at Tonbridge Castle this half term.
One example is weekly online wellbeing sessions for Young Carers aged 5-18 in Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells. The groups are on Zoom and have been running since the start of the lockdown in March. The Young Carers have been participating in a wide range of activities to promote their wellbeing. Activities have included meditation, breathing, yoga, dance, art, music, baking, games, quizzes and photography. The Young Carers recently had a spooky themed arts and crafts session.
Our East Sussex Young Carers have produced photos and artwork to share their thoughts and feelings during COVID-19. They have been a real support for their families and some of our Young Carers have been nominated for Senlac Rotary Young Covid Hero awards. East Sussex Young Carers are receiving their awards during half term week from the Rotary Club of Senlac, who cover the areas of Rother and Hastings. One parent said: “It’s lovely that my son is being recognised for the support he gives me, and seeing him in the newspaper made us so proud”.
In the summer Young Carers from our London projects joined in a Visual Art workshop over Zoom run by Create artist Jack Cornell. Following on from the Visual Art visit, Rod was inspired by the artworks the participants had made, and he set up the project he is currently working on. In this project he invited members of the public to his space in Surrey Quays and make furniture out of cardboard. His aim is to fill the space with cardboard furniture, inspired by the cardboard creations the Imago Young Carers made in mid-August!
We also support Young Adult Carers aged 16-25 and adult carers aged 18 and over in Dartford, Gravesham, Swanley and Swale. The support on offer includes online Adult Carers Groups for those carers that care for an adult. If you are interested in our online carers group please call our Hub team on 0300 011 1965. Visit the website www.imago.community for more details about any of our services and for how to refer.
Barnardo’s See, Hear, Respond project
The Barnardo’s See, Hear, Respond project has been running for three months with Imago delivering on the Reintegration to Education strand, supporting Young Carers and their families after lockdown and the anxiety of Covid 19 with the return to school.
We have offered one to one support to Young Carers where we have:
Explored coping and distraction techniques for dealing with anxiety and panic attacks.
Designed time tables for those in year 11 having to manage a demanding revision timetable with their caring responsibilities.
Used the control circle activity to identify what is in the Young Carer’s control and what is outside of it.
Made incentive charts.
Another key area of success has been the attendance of parents at our Anxiety Workshop. For one group we identified four single parents with similar health conditions who felt isolated and alone. This had been exasperated during lockdown and was impacting the whole family. We introduced them to each other and helped them to share their feelings and experiences and discuss their concerns. This has reduced their feelings of anxiety and they have set up their own peer support group using WhatsApp.
Occasionally we have had to negotiate part time flexible school attendance and this process has resulted in greater understanding from the schools and reduced stress for families.
Overall the project has resulted in an increase in school attendances and access, a reduction in anxiety levels, improved mental health and increased family cohesion and wellbeing.
CAMEO ‘Come and Meet Each Other’
The CAMEO programme aims to help people aged 50+ in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley who are socially isolated and experiencing loneliness due to life changing circumstances. It is a 12 week programme, with participants attending 1 or more themed weeks, which are linked to the ‘Ways to Wellbeing’ wheel. This includes: social events, confidence building activities, guest speakers and learning activities. The most important thing is meeting each other.
Our new online meeting forum, launched this Autumn via Zoom, has been really well received. Recent highlights include a talk from Julie Hunt from the Kent Wildlife Trust where participants found out what the charity was doing in their area and how they could ‘Think global and act local’. We also had a quiz, ‘gentle fitness’ online session, practiced mindfulness and relaxed to the music of a harpist and had a session on safety from our community wardens. We are currently organising our online Christmas crafting sessions, quizzes and a festive season on-line bingo game.
Our Gravesend group meet every Tuesday and our Dartford and Swanley groups meet every Thursday. To refer on to this programme please contact our hub on 03000 111 965.
Donate your inkjet cartridges
Do you have used printer inkjet cartridges? We want them please! Simply print a free postage label, post off and each cartridge can be worth up to £2 to help us support Young Carers. Follow our link for labels: http://recycle4charity.co.uk/Register/C93503. In the last year we have raised over £200, enough to fund 4 Young Carer workshops! Thank you.
Local News
There's still time to claim for Free School Meals this half term
Kent County Council has adedicated helpline for free school meals during half term. The county’s families most in need will receive supermarket vouchers for each eligible child to ensure they are able to feed their children outside of term.
Families who apply will receive one voucher of £15 per child. Anyone eligible for free school meals who needs extra financial support to help feed their children can visit www.kent.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals or call the dedicated helpline on03000 41 24 24. You have until next Monday 2nd November 5pm to apply.
Meanwhile, the KentTogether helpline is open for any other Kent resident who needs support with food, collection of medication and prescriptions and other urgent needs during the pandemic, 24 hours a day. You can get help by visiting www.kent.gov.uk/kenttogether or calling 03000 41 92 92.
If your child lives in an area we work in: Kent, East Sussex, Havering, Bexley, Southwark and you are looking for support please visit https://facebook.com/ImagoYoungPeopleSupport/ where you will find listings of meal offers.
Community Champions
Medway Council, Kent County Council and NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are encouraging residents to sign up to become COVID-19 Community Champions. The community champions will share the latest government advice and key messages with their local community, friends, family, neighbours and colleagues.
As well as sharing messages about the latest guidance champions will also provide feedback about how the pandemic has affected specific communities and the effectiveness of their covid-19 communications. Research has suggested that many residents do not trust the messages they hear through the media and from public sector bodies. The role of the champions is to help provide a clear and consistent voice for the most important messages.
The Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership
The Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership is a partnership between national and local voluntary and community sector organisations. The partnership exists to ensure that information about local unmet need is being captured and fed up to national level and wherever possible ensure that need is met. The partnership is collating data on the voluntary sector response to the immediate crisis and the delivery of support to those at risk.
Imago is working on this project alongside Canterbury and Herne Bay Volunteer Centre, Medway Voluntary Action, Action with Communities in Rural Kent and Kent Coast Volunteering. If you feel that there is a community that is being poorly served during this pandemic then please let us know. You can contact Wendy McGeachy at Imago wendy.mcgeachy@imago.community.
Community Heroes
Community Heroes is a new scheme from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council to recognise the local heroes of the pandemic. Are there people in your organisation who deserve recognition? To find out more and nominate visit http://tunbridgewells.gov.uk/heroes.
The Kickstart Scheme
The new Kickstart Scheme aims to help young people aged 16-24 into work. The Kickstart Scheme is a UK government initiative to provide funding to employers to create 6-month paid job placements for young people currently on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment. The job placements should support the participants to develop the skills and experience they need to find work after completing the scheme. Funding is available for 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions. Wrap around support funding is allocated per placement. Employers must be able to commit to providing 30 placements. In response to the practical limitations of this for small organisations, the government has allowed for the creation of Gateway agencies (formerly known as intermediaries) to manage financial transactions between themselves as government and individual providers.
So if you are unable to meet the minimum of 30 jobs to apply direct, you need to apply through an intermediary like Social Enterprise Kent. Email kickstart@sekgroup.org.uk to register your interest. To find out more about Kickstart, go to: www.kickstartkent.org.uk.
Local Cultural Recovery Fund Successes
As part of the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture, the #HereForCulture campaign has been launched to help support Britain’s globally renowned arts, culture and heritage industries. Organisations across these sectors were encouraged to apply for funding designed to support the cultural sector’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund is being released in a series of tranches. Local awards include £154k to the Spa Valley Railway, £250k to the Trinity Theatre, £170k to the Tunbridge Wells Forum, £444k to the Stag Community Arts Centre and £500k to the Assembly Hall Theatre.
Surviving Winter
Kent Community Foundation (KCF) has launched a Surviving Winter campaign called Knock and Check! Help reduce the number of avoidable winter deaths by looking out for those more elderly and vulnerable in your community. Each year there are around 1600 avoidable winter deaths across the county. KCF is asking the people of Kent to check on their elderly neighbours during the colder months when they are most at risk. Knock & Check is simple - small actions make a big difference within communities and will help bring essential information about services which can offer a lifeline to the more elderly and isolated. Download their Knock and Check booklet.
Find out more here - https://kentcf.org.uk/knockandcheck.
Kent County Council Budget Consultation
KCC is consulting residents as it faces its toughest financial challenge. Coping with the demands of Covid-19 has required a huge increase in spending at the same time as reductions in its income from council tax and business rates. KCC is now looking ahead to its budget for 2021-22 and launched a consultation on 14 October, asking residents about their preferences on the tough decisions the council will have to consider in order to balance its budget. The consultation runs until 24 November 2020 and the document and questionnaire can be found here: www.kent.gov.uk/budget.
National News
Next week is Trustees Week (and Stress Awareness Week!)
Trustees’ Week runs from 2 to 6 November 2020. The Trustees Week website gives information about the activities and events taking place which include webinars and an online panel on organisational resilience for trustees. We will be posting information, including local trustee vacancies, throughout the week on our social media pages. For example Bradbourne Riding for the Disabled Association, Art Without Boundaries, Friends for Families and Compaid currently have trustee vacancies.
Our own trustees have provided quotes on what being a trustee means to them. We will also take the opportunity to thank our trustees.
“I would like to share how valued and experienced our trustee board and all our volunteers are and how we couldn’t do what we do without them!”
Caroline Shaw, Chief Executive, Imago
Free Psychological First Aid Training
Public Health England has launched an updated online Psychological first aid training module that aims to increase awareness and confidence to provide support to people affected by COVID-19. This course is open to everyone and more information can be found here.
National Emergencies Trust gives £1.5m to 3 charities working with Covid-19 at-risk groups
The three organisations are all supporting people who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The National Emergencies Trust will give £1.5m each to three charities because of the work they do with people who are at elevated risk during the coronavirus pandemic. Age UK, Shelter and the mental health charity Heads Together will receive the funding with a focus on remote services, including helplines and digital services. The three charities will join the LGBT+ Consortium, the disability support network DPO Covid-19 Coalition, Refuge, the refugee and asylum-seekers support consortium led by Refugee Council, and Cruse Bereavement Care as the NET’s national partners. Age UK, Shelter and Heads Together have all seen “significant increases in demand” since March, in particular from those seeking charitable support for the first time, according to an NET statement.
Source: Third Sector
Volunteering in Response to Covid-19
Local Trust has published its sixth briefing as part of its rapid research series. This research series focuses on the Covid-19 responses across 26 communities in England, and how they will recover. This briefing uses insights from across these communities to explore questions about what volunteering is taking place, who is getting involved, how it is organised, whether new forms of volunteering are emerging, and whether volunteers’ energy can be sustained as the pandemic continues. Their research is indicating that engaging people at the grassroots level has been more effective than national or regional command-and-control volunteer initiatives.
Funding News
Small Charities Coalition Funding Talks
If you haven’t yet accessed this then you should. The Small Charities Coalition has seen a rise in audience numbers as more people find out about the usefulness of an hour long session with a funder. Recent highlights include Flora Craig from the Garfield Weston Foundation where 412 logged on and yesterday Nicky Lappin from the Tudor Trust spoke to 425 people from around the country. The funders have said that it is an excellent way to reach so many organisations at once.
Garfield Weston Foundation
With this funder there are no deadlines to worry about and there is no formal application form. They get around 4,000 applications a year, with around 2000 being successful. The Foundation funds core costs and project costs. Priorities include the arts, community, education, environment, faith, health, museums and heritage, welfare and youth. Find out more here - https://garfieldweston.org/
They have recently launched the £25 million Weston Culture Fund. The fund will support mid to large scale cultural organisations that have been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Performing and visual arts organisations, arts centres, and accredited museums and galleries across the UK with a minimum income of £500,000 in a typical year, can apply for funding. This fund comes with a deadline: 9th November 2020.
Tudor Trust
The Tudor Trust has a strong focus on marginalisation and supporting organisations that are embedded in their communities. They receive more applications than they can fund so they have a straightforward two-stage application process designed to reduce the time, effort and resources organisations spend on their first approach. Only 1 in 8 applications go beyond the first stage but if you get to the second stage you are very likely to be funded.
Community grants of up to £5,000 available In Sevenoaks
Each year Sevenoaks District Council provides grants to support the work of voluntary and charitable organisations across the District. Next year the Council has £50,000 available for grants for local organisations. Grants of up to £5,000 are available. To apply for a grant, visit their Community Grants page. The deadline is 5pm on Friday 13 November 2020.
Change to Tesco Bags of Help Scheme
Due to the continued crisis Tesco has decided not to resume in store voting in 2020. During October, November and December Tesco will be providing grants of up to £1000 to support projects focused on local children and young people. Eligible applicants include charities, voluntary and community organisations.
CAF Resilience Fund
The Charities Aid Foundation has launched a new £20 million fund. Grants will range from £10,000 to £100,000 and are intended to deliver rapid relief from the impact of Covid-19. This fund will support those working with vulnerable and disadvantaged groups such as those living in poverty, Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, children and young people, the unemployed, the homeless, people with physical or learning disabilities and those pushed into crisis because of Covid-19.
Both registered and unregistered charitable organisations, including Community Interest Companies can apply and grants can be spent on core costs. The deadline is midday on 10 November 2020.
Smallwood Trust – Covid-19 Frontline Women’s Fund
The COVID-19 Frontline Women’s Fund is being delivered by the Smallwood Trust, supported by The National Lottery Community Fund. The National Lottery Community Fund has committed almost £500,000 to the fund, which will be used to provide support to organisations that are working with women most at risk of poverty and financial hardship due to the pandemic. Organisations can apply for grants between £5,000 and £25,000. Funds can pay for core and frontline staff salaries, running costs/overheads, project costs and goods and equipment to support the adaption of frontline services. Organisations must have an annual income of less than £250k. Priority will be given to organisations supporting and led by BAME women, women with disabilities and financially vulnerable LGBT+ women. The deadline is 16th November 2020.
The Grocers Charity
The Grocers’ Charity typically provides one-off grants up to £5,000 for registered charities. There is a two-stage application process.
Deadlines for an initial enquiry:
14 November (if invited, 2nd stage application decisions are in March)
10 January (if invited, 2nd stage application decisions are in April)
9 March (if invited, 2nd stage application decisions are in June).
£1m Coronavirus Fund
The online fundraising platform Localgiving will be launching a £1m match funding campaign on Tuesday 27th October. Building on the success of previous match funding campaigns, such as Grow Your Tenner, Localgiving is announcing its biggest ever campaign to support organisations during this difficult time. The campaign will match donations made via the Localgiving website. Find out more here - https://localgiving.org/about/covid-fund.
And finally .....
Sources include: Charity Commission, DSC, NAVCA LINX, NSPCC, NCVO, Small Charities Coalition and Bates, Wells and Braithwaite. If you would like to submit an article or provide feedback on the newsletter please email Wendy McGeachy at Imago – wendy.mcgeachy@imago.community.
Contact details for Imago
Our head office is located at 17-19 Monson Road, Tunbridge Wells – 01892 530330 - and we have project delivery offices in 10 locations across Kent, Medway, East Sussex, and London (Bexley, Havering and Southwark).
