Welcome to our next exciting face-to-face VCSE Forum on 3 May 2023 from 10.00am to 12.00 noon, with a packed agenda and plenty of opportunities for discussion, to ask questions and express your views. The Leader of Kingston Council, Cllr Andreas Kirsch, will be in attendance.
Venue: KingsGate Church, 161A Clarence Street, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 1QT
The 2-hour face-to-face session will be focusing on:
VCSE Strategy – What next?
The VCSE strategy ‘Empowering People, Strengthening Communities’ has been welcomed and endorsed by RBK – we now need to focus on its implementation.
This session provides an opportunity to discuss what can be achieved in the first year and how that can be managed. We will look at each of the five objectives to establish actions and next steps. A Strengthening Communities Group will be established to shape the approach and oversee the development of the delivery plan. Please join this group if you want to be more involved.
Joanna Moulton, Programme Director, Community Hubs, RBK Louise Footner, Assistant Director for Culture, Communities and Engagement, RBK and Sanja Djeric Kane, CEO of Kingston Voluntary Action will set the scene for these important developments.
RBK Community Resilience Fund
RBK has launched a Community Resilience fund worth £720k that will be available to build resilience in community groups, enabling them to continue to offer much needed services for residents. This will include supporting groups whose future is in jeopardy due to the economic climate’s impact on core costs (such as rent or energy bills) as well as supporting projects to increase community resilience.
There will be three rounds of funding – the first will be between 24 April and 31 May. Come and find out more about how this fund will work: grants of up to £3,000 will be available for core costs, up to £5,000 for small projects to maintain or develop a community resilience response, or up to £20,000 to develop a new approach.
Kate Leyland, Corporate Strategy and Partnerships Manager RBK, will provide more details and answer any questions.
Developing the resilience of the local VCSE sector to emergency incidents
KVA has been working with RBK’s Resilience Forum to explore how the VCSE sector can contribute to the borough’s response to emergency situations. Come and hear more about the role the sector can take in advance of, during, and after emergency incidents.
Chris Begley, the Boroughs’s Resilience Forum Chair, will explain what this means and how VCSE organisations can get involved.
Tech, digital and data support programmes
KVA’s digital team, Superhighways, will share details of their currently funded tech, digital and data support programmes aimed at smaller charities and community groups in Kingston and across London. There are lots of opportunities to upskill in these areas and book one-to-one advice sessions.
Find out also about current digital inclusion initiatives to support communities who may face digital exclusion, including one-to-one basic digital skills support for Kingston residents, sim cards for those experiencing data poverty and new Digital Champions training programmes.
Kate White, the Superhighways Manager, will give more details and answer any questions you may have.
We look forward to seeing you there!
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