Making good - The future of the Voluntary Sector is a collection of essays by voluntary sector leaders.
In these essays, 29 voluntary sector leaders and commentators give their views on where and how voluntary organisations could add most value to society over the next decade.
Most are from the UK but there are also some illuminating contributions from or about other countries.
Manchester City Council has launched the main consultation on its 2015-17 budget options, along with a number of individual consultations on specific elements.
Options for consultation were agreed by the council’s Executive on Wednesday 26 November.
They aim to address an estimated funding shortfall of £59m in 2015/16, potentially rising to £90 million in 2016/17.
A lot of people in the local voluntary sector are going to be very angry today. They’re going to feel threatened, undervalued, rejected and hopeless. The Council’s budget proposals will make horrible reading for many people who’ve been working very hard for a long time to make a difference in the city. For some groups this will mean cuts to services and activities. For many it will mean many job losses – the sector is an employer too, after all. For some this may be the last straw and we may see the end of a number of organisations that have made a great contribution to the city.
Manchester City Council have released the following information on their budget cuts:
‘The Council’s difficult financial situation has seen us make £250million of cuts in the last few years.
This year our overall budget is just over £560m.
The latest financial indications from the government show further reductions are required. The Council has therefore produced options to address an estimated funding shortfall of £59m in 2015/16, possibly rising to £91 million in 2016/17.
Since 2010 the amount we have to spend on services has dropped by over 40%.
The ‘double benefit’ that employee volunteering has both for the community and for employees and the organisations they work for, is highlighted in a new research report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Volunteering to Learn: employee development through community action aims to delve into the link between volunteering and employee development in order to understand how employees develop through participating in volunteering schemes.
Would you like to get a free qualification, develop your skills, apply your experiences and enhance your CV? Then volunteering as a Digital or Work Club Mentor might be for you.
By volunteering as a Digital or Work Club Mentor, you will make a difference to people’s lives through your expertise and shared experiences, get some valuable work experience and develop your skills.
Four weeks to go and the Spirit of Manchester Festival is building up nicely.
Out of the many reasons I applied for an internship, probably the one I dwelt on most was the fear of being unprepared for the real world come summer 2015 when I graduate. As I scrolled through available opportunities nothing appeared to spring out at me and I had almost become resigned to the fact that I would return home for the summer in search of any sort of employment that would tide me over till September.
Manchester City Council are inviting proposals from interested freelance individuals or consultants to submit proposals to secure this piece of work, which aims to build the capacity of the learning hubs network to better train, develop, deploy and support volunteers.
This project will provide an opportunity to continue to work with members of the learning hubs network on an intensive basis with a selected cohort of volunteers who are in a position to develop their role as work club leaders; trainers and advisors.
Silver Sunday, on 5 October 2014, is an annual day of free activities and events for older people across the UK. It aims to celebrate the value and knowledge they contribute to our communities and to combat the loneliness which affects many older people. A recent survey announced that 2/5 of older people regard their TV as their main form of company and Silver Sunday’s goal is to reach out to these isolated members of the community.