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November 2021
Hi
SENScot has been involved in the delivery of Scottish Community Alliance’s Pockets & Prospects Programme since its inception in 2018 and we’re now busy getting underway with this year’s 2022 Programme – now to be known as the Community Wellbeing Exchange.
Earlier this month we invited ‘notes of interest’ from Sport SEN members and the encouragingly high level of interest made selection a difficult job. We have tried to focus on geographical spread and on different sports, offering different approaches, with the participating organisations including: Eat Sleep Ride CIC, Projekt42, Outfit Moray, Kanzen Karate, Coach My Sport and Newmilns Snow & Sports Complex. The remaining participant organisations will be selected by our partner, CHEX and Scottish Communities for Health & Wellbeing. Participants will have access to an allocation of £1000 to spend on a wide range of activities and services that aim to address mental health & wellbeing.
We are now putting out a Supplier Call Out – for organisations who may be interested in providing services and activities. These activities and services listed will aim to address mental health & wellbeing needs, whether in relation to the needs of their workforce, the people who access their services or to the wider community.
If you would like to be added to the list of suppliers, please get in touch. NB: All activity will have to take place by the end of May 2022.
All the best,
Mary
Development Manager
Social Enterprise Network Scotland
Learning & Knowledge Exchange Opportunities
Ending the Need for Food Banks draft plan consultation
Earlier this month we hosted a session with SEN members to collate views and opinions that would inform a response to SG’s consultation on Ending the Need for Foodbanks. SENScot submitted a response on behalf of SEN members, in the hope that the voices of frontline social enterprises can be heard in shaping the Draft National Plan. This SEN joint
response has sought to focus on the key issues raised during our own consultation with members. These included: the complexity of the issue; the need to facilitate culture change; and how to increase community engagement. SEN members were clear that this was far more than just ‘access to finance’ – and that to make any genuine impact, broader societal difficulties also need to be addressed. Social enterprises – working on the frontline – are well-placed to share with Govt the ‘holistic support’ that is required – and would welcome further discussion with Scottish Govt.
Community-led Food Networks Near You
The Community Food Health (Scotland) team within Public Health Scotland are in the process of pulling together information on local Community-led Food Networks (both established and developing) across Scotland. Check their website to find a local network in your area or for contact details on to provide further info on your local area.
Brighton & Hove Partnership - Setting up a Community Kitchen: Our Story (Wednesday 2nd February, 10.30am-12pm)
Since they opened their Community Kitchen in May 2018, Brighton & Hove Partnership have received many enquiries from people looking to learn from their experience to inform setting up similar projects elsewhere. In response to this they are delivering this online webinar on for people interested. It’s being run on a donation basis to help towards staff time. More info.
The new National Care Service & Social Enterprise (Wednesday 16th February, 11.30am-12.30pm)
Hosted by Social Enterprise Scotland, this webinar will consider ‘What is the new National Care Service?’ and ‘How can social enterprises potentially influence and work the planned NCS?’ More info.
Fair Work in Practice Session (Wednesday 23rd February, 10.30am)
This session, jointly hosted by SENScot and SCVO, if designed to learn about and share Fair Work practices that social enterprises and the wider third sector have implemented within their organisation. In addition to speakers talking through Fair Work practices they have embraced; Scottish Government will also provide an update on the Fair Work Nation consultation and the upcoming refresh of the Fair Work Action Plan. Register here.
Co-shadowing Resources
Following on from the growing interest in Co-shadowing and last year’s virtual drop-in sessions, Outside the Box now have resources available to download on their website. These are informed by the suggestions people shared to help get started and include ‘Co-shadowing Examples’ and ‘Co-shadowing: Benefits & Outcomes’. SENScot will be continuing to work with Outside the Box to host more information sessions as this work is developed.
Thrive Learning Programme
The Thrive Learning Programme helps practitioners plans and evaluate physical activity funded by Spirit of 2012 Trust. It is free and helps practitioners understand more about how to use physical activity or sport to achieve a range of outcomes. More info.
P4P Free health checks
It was yet another tough year for organisations and our communities who once again have stepped up to the challenge to fill gaps in services and deliver new services. With greater focus on collaboration and procurement and following the successful uptake of our previous offer of free Collaboration or Procurement health checks to 10 enterprising third sector organisations in 2021, P4P are providing a further 10 organisations in Scotland the opportunity to take up our repeat offer in February 2022. More info.
SEN Member News
Nilupul Foundation provide health & wellbeing services in Dundee, including mindfulness sessions. In collaboration with Fairfield Community Food Larder, they have a free 6 week course called Food for Thought starting on Feb 1st. Participants are offered 2-hour weekly sessions combining mindfulness & demo & prep of a simple healthy budget meal. They are also provided with recipe instructions and a weekly meal bag to cook at home. This follows on from a successful pilot course run last year. They also have regular 4 week online meditation courses restarting in February - see here for more info on their programmes or contact Maggie on 07868 320503 to chat about bespoke mindfulness sessions offered to social enterprises/third sector organisations.
The Wee Retreat is looking for five organisations with 30+ employees based in the central belt of Scotland who want to make workplace wellbeing a priority in 2022 to be part of their exciting pilot programme with their Wellbeing at Work team. Find out more.
Into Work is currently conducting research into mentoring support for people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. If you have a disability or long-term condition, Into Work would really appreciate folk sharing their thoughts on mentoring. To do so, please complete this short survey before Wednesday 2nd February. Your views are important to them.
Respite Now CIC is pleased to be part of consortium accepted to deliver East Ayrshire community renewal fund training with JCP referrals. The Peace of Mind community program is also gaining traction with new groups in Fife and Scottish Borders to complement existing ones.
Scottish Sports Futures has a new brochure outlining the modules available through their training and accreditation programme - Education Through CashBack. Modules cover a variety of topics and are designed to offer personal and professional development opportunities for all participants. Practitioners are supported to take a person centred and inclusive approach and embed it within their practice, and young people are encouraged to learn and develop transferable skills which can be utilised throughout their lives. Topics include Mental Health and Wellbeing in Sport and Adverse Childhood Experiences in Sport. For a chat about whether these opportunities might be relevant for you, your organisation or the people you are working with contact Jude.
Equi-Power Central Scotland RDA Group is aiming to #StartSomethingSpecial for disability health and wellbeing services in the Central belt in 2022, with an ambitious plan to build a purpose designed RDA centre of excellence in Stirling. The planned centre will cater for therapeutic services for disabled children and adults all the way through to supporting athletes to sporting excellence at Special Olympic and Paralympic level. This legacy project has been 6 years in the planning and aims to open up the countryside to individuals with disabilities and help them gain from the physical and psychological benefits associated with spending time with horses, with participating in sport and from being in the great outdoors. Check out their Crowdfund here to support this visionary project.
Won Connect CIC has recently finished providing free digital skills training to members of Glasgow’s Golden Generation and have written a case study about it. Learning new digital skills is both great for the brain and can help reduce social isolation. Read case study. They are also looking for Tech donations to help run classes such as these - any donations of working tech such as laptops, tablets or smartphones can be directed to info@wonconnect.org.uk. You can also check out their professional and affordable digital services here.
Weekday Wow Factor is ready to waken your inner child with all the latest exciting activities in the coming year. Check out the New Year New Us programme.
Edinburgh Community Food has shared the latest February What’s On calendar and as always there’s lots to check out from Healthy Little Foodies to Online Health Talks.
CFINE is currently recruiting for an Inclusion Manager to join the team in Aberdeen (closing date 12noon, Friday 4th February). The team recently shared an update on The Big Christmas Food Appeal and you can read more on this here.
Falkirk Foundation similarly shared feedback on the biggest ever Festive Friends over the festive season in partnership with SPFL. Read more.
Other Health & Wellbeing News
Cross Party Group on Health Inequalities (Tuesday 1 February 2022, 12.30-1.45pm)
The next meeting will be chaired by co-convenor Brian Whittle MSP and the topic will explore ‘Active approaches to health inequalities affecting children and young people. Register here.
Social care data: the gap between word and deed
In the third of the ALLIANCE’s ‘Opinions on data and the National Care Service’, Alex Stobart of Mydex CIC writes about outstanding data gaps and challenges. Read here.
ALLIANCE Digital Gathering 2022 (21st-25th February)
The event will celebrate Scotland’s Year of Stories and other themes include sensory loss, national health, human rights, stigma reduction and the proposed new National Care Service. More info
Everyone Home Response to Ending the Need for Food Banks draft plan consultation
An important response to the consultation, and certainly one of the most significant, has come from the Everyone Home collective – a grouping of 36 organisations engaged in addressing homelessness in Scotland. With a long history of food provision, the collective members have invaluable learning and experience to share. See the Everyone Home Response.
Tools for Tackling Food Poverty
This publication from Sustain showcases some of the tools used by local food poverty alliances from around the UK, including approaches to evaluation, mapping community food service provision and building and strengthening community food networks through collective action.
Tenders & Funding Opportunities
Go to Partnership for Procurement (P4P) and Public Contract Scotland to check current and forthcoming tender opportunities. Some relevant examples below:
Contract Notice: Inverclyde Council – Framework for Counselling Services (Deadline 31.1.22)
Contract Notice: Clackmannanshire Council – Transport for Education and Social Care Purposes (Deadline 1.7.22)
Some current relevant funding opportunities are listed below, but for fuller listing go to SCVO-funding.
#ShiftThePower Scotland Comic Relief Fund has now opened
#ShiftThePower supports organisations with passionate people to make meaningful change in their communities. This year the fund will be open to grassroots organisations and charities with an income of £250k or less whose work fits one of the following strategic themes: Children Survive and Thrive and Mental Health Matters. (Closing date 12pm, 8th March 22)
Round 19 of the Scottish Edge Awards is open until 2pm on Tuesday 15th February 2022. Scottish Edge has produced this launch video – giving more detail on the range and categories of awards available.
Workplace Equality Fund (WEF) is now open for applications from Third sector organisations – including registered charities – that are based in Scotland are also eligible to apply. To be considered, these organisations must partner with another organisation. The third sector organisation can partner with a private or public organisation and serve as the equality-related expert with respect to the identified priority group. Applications accepted until 11th April.