Safeguarding Level 1 Training 15 November

A Safeguarding Level 1 course will run on Tuesday 15^th November 4pm - 6:30pm  in the JM room at VAMT, which is free of charge 

The Learning Outcomes are…

¢  Have an awareness of what is meant by child abuse and neglect and learn about the possible signs, symptoms and indicators of abuse and neglect

¢  Understand the main legislation and policies for working together to safeguard children,

¢  Know how to report any concerns that a child had been abused or neglected

If you'd like to attend, please email training@vamt.net

Cruse Merthyr Tydfil/RCT are recruiting volunteers

Welsh Government Consultation on Building Resilient Communities/Communities First

The Welsh Government have recently opened a consultation regarding a new approach to building resilient communities and Communities First.  Please find further details below plus a link to the consultation.   Please encourage your members/clients to complete the survey.

The new approach focuses on three priority areas of Employment, Early Years and Empowerment. By prioritising in this way, we want to create communities that offer children the best start in life, communities that are ready and able to work and communities where the voices of local people are heard clearly when decisions are made.

As well as asking for your views on how these priorities can support greater prosperity and resilience, we are seeking views from people who have personal experience of Communities First. The programme was launched 15 years ago, and has supported many people in some of our most deprived communities. In that time, however, our economy and society have been through huge changes. Consequently, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities has said that he is minded to phase out the Communities First programme. He is clear that the employability programmes, Communities for Work and LIFT, will continue.

http://gov.wales/topics/people-and-communities/communities/talk-communities/?lang=en

Do you have clients who need a bed?

Taff Bargoed Dvelopment Trust currently have approximately 30 beds to donate - they would need to be collected from the Centre.  If you are interested, please contact Howard Jackson on 01443 710827 or enquiries@tbdt.co.uk

Men's Sheds Coffee Morning - it's not in a shed!

Exercise in the outdoors - new group starting in Merthyr Tydfil

Join us at the Access2Books Launch

Urgent - Only 6 days left to nominate for the Nicola Park Award

Oustanding Contribution to Volunteering in Merthyr Tydfil - Nicola Park Award 2016

The closing date for nominations for this year's award is 24 October 2016.  This award marks an outstanding contribution to volunteering in Merthyr Tydfil, and this year, for the first time, is open to both organisations and individuals.

 A nomination form and further details are available here  and in Welsh here

The award will be presented at VAMT's AGM on 18 November at the Bessemer Hotel in Dowlais.

Please think about who you could nominate - if you need a hard copy, then contact Karen Foley on 01685 353913 or call in to the Voluntary Action Centre.

Fundraising Quiz Night Winners

Last night saw an excellent £755 raised for the Merthyr Tydfil Community Trust. The winners of the quiz were No Great Expectations who are pictured with the Chair of the Trust, Les Byard. Thanks you to all who participated and helped make this a very successful and enjoyable evening.

Cwm Taf: Understanding Our Communities

Dear Partner,

Over the past several months, the Cwm Taf Population/Wellbeing Assessment Core Group have been working to produce a series of briefing documents. These documents have been categorised under the seven client groups of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act and the four themes of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act and have been compiled with the input of key representatives from services, organisations and communities.

The next stage of the population/wellbeing assessments is to continue the conversation with these stakeholders. Conversations going forward need to be around the headlines that are emerging from the briefing documents. Briefing documents, containing these headlines are available on the Cwm Taf Hub.

We are holding the following series of stakeholder workshops in October and November:

Carers (inc. young carers and carers of older people)	Cultural wellbeing	Mental health (adults/children
Social Services and Wellbeing Population Needs Assessment	Wellbeing of Future Generations Wellbeing Assessment	Social Services and Wellbeing Population Needs Assessment
20/10/2016	26/10/2016	31/10/2016
9:30am-12:30pm	9:30am-12:30pm	1:00pm-4:00pm
The Feel Good Factory Abercynon Road, Ynysboeth, RCT CF45 4XZ	Hawthorn Leisure Centre Fairfield Lane, Hawthorn, RCT CF37 5LN	Coleg Y Cymoedd Aberdare Campus Cwmdare Road, Aberdare, RCT CF44 8ST

Environmental wellbeing	Older people (inc. dementia) and physical disability (inc. sensory impairment)	Economic wellbeing
Wellbeing of Future Generations Wellbeing Assessment	Social Services and Wellbeing Population Needs Assessment	Wellbeing of Future Generations Wellbeing Assessment
04/11/2016	08/11/2016	10/11/2016
10:30am-3:15pm	1:00pm-4:00pm	1:00pm-4:00pm
Orbit Business Centre Rhydycar Business Park, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 1DL	Rhondda Fach Sports Centre East Street, Ferndale, RCT CF43 3HR	Park and Dare Theatre Station Road, Treorchy, RCT CF42 6NL

Violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence	Learning disability (inc. autism)	Social wellbeing	Children and young people (inc. looked after children and children in need)
Social Services and Wellbeing Population Needs Assessment	Social Services and Wellbeing Population Needs Assessment	Wellbeing of Future Generations Wellbeing Assessment	Social Services and Wellbeing Population Needs Assessment
15/11/2016	17/11/2016	22/11/2016	23/11/2016
9:30am-12:30pm	1:00pm-4:00pm	TBC	9:30am-12:30pm
Pontypridd Deaf Club 1, Lanpark Road, Graigwen, Pontypridd, RCT CF37 2DH	Canolfan Soar Pontmorlais, Merthyr Tydfil CF47 8UB	TBC	Pontypridd Rugby Club Sardis Road, Pontypridd, RCT CF37 1HA

 I am writing to invite you to attend one or more of these workshops, as appropriate to your role.

All workshops will be independently facilitated, with the aim of all sessions being used to begin to explore some of the detail behind the emerging headlines, why issues/gaps exist and how stakeholders can look to develop joint solutions.

The outputs of these workshops will contribute to the redrafting of the briefing documents, which will then become the Population Needs Assessment and Wellbeing Assessment. Both documents will be key to planning, policy commissioning decisions and service design and delivery across public service organisations and across Cwm Taf. This is your opportunity to ensure that your service/organisation is represented.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

·         Please book your place at the session of you choice by using our online booking form. Hard copies of the booking form are available on request.

·         Booking for each event will close two working days before the workshop.

·         More information on the event will follow.

·         Where possible, please register for only one event per person. Places at events are limited. Please consider service representation at relevant events to avoid duplication and allocation of multiple spaces to the same service/organisation.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Regards,

Understanding Our Communities