Here you can keep up with the latest from Reading’s 1000+ voluntary organisations and other voluntary sector news from around the area.
Mental health toolkit for practitioners working with families
26 February 2021
Mental health toolkit from the Troubled Families Programme The set of tools and resources below are being shared by DHSC, NHS England and NHS Improvement, Public Health England and MHCLG to local partners working with children, families and communities. (Information about the Brighter Futures for Children Mental Health Support Team, and online resources such as Kooth, can ...
NHS Blood and Transplant Covid-19 Plasma Donor Campaign
25 February 2021
NHS Blood and Transplant is currently leading an urgent programme to enable a planned UK trial that could produce a vital treatment to save more lives. This requires plasma donations from patients who have had Covid-19 and are now recovering. We welcome all donations but are seeking donations in particular from recovering male patients who are 18-65 ...
Berkshire Youth are recruiting for new Kickstart work placements – deadline 26 March 2021
25 February 2021
New scheme will give young people’s careers a kickstart Berkshire Youth are excited to announce that they are now recruiting for new Kickstart work placements. The deadline for applications is 26 March 2021. We know young people are struggling to find employment at the moment especially as certain sectors such as hospitality and retail have been particularly ...
Volunteers providing Nepali and Hindi translations at vaccine hub
25 February 2021
Dhan Bahadur Rana Magar, Jane Brener, Wendy Mentiply and Tek Bahadur Gurung (pictured above) are volunteers supporting the vaccination rollout at the Reading Central and Whitley Vaccination Hub. Dhan and Tek are with the Greater Reading Nepalese Community Association and have been welcoming people to the hub and providing Nepali and Hindi translations. Huge thanks to ...
Cold winter payments and support with energy costs
24 February 2021
A guide to support available for people struggling with fuel payments If you have any queries you can contact Reading’s WinterWatch Service, who work closely alongside Citizens Advice Reading. See below for some FAQs. I’m about to run out of energy on my pay as you go meter, what do I do? The resident will need to contact ...
Government roadmap to lifting lockdown – Spring 2021
24 February 2021
This article was last updated on 2/3/21 with updated resources in the ‘further support’ section. The government has published the ‘Covid-19 Response – Spring 2021’ setting out the roadmap out of the current lockdown for England. This explains how the restrictions will be lifted over time. A shorter summary is also contained at the start of ...
Get Berkshire Active – chair based exercise sessions
24 February 2021
Chair Based exercise classes are designed to help improve strength and balance from the comfort of your own chair while focusing on aiding muscles used in everyday activity – all performed at a pace that is suitable for the participant. Chair Based Exercise can be done at home and is easy to fit in to ...
Get ready for Census 2021!
24 February 2021
Households across Reading will soon be asked to take part in Census 2021 The census is a once-in-a-decade survey that gives us the most accurate estimate of all the people and households in England and Wales. It has been carried out every decade since 1801, with the exception of 1941. It will be the first time the ...
Would you be interested in supporting a School Streets scheme?
23 February 2021
A school in East Reading is hoping to promote walking and cycling to school, and clean air for everyone, by starting a School Streets scheme. What are School Streets? A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. The restriction applies to school traffic ...
Risk to elderly and vulnerable people – lost Thames Water contractor ID cards
22 February 2021
Message shared on behalf of Thames Valley Police We have been informed by Thames Water that a number of ‘Contractor’ identification cards have been lost in transit. The cards have been deactivated so they cannot be used to gain access to any Thames Water sites but there is concern that they could be used for criminal activity ...
Meet Tina Farrow, manager and director of Dee Caf Community Cafe
18 February 2021
Tina Farrow is the manager and director of Dee Caf Community Cafe CIC. Tina has previously worked in prison education, including as curriculum leader at a young offender institution, and also runs a food education business, Tinkatots, offering cookery classes for children. She spoke to us about why she started Dee Caf and the community ...
Funded internships with the University of Reading
18 February 2021
Are you looking for support or a fresh perspective on a project? The Reading Internship Scheme supports organisations in connecting up with our undergraduates through 4, 6 and 8 week internships. We provide a 50% grant towards an intern’s salary for profit earning SMEs, and a 100% grant for charities and not for profits. You can work ...
Covid-19 community testing open to voluntary sector staff and volunteers in Reading
17 February 2021
Around one in three people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and will be spreading it without realising it Local community testing began at South Reading Leisure Centre on 10 February and at Rivermead Leisure Centre on 15 February – to stop the spread of the virus in Reading. Rapid-turnaround lateral flow tests use a mouth ...
PinkNews Awards – nominate by 29 March 2021
17 February 2021
The annual PinkNews Awards aims to recognise the incredible contributions of those who campaign for LGBT+ equality worldwide, whilst celebrating moments of unprecedented LGBT+ achievement. Each year, the community comes together to highlight the work of businesses, organisations and individuals across the globe. The 2021 PinkNews Awards will take place in November. Nominations are now ...
Updated shielding guidance and reviewing your risk assessments
17 February 2021The government has updated its shielding guidance to expand the list of those who are on the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) list. There are now three ways that an individual may be identified as CEV: They have one or more of the conditions listed here. Their clinician or GP has added them to the Shielded Patient List because, ...
RVA Social Prescribing Link Workers – closing date 15 March 2021
17 February 2021
An exciting opportunity to work in a small supportive team making a big difference to the lives of people in Reading Reading Voluntary Action (RVA) is looking to recruit additional Social Prescribing Link Workers to provide social prescribing support for people in South and West Reading. RVA and Age UK Berkshire have been delivering social prescribing in ...
Business Interruption Insurance – guidance from the FCA
16 February 2021
Following the landmark decision from the Supreme Court on 15 January 2021 in the test case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the FCA has now helpfully published some guidance and FAQs to help organisations to better understand if they may be able to make a claim under their insurance cover for business interruption ...
Autism advice and wellbeing courses and workshops from Autism Berkshire
10 February 2021
Autism Berkshire has a series of free courses and workshops coming up before Easter, which are open to Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire residents These include a series of special workshops, run in conjunction with Acre’s Alafia service, to support the mental health and wellbeing of families with autistic children in the Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic ...
How ABC to Read is supporting children with their reading during the Covid-19 pandemic
10 February 2021
With school closures, a lot of ABC to Read’s volunteers paused their usual face-to-face support in primary schools Our mission to help children access good literacy skills continues and there has never been a more important time for our work so we have adapted our support to offering virtual reading sessions so that we can still ...
Youth counselling in Berkshire West – CCG seek to re-commission service offer
10 February 2021
Berkshire West CCG wishes to continue to fund face to face youth counselling for the next 3 years, starting April 2021, to complement the recently commissioned digital offer as local access and choice in provision is important to maintain. We have £90,000 available per year. The CCG requires three separate offers set up within the 3 ...