Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees yesterday delivered his annual State of the City Address at the Wills Memorial Building. Facing myriad difficulties, a vibrant and coordinated VCSE sector is vital to Bristol's sustainable and equitable future. 

Black History Month is a time to celebrate black history, exalt black icons and interrogate institutional racism. Needless to say, these are year-round activities, but it's useful to have one month in particular to shine a light on black excellence and champion black voices. 

Throughout October, we'll be reflecting, listening, sharing and learning as we continue to strive for an equitable society. We will be especially focussed on how we can make the VCSE sector more accessible and effective for black people. 

BBC Children in Need will for the first time directly fund charities’ core costs over the next three years as part of its new strategy and in response to the economic climate. Children in Need will offer grants through three streams including one for core organisational and development costs and another aimed at its traditional project-based funding, both of which will open in October this year. It will also launch a funding stream for smaller, emerging organisations who may need greater support to access funding in spring 2023.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has just published their report Time Well Spent: Impact of Covid-19 On the Volunteer Experience, and in it they say as a result of the pandemic, volunteers are at risk of burnout. 

The government is now consulting on how to distribute approximately £900m from dormant bank accounts. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) announced the 12-week public consultation last week and input will help to determine how the next tranche of assets should be spent. Under the current legislation, dormant assets in England must be dedicated to initiatives that focus on youth, financial inclusion and social investment. 

Voscur's new Skills for Social Purpose programme will enable local women to use their existing life skills, plus new skills which will be developed on the course, to help them think about working and volunteering in the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.

This programme will enable women to develop the knowledge, networks, and confidence they need to take up opportunities as volunteers, employees, trustees, directors and founders of their own community organisations and social enterprises.

The programme is open to the following:

The total of open referrals (those undergoing treatment or waiting to start care) has risen by 147,853 since February 2020, a 54% increase, and by 80,096 over the last year alone, a jump of 24%. This has prompted experts in the field to warn of an unprecedented crisis in the wellbeing of under-18s. 

A year after the Sewell report was launched to such controversy, the government has responded with Inclusive Britain, a report that includes recommendations that government ministers drop the term BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic), renew efforts to scrutinise police stop and search at the local level, and redraw the history curriculum to teach Britain’s “complex” past.

Updated 16th March 2022

Here at Voscur we have received lots of enquiries from members, partners and from the wider community in Bristol and surrounding areas, wishing to support and / or volunteer with organisations who are assisting refugees and those still in Ukraine.

The Anchor Foundation provides grants of between £500 and £10,000 per year to Christian Charities that encourage social inclusion through ministries of healing and the arts. Funding can be awarded for up to three years. The Foundation will consider applications for either capital or revenue funding but only in exceptional circumstances will grants be given for building work.

Previously funded projects include: