Places Called Home, from the National Lottery Community Fund and IKEA, will offer eligible groups funding awards of between £1,000 and £5,000 for activities and equipment that meet at least two of the following criteria:

We've gathered the latest news highlighting equalities groups, both inside and outside the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector. This includes the National Trust's Pride celebrations, autism charities offering a toolkit for employers, and a new report on racism in the aid sector.

A new report from the Heritage Volunteering Group (HVG) has revealed that 40% of heritage organisations have no volunteering strategy, despite 45% of heritage organisations relying on volunteers to help with critical work, and 70% saying they could not function without volunteers. This suggests a huge gap between the need for volunteers and these organisations’ overall planning and sustainability.

It’s been a brilliant start to the summer for many of our members, as they’ve stopped to reflect on their achievements and the hard work of their volunteers. Find out what they’ve been up to, and how you can support them.

If your organisation has an office space (either a standalone office or a co-working arrangement), what should you consider about the return to office working as lockdown eases? And are there any differences between private companies and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations returning to the office?

This Volunteers’ Week (1-7 June), Voscur has joined forces with Bristol City Council and Can Do Bristol to thank the city’s COVID-19 pandemic volunteers, from those who’ve done odd jobs or tasks for neighbours, to those who formally volunteer with a local organisation.

We want you to get involved both online and offline, thanking the people and organisations that have made a difference in your community during these testing times. Here’s how…

The Month of Community is a new way of combining the many causes and awareness weeks in June, to make one month-long campaign that celebrates many people in our society who might otherwise be overlooked – for example, carers, refugees, and people facing loneliness.

You’ll recognise many of the awareness weeks and events taking place during the month, including Volunteers’ Week, Carers Week, Small Charity Week and Refugee Week, and this is a chance to amplify them all.

(Advertorial content created by Charity Finance Group, for Voscur)

Charity Finance Group: Social Care Conference 2021

Thursday 10 June, 09.30 – 16.40 online event

Sustainable Fashion Week is coming in September, and your organisation could be a part of this Bristol-based, national initiative that celebrates recycling, reusing and sharing clothes. Whether your organisation has a charity shop, an eBay store, a craft club, or appeals for clothing donations to help service users, you can get involved in the week-long celebrations from 11-19 September 2021.

New Philanthropy Capital (known as NPC) has published a new report about place-based (geographical) collaboration, called Coordination in Place, to examine how attitudes to collaborating have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report focuses on local coordinators in Buckinghamshire, Coventry and Sutton, though its findings will be useful to anyone looking at community action in the UK.