Tomorrow (Wednesday 30th March), Bright Ideas is joining with ACAF and 97.5 Kemet FM to celebrate our fantastic volunteers.

It is going to be an action-packed day, with volunteers showing us what they have been up to and displaying talents.  We will also be joined by the Helen and her team who are researching the history of the Hyson Green Flats, Ciaran Norris from Parliamentary Outreach and Steff Webber, the Community Programme Co-Ordinator from Nottingham City Council.

This is an invitation only event, however it is going to be broadcast live on 97.5 Kemet FM, so tune in and be part of the day!  The event starts at 10:30, with 97.5 Kemet FM broadcasting from the event until 1:00.

Emergency Appointment is an event that will look at BME health needs, GP Consortia and public sector commissioning. It will be chaired by Dr Chris Packham, GP and Director of Public Health, and hosted in Nottingham by Andrew Campbell, BME representative for the Local Strategic Partnership.  There will be GP’s and guest speakers from the Strategic Health Authority including Maqsood Ahmad OBE, Director of Inclusion and Rosemary Stuckey, Assistant Director of Commissioning Development.

2pm – 5pm Thursday 14th April 2011,
The Indian Community Centre, Mansfield Road.

For more information, download the PDF invitation below.

Emergency Appointment (PDF, 643kb)

From Nottingham Evening Post, Feb 25, 2011

A CHARITY that helps people set up voluntary projects has been praised in an independent report.

Base Camp specialises in helping people from Nottingham’s South Asian community and provides support in several languages, including Urdu and Punjabi. It was evaluated by Bright Ideas, a Nottingham organisation that seeks to improve quality and access to services. The report says that culture plays a big part in how services such as health education and support for victims of domestic violence are delivered in South Asian communities.

It concludes that the tailored support given to volunteers by Base Camp is important and praises its hands-on approach, which includes working with groups on a one-to-one basis, often outside of working hours to fit in with volunteers’ other commitments. Base Camp – part of Radford-based charity the Partnership Council – has helped to set up more than 46 community groups since it was established in 2007.

The review and evaluation report from Take Part is now available on the Take Part page here.

Bright Ideas are supporting an event for staff and volunteers working for libraries across the East Midlands that is being held by The University of Lincoln, WEA and East Midlands Take Part Champions.  It will be at Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday 22nd March between 10:00 and 3:00.

The event will involve interesting and engaging discussions about:
• How paid staff and volunteers view the current situation
• The value and contribution of volunteers currently working for library services
• The use people make of libraries and what they value about their services
• The challenges facing libraries
• How volunteers can develop the knowledge, confidence and skills that
they will need to overcome barriers and continue their work
• The support needs of volunteers in libraries

There will also be time to meet and talk to other volunteers and learn about the Take Part approach as well as lunch and other refreshments.

For more information, including details of how to book, download the flier below.

Take Part library Flyer (pdf, 119kb)

This week, it is Listone’s turn in the hot seat for the Monday Meeting.  Listone works with us as a Marketing Assistant whilst he is studying for a masters degree in Marketing Management, and has been a fantastic addition to the team since he joined us in December.

Read the interview here.

One of our fantastic Champions of Change was selected to give away copies of one of her favourite books during World Book Night. Verity chose ‘The Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel as her book and to have an event in Nottingham Central Library to give away copies of the book to other Champions.  This is a Flickr slideshow of some of the pictures from the evening (more to come!)

Today sees the launch of Good Practice Toolkit on Equality and Diversity for learning providers in Adult and Community Education.  This has been produced by the WEA for LSIS in partnership with a number of organisations including bright Ideas.  The launch is part of a seminar at the ICCA in Nottingham looking at best practice and how to achieve Ofsted Grade 1 in Equality and Diversity.

There is a blog that is being updated during the day at:

http://equalityunboxed.com/