On January 31^st 2012 Advocacy In Action presents an event called Ours For The Taking, which is a FREE workshop for community and voluntary sector groups. This event is at the Nottinghamshire Deaf Society, 22 Forest Road West Nottingham NG7 4EQ. This workshop will be exploring questions such as:

• What do we need to know about the personalisation agenda?
• Who qualifies for personal budgets?
• What services can be provided to individuals?
• How can we gear up to become providers of services?

Guest speakers will include

• Julie Cassidy Gosling, Director, Advocacy in Action.
• Reshma Patel, Service User Consultant, Knowledge is power.

Please be aware all places and lunch must be pre-booked.

Please email Bright Ideas Nottingham at events@brightideasnottingham.co.uk with your name, position (if applicable) and group /organisation. Please indicate any dietary or access requirements.  If you need any more information please call Bright Ideas office on 0115 837 9474.

Click here to download the fyler.

Bright Ideas is currently recruiting volunteers for a volunteering course that starts next month.  The course is being run as part of the WEA’s DAIN (Digital Activist Inclusion Network) project.

Volunteers should be comfortable with using IT but do not need to be experts. On the course they will learn about how they can work with other local people to support them to use IT (e.g. setting up an email account, using facebook, searching for something on the internet etc)

 Benefits to volunteers:

 Volunteers will:

• Learn in a supportive environment 
• Gain great skills and experience for their CV.
• Work in pairs when volunteering
• Get support from a Coordinator.

Past volunteers have really enjoyed the course and the volunteering activities and many of them have wanted to continue volunteering beyond the agreed time. The course is free and all expenses are paid.

Start time 10.00am finishing 2.30pm including lunch break.

Please bring a packed lunch if you wish.

Sessions run:

Session 1: Tuesday 15^th November

Session 2: Tuesday 22nd November

Session 3: Tuesday 29^th November

Session 4: Tuesday 6^th December

Session 5: Tuesday 13^th December

Volunteers must be available for most or all of the sessions.

 Where

The course will be run at the Media Centre in the Broadway Cinema, Nottingham City Centre

 Expenses

All travel expenses for the course will be reimbursed.

 Eligibility

This course is for people who are

• Comfortable with using a computer
• Aged 19 or over and eligible to work in the UK
• Working for less than 8 hours a week

 More information:

For more information or to reserve a place:

Please contact Karen: karen@brightideasnottingham.co.uk  or 0115 837 9474

Funders and partners

DAIN is being delivered by the WEA in partnership with:

NIACE, CEFET, Skills Funding Agency and the European Social Fund

Bright Ideas Nottingham is launching an exciting new leadership programme for women of all backgrounds called Women Leading For a Change. A variety of presentations and workshops will be available through until March 2011. No qualifications or experience are required. This is all about discovering leadership potential.

The launch will take place at the Central Library, Angel Row, Nottingham, from 5pm to 7pm on Thursday 27^th October. There is no need to book your place for the launch but if you decide to attend the course then you need to book your place through Shazia at Bright Ideas on 0115 837 9474 or on 07971 404313 or email shazia@brightideasnottingham.co.uk

The programme for the launch will include:

An introduction to Women Leading for a Change.

Presentation by Finn McKay, feminist activist and researcher.

Panel made up of some of the speakers who will be providing inspirational presentations on the course.

It will also be a chance to meet the tutors and find out more about the course.

Click here to download the flyer  for the launch

Click here to download the flyer for the course

This course is being brought to you by Bright Ideas Nottingham, in association with CEFET, WEA, Adult and Community Learning Fund, Broadway, this project had been funded by the skills Funding Agency.

Volunteers are needed to join the Digital Activist Inclusion Network (DAIN) – an exciting volunteer project that works across the East Midlands. 

DAIN aims to promote digital inclusion by encouraging people to use technology with the help of volunteers (digital activists). 

Digital inclusion is a vital part of social equality, as people who are already at a social or financial disadvantage are likely to be offline and missing out on the benefits digital technologies can provide such as support with job hunting, information on key issues such as health and finance, cheaper deals on everyday products and the chance to socialise with others, something that’s particularly important for people who can’t get out and about easily such as older people, carers, parents with young children and those living with a physical or learning disability. 

Around 23% of UK adults don’t use the internet whilst 27% of households don’t have access to it at home. 

DAIN is looking for enthusiastic, friendly people with experience of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) who can commit to volunteering a few hours each week. Volunteers should be aged 19 or over and be unemployed (or working for less than 8 hours a week). 

In return, volunteers will get the opportunity to learn new skills and gain useful work experience whilst helping out in local communities. 

DAIN is running a free course to train volunteers as digital activists starting on Friday 9th September at The Studio, Broadway Media Centre, 14-18 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AL from 9.30am to 3.30pm. 

Further sessions will run at the same venue on Monday 12th September from 10.30am to 2.30pm; Monday 19th September from 10.30am to 2.30pm; Friday 30th September from 10.30am to 2.30pm; and on Monday 3rd October from 10.30am to 2.30pm.

Anyone interested should call Karen from Bright Ideas on 0115 837 9474 or email karen@brightideasnottingham.co.uk 

Bright Ideas Nottingham is working in partnership with DAIN to support the recruitment of volunteers. 

To find out more about the course visit http://www.dainproject.org/volunteer-course

The DAIN project is run by the Workers Educational Association (WEA) East Midlands and is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF). It’s supported by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and Co-ordinating European Funding for the East Midlands Third Sector (CEFET).

Click here to download the flyer

On the 30^th June 2011 Bright Ideas Nottingham presented British Heart Foundation Hearts and Minds Conference at the Nottingham Contemporary. The event had a fun packed programme which included presentations from local people including Women Driving for a Change, Champions of Change and Change Makers. Guest speakers included Ali Orhan from the British Heart Foundation, Rose Thompson who is the chair of the African Caribbean Health Network, Dr David Gray and a performance from Mon0lisa Productions. This event was a great success and thanks to everyone who attended the event or listen to it on 97.5 kemet fm.

Toby Neal was the photographer for the event. Click here to visit his online gallery to view the pictures from the event. The password to get into the gallery is heartsandminds.

Lisa from Bright Ideas and Rose from BME Cancer Communities were on BBC Radio Nottingham last week talking to Richard Spurr – you can listen again online if you missed it! Click here.

Today is the launch of Nottingham’s Next Bottom model!

A toilet roll doll competition with prizes galore.

Bright Ideas Nottingham and BME Cancer Communities are excited to announce the launch of their competition to find Nottingham’s Next Bottom Model. We will soon be running an innovative and fun campaign to promote awareness of bowel cancer and the importance of returning the National Bowel Cancer Screening Kits. This open competition is supported by national bowel cancer charity, Lynn’s Bowel Cancer Campaign.

The poster and internet campaign will involve the return of everybody’s favourite retro toilet-time companion, the toilet roll doll and the hunt for the stars of the campaign is on.

We want you to design our cover stars. The competition is open to anyone aged 16+ and we are looking for entries in the following four categories.

1 Diversity: Create a doll that some way represents the diversity of your community

2 Nottingham: Create a doll, using the vibrancy of Nottingham as your inspiration

3 Traditional: If you already have a doll that deserves to be a celebrity – then dig him or her out

4 Design: Put your imagination to the test, create an image of your dream doll.

Closing date of the competition: Friday 28th October 2011

For any more information please contact Rebekah at Bright Ideas: 0115 837 9474 or email rebekah@brightideasnottingham.co.uk. Also follow the competition blog for updates and more information at http://brightideastoiletrolldolls.wordpress.com/

Download the flyer, rules and regulations and press release below

Toilet Roll Dolls Competition Flyer

Rules and Guidelines for Toilet Roll Dolls Competition

Press release for Toilet Roll Dolls Competition

Bright Ideas Nottingham presents Masterclass 1 in Moving Forward in Reverse, Using “Reverse Commissioning” to tackle health inequalities.

The Masters: Dr Vivienne Lyfar-Cisse and Rudi Page.

The “Reverse Commissioning” process was devised by Dr Vivienne Lyfar-Cisse, who recognised that the health needs of BME communities are to a large extent determined by their use of provider services. The process has been designed for NHS networks to engage patients, carers and service users as joint providers of their own care recovery.

Dr Vivienne Lyfar Cisse and Rudi Page will share insights from their groundbreaking work to help us to agree what we can do in Nottingham to move forward with ‘Reverse Commissioning”.

This is a booking only event and places are limited.

The deadline for interest is July 15^th and places will be allocated on July 18^th.

For more information and to book a place contact us on 0115 837 9474 or email karen@brightideasnottingham.co.uk

For more information download the flyer below

Masterclass flyer: Moving Forward in Reverse, Using “Reverse Commissioning” to tackle health inequalities

Bright Ideas Nottingham presents brI. T.e ideas on Thursday 14th July 2011.

This is a free, fun, interactive learning workshops for community groups. The first workshop is at 10.00am – 12.30pm. This workshop is about how Social Media can help community groups. The workshop will be focusing on Facebook, WordPress and Twitter.

The second workshop is on the 14th July as well at 1.30pm-3.00pm. This workshop will be about recognition for what you already do to help others to use IT and sign up as a Digital Champion for the WEA.

If you are interested in a place at either or both workshops, please contact me at Bright Ideas Nottingham. You can email me at rebekah@brightideasnottingham.co.uk or ring me on 0115 837 9474

Also click here to download the flyer for these workshops

Today’s Monday meeting is a special one. Firstly the framework was developed by the Get On Up Community Researchers and Reporters. Secondly the interviewee was Eric Adjaidoo who is a Clinical Nurse Specialist, and is about to leave Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust after 30 years of service to Black and minority ethnic communities. He has worked in partnership with Bright Ideas Nottingham.

Click here to read the interview