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Growing Care Farming Newsletter, August 2020

Welcome 

Welcome to the new look Growing Care Farming newsletter for August. As outlined in July, we have decided to streamline our communication and combine our regional bulletins into one monthly newsletter.  Please keep sending us information on what you are up to or links to resources or updates that you think may be of interest to the care farming sector.

As we move out of the dog days of the summer, we remain mindful of the challenges all our members are facing and continuing to manage as social distancing continues.  We ran a webinar on reopening and managing risk in July, but we are very aware that how some things are managed during warm, sunny weather will take on a different complexion as we move into the colder weather.  We are looking at running a follow up webinar in November to explore some of these issues and we would be interested to talk to anyone who might be coming up with new and innovative ways of working in a socially distanced way, in enclosed areas, in bad weather.

In this August Newsletter you can find out about:


GCF Training and Resources

We are pleased to announce that our Introduction to the Code of Practice resource is now live on the Growing Care Farming pages.  If you'd like to find out more about the Code or get some support with your application process please take a look.  We will be offering further support for the application process this autumn, but in the meantime, please contact Pearl on [email protected] if you need any help.

A full rundown of all our training is availalbe here.  Although face to face training is suspended until January 2021, our partners, Thrive, are working hard to develop a blended learning approach that will enable the face to face training to be accessed remotely.  We look forward to sharing more information on this.

Our YouTube channel is now live and flourishing and you can access previous webinars that we have run from there.  There are also lots of videos and films all about care farming and care farms, both UK and international.  If you've got a film or a YouTube channel about your care farm, please send us the link over so we can share it.  It's great to be able gather everything in one place to make information about our sector more accessible.

Also, for the eager social media beavers amongst you, please don't forget about SF&G's Facebook Group which is a closed group of over 500 members where you can chat and ask questions informally on almost any topic.


Networking & Events

18th August 2020 - GCF Themed Webinar - Care Farming: A snapshot of our sector

In this themed webinar Dr Rachel Bragg will give an outline of how care farming has developed in the UK over recent years, and the changes the sector has seen. This will be followed by an insight into the scope, size, and key trends in our care farming sector in 2020, based on recent data from the annual care farming survey. This event is designed for care farmers, prospective care famers, commissioners, interested parties or researchers - anyone involved in care farming.
2:00pm - 3:00pm, 18th August via GoTo Meeting

Book here - A Snapshot of our sector

20th August 2020 - GCF Online Care farming network meeting

This event is chance to see and meet other care farmers 'face to face' but remotely! The aim is to provide a forum for care farmers, prospective care farmers, the GCF team and others to support each other and to share learning and ideas.
This event is designed for care farmers, prospective care famers, commissioners - anyone involved in care farming.

Book here - August Online Care Farming network meeting

10th September 2020 - GCF Themed Webinar - What is Crowdfunding and how can it help our care farm?

Many organisations (including care farms and other organisations delivering green care) have experienced a loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are looking to explore alternative sources of funding such as ‘Crowdfunding.’ Every year ‘crowdfunding’ is used to raise billions for businesses, startups and non profits and can also be used to increase an ‘audience’. In this webinar, the GCF team will be joined by Anthony de Souza from the Crowdfunding Mastery Academy who will explain how crowdfunding may help. Anthony will cover:

  • just exactly what ‘crowdfunding’ is all about
  • what type of crowdfunding will work best for you and your green care organisation
  • the benefits of running a crowdfunding campaign
  • the success factors that need to be in place before launching a campaign
  • downsides to crowdfunding
  • future crowdfunding trends.

We will also cover a few case studies from care farms who have been successful.

Book here - What is Crowdfunding?

17th September 2020 - GCF Online Care farming network meeting

This event is chance to see and meet other care farmers 'face to face' but remotely! The aim is to provide a forum for care farmers, prospective care farmers, the GCF team and others to support each other and to share learning and ideas.
This event is designed for care farmers, prospective care famers, commissioners - anyone involved in care farming.

Book here - September Online Care Farming Network meeting

 

Our colleagues at Social Farms & Gardens are also running webinars on 'Working with Vulnerable Volunteers' (Tuesday 18th August), 'Creating Great Video Content' (Wednesday 19th August) and 'Welcoming Diversity' (Wednesday 26th August). For more information on these and details of how to book, please click here

If you're interested in any of these webinars but can't attend, please don't worry as all are recorded and uploaded to our website andYouTube channels for you to access whenever you want.


Are you on our map?

We’d like you to check your map settings and organisation details on our website! 

There are two searchable list/map pages available on the SF&G website

The first one here is a search page that shows where SF&G members are located and gives details of the organisation. Did you know that if you log on to the SF&G members area, you can edit your organisation’s details, decide which information you would like to share,  and opt in (or out) of featuring on the members search/ map pages? 

If you’d like to do this, go to our main webpage https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ and login.  Then follow the links in the box on the left called ‘Edit your organisation’s information’. If you can’t see this option then check you are logged in! Any problems contact [email protected] 

The second map/ search page is specifically for those looking to find care farming services, and highlights care farms (and sites that are offering green care) that either have achieved the care farming Code of Practice or are enrolled in the Code process. You can find this map here.

If your site is going through the Code and is not featured on this map then please contact Pearl, our Code Administrator on [email protected] 
 


General Funding Opportunities

Grants Online - Digest of current Coronavirus funding

Read More - Grants Online

Masonic Charitable Foundation - Later Life grants programme

Local and national charities in England and Wales can apply for grants of between £500 - £5,000 per year for up to 3 years for projects that support vulnerable and disadvantaged people over 50. To be eligible the charity needs to have an annual income of below £500,000 per year. The funding is being made available through the Masonic Charitable Foundation Later Life small grants programme. The Foundation also offer funding on average of between £20,000 and £60,000 per year for up to three years through its large grants programme. The next closing date for applications to the small grants programme is 4pm on the 31st August 2020.

Read More - Masonic Charitable Foundation - Later Life small grants programmme

Raise donations from virtual events

With face to face fundraising events on hold for the forseeable future TapSimple has recently launched a new, free to use Virtual Events Platform, that that can enable your organisation to raise donations from attendees and supporters safely.

Read more - TapSimple platform

Equipment grants for disabled and disdvantaged young people

Schools and not for profit organisations have the opportunity to apply for funding for equipment that help mentally, physical and socially disadvantaged children. Funding is available for buildings and extensions; equipment and activity aids; sensory rooms and gardens; playgrounds and sports areas; transport and soft playrooms. The funding is being made available through the Wooden Spoon Society's Capital Grants programme. Wooden Spoon is the British and Irish Rugby charity which supports mentally, physically disadvantaged children. Projects funded in the past have included Ashmount School in Leicestershire, which received a grant of £13,500 towards a sensory room; Enfield Heights Academy in London which received a grant of £23,000 to improve its play areas; and the Colehill & Wimborne Youth & Community Centre which received a grant of £8,000 towards a wheelchair lift. Applications can be submitted at any time.

Read more - Wooden Spoon grants

Funding for projects that work with disabled children and their families

Grants of up to £10,000 are available to charities and projects with a charitable purpose to support disabled children and their families. The funding can be spent on hydrotherapy pools; multi-sensory rooms; mini buses; young carers projects; sibling projects; and bereavement support. The funding is being made available through the True Colours Trust's small grants programme and projects supported in the past include Friends of Sherwood Park who received a grant of £5,000 towards the creation of the multi-sensory outdoor environment; and Roddensvale Parents & Friends Association who received a grant of £5,000 towards the costs of refurbishing its sensory room. Applications can be submitted at any time.

Read more - The True Colours Trust

Funding for projects that promote a better understanding of the environment and countryside

UK based schools and not for profit organisations can apply for funding to the Nineveh Charitable Trust for a broad range of projects and activities that promote a better understanding of the environment and countryside, whilst facilitating improved access, education and research. Whilst the Trust does not specify a minimum or maximum grant amount that can be applied for, an analysis of previous grants would suggest a maximum of £5,000 per year for up to three years. Previous projects supported include Castlemilk Day Nursery which received a grant of £5,000 to build a multi-function shelter with provision for special needs teaching; and St Joseph's Specialist School & College, which received a grant of £4,000 towards a community garden expansion. Applications can be submitted at any time.

Read more - Nineveh Charitable Trust

Funding to support horticulture projects

Charities and charitable organisations - including school Parent Teacher Associations – are eligible to apply for grants of up to £10,000 to support projects relating to horticulture, plant sciences, fine art and art history. Grants awarded may cover capital or revenue expenditure. Preference is given to smaller organisations where the grant will have a significant impact. The next closing date for applications is the 28th September for the next trustees meeting of the Finnis Scott Foundation. 

Read more - Finnis Scott Foundation

Funding to support small charities and social enterprises

The Fore RAFT Transition Fund offers unrestricted grants to help small charities and social enterprises in the UK plan for the longer term and gain a stronger footing in the post-coronavirus world. UK registered charities, community interest companies, charitable incorporated organisations and community benefit societies with annual incomes below £500,000 can apply. Up to £15,000 available. The first step is to register for a place. Those who are accepted then have six weeks to send three pages about what they do and how the funding could help them. Shortlisted groups will be interviewed.The registration form and FAQs can be found on The Fore's website.

Round 1 which launched on 20th July has now been closed. Round 2 will open in mid September 2020.

Read more - The Fore

Funding for working with young people

The 7Stars Foundation supports organisations working with your people challenged by abuse, addiction, those who are young carers, those who find themselves in transition and those without a place to call home. Funding is available to groups, organisations or individuals and is offerred in three streams;

  • Project applications (for 16 year olds and under) – project grants are awarded up to £5,000.
  • Long term applications (for 16 year olds and under) – unrestricted grant funding is awarded on a two-year commitment, up to £20,000 per year
  • Direct funding (for 18 year olds and under) – grants of between £100 and £1,000 are available

Applications can be submitted at any time.

Read more - 7 Stars Foundation

Funding for Health projects

Specialist healthcare real estate investment trust, Assura, has launched a new Community Fund to support local health projects. Charities, local community groups, social enterprises and CICs can apply for grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 for activities targeted at improving mental and emotional health and wellbeing. This might include supporting for life challenges that people may experience and providing increased activities and opportunities to learn new skill to enable improved self-confidence, self-esteem and a strong sense of belonging.

Funding will be provided for organisations supporting communities within a 15-mile radius of Assura GP surgeries, primary care and treatment centre buildings around the UK. From their map it seems there are facilities within North, Central and South GCF areas so it is worth checking if any are near you. The fund is managed by the Cheshire Community Foundation. There is also a specific tranche of funding earmarked for strategic grant giving in Warrington.

The deadline for applications is the 14th September 2020.

Read more - Assura Community Fund


Wider Training Opportunities

How to support staff wellbeing during Coronavirus

The National Council for Voluntary Orgainsations have spoken to charity leaders and managers about the various approaches they've used to help their teams cope with the mental stress of the pandemic. This blog highlights the key findings of those conversations and is relevant to anyone managing a team.

Read more - NCVO blog

Reforming Commissioning - What's next?

This session is for any charity or social enterprise which has experience of working with commissioners. It will be looking at how commissioning has changed during the pandemic and how it could be reformed for the future to help charities. Lloyds Bank Foundation will be hosting this event on behalf of the partner organisations involved in this project - Children England, Locality, NCVO & Lloyds Bank Foundation. They are keen for a diverse range of organisations to join in the discussions and share ideas. They partuclarly want to;

  • be able to point to where commissioning is working – demonstrating there is another way.
  • also highlight where it isn’t working – demonstrating the need for more to be done.
  • hear from you about how we can work together to create long term change.

If you have any questions about this session, please get in touch with [email protected], or book you place using the Eventbrite link below.

Read more - Reforming Commissioning - Whats Next?

New flexible furlough resources from ACAS

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has reviewed its guidance on furlough in light of the flexibility that was added to the government's job retention scheme in July, and published new letter templates to assist employers considering using it. All are free to download and use.

Read more - ACAS guidance on flexible furlough and Letter templates

Free training: Covid-19 Psychological First Aid

Public Health England has developed a new Covid-19: Psychological First Aid online training course for frontline staff and volunteers to help them look after their mental health during the pandemic.

The three-part training course, which is free for all frontline workers and volunteers and takes around 90 minutes to complete, aims to provide frontline staff and volunteers with additional resources on how to take care of their own mental health and wellbeing, how to provide support to those who need it most, and advice on how to cope with difficult situations.

Read more - Covid-19 Psychological First Aid

Free Training: The English NHS explained

The King's Fund has partnered with online learning provider FutureLearn to offer a free online course on how the English health system really works.

The NHS explained: how the health system in England really works, is open for enrolment and will provide a broad understanding of the NHS – its inner workings, how it all fits together and the challenges it typically faces.

Enrol here - The English NHS explained

MIND - The mental health emergency

How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted our mental health? This is MIND's recently released (June 2020) report, potentially useful for research and for evidencing funding applications in the current situation.

Download here - The mental health emergency report

Free courses in England

This website collates information of a huge range of free and fully funded courses across the country. The free courses include many relevant to care farming.

Read More - Free courses in England

Multilingual coronavirus glossary of phrases

Translators without Borders has produced a very useful table which translates 186 words and/or phrases associated with COVID-19 into 35 different languages.

Read more - Glossary of phrases


North - News & Opportunities

FREE Skills building online sessions in Safeguarding

Connected Voice, the VCS organisation supporting Newcastle and Gateshead, is running a series of skills building workshops over the coming months. Most are only open to VCSE organisations working in the Newcastle and Gateshead areas, but the Introduction to Safeguarding is open to anyone working in a VCSE organisation in the North East.

Book here - Introduction to Safeguarding

Greater Manchester Mental Wellbeing Grants - Stage 2

These grants of between £100 and £500 support adults from communities of identity or experience, based in Greater Manchester, that may struggle to achieve high levels of mental wellbeing. The grants will be awarded, in stages, to small, grass roots voluntary and community groups and social enterprises that will support people to develop higher levels of mental wellbeing.

For this second stage they have made an adjustment to their eligibility, which now allows organisations with an income of up to £50,000, in its most recent full financial year, to apply. Deadline - Saturday 31 August 2020, 11.59pm.

Read more - GM Mental Wellbeing Grant

HEY Smile Foundation  - Nominations open for Volunteer Awards

Do you operate in Hull or East Yorkshire? Do you have volunteers? The HEY Smile Foundation want to recognise volunteers and their efforts and outstanding achievements, across all types of volunteering in their community. The awards open to all volunteers who have been volunteering across the last 12 months. The award event will take place virtually via live stream, on 8th October at 4pm where you will be able to watch and cheer on the nominees via Facebook and YouTube. There will be 10 awards plus a special Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award.

Read more & nominate - Hey Smile Foundation Volunteer Awards

East Riding of Yorkshire Community Tree Planting Fund

The East Riding of Yorkshire Community Tree Planting Fund has been launched this month, with the deadline for applications being 30th August. Grants of up to £5,000 are being made available to private and public landowners, town and parish councils as well as other community groups in a bid to increase the number of native trees across the East Riding.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Community Tree Planting Fund is looking to support projects that will include creating new areas of native woodland, planting new clusters of native trees and hedgerows or establishing new groups of individual native standard trees.

Read more - Community tree planting fund


Central and East - News & Opportunities

Funding to support the mental health and wellbeing of veterans

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Positive Pathways programme has reopened for applications for projects that support the mental health and wellbeing of veterans by getting them out and active.  Armed-Forces-supporting charities or CIC’s can apply for grants of £35,000 for projects developed by and for veterans which have a clearly identified activity for veterans to take part in, and should come under one of four themes: 

  • sports
  • arts and culture
  • getting outside
  • heritage. 

Applications are encouraged from under-represented organisations in the West Midlands, and activities should be feasible with any social distancing requirements in place. The programme is funded by HM Treasury.  Applications for this round of funding close at noon on the 25th August 2020.

Read more - Covenant Fund

Free Nottinghamshire mental health helpline extends operating hours

The Nottinghamshire Mental Health Helpline, delivered by Turning Point, is now available 9am-11pm 7 days per week. The line is for anyone of any age who needs emotional support or information about what help is available locally for people struggling with their mental health including professionals working with service users with mental health issues.

Read more - Nottinghamshire mental health line flyer

One Life Suffolk offers FREE Online Making Every Contact Count training

One Life are commissioned by Suffolk County Council Public Health to deliver MECC training in Suffolk to GP’s and their staff, pharmacy staff, healthcare professionals, employers from all industriesand employees, voluntary organisations and many more.

Read more - MECC training


South - News & Opportunities

Funding from Harlow Health Centres Trust

Harlow Health Centres Trust have funding available to help local organisations during this difficult time. Whether that is allowing you to continue a much needed service or to provide a new service/initiative post COVID-19. Funding revolves around health (which is a broad term).  Please email Dean for an application form. [email protected]


Other News & Help

Fermenting organic waste is better for soil than composting

Countryfile recently featured Adam's farm demonstrating how they ferment their organic waste, and this interesting article in the Farmers Weekly outline the key steps and benefits of this alternative approach.

Read more - Farmers Guardian article

Public opinion of British farmer at record high

The positive public view of British food and farming has reached a record high as a result of farmers’ efforts to feed the nation during the coronavirus crisis.

Read more - Farmers Weekly article



 

Stay safe everyone and keep in touch with us.  We love to hear from you!
 

You can send general enquiries to [email protected] or you can contact Debbie and Rachel on [email protected] 

 
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Find out more or keep in touch with the Growing Care Farming team -
email:
[email protected] | Website: www.farmgarden.org.uk/gcf |
Twitter: @GrowCareFarming

 

The GreenHouse, Hereford Street, Bristol BS3 4NA Tel: 0117 9231 800
Company No: 2011023; Charity No: 294494 (England & Wales) SC039440 (Scotland)

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