Hello everyone and welcome to our edition of South Forum e-newsletter. 

What's featured in this edition.

• Bike Ride from Farringdon Jubilee Centre to Hetton Lyons Country Park
• Walker & Snappers
• New Youth Starter Pack
• Pamper Monday at Jubilee Centre
• Keep fit class at Doxford Park Community Centre
• Art project starting
• Community and Youth work qualification
• National Alcohol Awareness week (7th - 14th May)
• Weight Watchers at Doxford CA
• Up-date on funding
• Volunteering
• Good service to know about

Regards Jackie Noonan South Forum Development Coordinator

If you would like to announce any thing or have a feature please contact me on 0191 5228447 or e-mail me on jackie.noonan@sunderlandcommunitynetwork.org.uk

Bike Ride from Farringdon Jubilee Centre to Hetton Lyons Country Park was a great success.
The bike ride began at the car park of the Jubilee Centre, Farringdon at 10am. The Mayor was there to welcome the bike riders and set them off. There was about 22 riders in total (marshals and riders). The rain held off until neared “home” and then it was only a few spots. Everyone enjoyed the ride and would like to come back for more. There were a few young tired legs on the home straight from about the Ryhope/Tunstall area. We covered about 15.5 miles at an average speed of 6.5 mph and rode for about 2 ½ hours. Well done everyone that took part.  Watch this space for details of future rides in the South Area.

Walkers & Snappers - St Peters Metro to Roker Seafront, Sunderland - Wednesday 2 May 2007, 10am
Would you like to keep fit, meet new people and learn new skills?  Join our photography health walk for women:
10am Meet at St Peter’s Metro Station

10.15 – 11.45am Walk & Snap!  A riverside walk to Roker Seafront passing the National Glass Centre and beautiful works of art. The route is approximately 2 miles in length
and will take around 1 ½ hours to complete, allowing plenty of opportunities to take photographs. We’ll be walking on established footpaths with some moderate inclines. Children in pushchair's are welcome.

12.15pm Bus to Metro / National Glass Centre, Bus to back St Peter’s Metro Station, or the National Glass Centre to see their FREE exhibition.

Why come on a health walk?  Walking is good for you and is the most accessible form of exercise. It’s cheap, easy to do, gets you out in the fresh air meeting new people, and its fun!

30 minutes of moderate exercise on 5 or more days of the week has noticeable health benefits – exercise can help you feel in good shape physically, improve or maintain health and give you a sense of achievement.

For full details phone Louise Taylor on (0191) 534 6661 or email info@sangini.org.uk

Walkers & Snappers is funded by the Sunderland Healthy City Group.

Keep fit class at Doxford Park Community Centre

Every Thursday between 1.30pm and 2.30pm. Cost is £2.00 per session and they do aerobics, bums and tums, pilate's and circuits, they change what they do every few weeks for variety.

They need to get a few more people to attend or they will have to close.

NEW YOUTH ARTS STARTER KIT- an excellent and essential resource

A new Youth Arts Starter Kit has been launched by Artsplan. It is the essential kit for anyone who is starting to work together with young people in the arts and would like a range of useful tools to support them in their work for a bargain price. The Youth Arts Starter Kit has been produced by Artswork, the national youth arts development agency, as part of their Artsplan department. Artsplan is a series of training and publications and the in-house training provider of ENYAN (English National Youth Arts Network). All training and publications are written by experienced youth arts specialists, currently involved in a variety of project work through the UK.

The kit contains a 441 page Youth Arts Directory, the celebrated youth arts funding guide titled ‘Get Sorted: how to get organised, sort the budget and go for funding for your youth arts project’, plus three sets of practical guidelines: ‘Working together: using the arts with young people’; ‘Creating Respect: promoting an understand of cultural diversity’ and ‘Access All Areas: disability and youth arts’. It is a valuable resource offering creative, practical help to anyone using or looking to use the arts in their work with young people, containing the ingredients that will support you to develop successful, informed and inclusive youth arts projects.

As Virginia Haworth- Galt Artswork’s Director (National Youth Arts Development Agency) explains ‘’Having the resources and information to support you in your work with young people is crucial to ensuring that your project is delivered at the highest possible quality. Artsplan’s Youth Arts Starter Kit provides a fantastic introduction to working with young people in the arts, covers issues such as child protection, disability, cultural diversity, funding and even includes a Youth Arts Directory packed full of information about artists, funders, partnerships and training. If only this were around when I had started out!’’

Artsplan is pleased to have launched the Youth Arts Starter Kit at a special price of £35 (incl P&P), a good reduction off the normal cost of each publication!

For further details, or if you would like to purchase a Youth Arts Starter Kit please contact Jay Barron, Artswork on t: 023 8063 0960 e: artsplan@artswork.org.uk.

Jubilee Centre - Pamper Monday

Work or kids stressing you out..... then come along to the Jubilee we are having a pamper day.  We will be offering FREE massage treatments, reflexology, Indian head Massage, nail art, henna Tattoos, FREE tea and coffee. So come along on Monday 30th April 2007 from 10am till 12pm, Jubilee centre, Allendale Road, Farringdon. Come and get spoilt for a while!!! For more information please ring us on 0191 5228447.

National Alcohol Awareness week (7th - 14th May) is almost with us and as a region what are we doing? Nothing!

Feedback from the regional alcohol conference was that a regional approach to alcohol awareness campaigns was needed which may lead to the development of OSCA (Office Safe Consumption Alcohol). We can't wait for the development of OSCA to promote safe drinking - it's needed now!

NERAF work regionally and see brilliant campaigns being done in localities but now is the time that we need to bring it all together so that we can develop a regional campaign.  To kick this off NERAF welcome you to display your respective campaigns/materials at our premises during alcohol awareness week and to offer an invite to campaign leads to meet between 2 - 4 pm on Thursday 10th May to discuss future campaigns.

Friday 11th is NERAF alcohol awareness day starting with bacon butties at 10am, lunch at 1pm, then at 2pm the official opening of the UKs first alcohol advise, treatment and aftercare service all under one roof. Other presentations will go on throughout the day including lifestyle MOT's.  For further details visit website www.neraf.org.uk

Weight at Doxford CA

Starting Friday 27th April 2006 from 9.30am.  Come along and meet friendly people all wanting to loose weight.  For further details contact Pat Dixon 0191 5261669

Sangini is a women’s health organisation and we are recruiting for our latest art project which will take place from 11th to 20th May 2007.

Are you or do you know young women
aged 18 – 30 who have experienced isolation/depression who would enjoy being involved in this project exploring filmmaking, creative writing and singing? 

Phone Louise on (0191) 534 6661 or come along to Sunderland Minster on Thursday 19 April 11am – 1pm.

Community and Youth Work Open Evening

Are you active in your community?  Do you have experience in working with young people?  Have you thought about becoming a qualified community and youth worker?  If so join us on:

Thursday 3rd May 2007 between 5pm till 7pm at The Gateway, City Campus, Sunderland, SR1 3SD.

People’s Millions gets bigger & better - What would your group do with £80,000?

The Big Lottery Fund and ITV have announced a bigger People's Millions public voting competition for 2007. This year organisations can apply for up to £80,000 (plus VAT) for projects that help communities to enjoy as well as transform their local environment. The competition is open now until 17 May, applications forms are available from http://www.peoplesmillions.org.uk or 0845 0 10 11 12

People will get the chance to vote for those projects they want to see funded in the region, when they are screened on the ITV regional news between 26 and 30 November. In the North East region 4 projects will win an award following the public vote run by Tyne Tees television, with a fifth award going to the runner up that receives the most votes.  The five projects that won last year’s competition shared £262,224. Across the four nights of voting, projects in the Tyne Tees television area received nearly 26,000 votes.

People’s Millions is about getting people involved in making decisions on how Lottery money is spent, for more information, or to enter your project and be in with a chance of securing £80,000 for you group visit the website http://www.peoplesmillions.org.uk or call 0845 0 10 11 12

Coalfields Regeneration Trust — Bridging The Gap Information Session

Are you involved in a community group in the Sunderland South Forum area?

Do you need support to get a project off the ground?

Could you make a difference with a grant award?  If you answered yes to the above then come along and speak to
Mike Dennison.  At the session you can ask:- How to apply?  What will be funded?  Filling in the forms.

Date and time: Wednesday 23rd May 2007, 9:30am - 12:00noon

Venue: Sunderland South Community Safety Centre (Northmoor Fire Station), Northmoor Road, Sunderland

For more information please contact either:- Mary Pattinson ? (0191) 565 1566, Sunderland CVS. 

Mike Dennison ? (0191) 428 5550, Coalfield Regeneration Trust

ADULT LEARNERS WEEK 2007 - 19th – 25th May 2007

Adult Learners' Week, the national campaign to promote education and training for adults, is fast approaching. The week runs from Saturday 19th May - Friday 25th May. Key dates include Cultural Diversity Day (19th), Learning at Work Day (24th) and Silver Surfers' Day (25th).

Getting involved in the campaign is a great way of making people aware of the learning opportunities you provide, promoting the benefits of adult learning and encouraging new learners to get involved. If you are not currently involved in adult learning, the week could serve as a taster to lead on to future activities.

Family, Adult and Community Learning (FACL) have funding available to run learning activities across the week, with a short application form . Organisations with a FACL contract are eligible to apply, so long as they are offering activities over and above their contracted delivery. Funding is also available to run family learning activities during adult learners' week, if this is more suitable for your potential learners. * Application forms for ALW activities must be returned by Thursday 10th May 2007*. If you wish to order free promotional materials from NIACE (see attached 'ALW 2007' document), the deadline is 20th April. FACL can support organisations to find suitable tutors to deliver activities - please contact acl.info@sunderland.gov.uk with your request. 

Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities (NLDC)

Professionalisation of the Voluntary Sector Workforce - Funding Guidelines 2006/7

These guidelines are intended to assist with applications for Professionalisation of the Voluntary Sector Workforce funding. Funding is available to support Sunderland based organisations and colleagues from the Voluntary and Community Sector to improve their skills and/or gain qualifications related to the delivery of community based adult and family learning.

The fund can support:

• An individual up to a maximum of £500 support per year for relevant courses
• 100% of fees for C&G 7307 / 7407 (subject to above upper limit – if fees exceed this the individual or employing organisation will be expected to pay the difference)
• 50% of fees for teaching qualifications such as PGCE and Certificate in Education (Cert Ed) (subject to agreed upper limit and conditions as above)
• Course fees (subject to agreed upper limit and conditions as above) for subject relevant qualifications which will help to improve adult or family learning course delivery
• Cover/attendance fee @ £25 per person per half day for attendance at agreed courses/ACL training - which supports VCS delivery and quality improvement. This fee will be paid to the employing organisation for the individual/s

The fund cannot support:

• Retrospective applications
• Higher level qualifications (level 5)
• Degree course fees in any subject
• Courses, training or learning activities that are not linked with VCS delivery of Sunderland based adult and/or family learning

Further Information:

• All applications will be considered by the NLDC Steering Group of Sunderland Learning Partnership – consisting of representatives from Sunderland’s Community Network and Sunderland City Council
• A written evaluation is required on completion of externally run courses
• Sunderland Adult & Community Learning, on behalf of the NLDC Steering Group, reserve the right to ask for repayment of fees paid if the applicant leaves / fails to attend / fails to complete the course (consideration will be given to individual circumstances).  If you have any queries regarding an application please contact Jamie Spence – Acting Head of ACL - on (0191) 553 2620 or e-mail jamie.spence@sunderland.gov.uk

FARESHARE is a national charity that redistributes quality surplus foods from the food industry to organisations working with homeless and vulnerable people. It currently requires a range of volunteers to help with its activities. Drivers over the age of 25 years are required to collect and deliver food to projects for homeless people. Navigators are required to compile schedules for the shift and direct drivers to delivery and collection points, sorters are needed to ensure that food is of an acceptable quality for re-distribution and finally office volunteers are required to help out with admin tasks.

SUNDERLAND COMMUNITY FURNITURE are a registered charity which as part of its services collects and restores donated furniture to either be sold onto the general public at one of its furniture stores or to be donated on. They are currently looking for volunteers to help out in its furniture shops, its paper recycling depot and as drivers who will collect and deliver the furniture. Volunteers don’t need any previous experience but need to be practically minded and drivers will require a clean driving license.

SUNDERLAND COUNTRYSIDE RANGERS are a small group of volunteers that do various conservation tasks such as waymarking walking trails, footpath / stile / fence repairs, eradication of intrusive plants and weeds and even the occasional tree felling. Volunteers are needed to help with these activities which all take place over the weekend. Volunteers don’t need any special skills, just an enthusiasm and a sense of humour. We would love to hear from you if you are interested.

If you are interested in any of the above opportunities please contact the Volunteer Centre Sunderland on (0191) 567 8902 or call into 4 Toward Road, City Centre, Sunderland. Opening hours are Monday to Friday am 4pm. A postal application service is also available. Alternatively email us at: sunderlandvc@aol.com or visit www.do-it.org.uk

PIN NUMBER REVERSAL (GOOD TO KNOW)
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the Police by entering your PIN in reverse. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM machine recognises that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.

The machine will give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the Police will be immediately dispatched to help you. This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists.

Please feel free to distribute to your friends, family and colleague with their permission.