Award for environmental improvements
GMCVO has received an environmental award in recognition of our success in achieving resource efficiencies and environmental improvements in the workplace.
The Environmental Business Pledge (EBP) silver award was presented on 5th July following a number of initiatives taken by GMCVO. These included replacing light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs, installing sensors to light fittings in the toilets, fitting water-saving devices to taps and installing sensors on urinals to reduce water consumption.
Utility usage is now monitored on a weekly basis and bills reviewed regularly to see where further savings can be made. Since implementing the improvement and behavioural change programme, gas and electricity consumption has been reduced, generating a saving of £1,150 in the first quarter compared with the previous year.
With support from the Kindling Trust, GMCVO also reviewed its catering provision switching to local suppliers to help support the local economy and reduce food-miles during delivery. By educating staff on food management, food waste in the St Thomas Centre (GMCVO’s base) has decreased by 70 per cent.
Contact: Tanya Coutts, 0161 277 1002, .
Successful bid for sustainable transport funding
GMCVO and the Greater Manchester Community Transport Forum are supporting a bid to put sustainable travel at the heart of Greater Manchester’s blueprint for a low carbon economy.
After a successful ‘key component’ bid for £5 million from the Government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) for the Greater Manchester Commuter Cycling Project, the ambitions of Transport for Greater Manchester and their partners have received a further boost by being invited to work with the Government to develop a revised business case by the end of the year.
Detailed plans are now being developed to help more people chose to cycle and walk to work, use new technologies to offer electronic travel cards and deliver real-time travel information to ‘smart’ phones, and build the capacity of local community transport to develop access-to-work services for isolated and deprived communities.
Greater Manchester is bidding for up to £50 million over five years to help take this vision forward.
Contact: David Campbell, 0161 277 1014, .
Boost for sports volunteering
Better planning of joint activities and initiatives involving sports volunteering was the main outcome of an event attended by volunteer organisers from across Greater Manchester.
At the event, organised by the GMCVO-hosted Volunteering Greater Manchester (VGM) project in January 2011, participants explored ways of working together more closely at a local level, identified ways to simplify pathways into volunteering in sports clubs and associations and looked at the potential for creating new opportunities connected to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Together with Volunteering England, VGM also hosted Modernising Volunteering – The Way to a Bigger Society, a regional event attended by over 130 participants.
The event was based around the findings of national pilot studies into four priority areas – faith-based volunteering, new forms of volunteer involvement, overcoming barriers to volunteering and skills-based employer-supported volunteering.
Contact: Lynne Kent, VGM, 0161 277 1027, .
New factsheets go online
A set of 60 online information guides and factsheets has been produced for the voluntary and community sector across Greater Manchester.
Each factsheet offers basic information, advice and guidance to help voluntary and community organisations to set up, develop and grow. The factsheets include everything from charity registration and employment contracts to managing volunteers and how to influence Parliament.
The factsheets were compiled by members of Greater Manchester Voluntary Sector Support (including GMCVO), who collaborated to consolidate over 200 existing factsheets and produce new factsheets from scratch. The aims of the initiative were to better co-ordinate and manage information for the sector, offering better consistency and access to crucial areas of support.
The factsheets can be downloadedfrom
Contact: David Sutcliffe, 0161 277 1011, .
Trainers’ network
A new training network, initiated by GMCVO, is enabling training providers to better plan and co-ordinate their courses.
Established in September 2010, the Training Co-ordination Network (TCN) is a working forum comprised of voluntary and community sector (VCS) training co-ordinators and administrators from across Greater Manchester.
The TCN holds quarterly meetings, with a rotating chair and venue.
Rotation allows the TCN to physically move around the region and is very much part of the TCN’s egalitarian approach, with no one group taking ownership. Consequently, the collective ownership of the TCN fosters a genuinely collaborative effort to provide quality training provision to Greater Manchester’s VCS.
In between meetings, the TCN acts as a central repository for the instant exchange of information, research and projects, enabling administrators and co-ordinators to better plan their training programmes.
Contact: Andy Rawling, 0161 277 1009, .
Big Health Day a big success
In January, GMCVO’s Health Partnership hosted Big Health Day, a Lottery-funded event that enabled cross-sector health professionals to work together to examine potential ways forward through the current political and economic changes.
Guest speakers provided presentations on the new health structures for Greater Manchester and the national changes to the NHS. Workshops were diverse and included topics such as emerging public health priorities, health and transport, and the development of a sub-regional health consortium.
Set in one of Manchester’s top conference venues, the day was a fully booked success with plenty of positive feedback from delegates, mostly citing the day as an encouraging event in an uncertain time.
Contact: Neil Walbran, 0161 277 1036, .