Training for voluntary and community organisations

We recognise the incredible contribution made by local Voluntary and Community Sector organisations (VCS) in helping people during the Covid–19 Pandemic.

We know that demand on local VCS organisations is increasing and that is having an impact on staffing.

Organisations and individuals are having to adapt and stay ahead of frequent policy changes in a stressful and emotionally challenging environment.

In order to help the sector, the council is supporting VCS organisations with free access to volunteers through our volunteering hub with Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets.

We continue to signpost the sector towards local, regional, and national grant schemes, which can help organisations in Tower Hamlets with unexpected costs, loss of income, or new projects.

Support around Covid–19 and digital inclusion training is also available through local, regional, and national programmes. These can help organisations in Tower Hamlets build capacity and become more resilient and financially sustainable.

This page outlines some of the training opportunities available for VCS organisations in Tower Hamlets.

Please contact Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Service (THCVS) for any advice and support.

THCVS is offering its member organisations high–quality training, workshops, courses, and events courses to help them grow stronger and more resilient as organisations.

Available opportunities

East London Health and Care Partnership

Supporting those bereaved through suicide

Free course

East London Health and Care Partnership aims to deliver a series of sessions to the community to improve knowledge, skills and understanding in supporting those bereaved through suicide. 

The aims of the training will be to: 

Pro Bono Economics

Pro Bono Economics is offering charity organisations, social enterprises with a presence in the UK with pro bono support from a dedicated volunteer economist to help them with ad hoc data needs.

This includes data analysis or visualisation, spreadsheet tasks or short pieces of research. Charities can receive approximately 1-5 days of support over a 1–2-month period.

To request for support contact projects@probonoeconomics.com

Visit the probonoeconomics website for more information. Deadline is ongoing.

Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets

Peer Learning session: Working with Emotions in Volunteering

Wednesday 22 March, 10.30am – 12.30pm, Zoom FREE

This training is for organisations with a base or projects in Tower Hamlets. Working with people can be challenging. As busy volunteer managers, we can sometimes find ourselves focusing on the mechanics or processes of volunteering and not giving enough thought to how we, and the people we lead and manage are feeling.

Recent research has suggested that the ability to work with emotions effectively is likely to be the determining factor between those who succeed in harnessing the commitment, energy and support of volunteers, and those that are seen as less effective. 

In this interactive and practical peer learning session, participants will work together with other local volunteer managers on a variety of activities in a safe and confidential environment.

They will be introduced to a comprehensive toolkit of activities, developed by the University of Leicester and the Association of Volunteer Managers, that will help further the development and skills needed to understand and work with emotions in volunteering.

They will look at recognising different emotions and how volunteer motivations and passions shape working relationships.

Techniques and strategies for coping with challenging emotions will also be discussed. Participants will leave with a toolkit that they can continue to use for themselves, other staff and volunteers.

Book your place on the Peer Learning session

Martyn's Law

Wednesday 8 March, 2.30pm

Martyn's Law seeks to ensure protection against terrorism in public places. There is a webinar designed specifically for charities that will provide the opportunity to learn about the new laws.

Defining what to Measure

Friday 10 March, 11am

Want to create a measurement strategy? Don't quite understand why measuring impact is so important? Third Sector Lab can teach you.

Impact, Outcomes, and Evaluation - building the capacity to measure effectiveness

This training programme is for programme managers, fundraisers and directors responsible for service improvement.

Through a series of three case study based training modules, they will look at how a fictional CEO Mary:

• approaches impact measurement
• identifies the type of evaluation best for her services
• how she addresses challenges she encounters along the way.

Wednesday 15 March, 11am-2.30pm / Module 2 / Evaluating Programmes: A case study.

Register for evaluating programmes module

Wednesday 29 March, 11am-2.30pm / Module 3 / Using Impact and Evaluation Data in Practice.

Register for evaluation data in practice module

Wellbeing at Work

Wednesday 29 March, 10am

As part of their mental health series, Partnership for Young London is hosting this event about how to support staff and volunteers with their mental health.

Charity Governance Awards

These awards are an opportunity to celebrate good governance and trusteeship in the sector. The deadline to enter has been extended to 8 March, and a live event will announce the winners in April. The winner will receive a £5,000 unrestricted grant.

Health Inequalities and the Rising Cost of Living

The Institute of Health Equity has written a report on how to reduce the impacts that the cost-of-living crisis is having on health inequalities in London.

Community Space Guide

Check out this cultural/community space guide from London Business Hub. It covers all the legal, financial and practical questions you might have about creating your own space.

LGBTQ+ Charities

There are so many amazing LGBTQ+ charities. For more information about the charities working on LGBTQ+ issues, take a look at these resources from The London Community Foundation and Charity Digital.

Conducting webinars

Webinars have become a vital aspect of working in the sector. This is why it is vital to make your webinars as good as possible. Check out this detailed guide on the topic.

New City College

Maths Skills for Life

Free course

This is a new programme to help adults across the UK to improve their numeracy skills.

The training programme aims to boost numeracy skills to progress to work or to help with daily tasks, earn higher wages, manage money better and/or support children at home with home learning.

The programme is available online and/or classroom based for 15 hours, or three hours each week over five weeks, there are also options for intensive study.

This programme is ongoing

NCS Community Experiences

They are commissioning two types of community experiences for 16-17 year olds

• Open-to-all: Regular experiences that are embedded in young people’s local communities, with structure and support from NCS Trust, but locally tailored by you
• Targeted: Innovations and projects that support underserved young people in their local communities

Who can apply

The eligibility criteria is outlined as follows:

• Non-profit
• Community interest company
• Voluntary or community group
• Registered charity
• Co-operative
• Local authority
• Charity Incorporated Organisations
• Organisations based in England
• Organisations with experience working with and delivering opportunities for young people in their local area

Themes/aims of the fund

Community experiences should comprise activities that align with the four key objectives from their strategy:

• develop life skills and support independent living
• build employability and work-readiness
• provide opportunities for volunteering and social action
• enable social mixing of young people from all backgrounds

How much funding per project

Targeted £10,000- £500,000 Open- dependant on area allocation.

The deadline is 9am on Monday 20 March 2023

Apply for NCS community experiences

If you are interested in Open to all but don't have a partnership in place there is a link on the NCS website to register your interest.

StreetGames have been supporting NCS with the application process and are now supporting prospective grantees to apply. Please get in touch with your local Sustainability Lead or StreetGames contact.

Labyrinth Learning Series

The Labyrinth Learning series aims to deliver a series of 50 minute online sessions to tackle some of the common challenges organisations experience and find solutions

The Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM)

This training is aimed at safeguarding young people.  Preventing Gambling Harms training aims to raise awareness and address issues around gambling harm (which is disproportionately affecting young people from ethnic minority communities).

The workshop is designed to develop an understanding of socio–cultural and religious contents on shame and stigma in relation to gambling harms.

The prevention programme will deliver specialist workshops to young people from ethnic minority populations aged between 14–24 years, as well as training to community and faith leaders.

To express an interest for the training, please complete the form on Diverse Communities Expression of Interest – YGAM.