CAVOS
Supporting Voluntary and Community Action
Community News
Contact CAVOS if you would like your news articles adding to this page.
Healthier Meals
A nationwide campaign to help us all plan affordable healthier meals has been launched by Ainsley Harriott and the Public Health Minister Anne Milton. Change4Life's new Supermeals campaign will offer money off healthy ingredients across over a thousand supermarket stores up and down the country. One hundred thousand copies of a brand new cookbook with celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott will also be published. Use the link below for more details.mediacentre.dh.gov.uk/2012/01/02/super-deals-for-healthier-meals
‘Rain tax’ subsidy extended for 1 year
You may remember a previous report about Northumbria Water’s consultation on a new ‘rain tax’ for community buildings last year. NW said the results of the survey were inconclusive so have agreed to extend the subsidy for another year. This was also in view of the Government’s plans to expand the idea of social tariffs, which might involve a future review of all charges. The concession will remain until these uncertainties were resolved while at the same time gather more information as to the attitude towards cross-subsidy and the impact of its removal or change.Charities Act 2011 - new legislation
The Charities Act 2011 has received RoyalAssent and will come into force in March 2012. This is simply a 'Consolidation Act', merging earlier bits of legislation which actually means the Charities Act 2011 does not change the law,although it does replace most of three existing Acts: the Recreational Charities Act 1958, which gave charitable status to village halls; the Charities Act 1993, which contains all the rules on charity accounting, and the Charities Act 2006. However, it does not include part 3 of the 2006 act, which would make the Charity Commission the lead regulator of public charitable collections. This section, which says street and door-to-door fundraisers would be required to get public collection certificates from the commission, has never been activated and will be reconsidered as part of the review of the act. The commission has said it would not be able to take on the new duties without being provided with more resources. When the merged act was introduced earlier this year, the Office for Civil Society said it was unfair for legislation to be so complex and that it was inaccessible to those it affected.Party Bar UK
Party Bar UK is a social enterprise business that specialise in helping community groups, charities and sports clubs by providing portable bars for indoor and outdoor events including festivals, band nights, fireworks displays, catering, rallies and more. For more information visit their website, call 078 66600095 or emailcunzi78@live.co.uk
www.partybaruk.com
“Youth Work That Works”
Durham County Council recently took part in National Youth Week to celebrate the great successes by the County’s youth workers. As part of this, they hosted an awards ceremony to reward the achievements of small projects and individuals who have made a difference to youngsters growing up in the county. The week was promoted by the National Youth Agency with the aim of celebrating great youth work and generating positive publicity for young people. Chilton Youth Club and Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre were the two projects in our area being recognised and Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre actually successfully won their area’s Large Youth Centre award and the County overall Large Youth Centre Award with various projects. It is hoped that the awards will get more young people into after school clubs and activities via the County’s website:www.getoutthere.info.
Free membership to Listening Books
Listening Books is a charity that provides an audiobook library service to anyone who finds it difficult to access printed books due to an illness or disability, including visual, physical or learning difficulties. They have a library of over 5,000 audiobooks and this number is growing all the time. This includes fiction and nonfiction and they also support the National Curriculum. Members can choose to borrow audiobooks on CDs (MP3 versions), which they send through the post and they can also download or stream them from their website. They are a charity and there are no hidden costs involved (all postage is paid for by the charity). Members can cancel at any time and there are no late fees or lending restrictions. Thanks to the generosity of charitable trusts they receive funding to provide free memberships in certain areas and these are currently available to people who live in Sedgefield.Listening Books free membership leaflet.pdf
Ferryhill Stage Society
Ferryhill Stage Society have been running since 1938 and have held some successful productions over the years, most recently their 2011 ‘Viva Mexico’ show. They are now rehearsing for their pantomime ‘Cinderella’ to be held on 15th, 16th & 17th December. The group holds rehearsals @ Mainsforth Community Centre on Thursday evenings; 6pm – 7.15pm for junior members aged between 6 – 13 years and then 7.30pm onwards for older members.As part of encouraging the community to be able to take up the opportunity of coming along to the shows the group are considering trying to find ways of helping with transport to the shows. They have looked into some available transport however the costs were too high for the group to be able to take up.
Does anybody know of any good, affordable, reputable contacts they could contact to find out more details. Contact Maureen at the Society to discuss on 01740 654094
Kirk Merrington Pre-School need your help
Kirk Merrington Pre- School is a small non profit making community nursery that has been running for over 20 years. They are proud of the excellent child care and learning opportunities they provide for the 20 children who currently attend the nursery. However, they have limited outdoor area, and space for running, climbing and large physical movements in general is restricted. They have recently been given the opportunity to lease some extra land from Durham County Council to enable them to enhance their outside play area. The big emphasis is on outside play in a safe secure and stimulating environment. They would like to have an area of grass and garden for the children to explore, develop and maintain healthy bodies, improve their gross motor skills and confidence and a wildlife area for children to improve their understanding of nature and the natural environment. Staff and committee are looking at ways of raising funds but the current quotes they’ve obtained of £2,000 for clearing the area and erecting the fence are still hard to meet. Do you know a local business or tradesman who could help carry out the work or could provide a small donation towards the cost? Would you be willing to get involved in helping the group with your time, knowledge or experience?For more information contact Corrinne at the Pre-School on 01388 811 842.
Change to opening hours of County Durham Furniture Help Scheme (CDFHS)
As the negative effects of the current economic climate start to take effect, County Durham Furniture Help Scheme have been considering ways of helping local communities and families that are coming under increasing financial pressure. As part of this, they have now announced a major change to the trading hours that the charity is open and available to the general public.CDFHS has been operating for more than 40 years and now has 3 warehouse showrooms at Chilton which are entirely self funded. They are committed to helping the local communities as much as possible and aim to guarantee to be the cheapest source locally for key household and domestic goods. Alongside this, the service goes two ways and they also aim to provide an efficient, free collection service for bulky household goods that would otherwise make their way to landfill. Be it your old cooker, fridge or settees to miscellaneous “bric a brac” or clothes, you can ring their contact centre and they will arrange to collect directly from you as soon as they can.
Over the summer the team at CDFHS has been working hard at improving their service to the surrounding areas with additional training and new staff to accommodate for increasing demand from dealing with a bag of old clothes to an entire house clearance. The CDFHS puts 100% of any revenue made in to cover the costs of running their service. In addition, they also offer significant volunteering opportunities in their “Frontline” Charity complete with training and support which can be of significant help in getting in to or back to the world of work. Their new hours of opening are going to be:
- Monday to Thursday 10am - 3pm
- Fridays 10am - 5pm
- Saturdays 10am - 2pm (Prompt)
For more details call them now on 01388 721 509. They’re aiming at 100% recycling of every single item they collect!
Top class Kurlers!
We are very pleased to announce that the Fishburn Kurling Club has won the British Kurling Club Championships! The team was Tom Stubbs, Brenda Stubbs, Bert Draycott and Bob WallerAs an icing on the cake, Tom Stubbs also came 2nd in the Singles Championships. Congratulations Champions!
“Talking About Cancer”
The “Talking About Cancer" team is looking for volunteers. They are especially interested in people who would be comfortable working in community venues such as libraries, community centres, pubs and clubs and who would also be good at promoting the service to established groups, for example, male and female church forums, WI's, bingo clubs etc.The “Talking About Cancer" team is part of the Cancer Information and Support Service and the Team’s aim is to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer, encourage the uptake of screening programmes signposting people to their GP if signs or symptoms are experienced.
They are looking for people who are familiar with the Sedgefield area especially the villages around Newton Aycliffe, Shildon, Chilton, Ferryhill and Dean Bank as well as people from Fishburn and Trimdon Areas if possible.
For more information contact the Health Improvement Practitioner (Cancer Prevention) Karen Moore on 01915692894, 07500122324 or email
k.moore2@nhs.net
Award Winning Gardens!
Well done to Trimdon Community Gardens who have successfully won the Durham County Council Environment Award 2011.They group are very proud of their trophy and certificate and we’re sure that you’ll all agree that the award is very well deserved indeed! The group is a previous winner of the CAVOS Organisation of the Year Award….so they’re no strangers to award success!We’d like to formally offer a huge congratulations from everyone on the CAVOS Team who are great fans of the work that Green-fingered goddesses Mary and Stella (and the rest of the gang) do at the Community Gardens. Well done! Roll on 2012!
Get to the heart of your community
If you’ve ever thought “if I was in charge, I’d do this (or that)”, now’s your chance to do something about it.Everyone living or working in County Durham can help to shape their area by joining their local Area Action Partnership (AAP). And AAPs in County Durham are running a recruitment campaign to encourage more people to get involved in their local community. By joining, you can get to the heart of your community and get involved in a range of activities to improve where you live. Kath Merrington, a member of the 4 Together Partnership, said: “The AAP brings together all the important people and organisations in our area to work on projects to help improve our local community. I think working with the AAP has been a rewarding experience for so many reasons. It’s such a good feeling to see projects that I’ve been involved in, actually make a real difference to people’s lives.”
There are 14 AAPs covering the whole of County Durham, and people are being invited to get involved. You can download a special recruitment postcard to join your AAP. Alternatively, you can email your details to
aap@durham.gov.uk
call 0191 383 4964 or visit their website:
www.durham.gov.uk/aap
Support Pelvic Dysfunction
Support Pelvic Dysfunction is a newly formed charity based in Newton Aycliffe that is currently in the process of being formerly set up to offer support to women suffering with pelvic problems including SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction) as well as other related complications or conditions, during and post pregnancy. SPD is common but not normal during pregnancy and they want to: stamp out prejudice, stamp out lack of awareness, increase the help that SPD sufferers need and have people realise: ‘I may not look disabled but my disability is not visual and is very much real!!’ They are currently seeking local people who may be interested in supporting the charity by being involved in this organisation as a Trustee. Anyone who may be interested in getting involved in the organisation in any way is invited to contact Sarah by emailing her at:help@supportpelvicdysfunction.co.uk
Think Rubbish! Community Waste Management in County Durham
Durham County Council’s Strategic Waste Management Team is keen to help and support anyone interested in setting up their own community waste management projects within County Durham.There are already a number of projects within the County including community compost schemes, furniture reuse projects, community repaint schemes, and education projects. Whatever your idea the Team would like to hear from you, whether you want to set up a bicycle reuse project, computer recycling or run junk swaps! They already coordinate a Furniture Forum with furniture schemes from across the County. In the Sedgefield area, the project is:
- County Durham Furniture Help Scheme – tel: 01388 721 509
The team can offer projects help with: support accessing funding; networking; marketing & publicity; business development and raising the profile of projects. For more information contact: Ruth Smith on 0191 383 5674 or
Fishburn Bowling Club
Fishburn Bowling Club is looking to recruit new members of all ages, both male and female, for the forthcoming season starting April 2012. The club at present plays in 4 leagues and offers the opportunity for members to play both competitive bowls, as well as being able to play a more relaxed game at leisure in their own time.A meeting of all club members will be held in April 2012 (date to be announced) where all fixtures and plans for the forthcoming season will be announced.
Anyone interested please contact the secretary, Terry Oakes for more information on 01740 620454
Lunch Club at St Mary’s Church
A Lunch Club is running in Newton Aycliffe, thanks to a partnership with local charity St Cuthbert's Care and St Mary’s Church.With initial advice and guidance through St Cuthbert's Care’s ‘PACE’ (Parish And Community Engagement) project, Parish Priest Fr Michael Campion and volunteers from across the parish held their first Lunch Club at St Mary’s Church on 24th March 2011.
The Lunch Club gives elderly people the chance to come along for a bite to eat and a chat, as well as the chance to make new friends.
Priced at just £3 per person, the Lunch Club will run every Thursday from 11am until 2pm and offers members a healthy lunch, as well as morning and afternoon refreshments. Anyone wishing to join St Mary’s Lunch Club, or wanting further information, should call 01325 313 611. Places are limited so pre-booking is essential
Happy Days Pre-Nursery School
This group is held in Bishop Middleham Village Hall on Tuesday and Friday mornings between 9am and 11am during school term time. The group has fun, structured mornings with lots of opportunities for encouraging development and growth. Themes run each term to teach the children about their ever expanding world. Lots of activities are available from dressing up, books, puzzles and construction play to messy play, craft work, music and story time. For more details and costs ring Susan Newton on 01740 656935Give to Gain
- Part of a local community group or club?- Looking for extra funds for equipment or activities?
Raise money by having a clearout!
Be part of the growing number of groups in the area collecting cash for unwanted items.
YMCA Shop in Newton Aycliffe are inviting all non-charitable groups in the area to be part of Give to Gain. This is a unique scheme where your group can earn cash.
How it works:
To learn more contact Emma at the YMCA shop on 01325 321 580
Veterans at Ease
Veterans at Ease is a new organisation that is currently being set up to offer support to veterans who are experiencing post conflict trauma and stress through the provision of Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques. They are currently seeking local people who may be interested in supporting veterans by being involved in this organisation as a Trustee, particularly in the roles of secretary or treasurer. Anyone who may be interested in getting involved in the organisation in any way is invited to contact Garreth Murrell on 07584056181Recycle with Rotary
Spennymoor Rotary Cub is running fantastic new scheme to encourage people to get recycling! From old milk bottle tops to ink cartridges, the Rotary Club is collecting your rubbish and recycling it to make money for various charities. If your group would like to get involved in this scheme, contact CAVOS who will pass on your interestThe Tearaways Youth Theatre Group
Tearways are about to start rehearsals for their annual pantomime very soon. Oh Yes They Are! They are looking for any young people aged 11 to 19 years of age who would like to sing, dance or act and be a part of an award winning group. Learn new skills, meet new friends! 01388 774838www.tearaways-shildon.co.uk
C.A.T.S. (Childrens Amateur Theatre Group Shildon)
C.A.T.S is a theatre group for all young people aged 8 to 11 years to join.For more information ring 07747826324 or visit their website:
www.cats-theatre.co.uk
Confidential helpline for young people
Just Simply ASK – a confidential information and advice line for young people aged 13-19 years went live on Saturday 20th March. This new helpline is being offered by Cornforth Partnership and is available to contact on Saturdays from 11am – 1pm. The helpline number is 07896972000. Spread the word!Sedgefield Lyric Singers
What do Action Aid, Butterwick Hospice, and Durham Society for the Blind and Partially sighted, Mission to sea farers and Great North Air Ambulance Service ….all have in common?They are just a few of the many good causes supported by Sedgefield Lyric, Sedgefield Lyric Youth Choir (SLYC) and Lirica to the tune of nearly £7000 over the past 10 years.
This considerable amount has been raised through regular summer and Christmas concerts, and other fundraising events over the years. The three choirs also contribute to the musical life of the village and surrounding area and are regularly invited by organisations around the district to perform.
“The Lyrics” (as the original choir is fondly known) started in 1973. Keen to encourage young people into singing, the next step was the addition of a youth choir in 1985. Recently some of the former SLYC singers have developed their talents as new singing group Lirica. Two Lirica members now help out with SLYC, and one former youth choir member puts the Lyrics through their paces when the regular Musical director is not available. Full circle! So join us to celebrate the SLYC jubilee on October 22-24th 2010.
Singing in the choir is great fun. With the youngest member aged seven and others still singing well into their eighth decade (we even have three generations of the same family singing with us) - the Lyrics really are a “community choir”.
So if you enjoy songs from the shows, well loved classics or something completely new, then join us for rehearsals (no auditions) on a Friday night at Ceddesfeld Hall, Sedgefield. We would especially like to hear from you if you sing tenor or bass. For more information, contact Joan Green on Tel: (01325) 317039 and Sandy Clubley (SLYC) on Tel: (01740) 620609
Sedgefield Community of Interest
‘Supporting voluntary groups that work with children and young people’The Community of Interest (COI) is a group of people who work together to ensure that voluntary groups and organisations working with children and young people can have access to the support they need.
The COI is more than just a meeting; we know it is important for you to receive information, but we also know how important it is for you to have your voice heard, be able to ask questions and get the answers you need.
CAVOS is one of the partners on the COI but there are a range of other organisations that specialise in delivering services and support to children and young people.
You don’t have to attend our meetings, you can just sign up for information. Better still, you can join our networking group and come along to events and meet other volunteers or organisations that could help you.
If you would like to become a part of this important network contact CAVOS on 01388 811115 or Cornforth Partnership on 01740 652000
The FLiC’ Group
Durham County Council were so impressed with an application to run the Coxhoe Leisure Centre they have agreed to transfer it to the safe keeping of the ‘FLiC’ group.The Future Leisure in Coxhoe ( FLiC ) group continue to work closely and positively with Durham County Council and are well supported by local Councillors. The group, in partnership with the local community, relish the opportunity to enhance indoor facilities which will complement existing outdoor provision and provide a 21st Century experience for the locality. FLiC will shortly be confirmed as a Company Limited by Guarantee with Charitable Status to run as an individual Charity. All members of the Leisure Centre will automatically become members of FLiC and be able to vote at the AGM to decide matters such as choosing a Board of Directors. Increasing activities for all is their priority. How can you help? Continue to use the Leisure Centre : Become a member/encourage others to join: Tell them the activities you want to see.
FLiC have pulled together a questionnaire to gather the views of local people on what facilities they would like to see in the centre in the future. As this is the only leisure centre in the East Durham Rural Corridor area, the AAP are encouraging people to complete it as they believe it is an important issue. There is also an opportunity for supporters and sponsors to be involved with this exciting new venture. The group would like to extend a big thank you to their first ‘supporter’ - West Cornforth Van and Minibus Hire for the donation of a van and driver for one day. Would your business like to benefit from becoming a corporate partner of FLiC? Please contact them now for more information on 07582656254
FLiC Action Plan consultation.pdf