This is a unique opportunity to gain experience and raise awareness amongst your peers whilst building experience and getting a qualification at the same time. 

Successful candidates will need to be:

• Be confident
• Have good communication skills
• Be willing to learn
• Able to work in a team
• Willingness to work in an confidential environment
• Passionate about helping within the community
• Able to commit to the programme from August 2011-July 2012 and be
• CRB checked through Know Urself C.I.C

Know Urself will provide free training, qualification and expenses up to the value of £3.60

Interested? Then, Please Send your CV to the e-mail below or contact Know Urself to obtain an application form.  (Places are Limited) 

Sherill Fuller

Email: knowurselfuk@yahoo.co.uk

Tel: 07930 326 127

Women & Theatre would like to invite you to join an analytical round-table discussion with specialist experts from the worlds of health, social care, youth services, housing associations and the commercial sector to explore the role of comedy in health.

Women & Theatre is a Birmingham based theatre company with 28 years’ experience of using participatory drama and theatre to examine social issues, improve community wellbeing and facilitate positive change.

As winners of Birmingham and Solihull’s Big Idea Bonanza, a campaign that sought ideas to improve the health of local residents, Women & Theatre is now working with The Young Foundation to explore sustainable ways of developing its ‘Community Comedy Club’. This project utilises comedy to:

• Tackle low level mental health issues such as anxiety and depression
• Remove barriers of isolation and loneliness
• Develop new approaches in mental health
• Encourage social inclusion in health, education and the wider community
• Raise confidence and self-esteem 
• Provide new opportunities for genuine social engagement

This session will provides an opportunity to for you to help shape the development of this project and inform the approach we take to measuring and valuing outcomes.

The session will start with a presentation from The Young Foundation outlining insight and analysis on the evidence base supporting comedy in health. This will be followed by an interactive debate, where we will identify where Community Comedy Club outcomes successfully match different organisation’s strategic agendas and inform the development of a robust evidence base.

To request a place or for further information please contact Women and Theatre via:

Jess Williams, General Manager
Women & Theatre
T: 0121 449 7117

jesswilliams@womenandtheatre.co.uk

I am delighted to share some great progress made by Lucy and her colleagues at the ‘Ideas Lab’ on her innovative ‘Comfort Beater Eater App’.

• The app is due to officially launch on Tuesday 4^th October!
• Channel 4 website ‘4Food’ is going to feature the app as one of the 10 best food apps in their feature this autumn!
• The TV company Endemol may use the Comfort Beater Eater App in one of their programmes!
• Endmol TV are also potentially considering funding an android version of the app to increase the number of beneficiaries!
• Lastly Lucy and her team are considering applying for the ‘An App a Day’ – Andrew Lansley launches a call for ideas for new health apps and maps – watch this space for more info on how we can all support the app if the ‘Ideas Lab’ choose to apply!

 Finally Ideas Lab are looking for people with iPhone’s to test the app over September  - if you are interested please contact Lucy for more details.

Lucy Vernall, Project Director

Ideas Lab

0121 4145494 (direct)

www.ideaslabuk.com

Follow us on Twitter @ideaslabproject

One in three of us who live to 65 will have some form of dementia before we die.

The Design Council and the Department of Health want you to rethink life with dementia. A million people in the UK will be living with the condition by 2021. But there’s a difference between simply living and living well.

They are challenging you to make the lives of people affected by dementia better.

Take part in the Living well with dementia challenge

You give: time + your team + your ideas

You get: a slice of £360,000K + professional support

Design Council challenges are an opportunity to use your skills in a new area, whilst making a real difference to people’s lives.

Interested? Find out more at www.designchallenges.ning.com

This challenge is about coming up with new ideas and making them happen. If you want to get involved, put together a team of people and submit a PDF of your application by 5pm on the 30th of September 2011.

Please contact me directly if you are interested in partnering with Young Foundation on 0121 380 9019/ 07956 317 236 or eleanor.cappell@youngfoundation.org

Winning Ways is a new and innovative approach to personal development in sport. Using six 45 minute sessions a progressive path of personal development is constructed with and alongside participants, building personal strengths and skills.

Two Birmingham based Social Enterprise, Start Again Project and DevelopmentKeys, have worked in true partnership to create and deliver not only the Winning Ways Personal Development and Coaching Programme but also its new website http://stepup2winningways.com/

Mark Peters of Start Again Project commented…”Creating the new Winning Ways product in partnership with DevelopmentKeys has introduced Start Again to the opportunities for Social Enterprise to successfully create and deliver diversified income streams. This is going to be increasingly important to many organisations seeking sustainability in the current funding climate.”

For more information contact:
Mark Peters info@start-again.co.uk or
David Williamson david.williamson@developmentkeys.org.uk

Blaze FM proudly announced that Change Kitchen C.I.C. is the Social Enterprise of the Month for September!

Big congratulations for Change Kitchen C.I.C. the wonderful caterers at our Big Idea Bonanza!
 
Listen to Blaze FM to find out more about Change Kitchen and to hear how your Social Enterprise could be featured in future months.
Blaze FM, “The only officially-  accredited social enterprise radio station in the West Midlands”

www.blazefm.co.uk
mail: studio@blazefm.co.uk
telephone: 0121 742 5318
tweet: @blazefmradio

Natwest CommunityForce – is a new initiative which sees Natwest working with local communities to support the people, projects and charities making a real difference where people live.

There are three main ways to get involved:

1. Apply: If you are a charity or project you can apply now to be in with a chance of winning an award.
2. Vote: In September everyone will be able to vote for their favourite projects. The three projects with the most votes in each CommunityForce area will win the awards.
3. Volunteer: When voting begins in the autumn, you’ll also be able to join NatWest staff in lending a hand to local projects looking for help.

For further information visit: http://communityforce.natwest.com/

CommunityForce is a platform that empowers local projects and charities to raise awareness of their work and make their plans a reality with the support of NatWest and their local community.

The call for ideas launched on 22nd August and closes end of September.
For further information: http://mapsandapps.dh.gov.uk/
To submit your idea: http://departmentofhealth.ideascale.com/

The Big Idea Bonanza –  a campaign seeking ideas to improve the health of residents in Birmingham and Solihull – has announced Women & Theatre’s ‘Community Comedy Club’ as the winner of its inaugural award. Their ‘Community Comedy Club’ will utilise comedy as a tool to:

• Tackle low level mental health issues such as anxiety and depression
• Remove barriers of isolation and loneliness
• Develop new approaches in mental health
• Encourage social inclusion in health, education and the wider community
• Raise confidence and self-esteem  
• Provide new opportunities for genuine social engagement

Laughing not only creates empathy and understanding amongst people, but dramatically helps individuals feel less isolated uniting communities that benefit from the Community Comedy Course.

Eleanor Cappell, Social Entrepreneur in Residence (SEiR) at the Birmingham and Solihull NHS Cluster, who managed and ran the Big Ideas Bonanza said  “I and my colleagues at the Young Foundation look forward to working with the ‘Women and Theatre’ team over the coming months developing their ventures sustainability, scalability and impact measurement tools.”

Jess Williams, General Manager, Women and Theatre comments that “our Community Comedy Club has been incredibly successful, making a huge impact on individuals’ lives and uniting the Highgate community. We are thrilled to have won this award and have the opportunity to work with The Young Foundation to explore sustainable ways of developing the project, ensuring the benefits of laughter can reach more people in a range of contexts.”

The Young Foundation received over 62 applications from a wide spectrum of public and third sector organisations, local patients and residents.  The ideas covered a vast array of health issues from avoiding A& E admissions to addressing the emotional wellbeing of looked after children.

The ‘Community Comedy Club’ concept was selected from a shortlist of  6 high quality applications – each demonstrating diverse, new and exciting proposals to tackle local health problems backed by strong and dynamic entrepreneurs.

For further information or to request an interview please contact Eleanor Cappell, Social Entrepreneur in Residence on T: 0121 380 9019or  M: 07956 317 236 E: eleanor.cappell@youngfoundation.org

The Big Idea Bonanza was organised by the Young Foundation – who bring together insights, innovation and entrepreneurship to meet social needs. We have a track record of over 50 years’ success with ventures such as the Open University, Which?, the School for Social Entrepreneurs and Healthline (the precursor of NHS Direct). For more information please visit: www.youngfoundation.org                        

Women & Theatre is a Birmingham based theatre company with 28 years’ experience of using participatory drama and theatre to examine social issues, improve community wellbeing and facilitate positive change. For more information please visit: www.womenandtheatre.co.uk