Charity and Voluntary Sector
DH: A scheme that encourages families to ditch the car and walk their children to school at least once a week will receive an £800,000 boost from the Government, Public Health Minister Gillian Merron has announced. The ‘Walk Once a Week’ scheme run by the Living Streets charity, rewards children who walk to school one day a week with a collectable metal badge for each month they take part.
The funding will be used to expand the scheme to at least 900 more schools with a focus on the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and Tyne and Wear, where there are higher numbers of overweight and obese children. The scheme has been running for 6 years and operates in every London borough. 59% of girls & 60% of boys in participating schools take part in the scheme and walk to school at least one day a week.
WAG: Education Minister Leighton Andrews has announced that the Welsh Assembly Government has committed £17,591 to the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) Cymru to fund 3 regional events aimed at delivering deaf awareness training to education professionals across Wales.
The events to be held in Cardiff, Carmarthenshire and Wrexham will help raise awareness of the specific needs of deaf children and young people amongst teaching staff and others in the education profession, and will give them a basic understanding of the causes and effects of childhood deafness.
MoJ: Government funding for voluntary agencies that provide support to victims of sexual violence will be streamlined with the establishment of a one-year combined fund for 2010/11. The fund has been created by merging the Office for Criminal Justice Reform Victims Fund and the Government Equalities Office Special Fund, in order to simplify the application and administration process for voluntary organisations in the sector.
This move to simplify application and administration processes for voluntary organisations follows publication of the cross-government strategy - Together We Can End Violence Against Women and Girls - which signalled a new approach to working with the voluntary sector. As part of this process, the Home Office is also inviting organisations working in the sector to apply for grants to fund Independent Sexual Violence Advisers.
Agencies can make applications for both sets of funding from 27 January until 22 February 2010 and grant awards will be announced in March, meaning that successful applicants will know what they can expect to receive ahead of the new financial year.
