In the run up to Christmas and with a lot of us having to shop online due to lockdown and restrictions we thought it might be worth sending out a quick reminder regarding ways you can support CCB, or another charity, to raise some additional core funding without spending any additional money.

AMAZON SMILE

If you shop on Amazon, please use the Amazon Smile platform instead, to register your support for CCB please click on this link; https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1056367-0

Marketing details: If you shop Amazon Black Friday Week deals 20th – 30th November, you can do more than discover great deals: Simply shop at Amazon Smile or with AmazonSmile ON in the Amazon Shopping app, and AmazonSmile donates to Connecting Communities In Berkshire at no extra cost.

We also registered with Easy Fundraising which gives commission from a variety of online shops, you just need to add it to your browser and it will remind you to enter through the Easy Fundraising platform to earn commission for the charity on any purchases, again there is no extra cost to you. Details can be found below.

EASYFUNDRAISING

Please remember to use easyfundraising when you do your online Christmas shopping this year: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ccberks/

Over 4,300 shops and sites will donate to Connecting Communities in Berkshire for FREE when you use easyfundraising to shop with them. This means you can raise donations for us when you buy anything from decorations and festive food shopping to gifts like toys, jewellery, tech, experiences and more!

These donations really help us and all you have to do is use easyfundraising when you’re ordering the things you’ll be buying anyway.

A BIG thank you to the 200 people that have responded to our social media campaign to engage with communities throughout Berkshire and ask them one important question ‘What’s important to your community?’ This simple, two second survey is really important to help us shape our project delivery in 2021 so if you haven’t already please answer our question by clicking here: https://ccberks.wufoo.com/forms/m10yg88q0ekex9y/

So far the top five issues as important to communities in Berkshire have been identified as Health & Wellbeing, Planning & Land Use, Access to Community Facilities, Affordable Housing and Climate Change. Already this is helping us to shape the community training opportunites that we are able to organise and provide this winter so thank you once again and please share this survey as far and county-wide as possible!

CCB would just like to say a big THANK YOU to our 40 members that joined us online on the first day of Lockdown 2 (5th Nov.) for our very first Zoom Annual General Meeting. This year was a bit different to our face-to-face event and we missed having informal chats with our members but it proved to be a very efficient way of running an AGM with voting being cast effectively using online polls. Our new Chair Sarah Morland warmly welcomed everyone and voiced her enthusiasm for Chairing the charity with her main focus being on how CCB can work more closely to engage with Berkshire communities to ensure that we are meeting their needs in this ever-changing environment.

Tim Parry, Chief Officer, presented our Annual Review and highlighted how we had adpated delivery of our projects during the pandemic. Tim said “The whole CCB Team has shown great creativity and tenacity in adapting to a new way of working during a difficult period for us all. I am very grateful for the support of staff and Trustees alike”

Our AGM was immediately followed by a free training webinar focused on supporting our members that run Village Halls on Safeguarding requirements and how to approach them in a straighforward and structured way. Our national body Action with Communities in Rural England provided some of the training material and the session was delivered by Kate Meads, Community Buildings Advisor. Kate said “I was delighted to have so many trustees join the short webinar. My key message was to ensure that everyone understands they have a part to play in Safeguarding. Safeguarding is Everyone’s Business. Safeguarding needs to be a part of the conversation and considered by the charity. Village Halls objectives are to provide facilities and activities that positively impact on local communities, so it makes perfect sense to consider the Safeguarding of Children and Adults at Risk.  I hope to provide more training in the new year to help Trustees meet their obligations in a simple, effective and understandable way”.

Delegates that attended the training session were very positive about their learning experience with one learner commenting on their feedback form; “An excellent introduction to Safeguarding for Village Hall committees. We have more or less ignored the subject in the past because, wherever you look up about it, it’s always seemed so huge and daunting, especially for a small hall with just a few volunteers running it. To understand that it’s actually going to be straightforward to do is most reassuring. We look forward to the resources you are developing that we will be able to use to create our own policy and procedure in due course. Thank you.”

This week we will are providing more help and support regarding Safeguarding in Village Halls on our social media platforms as part of ACRE’s Safeguarding Week so please do follow us to find out more Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CCBerkshire and Twitter: https://twitter.com/CCBerkshire

For any village halls and community building Trustees in Wokingham please book in on our more indepth training webinar taking place on 21st January at 10.30am: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/128999634379