In partnership with Heartstart Thatcham we have helped to deliver two very successful Life Support Skills & Defibrillator training in West Berkshire this winter.

Both training sessions took place in rural settings, the first at Hermitage Village Hall, on a dark January evening. All delegates had very positive feedback and rated the training as excellent or good. Below you can view a film about the correct actions to take if you think you’ve found someone unconscious and how to check so you DON’T get a smack in the face!

In February we ran another well attended training event this time at Brimpton Village Hall. Please see some pictures below. If you would like to register your interest in future training events like this please e-mail Kate.Meads@ccberks.org.uk or if you have children and live in Wokingham you may be interested in a training event we are running next month. Please click here for further details.https://ccb2017.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/new-training-opportunity-for-parent-carers-in-wokingham-to-learn-life-saving-skills/

Comments from learners included:

“This was a professional yet informal setting and ticked all my expectations.”

“Confident, professional instruction. Practical demonstrations and it was great to have the opportunity to have a go and use a defibrillator”

“Loved the postivity – you can help to save a life!”

The Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) Network needs your help on a crucial census. Carried out once every ten years the survey will provide up to date information about halls and the social and economic impact they deliver for their communities.

This information is vital to secure funding for halls, funding for Network services, and to ensure our services and the information we hold adapts to the ever-changing challenges facing halls and communities.
We want responses from all community buildings; rural village halls, community centres, sports pavilions, church halls, churches providing community use, Miners Welfare Institutes or WI halls that provide meeting facilities for the community.

Please use the link below to take the survey.
https://acre.org.uk/our-work/national-village-and-community-hall-survey

From Citizens Advice Bureau
A new report highlights the growing role of the post office network in providing access to cash. The IPPR comments that as ATMs and bank branches close, increasing numbers of consumers are being pushed towards alternative providers, such as the Post Office. However, the think tank warns that with fewer consumers withdrawing cash, the costs of maintaining cash infrastructure are shared across a shrinking pool of transactions.

The IPPR calls for an extended banking levy to include the full range of major payment and financial service providers, and says the government should legislate for a universal service obligation on cash access. The IPPR proposes amixed approach to meeting local banking needs. Building on existing Post Office banking services, the think tank recommends the creation of a government owned Post Bank providing affordable basic banking services to all citizens.

The IPPR also recommends the retail banks should expand shared banking hubs for personal and business banking. Separately, LINK, the UK’s main cash machine network, has announced banks and building societies have agreed an extra £4 million additional funding for ATMs. The news follows last autumn’s launch of a request a free-to-use ATM service for communities in areas where people find it hard to access cash. LINK reports that over 2,700 community requests for an ATM have been received
since October.

The event will be free and open to any member of the public. InVOLve are hoping to have guest speakers on all topics we are focusing on. These include, County lines, Child Exploitation, Modern Day Slavery, Domestic Abuse, Human Trafficking, Domestic Servitude and Knife Crime. To sign up please click here: https://involve.community/event/aware-awareness-with-action-reduces-exploitation-free-event/