Community groups and voluntary organisations from across Chesterfield are being invited to apply for grants from a new scheme which is designed to boost grassroots projects that will improve life for local people.

More than £260,000 will be available over the next two years – including a pot of £118,000 which will be allocated during 2023/24 – as part of Chesterfield Borough Council’s new Community Grants Fund.

Local eligible organisations can now apply for support from the fund, which will allocate grants ranging from £500 to £6,000.

The council secured funding for the scheme from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), together with money raised through the Community Infrastructure Levy Neighbourhood Portion (CIL).

Leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, Councillor Tricia Gilby, said: “We are really pleased to have secured funding that we can share with local organisations to help them make a real difference to our residents. The funding will support the delivery of important projects across the borough – helping to improve life for local people and making sure our communities continue to thrive.

“I urge groups to check if they are eligible and get their application in as soon as possible so that we can start to see this funding make a real difference in our communities.”

The Community Grants Fund aims to support local projects that will help to build resilient, healthy, and safe neighbourhoods, as well as initiatives which will help reduce the borough’s impact on the climate and wider environment by promoting greener choices.

Funding can also be used by community projects to develop volunteering opportunities, help people prepare to get in to work, and to support organisations to expand their reach into different areas of the borough.

The 2023/24 funding will be available in two tranches throughout the year. Applications for the first round of grants is now open – with applications invited by the deadline of Friday 28 April.
Alongside the Community Grants Fund, the council is running a community development project which will provide support to organisations wanting to apply for the grant.

Further details, including the full eligibility criteria and how to apply can be found at www.chesterfield.gov.uk/community-grants-fund

If you would like to request support, there’s just a short application form that should take about ten minutes to complete. This could be one of the easiest ways to get the support that you and your organisation or group need, so do get in touch with Martine Roebuck, Peer and Volunteer Coordinator for the Derbyshire Recovery and Peer Support Service by emailing her at martine.roebuck@rethink.org, if you need laptops, mobile phones, organisational support or other equipment to allow your scheme to continue to target digital exclusion in the community.
 
You can find out more about Rethink Mental Illness here.

Please book your place by clicking on the following link: Book now

This will be a face-to-face meeting hosted jointly by the Derbyshire Mental Health Forum and Derbyshire Voluntary Action’s Mental Health Liaison Service.

There will be presentations from across the Derbyshire mental health sector as well as plenty of time to network with your peers and colleagues. We are just putting the finishing touches to the agenda and will send this out nearer the time.

Derbyshire Voluntary Action (DVA) are pleased to announce that we will be working in partnership with Erewash Voluntary Action (EVA), High Peak CVS and our Place Alliance colleagues to provide Living Well Collaboratives across Derbyshire.

Stella Scott, Chief Executive of EVA, and lead partner in the bid said, “I am delighted that we will be leading on this project working alongside Derbyshire Voluntary Action and our partners in High Peak, Derbyshire Dales and Glossop”.

The Collaboratives will be inclusive forums for people to come together to support the transformation of mental health services in Derbyshire. They are a unique and exciting opportunity to develop a shared understanding of the needs of people using our current mental health system. These face to face and virtual meetings, supported by local coordinators, will enable an opportunity to listen to local voices and develop a better offer that’s responsive to an individual’s needs.

Natasha, who’s early experiences of being born to a mother in prison and growing up surrounded by drugs and crime shaping her life said, “I want to feel that services are shaped around my needs, not the other way around.”

Derbyshire has a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform community mental health – both how the system works, and the outcomes achieved for people like Natasha.

The partners in each area will ensure that people with lived experience, voluntary sector and mental health professionals come together to improve access to care and support by creating new community based front doors to mental health for all adults and older adults in need of multidisciplinary support at a local level.

Jacqui Willis, Chief Executive of DVA said, “We are very excited to bring together people with lived experience, carers, voluntary and community sector, mental health services, frontline health and care professionals, and system leaders to be change makers across the two collaboratives for Chesterfield, NE Derbyshire & Bolsover.”

“Our collaboratives will:
o Be committed to significantly improving outcomes for people in our local communities.
o Listen to the people with lived experience.
o Believe in the value of collaboration; sharing knowledge and insights and working together to achieve real system change.
o Have a strong desire to develop innovative ways of working to improve mental health support for people and help them flourish.”

For more information on the Living Well Collaboratives email: rachel@dva.org.uk or jacqui@dva.org.uk

The Living Well collaboratives bring investment in three new coordinator roles across Derbyshire.
Derbyshire Voluntary Action will employ a coordinator, who will join our Mental Health Liaison Service, to support the Chesterfield, and North East Derbyshire & Bolsover collaboratives.

To apply for the Collaborative Coordinator post, please email info@dva.org.uk or visit www.dva.org.uk

   

Our Compassionate Voices women’s only ‘Speak Out’ event is just a few weeks away, and we are delighted to share our updated flyer. This now includes names of all the exhibitors attending and times of talks and taster sessions. Please could you share with friends, work colleagues and service users!

* Also on the day we have ‘The Compassionate Voices Café’, which alongside tea/coffee & cake, conversation will be encouraged by two of our fabulous volunteers!

* Write something positive about YOU on our ‘Power of YOU’ tree! Intrigued? Come along and find out more!

* A raffle on the day to support the work that Compassionate Voices CIC do in the Derbyshire area.

Main prizes are:

1 Night Stay for 2 including Breakfast at the award-winning boutique hotel, Peak Edge Hotel – donated by Peak Edge Hotel

A luxurious hamper donated by  Verdant Soapery

A wellbeing hamper donated by members of Compassionate Voices.

This is a FREE event funded by ‘Derbyshire County Council’. If you would like to attend please follow link below for further information and register your place. Look forward to seeing you there!  

https://www.acompassionatevoice.co.uk/events/compassionate-voices-speak-out-at-loundsley-green/

Adapted Cycling

On the first Friday of the month until October we have a free session in the Queen’s Park (based next to the cricket pavilion) between 1.00pm and 3.00pm. Anyone with a mental or physical disability and their carers can come along and use our fleet of three and four wheel cycles. We have a trike that can carry a wheelchair and two seater with independent pedalling plus lots of others.

Free bike repairs

We provide free bike repairs in three locations:

First Wednesday of the month 4.00pm until 6.00pm at Langer Field pavilion (Langer Field is off Langer Lane near Derby Road junction).

First Saturday of the month until October in Queen’s Park car park 9.30am until 1.00pm.

Second Sunday of the month at the Hollingwood Hub May to September 10.30am until 2.30pm.

At all these sessions just turn up, no booking needed.

We usually have some refurbished bikes available at the Langer Field workshop. All we ask for is a small donation. Details of bikes available will be posted on our Facebook page a few days beforehand.

Cycling Without Age

We have two electrically assisted Triobikes which we take to care homes to take out residents and carers for a short trip. We are just about to start again after the winter break.

Cycle rides

Our Community Cycle Club runs two ’10 minutes to 10 miles’ programmes each year. These are weekly rides over six weeks building up skills and distance. Also a series of guided cycle rides, usually in conjunction with Chesterfield Cycle Campaign.

We have a few volunteers that help with adapted cycling and Cycling Without Age but always happy to welcome new volunteers!

Visit https://www.inclusivepedals.org.uk/ to find out more.

With Derbyshire County Councils Warm Space initiative over recent months and increases in awareness raising events, hubs, food banks and community activism, Derbyshire Voluntary Action’s Mental Health Liaison Service thought it would be helpful to create a simple support pack, which provides information about mental health support, training and therapy services.

Rachel Bounds, who works on the Mental Health Liaison Service at Derbyshire Voluntary Action says, “more and more people are feeling comfortable opening up about their mental health, we hope this pack allows people to offer clear and simple ways to signpost to services.”

The pack includes guidance on how to respond in a mental health crisis, crisis and support helplines, as well as a number of QR codes and websites where you can find mental health related apps, services and training for adults, children and young people.

For Rachel “being kind doesn’t mean being clinical, and we cannot always prepare someone to manage and deal with difficult conversations, however, we do hope it is helpful in providing people with a starting point when supporting people with their mental health.”

Rachel also states, “we have already received a large number of emails saying how useful the pack has been, so it really highlights the need and significance of mental health services and voluntary sector providers.”

The support pack, which is currently digital, will hopefully be available in printed format soon, and people will be welcome to contact the team to arrange collection of some packs.

To access and download the digital version, please visit: https://dva.org.uk/mental-health-support-pack/

For more information, please email: Rachel@dva.org.uk or Bryony@dva.org.uk

Chronic Fatigue Recovery Group
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 22 February 1pm – 2pm
Online and at Lifehouse Church, Chatsworth Rd, Chesterfield

 
This month specialist fatigue and trauma practitioner Suzanne Smith will be sharing her 3 top tips on how to get to sleep, stay asleep and wake up feeling refreshed. 
 
Poor sleep is a common factor within chronic fatigue conditions.  Having some tools to hand that can help to change around what’s happening for you can help to reduce your frustration and annoyance.  Suzanne will be sharing ideas and tools to help you sleep more easily,  So come along and join us to hear all about it!
 
For more details contact chatsworthwellbeingcentre@gmail.com
 
To stay in touch and receive regular meeting information, sign up for our newsletter https://mailchi.mp/de79f5acc431/chronic-fatigue-recovery-group

Get the kettle on, Training and Tea is back: FREE* online bitesize sessions alongside your morning cuppa!

Training and Tea sessions are held Wednesday mornings 9.30am – 10.15am. Lasting for 45 minutes these courses are short, convenient and held online via Zoom. Booking is via Eventbrite and all the sessions can be found here bit.ly/CommunityChesterfieldEventbrite Places are limited.

FREE for Community, Voluntary or Third Sector organisations and groups in Derbyshire* AND staff / students of the University of Derby – funded for you by Community Chesterfield.

*£20 for everyone else. (T’c & C’s apply).

• 31st May Delivering an Exceptional Experience?

This session will enable you to understand how your organisation interacts with the people around you, the public, customers, service users, employees and volunteers. By using a mapping approach, we will discuss how we can positively shape and influence how people experience our organisations.

• 14th June Using Business Skills to run your Organisation.

Join this short session to learn some tools to help make sound decisions for your organisation. This will help you to understand which projects to prioritise, have confidence in your decisions and be able to share your reasoning with colleagues.

• 21st June Be Brave, Be Bold, how to ask for money.

Asking for money is never easy, whether it is selling raffle tickets, a service, or a product. This session will look at understanding why we find it hard and how we can use our skills to become confident to make the ask and benefit our organisations.