Neath Port Talbot Council for Voluntary Service

The Welsh Assembly Government are hosting a series of events across Wales to encourage people from under represented groups in the community to take up grants from the Assembly to run their own business. The dates and locations for the events, which take place between 10.30am and 3.30pm and include lunch and refreshments, are: Wednesday 24 March at Cardiff City Stadium, Thursday 25 March at Trinity College, Carmarthen and Monday 29 March at Liberty Stadium. For more details, or to register go to the website.

The Centre requires the services of organisations to provide specialist Organisational Development Support Services to both emerging and established social enterprises.

A key aspect of the client Service will be to support the organisational development of social enterprises to enable them to move from voluntary activity to business activity, providing the much needed specialist knowledge and skills in this field that would not be available through mainstream business support.  For more information go to the Sell 2 Wales website.

The deadline date is 22nd February 2010.

Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards – Notice of Imminent Deadline

 The Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards aim to support early trading and start-up businesses (within their first 12 months of trading) with the most innovative and unusual ideas for their business.  There must be an innovative element either as part of the business (such as a new product) or as part of the business process (such as an unusual marketing campaign or activity). 

Up to £1,000 is available for eligible applicants who must be aged between 16-30 (inclusive) on 31 December 2010, live in the United Kingdom, have or about to have a legal business operating in the UK and have not previously won a Shell LiveWIRE award. 

Applications must be submitted by 28 February 2010.

The Sandfields Young Business Centre flyer for Supporting Young People in Business is now available from the download page of the website.

The Social Enterprise Ambassadors want to inspire and help the next wave of social entrepreneurs, so they’re offering YOU the chance to win a free one-on-one mentoring session with the Ambassador of your choice. If you’re one of the 28 lucky winners, you’ll spend two hours with them, finding out about the lessons they’ve learnt as successful social entrepreneurs, and how these could support you and your business. This is an amazing opportunity to learn from the best and receive expert advice and guidance, tailored to you and your goals. Entry is simple: pick the Ambassador you feel could support you the most and write why you would benefit from a two hour session with them. Get your entry in by 31st March 2010 and you could find yourself face-to-face with one of the country’s leading social entrepreneurs. For more information go to the Social Enterprise Ambassadors website.

A Business Writing Course is being held on the 11th February 2010 in The Quays. If you would like to apply for this course please contact Elouisa Phillips on 01792 510 718 or email e.baker@npt.gov.uk

On 1 February 2010 the Welsh Assembly Government’s Flexible Support for Business (FS4B) website will become the FS4B Supersite. This will provide Wales’s businesses with an unprecedented level of tailored online information and support. The Site will provide a raft of guides, tools, transactional services and directories which will be of great value to:

• businesses and citizens; and
• business support advisors, relationship managers and customer service staff.

The Supersite will be provided from the same address as the current FS4B website – fs4b.wales.gov.uk. However, the site will have a different “look and feel” including changed branding and strap-lines.

Business in the Community has announced that it will launch its South and West Wales ProHelp network in November across Pembrokeshire, Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Ceredigion. Established in 1989, ProHelp is a UK network of over 600 professionals, from large corporates to SMEs, providing advice and support free of charge to community and voluntary organisations in their local area.

Last year, ProHelp supported over 2,200 community groups, including schools, voluntary organisations and community groups, with £1.4m of free professional advice. For more information go to the website.  The ProHelp network is managed by Business in the Community, a business led movement that inspires, engages, supports and challenges companies on responsible business through campaigns and initiatives.

Phil Jardine, Partner, Morgan Cole and Chair of the South and West Wales ProHelp network said: “ProHelp is an excellent initiative which brings obvious benefits to the community group, as well as enabling the business to motivate and develop its staff, while at the same time make a real difference to the local community.”

If you would like more information on how your group may benefit from this service please contact Catherine Palmer, Business in the Community’s West Wales Co-ordinator on 07715 510 390 or catherine.palmer@bitc.org.uk.

Businesses across Neath Port Talbot can tap into a £17,500 grant pot to open up their toilet facilities to encourage the public to use them. This year’s Public Facilities Grant Scheme will give businesses a one off payment of up to £500 per premises to allow the public to use them.  If any business or community run facility is interested in applying for this grant or you need more information please contact Ken Harding, Facilities Manager on 01639 686996 or e-mail k.harding@npt.gov.uk by the end of September.

The Health Challenge NPT Business Event is to be held at 1.00pm – 4.00pm on Wednesday 9^th September at Margam Orangery, with a drop in session at 4:00 – 6:30 for those who can’t make the earlier session– two top speakers have been secured for the event, Paul Thorburn and Denise Hampson. The invitation is available for download.