The Welsh Assembly Government has announced the first Wales Sustainability Week which will take place from the 17th to 23rd May 2010; the week before the Hay Festival. For more information please visit the Welsh Assembly Government website.
My Business Story – a series of events aimed at inspiring you if you’ve ever thought of setting up in business on your own. The events are being run by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Flexible Support for Business (FS4B) programme and are designed specifically for people from under represented groups, including women and young people, individuals from ethnic communities, Welsh speakers and disabled people. Role models from the Welsh Assembly Government’s Dynamo programme – real people from a range of under-represented backgrounds who are running their own businesses – will hold small scale workshops to tell you about their story. If you would like to attend one, please go to the business story website, contact the event organisers, Quadrant on 02920 694900 or email mybusinessstory@quadrant.uk.com.
The deadline for the Welsh Assembly Government Leadership Programme – Community Action Projects has been extended to 26th March. If you need any further information or would like to discuss a potential project please contact Julie Bush on 01685 729297 or julie.bush@wales.gsi.gov.uk
The Welsh Assembly Government are organising the first Wales Sustainability Week which will take place from the 17th to 23rd May 2010; the week before the Hay Festival. They are inviting individuals, organisations (from the public, private and the third sector) and communities to take specific action to make Wales more sustainable; celebrate and promote what they are already doing; become part of a network of individuals, organisations and communities that works together to make Wales more sustainable. For more information contact Sustainable.development@wales.gsi.gov.uk or 02920 826769/821550
Dental patient charges in Wales have been frozen for the fourth year running to help maintain wider access to NHS dentistry, Health Minister Edwina Hart announced on 11th March 2010. For more information please visit the Welsh Assembly Government website.
Participants on the Welsh Assembly Government Leadership programme are required to undertake a community action project. This will involve five teams of 8 – 10 people at different levels in the organisation. The teams will need to receive details of their project in July 2010 and complete the project by January 2011. Participants have 5 days volunteering time. The project criteria are as follows: Project requires consultation/long term relationship & a direct connection with the customer.
1 Involvement with the community partner will provide an external focus
2 Involves ‘real’ work
3 There is a need to influence others
4 Requires that all participate
5 Provides a mix of strategic thinking/communication/problem solving/action
6 Has a degree of emotional uncertainty
7 Includes some ambiguity
8 Provides a real benefit to the partner
9 Constitutes a long-term engagement
10 Uses a broad skill set
If you have a project that could involve 8 – 10 people and incorporates the above criteria, please send your expression of interest and a brief outline of the project to Julie Bush by Friday 19th March 2010. If you need any further information or would like to discuss a potential project please contact Julie Bush on 01685 729297 or julie.bush@wales.gsi.gov.uk
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.
Following the successful work done by many communities at the Community Action for Climate Change events, The Welsh Assembly Government’s Climate Change Team are making support available for communities acting to reduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability. As part of his secondment to the Climate Change team in WAG, Andy Middleton is able to spend a day before the end of March with community groups and councils anywhere in Wales to help them with work including: Supporting the development of planning workshops to reduce carbon emissions, Helping with definition of project and scope, Facilitating community, council and business meetings, Bringing innovation and enterprise ideas to the table, Network and making new connections. The days Andy has available are: 26th February, 11th March, 23rd March, 30th March, 4th March, 15th March, 24th March. There is no charge for the provision of these services; to book a day, please contact Usha Ladwa-Thomas at Usha.Ladwa-Thomas@wales.gsi.gov.uk
The Deputy Minister for Social Services, Gwenda Thomas has outlined proposals to improve the lives of carers with the publishing of the proposed Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure. For more information please visit the Welsh Assembly Government website.
Health Minister Edwina Hart has announced reforms to Community Health Councils (CHCs) in Wales following extensive consultation. Under the changes, from 1st April, 17 of the existing 19 CHCs will be dissolved and six new CHCs created in their place, with the same boundaries as the Health Boards. Each new CHC will consist of Local Committees, providing strong local links and having the same boundaries as the local authorities within the CHC’s area. The new CHCs will have the challenge of ensuring that the interests of patients are represented in the new larger health bodies. For more information go to the Welsh Assembly Government website.
