Ponthafren Success with Gwirvol grant

The Ponthafren Association in Newtown, has been awarded £4,130 from the GwirVol grant scheme.

The award-winning Powys charity provides support, information and education to members of the community affected by mental health issues and/or social exclusion or isolation. ‘Anim8 2 Motiv8’ will be a series of taster workshops to capture young people’s thoughts and ideas on what inspires them to volunteer. This will then be followed by a series of animation workshops involving young people, with the aim of producing a DVD on the ‘story’ of what Ponthafren does and the benefits of volunteering.

Nicky Morris Co-ordinator at Ponthafren said “we are very excited about this grant which will help us to target young people between the ages of 16 and 25 in a way that will really work. My son is 17 and I had produced a leaflet which was supposed to be aimed at encouraging young people to volunteer – he took one look at my attempt and said that if he was given the leaflet he would not have read beyond the second paragraph as it was ‘way too wordy and boring’! This made me rethink the whole way in which we engage young people and instead of inflicting my ideas on them – for the ideas to come from the young people themselves. We have now carried out the first of our initial taster sessions with Health and Social Care Students from Coleg Powys and have received very positive and helpful feedback that the project is going to be a great opportunity to support young people on their career pathway – volunteering will give them the experience they need to gain employment within the Health and Social Care setting and inspire them to great things.”

(Source WCVA / Ponthafren Association)

Congratulations and thank you to Ponthafren for sharing their success with us, we look forward to seeing the results of this project.

GWIRVOL - Opportunities and Grants Programme now open

GwirVol is a uniquely Welsh, diverse partnership between the private, public and voluntary sectors, designed to promote, support and drive forward youth volunteering initiatives.

As well as providing advisory assistance and signposting services, the partnership will deliver grants, through local grant panels of young people, to encourage youth volunteering projects in their local area.

The scheme provides 'Opportunities' project funding of up to £10,000 for activities that will deliver a wide range of new and innovative volunteering experiences for those aged 16-25. It also offers 'Promotion' project funding of up to £5,000 to encourage volunteering, through promotional events, websites, exhibitions, or visits.

Organisations from the voluntary, public and private sectors located in Wales may apply for advisory and financial support through the scheme.

The second bidding round for 2010, for both the 'Opportunities' and 'Promotion' grants, has opened to applications with a deadline of 24 November 2010.

GWIRVOL - INTERNATIONAL YOUTH VOLUNTEERING GRANT SCHEME - NOW OPEN

GwirVol is a Welsh partnership designed to promote, support and drive forward youth volunteering.

The 2010/11 round of GwirVol's International Youth Volunteering Grant Scheme is now open to applications. The scheme aims to support opportunities for young people aged between 16 and 25 in disadvantaged and minority communities in Wales to volunteer internationally.

Grants of up to £30,000 are available to fund a structured programme of activities. The GwirVol Partnership will support up to 80% of the total project costs.

Funded activities might include the following:

• Volunteer recruitment, eg promotional events, taster sessions and publicity.
• Volunteer development and preparation, eg training, team-building, mentoring and awareness raising.
• Volunteer participation - eg travel and subsistence, support to host communities and equipment.
• Sharing learning outcomes, eg presentation events, digital reports, website information and evaluation.

The scheme is open to non-profit distributing third sector organisations in Wales.

The closing date for applications is 24 November 2010.

GwirVol Street Games Grant open for applications

This new initiative is designed to help develop structured sports programmes in disadvantaged communities in Wales, by involving young people aged 16-25 as volunteers.

Project funding of up to £2,000 per project is available. As well as funding, the projects will also have access to training, support and mentoring, along with qualifications including Community Sports Leadership Awards and recognition awards such as the Millennium Volunteers Award.

The grants will help organisations to provide opportunities that will challenge young people, meet their aspirations and add value to their communities. There are no limits on the type of sports that will be supported.

Not-for-profit organisations, including community groups and sports clubs in disadvantaged communities in Wales, may apply.

For this round, all complete applications, with all supporting documents, must be received by 2pm on 30^th July 2010 at the latest. No late applications will be considered.

Go to http://www.gwirvol.org/en/grants/gwirvol-a-streetgames/ for more information