The Projects

Halton Voluntary Action houses a number of different projects:

Capacity Building

(Chris Carlin)

HVA’s Capacity Building Officer provides organisations in Halton’s voluntary sector with a “health check”. This enables HVA to ascertain which areas of the organisation need improving and support is then offered to make the required changes. The Capacity Building Officer offers support in a wide variety of areas, such as funding, marketing, partnership building, conflict resolution or governance.
Children & Young Peoples Third Sector Partnership

(Amanda O’Brien)

The CYP3SP is a forum of Halton based voluntary group which work to improve the lives of young people. By working together (and with support from Amanda) the groups can share best practice, maintain standards set by government and have a say in local decision making process.
Communications Officer

(Matthew Roberts)

The Communication Officers role is to encourage voluntary organisations in Halton to communicate with one another (to share best practice, support work and celebrate achievements) and to disseminate messages from HVA that are of relevance to voluntary organisations. Information about local events, voluntary sector job vacancies and training & funding opportunities are circulated in the HVA E-Newsletter and are posted on HVA’s website. The work of local groups is also promoted on “The Voluntary Sector with HVA”, a weekly radio show broadcast on Halton Community Radio.
Halton LINk (Local Involvement Network)

(Lyn Williams and Dave Wilson)

In October 2008 St Helens CVS were awarded the contract as ‘Host’ for the St Helens LINk and the Halton LINk. They then sub-contracted the responsibility for ‘hosting’ the Halton LINk to HVA . During the months between November 2008 to August 2009, the Halton LINk Support Team has recruited over 221 members. The LINk was successfully launched at an event, on March 20^th 2009.

The LINk provides an opportunity to discuss and influence issues relating to health & social care in Halton and offers an excellent way for members to network, to bring people from wide-ranging backgrounds to come together to see how services can be improved. The LINk has various ways of communicating including: a Newsletter; web-site; surveys; focus groups; information workshops; meetings; promotional stands at community events and consultation workshops. Empowerment indicates inclusive and adequate representation at all levels. The Halton LINk strives to achieve this for both disenfranchised and well-connected individuals and groups. The result of having a LINk will lead to improved health & social care services reflecting the needs of local people.
Third Sector Lead Engagement Officer for Health

(Laura Neilson)

The Third Sector Lead Engagement Officer for Health project is designed to develop sector networks to improve communication, participation and engagement between commissioners and groups that have already been commissioned to deliver services, or who have expressed an interest in being commissioned to deliver services.
Vinvolved

(Lee Goodier and Ceri Edwards)

The vinvolved Team’s main focus is to encourage 16-25 year olds to volunteer in their local community. Their role involves promoting volunteering to young people, selling the benefits of young volunteers to organisations and recognising young volunteers’ achievements through a national awards scheme.
Voluntary Sector Counselling Partnership

(Janet Roberts)

The Voluntary Sector Counselling Partnership for Halton is made up of voluntary and community groups offering counselling and empathic listening services. The VSCP has a quality kitemark where groups work towards a set of standards hence a rolling training programme is put in place for volunteers and staff to develop their skills and for continuing professional development for counsellors. It is also a valuable networking forum.
Volunteer Centre Halton

(Alison Gleave and Linda Goodier)

The Volunteer Centre is like a “dating service” for volunteers and voluntary groups. In short, they match up potential volunteers with projects which inspire them. Organisations are able to register/advertise volunteering opportunities and the Volunteer Centre enable groups and potential volunteers to meet when their paths would have been unlikely to cross. The Volunteer Centre also work hard to promote the outstanding work done by volunteers in Halton and celebrate their achievements with a variety of activities in Volunteer Week each June.

Volunteer Management Portal

Volunteering England’s Volunteer Management Portal acts as a gateway to the world of volunteer management with links to over a thousand resources and information on support, training and development opportunities for people managing volunteers.

www.volunteering.org.uk