Please Note: For some two years BH has been keeping tabs on the huge range of church activities  that impinge upon the general public. Up until now it has been difficult to convey the full range of activities, the partnerships between organisations and their various  forums. Now we can all get at least a skeleton of these from the notifications sent out as the newsletter below with regular editions to follow.  It could be argued that in doing this we are simply promoting the religions. However with this information you can see how big a scope of activities WE need to cover if we are going to have ANY chance of having equal sway with the public and have equal access to public funds on behalf of the Freethinkers of Berkshire. This publication of this by BH is seen as part of the Humanist Local Development Project as promoted by the BHA. This newsletter will most probably eventually be produced by a specially appointed  assistant to the Reading Faith Forum whose salary will be provided by public monies. Structures and organisations within other areas of Berkshire will have some similarity but considerable differences not least in attitudes to Humanism.

Read,digest …. and start volunteering under a Humanist banner.

From: Jan [mailto:jan@strongertogether.org.uk]
Sent: 28 October 2009 12:32

 Reading Faith Forum E-bulletin no.3

Reading Faith Forum (RFF) e-bulletin no.3                                    November 2009

 

 

The e-bulletin will be sent out every month. Next e-bulletin mid December 2009 or January 2010
 

To keep you in the loop Churches Together in Reading and Reading Churches Network both have e-bulletins with events and news. Contact Jan Hearn for contact details.

Contents
RFF:
RE Matters 6 & 13 November 2009
Website
Environment – Age of Stupid showing  – 19 November 2009
Room Hire
Funding
Other Events:
Caribbean/Lib Dem evening – 28 November 2009
Christmas Toy Project
Street Pastors – First report
Stronger Together:
Vetting & Barring Scheme (ISA-VBS)
Sakoma – Create Inspiring Youth Projects – 5 November 2009
The Forum – Partnership Maps
Reading 2020 – 13 November 2009
LSP – Project Aspire – 27 November 2009
GREN – Calling Copenhagen
RVA – Grow Your Own Group
Reading LINk – AGM report
Autumn Programme
Contact

 

RE Matters

Develop a multi-faith RE session for local schools with other faith communities
Support your local schools through Religious Education and Assemblies
Discussion forum and practical advice
RE Matters is delivered in two sessions especially aimed at faith

Monday 9 & 16 November 10am-2pm at Park UR Church, Wokingham Rd/Palmer Park Ave. RG6 1DN

In response to requests from local schools, a new religious education training programme will support volunteers in engaging school children in Faith issues through assemblies and RE classes.
RE Matters is a voluntary initiative and is of particular interest to anyone from a faith community, who is able to be creative and engage with pupils of varying ages and available during school time. No previous teaching experience is required.

Places are still available

Reading Faith Forum

More information & programme on the website under ‘Events and Meetings’
www.readingfaithforum.com/eventsandmeetings.aspx

Website: www.readingfaithforum.com

You can find upcoming events and dates for the next Open Forum meeting, reports of Hearing Voices and Greening Faiths conferences, environmental faith groups, minutes of Forum meetings and a whole lot more. The new website is linked to

The Stronger Together Programme which brings together four forums:

1. · The Forum
2. · Sakoma (BME [Black&minority ethnic]communities)

3· Reading Children’s and Voluntary Youth Services (RCVYS)
4 Reading Faith Forum
 

Environment
There will be a showing of
The Age of Stupid

(the Climate Blockbuster from the director of McLibel)
on Thursday 19 November 7.30 for 8 pm
at St John and St Stephen’s Church, 121-147 Orts Road, RG1 3JN
Entry free (retiring collection to cover costs)

If you have campaign or other literature relating to climate change which you would like displayed/given out at this event please get in touch. Please advertise this and bring friends along (especially friends who are not yet convinced of the urgency for action!)

Room Hire

 

 

Did you know that a large number of faith communities hire out rooms?
On the Faith Forum website there is a list of venues that can be hired. It is an easy click and one or two clicks to get the contact details or website for a particular venue. See more www.readingfaithforum.com/home.aspx
If your details are not correct or we have not included your venue please get in contact with Jan Hearn.

jan@strongertogether.org.uk <mailto:jan@strongertogether.org.uk

or 0118 958 4849

Funding
Church Urban Fund Seeks Applications to Its Mustard Seed Fund (England)

 

 

The Church Urban Fund (CUF) has announced that it is seeking applications from churches and faith-based groups under its Mustard Seed Fund. The aim of the fund is to provide grants to enable churches and faith-based organisations to engage in social action through supporting them to initiate, develop and formulate ideas and opportunities in preparation for undertaking larger pieces of work. Mustard Seed Grants can pay for specific activities but not for on-going revenue expenditure, deficit funding, or retrospective spending. The Church Urban Fund particularly assists churches in deprived areas in their outreach to their local community and aims to support the mission of the Church. Eligible projects need to be directly tackling the effects of profound poverty and should be working in the 10% most deprived areas in England. The ‘Mustard Seed’ programme makes grants of up to £5,000. The programme operates on a rolling basis and applications can be made at any time.

 http://www.cuf.org.uk/mustardseed.aspx

Faith Forum open Meeting
Was held last Wednesday 21 October 2009 – click on this link to read the reports www.readingfaithforum.com/eventsandmeetings.aspx <http://www.readingfaithforum.com/eventsandmeetings.aspx>


Other Events:
Caribbean / Lib Dem evening

Caribbean/Lib-Dem social Evening on 28th November 09 at Risc London Street starting 7pm-till midnight. £20 ticket for 3 course meal. There are 4 choices, Curry goat, curry chicken, salmon cuisine and a vegetarian. All will be serve with rice plus side dishes of caribbean food and salad. Afters is caribbean cake with ice cream wash down with a free drink- there will be a bar.

 
Can you help with a Christmas Toy Project?
Reading Family Aid, sponsored by Reading Chronicle, are once again running their successful Christmas Toy Project with their Christmas Toys & Teens Appeal.  Do you know of other charities or organisations that support families that we might not know about?  Do you belong to a church that might have contact with families in need?  If so, please let us know – we will follow up and see what we can do.
As usual we will again be very grateful for your toys, vouchers or other gift donations.  We are always short of gifts suitable for teenagers and any ‘making and doing’ type of things.  Please try to make sure gifts are new or ‘as good as’ new, and please do not wrap them.  If you have toys to donate please take them to one of the Reading Chronicle Collection Points – see the paper for details in November, or contact us for alternative arrangements.
email:  ReadingFamilyAid@yahoo.co.uk
tel:      0118 9473098

Street Pastors

Street Pastors’ first night out which was Friday, 16th October. All went extremely well so an excellent start to this new venture. Further recruits (please encourage churches to get people involved) will be trained around February time, with a view to covering of Saturday nights as well as Fridays.
“Friday night was certainly what you would call exciting! Before we hit the streets we have a briefing from Simon (the PC who spoke at the commissioning) but Simon bought his whole team with him 8 other PC and PCSO’s all had tea and biscuits at St Laurence’s which was a real encouragement – it wasn’t a them and us mentality which is amazing and the unity and partnership that is already evident between us and the police is certainly a strong one and one we should thank God for!!
The first part was intentionally greeting the door staff and saying hi to those we passed. All through the night the door staff were really very open and welcoming towards us, talking and chatting very easily.  The manager of De Ja Vu actually ran out of the bar and hailed us down to thank us and chat to us (he’s the chair of the Pubwatch group,).  Our first incident was tending to a girl who had injured her ankle and ensuring she got home ok, chatting to quite a few people throughout the night who couldn’t get into the clubs due to being drunk and not believing they were, even those who couldn’t string a sentence together thought they were sober! Trying to help them locate their friends and offering mobiles to do so. We helped a few lone women throughout the evening – ensuring they were ok, with friends or get a taxi, helped one by talking to her to ensure safety from guys pestering her along the Oracle. The funny incident of the evening was giving my first lollipop away – it was to a guy whose birthday it was, his 21st, he was quite drunk with a friend who was relatively sober, we were outside purple turtle, he dropped his lolly – learnt forward to get it completely lost balance and co-ordination and hit his face on the pavement leaving him with a cut eye and nose – this gave the doorman much amusement and may tease and banter with us on this incident for a while “it was all alright before the street pastors came along!” You’ve been warned!! The general reception was great, the police, not just the town centre team, but from the wider team. People were welcoming on the whole, a few chats with those interested or sober enough to read our caps and coats.

  
Contact Matt Hearn to be involved 07533 325504

or reading@streetpastors.org.uk <reading@streetpastors.org.uk>

Stronger Together:
Vetting and Barring Scheme

The new ISA (Independent Safeguarding Authority) Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) will have a major impact on the recruitment and monitoring practices of people working or volunteering with children and vulnerable people. Created under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, the new VBS replaces the current List 99, Protection of Children Act (PoCA), Protection of Vulnerable Adults (PoVA) and Disqualification Orders regimes. The ISA will
decide who is suitable to work or volunteer with vulnerable groups and will make its decisions by pulling together information held by various agencies, government departments and the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). Once the scheme is fully rolled out, and this will happen over the next five years, it will be illegal to hire someone in regulated activity who is not registered, and has therefore not been checked by, the ISA. The new scheme will cover employees and volunteers in the education, care and health industries, affecting some 11.3 million people. To register for updates on the new scheme or obtain further guidance and information on who will be affected, see below.

 

Please note ISA-registration for the Vetting and Barring Scheme does not start for new workers or those moving jobs until July 2010 and ISA-registration does not become mandatory for these workers until November 2010. All other staff will be phased into the scheme from 2011. Further information on how to apply for registration will be provided in due course.  Link Here 

The Stronger Together Team will be organising information sessions
with voluntary and community groups during the winter period.
Watch this space for future dates.

Contact Tel: 0118 958 4849

 

Sakoma news

“Create inspiring Youth projects” Thursday, 5th November 2009  To find out more or register your attendance on these events please email: Yasmin Bador  <mailto:yasmin@volaction.demon.co.uk> (Sakoma Forum Co-ordinator) or ring 0118 958 4849
See Sakoma’s new website and more details on www.sakoma.com
The Forum news

Understand How you Fit into the Bigger Picture with Stronger Together’s Partnership Maps
<Link here>

Stronger Together have mapped the relationships between the local voluntary and community sector and statutory partners to provide a living document of how both sectors work together.
We hope to expand on these diagrams Link here  as partnerships develop, but if you would like to comment on them please contact Anna Fowler <mailto:annaf@strongertogether.org>  at Stronger Together <http://www.strongertogether.org.uk/home.aspx> .
Click on www.rvsforum.co.uk <http://www.rvsforum.co.uk>  for news on the voluntary & community sector
Reading 2020
READING 2020 FORUM

 TOWN HALL, 17 NOVEMBER 2009 –  
READING: Future Challenge, Future Change

 

I am writing to invite you to the Reading 2020 Partnership’s annual Forum on Tuesday 17th November, 4:30 – 7:30pm at the Town Hall. This event marks the start of a process to renew our Vision for Reading and to produce the next version of our Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS); we need your input to help shape the future of our town.

The world has changed enormously since we first put together a vision for Reading 2020 over ten years ago. This year’s event will include two keynote presentations by experts in their field, addressing the global economic downturn, and the climate change agenda. These subjects form an important part of the context for the refresh of our Vision and Strategy and have led to significant changes that affect us all, both locally and globally. Following the presentations, a workshop session will provide you the opportunity to contribute your views on Reading’s future that might shape the Vision and Strategy. We will also be seeking your ideas as to how best to take forward the consultation and engagement process over the next year.   Please do put the date in your diary. If you would like to register your interest in attending please let us know by emailing Reading2020.forum@reading.gov.uk or telephoning 0118 939 0100.

LSP (Local Strategic Partnership)

Project Aspire on Friday 27th November in the afternoon and evening.
Project Aspire is being run by The Mustard Tree Foundation in conjunction with several other partners, and is aimed at young people in general, and especially those who are in some way marginalised through race, the fact that they’re not involved in any kind of education, employment or training, or are teenage parents.
This is a great opportunity for your organisation to have a stand at event, and to publicise how your organisation can help to a wide range of young people.
If you are interested in having a stand at this event, please use the form to book your stand at this link.
For more information, please contact Safiya Francis directly on 07932 552269 or e-mail safiya.francis@themustardtree.org.

GREN (Greater Reading Environmental Network)
CALLING COPENHAGEN!
Reading demands global action on Climate Change

Thursday 12 November 7.30 p.m. RISC, London Street, RG1 4PS

On 7 December world leaders will meet in Copenhagen at a UN Climate Conference; these are the most important talks since the 1997 Kyoto agreement. It is essential that urgent, meaningful targets for global emissions reductions and financial commitments to tackle Climate Change are agreed.

 
Speakers, questions and debate:
Climate Scientist, Professor Jonathan Gregory: what are the latest predictions on the impacts of global climate change?

Phil Thornhill, Campaign Against Climate Change: what are the essential measures needed to avoid the worst effects of this globally?
Martin Salter, MP Reading West: what is the UK government doing to achieve these at Copenhagen?  
YOUR MESSAGE: join our speakers in debate and send your message to the UK government

GREATER READING ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReadingEnvNetwork

RVA

Reading Voluntary Action 

Grow Your Own Group: ABC of Applying for a Grant
Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 9:30am to 2:30pm
MAPP Centre, 22-24 Mount Pleasant, Reading, RG1 2TD
The second course in our popular ‘Grow Your Own Group‘ programme looks at the basics of applying for grant funding.
See http://rvadirectory.org.uk/news/20090929/gyog for further details of other sessions in the series

If you’re looking for funding for the first time, or wondering how to sustain your income into the future, this one-day course will give you a wealth of guidance about how to enter the world of grant applications with the maximum chance of success. You will learn how to identify likely funding sources and put together a budget that adds up and a case that makes sense to your prospective funder, together with helpful hints about how to keep them happy with simple monitoring and reporting procedures. We will also include our essential tips for jargon busting. The session will be led by Nakhat Zahir, Reading Voluntary Action’s specialist funding adviser.Grow Your Own Group is a low-cost programme for grass roots community groups, with an admin charge of £10 per place per session. Lunch is provided. To find out more or to book your place, please contact Nakhat Zahir or Merlyn Barrett at RVA.

 
Telephone 0118 957 4123
E-mail address merlyn@volaction.demon.co.uk
Reading LINk
AGM report from 20 October 2009 coming soon
Reading LINk Website take a look by clicking here: http://readinglink.org.uk/

Autumn Programme
4 November -              Grow Your Own Group Publicity, Marketing & Promoting
5 November -             Create Inspiring Youth Projects – Sakoma
9 November –               RE Matters
12 November -             Calling Copenhagen
16 November –             RE Matters
17 November Reading 2020 Open Forum: Future Challenge, Future Change
19 November -             Age of Stupid
27 November -             Project Aspire 3-10.30pm
28 November -             Caribbean evening   

        
More events and news on RVA Directory
www.rvadirectory.org.uk

Contact:
Jan Hearn
Faith Forum Coordinator
0118 958 4849
jan@strongertogether.org.uk <mailto:jan@strongertogether.org.uk>
Stronger Together Office
35-39 London Street RG1 4PS
–
Jan Hearn
Multi Forum Coordinator
STRONGER TOGETHER
35-39 London Street
Reading
RG1 4PS
0118 958 4849
New email: jan@strongertogether.org.uk 

www.rvadirectory.org.uk – all the voluntary sector in one place

 
Same Reading Faith Forum website address, new website! www.readingfaithforum.com

Ask for the monthly E-bulletin for all Faith Forum news, Stronger Together and Reading Voluntary Action news & events.