NICVA News March 2008

NICVA

15 Feb 2008

Free to members

Online Resource

NICVANewsMar081.pdf

This month's round up

We start this month's round up with our warmest congratulations to Kildress Plumbing Suppliers, nominated by Action MS, this year's winner of the 21st and final Link Award.

For some time, government activity on poverty appears to have been stagnating. Initiatives have come and gone and we feel it's time once again to put pressure on government to produce a strategy and act on it. Last time round, the Enough is Enough campaign mobilised over 200 organisations and we really need to raise our collective voices again to tell government that, on poverty, enough is enough.

The State of the Sector reports have been surveying, mapping and drawing together information on the voluntary and community sector since the mid 90s. Before starting on the fifth edition, we'd like to hear your thoughts on how useful you've found it. Does it meet your needs and could it do something differently?

Communitybuyer.org - our online directory of products and services aimed at the voluntary and community sector - is targeting social entrepreneurs this month. If your organisation is a social economy or community business, then why not take up our offer of a month's free advertising on the site.

It was pleasing to hear that 55 of our MLAs have signed up to a Pledge to Action on Climate Change. We in the voluntary and community sector also have a role to play in this important area so why not join them and sign up to our own pledge? See page 11 for details.

Training is high on the agenda with the launch of our new Training Calendar for 2008, which is full of the courses and training that you, our members, asked for. With a raft of policy being put forward by the Assembly it's ever more important for the sector to influence local representatives. We have created training sessions and launched the Lobbying and Policy Forum to help you get your voice heard by policymakers.