September's Get Involved Updates

Free cycle training with Cycling for Everyone

Transport for West Midlands are helping to deliver a Commonwealth Games Legacy project called ‘Cycling for Everyone’(External link)(External link), which will give people living within some of the region’s most deprived areas the opportunity to cycle.

As part of it, they are offering:

• free cycle training for all levels- child and adult
• bike maintenance training
• lead rides
• ride leader training
• adapted cycle loan
• bike giveaway
• and people can hire a bike for 1,000 minutes for free with the West Midlands Cycle Hire scheme.

Want to have a cycling activity designed for your community, organisation, club or business? Get in touch with the team.(External link)(External link)

This programme will help people to cycle more, enabling them to access employment, to see family and friends more easily or to fit in valuable exercise.

Become a Vaccination Champion- New Training Dates!

The Vaccination Champion is a voluntary role that demonstrates a commitment to the health of the public. This involves having an active role in encouraging others to have their routine vaccinations to stop the spread of disease.

This 2-hour training session aims to empower people with the knowledge as well as building confidence in using the available resources to promote vaccination when working with families, adults and older adults. The session is delivered as an interactive workshop to develop confidence in promoting key messages and how to respond to vaccine misconceptions.

Due to demand for more training sessions, public health are delivering more Vaccination sessions to be held on the following dates:

Autumn Vaccination Champion training dates:

• Thurs 29th Sep 2022 10:00-12:00 (via Teams)
• Tues 18th Oct 2022 1:00-3:00pm (via Teams)
• Weds 23rd Nov 2022 11:00am-1:00pm (council house)

At the end of the training, all attendees will be given a certificate of completion. The training is free of charge. If you would like to register, please contact Rayyan.nasser@coventry.gov.uk(External link)

We urge all communities, schools, nurseries, faith groups to register a representative to attend a Vaccination Champion training so that there is a key person that can champion this message within their organisation or community setting.

Mental Health Transformation Programmes

As VCSE Community Mental Health Transformation Liaison Officers with Voluntary Action Coventry our work is to liaise with voluntary and community groups to find out what services are being delivered, what issues organisations are encountering and to explore how we can work collaboratively to ensure people with poor mental health in Coventry are receiving the right support at the right time.

To achieve the aims and objectives of our role we are constantly in touch with the community groups to take their feedback about their experiences of using mental health services. As a part of Mental Health Transformation programme, we also run forums and workshops where the leads of VCSE groups have opportunities to share their experiences they had while working with people. The outcome of this is then raised to the stake holders, strategic partners, and higher authorities who are involved in making the decisions about the mental health services. So, the future services will be according to the needs of the common man and easy to access by reducing all the barriers.

If anyone wants to get further information or get involved in improving the mental health services, feel free to contact us either by subscribing our newsletter on Voluntary Action Coventry website or on following contact details:

Khadija Bakali
VCSE Coventry Mental Health Liason Officer Coventry

Email: K.bakali@vacoventry.org.uk(External link)

Tel: 07719206418

Frances Flint
VCSE Coventry Mental Health Liason Officer Coventry

Email: f.flint@vacoventry.org.uk(External link)(External link)

Tel: 07547208362

Free data from The National Databank

The National Databank is providing free data to 500,000 people in need via Good Things Foundation's network of community partners, in partnership with Virgin Media 02, Vodafone and Three. Any organisation can simply sign up to distribute data to people fulfilling the below criteria:

Someone receiving data through the National Databank must:

• Be 18+ years old
• AND be from a low income household

And qualify in one or several of the following statements:

• Has no access or insufficient access to the internet at home
• AND/OR has no or insufficient access to the internet when away from the home
• AND/OR cannot afford their existing monthly contract or top up

Organisations will receive sims/vouchers monthly, and can reapply for more each month- its quite simple. A person can then have access to date for up to 12months. The following is provided on the networks;

• 02- vouchers for 15GB data, texts and calls
• Vodafone- SIM cards with 20GB data, texts and calls
• Three- 24GB data only.

Are you an organisation that wants to get involved?

Find out more here; https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/databank/
If organisations/groups can register as an Online Centre it will not only help access to the National Databank, but there are funding opportunities for devices, but you need to have been registered for a few months to be considered.

If you are an organisation that applies after seeing this, please can we ask you to email Laura.Waller@coventry.gov.uk know when you register as it enables teams working with communities to signpost people to these services enable easy access.

Clothing Coventry - supporting families in need with school uniforms

Clothing Coventry is supporting families struggling with the cost of school uniform by providing free, good quality second hand school uniforms.

You can request school uniform, or other clothing and shoes, by heading to www.clothingcoventry.org/referrals(External link)(External link) and providing information about the items you need including gender, age clothes they are wearing and school colours.

Parents can self-refer using this form, and collect from their warehouse in Hillfields, or you can ask clothes parcels to be delivered to HAF venues.

Would your organisation like to become a distribution point for this service? Or are you holding an event where this service could be offered as a pop up event? If this is something you’d be interested in, please email katie@clothingcoventry.org(External link)

They will be holding some pop-up uniform give away in venues across the city this summer. Please follow their Facebook page for updates about these and details on how to donate too. www.facebook.com/clothingcoventry(External link)

One Coventry Plan 2022-2030

The One Coventry Plan provides our vision until 2030. It outlines how we will work together with our partners and communities across the city to achieve our priorities.

The plan is more focused on the needs and aspirations of our communities than ever before. We have listened to, and reflected on, what people have been telling us and considered the key issues facing the city. We will build on learning from our citywide response to Covid.

We describe the way that we work together with residents and partners as our One Coventry approach. The approach helps bring people and organisations from across the city together to work as one to make the biggest, positive difference to the lives of those who live and work in the city.

Visit Let’s Talk Coventry to read the draft One Coventry Plan, find out more about our priorities, give us your views by filling in our short survey and register your interest to attend one of our workshops(External link)(External link).  

This is a real chance for you to get involved and have your say on the One Coventry Plan.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

If you’d like any more information or you have any questions, please contact us at Onecoventry@coventry.gov.uk