Over £22,000 has been awarded during the past 2 years by Herefordshire YouthBank.  Set up in early 2009 by young people with help from the Herefordshire vinvolved youth work team, it provides small grants of up to £900 for young people aged 11-25 for their good ideas in the community.

Not just work...

Decisions on grants are made every month by a panel of volunteers aged 16-25 and there are currently 10 young people who volunteer their free time on the panel.  However it is not all hard work.  Earlier this year they completed the OCN accredited Grantmaker training and have taken part in an outdoor teambuilding residential in Wales.

Volunteers are crucial

Herefordshire YouthBank is one of only two YouthBank's in the whole of the West Midlands region and is sustainable because it relies upon volunteers and is not reliant upon government grants or paid staff. The Youth Panel really want to continue this grant giving, particularly with the loss of other funding schemes locally and nationally, so watch this space for future news on more funds.  In the meantime, if you are aged 16 - 25 and would like to make a difference, contact HVA on 01432 343 932.

Would you like to promote or develop your community group or charity on the web but are confused by words like Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, and blog? 

Are you a regular user of social networking sites who would like to share your knowledge with other people?

A Social Media Surgery provides an informal setting where community groups or charities can learn for free from volunteers who have experience of blogging and social network sites. 

 If you would be interested in attending a session either to learn or to mentor, please contact Jo Pewsey at the HERE FOR the CITY team on 01432 343932 or by email to HEREFORtheCITY@herefordshireva.org

Hinton Community Centre are currently working with some students from the Bulmer Foundation Sustainable Advocacy M.A course, looking at various aspects of the centre's sustainability. A really important part of this is looking at utility costs, which are probably the greatest challenge.

Whilst going through all this with the students, one of them picked up that on some bills they had been charged VAT at 15%, 17.5% and latterly 20% on utility costs, rather than 5% which charities are liable for. Hinton had informed the utility company that they were a charity but they hadn't been told that they needed to fill in an exemption form.

They also found out that they could reclaim back 4 years worth of over payment, including going back to utility companies they are no longer with.   Pip at Hinton wanted to share this with other charities in case they were missing out on this important saving.

To find out more and to download an exemption form

The Heritage Lottery Fund has recently announced the launch of their public consultation on the future of Lottery funding for heritage from 2013-2019.  The consultation is open until 26 April 2011 and you can give them your views online at http://www.hlf.org.uk/consultation2011     

The Government's announcement of an increase in Heritage Lottery Fund's share of Lottery good causes income from 16.7% to 20% by 2012-2013, amounting to around £50 million extra money a year, was an extremely welcome boost for the UK's heritage. From 2013 to 2019 they will have an annual awards budget of around £300 million.

At the same time, reductions in central Government and local authority spending mean there will be significantly less public investment in heritage across the UK during the next four years.

This is your opportunity to tell them:

what they should continue doing;

what they may need to do differently;

and what new initiatives or measures could have the greatest impact.

They will report back on what you have told them later on this year and expect to publish their strategic framework for 2013-2019 in spring 2012.

The Wye Singers are a group of ladies who sing for pleasure and meet to practice once a week (before a concert!) in the Church Room at Eignbrook United Reform Church. 

They specialise in choosing a theme to suit the occasion, so, for a recent forties street party to celebrate the 65th anniversary of VE day, they created a programme of well-known second world-war tunes.  Other themes include anniversaries and 60s nostalgia.  They are always delighted if the audience joins in!