Apply for a contract to help individuals complete the 2021 Census online, update your centre details, visit our resources page

Online Centres Members' News

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Thursday 28 May 2020

Hello <<First Name>>

Good Things Foundation is working with the Office of National Statistics to support the delivery of the next Census in England and Wales. We’re building a network of Census Support Service centres to ensure everyone has the chance to complete the Census. Earlier this year, we asked you to express your interest in supporting the delivery of the Census and now I’m pleased to announce that the fuller application is now open! Successful applicants will be required to deliver the service between March and May 2021 for a set amount of hours each week.

Various contract sizes are available based on how many advisors and service hours you can provide a week. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to express your interest earlier in the year, you can still apply to become a Census Support Service centre. You can find the full guidance document and more about this opportunity on the Good Things Foundation website. Applications close Friday 19 June at 5 PM.

Also this week, if you’re still providing virtual support to learners, remember to update your details on the Online Centres Network website, so the public can view the most accurate information when they are searching for a centre in your area. If you are still offering support to people in your community, we’d like to hear from you so we can make sure you feature on the public-facing map.

Finally, if you’re looking for information and support, our resources page - updated regularly - is a great way to find useful information to help you run your organisation online, help your learners, manage your health and wellbeing and search the latest funding opportunities. We’re also signposting to what we’ve added each day on social media.

Best wishes
Helen Milner OBE
Chief Executive
Good Things Foundation

Apply for a contract to deliver census support

Centre of the Month - Safety First Community Training Centre

We’re pleased to announce our Centre of the Month for May is Safety First Community Training Centre. Volunteers from the centre in Bradford have been delivering food 'bags of help' to the community every Tuesday during the current crisis, putting themselves at risk to help others in the community. They are also providing remote digital skills support by supporting learners through the DevicesDotNow initiative. We want to thank the team at Safety First Community Training Centre for all the amazing work they are doing at the moment. We'll be sending the centre an Amazon voucher to say thank you and well done.

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We’re continuously looking for new ways to tell you about our latest news, training, resources and opportunities. We will be sending out occasional text updates informing our network about these opportunities. If you’d like to receive updates, please complete our short form to let us know. You can opt-out at any time, by either contacting us or following the instructions in the text message.

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With lots of you providing virtual support to your learners, Zoom has been one of the go to platforms for hosting meetings and delivering online tutorials. So, we thought we’d share some of the resources that can help you facilitate meetings with your staff, learners and volunteers. The Make it Click website hosts lots of great resources including how to join a Zoom meeting and how you can keep your video calls safe and secure.

SUPPORTING INDIVIDUALS REMOTELY: HOW TO SET UP AN ONLINE COOKING CLUB

We’ve heard some great stories about how staff at community centres and libraries have been finding ways to facilitate support online. With this in mind, we’re working with partners to create a series of easy-to-follow guides for delivering digital skills support remotely.

The second in the series comes from Stephanie Lees-Pinson, Training & Employment Lead, and Elizabeth Tonks-Leeke, Digital Inclusion Mentor, both from The Intact Centre in Preston. The team found a creative way to keep their popular ‘Thrifty Kitchen’ cooking club running in the virtual world.

INNOVATIONS IN DEMENTIA RESOURCES

Innovations in Dementia is an organisation that works with individuals living with dementia, supporting them and helping them to keep control of their lives. They run various activities to help people to play an active part in society, as well as working on projects to make the world more accessible for those living with dementia. Their website hosts some great information and resources, including how they’ve changed their support during the coronavirus crisis.

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