Census support opportunity - coming soon | Centre of the month

Online Centres Members' News

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Thursday 3 September 2020

Hello <<First Name>>

I’m pleased to inform you that applications for funding to deliver the Census Support Service in specific areas, will be opening for a second round on Tuesday 8 September at 9am.

Working with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Good Things Foundation is building a network of Census Support Centres across England and Wales to support the delivery of the census, which will take place between March and May 2021.

The census will be ‘digital first’ and accessible through an online platform, but with 11.9 million people in England and Wales lacking essential digital skills, support will be needed to help people to complete it online.

To find out if this opportunity is right for your organisation and to see if you are in the list of eligible areas, please read the guidance document and view the list of specific areas in which we are seeking applications. One application round has already taken place, so applications are being accepted in this round only in those areas marked on the list.

To apply, please visit the Online Centres Network funding page after 9am on Tuesday 8 September. Applications will close at 5pm on Friday 2 October. For more information or if you have any questions please email census.support@goodthingsfoundation.org.

Best wishes
Helen Milner and the Good Things Foundation team

Find out more

Digital Evolution conference date confirmed

We are pleased to announce that our 2020 conference, Digital Evolution: Now more than ever, will take place on Tuesday 24 November.

We want to ensure that, just like in previous years, the conference is a fun and informative day - but most importantly safe for our community partners. That’s why Digital Evolution: Now more than ever will be held online as a virtual conference. We’ll be providing more information in the coming weeks but for now we’d love for you to save this date in your calendar!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CENTRE OF THE MONTH

We’re delighted to announce that our Centre of the Month is Kingston Adult Education. During lockdown the organisation faced the challenge of having to move to new premises. Staff at the organisation have been working across premises at 6 locations to help provide support to learners from a variety of areas and backgrounds. Their hard work and dedication during the lockdown has meant that they have been able to reach out to those most in need. Chris from the organisation has had an extremely positive attitude and worked tirelessly to help others during this challenging time.

We’d like to recognise and thank Chris and the team at Kingston Adult Education for supporting so many individuals. We’ll be sending the centre an Amazon voucher to say thank you.

New training webinars for members!

We’ve got a great range of training webinars coming up in September and October. From writing better bids to developing engaging content and teaching and facilitation, there is plenty to choose from! The training page on the Online Centres Network website hosts all of our upcoming webinars.

Don’t forget, if you can’t make one of the dates, we upload recordings of our webinars on our website a couple of days after they take place.

Here are a few coming up soon:

Growing Your Digital Audience, Thursday 17 September, 11am-12pm
Writing Better Bids, Tuesday 29 September, 10am-12pm
Having a Positive Outlook, Tuesday 29 September, 2.30-3.30pm
Positive Goal Setting, Thursday 1 October, 10-11am

View all webinars

NEW SCHEME TO HELP SUPPORT FAMILIES WITH LAPTOPS

GiveIT is a scheme to help families by providing them with laptops to help improve their lives and the educational prospects of children. The scheme was set up by The Lady Fatemah Charitable Trust and launched in May 2020 to provide laptops to families via foodbanks and schools across the country. The trust is currently inviting organisations to:

- Apply to be a recipient of the scheme (organisations must meet the criteria set out in the recipient application form)
- Donate funds for the purchase of laptops
- Donate used and working laptops

For more information on the scheme and to apply to receive devices, please visit the website.

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