Sikh Community Centre wins Best Special Project Award 2021

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SCCYC Board members Charanjit Kaur Grewal (Trustee & Elders Services Board) and Rupinder Singh Thind (Board Digital Director) attended the awards ceremony at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery on September 15th.

The ‘Sikh Museum Northampton’ space has been developed to share diverse Sikh and Punjabi heritage exhibitions, and oral histories of the Sikhs of Northampton. The project explores the values that helped the community through migration challenges and settlement and values that helped them to flourish as a community and provide wider benefit to the Town’s communities.

The Museum exhibitions explore core values such as ‘helping those in need’ and ‘equality and inclusion’ that have a positive impact to people’s lives. An educational area has also recently been developed, containing a library and digital learning resources.

Harjinder Kooner, Chair of SCCYC said,

“We are honoured and humbled with yet another recognition award, what a wonderful way to celebrate SCCYC’s 25th Anniversary!” The SCCYC management team would like to thank everyone involved in the development of the Sikh Museum of Northampton. It is a great achievement considering the scale of building work and project work involved in the midst of a pandemic. The Museum is a valuable educational and enjoyable resource, a legacy for the whole town and for future generations. We anticipate and official opening in the new Year, followed by tours, workshops, and heritage events thereafter, with an expected annual footfall of approximately 10,000”.

Martin Lawrence MBE, Chair of Northamptonshire Heritage Forum visited the Sikh Museum to speak to the SCCYC management, and learn about Sikh, Punjabi, and local heritage.

If you would like to help maintain the Museum or get involved in the development of future heritage projects, contact Pindy Kaur, Development Manager, email pindy@watersideconnect.com.

Learning Together – Community ambassador grant fund

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Want to know what Social Prescribing is and how it can impact your work as a health and well-being non-for-profit community group or organisation?

Get a grant of up to £500 to take part in the Learning Together Programme and become an Ambassador of Social Prescribing. You will have the opportunity to learn about Social Prescribing and how it might relate to your work, as well as taking part in online webinars and networking events with others from across the Midlands.

The Learning Together Programme is free to all participants. The ambassador grants are an additional fund, to enable individuals from smaller, user-led voluntary and community organisations to take part. For example, by paying for additional hours so that you have time to take part, or for the cost of equipment or getting online.

Social Prescribing is about helping people engage in non-medical community-based activities which improve their health and wellbeing. Social Prescribing Link Worker posts are now part of NHS Primary Care and the number of roles is growing. Find out what it’s all about and what the opportunities might be for your organisation to connect. Click here to see the online application.

If you have seen this opportunity before, but didn’t know whether to apply please see an updated version with more detail and flexibility for your application. It could take as little as half an hour to apply.

If you have any questions or need the information and application form in a different format, please email midlands.thrivingcommunities@nasp.info

VCSE Online Network

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Voluntary Impact Northamptonshire’s mission is to support Community organisations through advice, information and training. Support volunteering initiatives in all its forms. Provide voice and advocacy for the sector. Deliver and support placed based social action.

Between Apr 2020 to March 2021 VIN, in response to the lockdowns ran a short VCSE Online Network on a fortnightly basis giving organisations at the height of the pandemic a chance to share and network. To see details of these sessions including the audio recording of some of these sessions please click here

We have now started offering a new format that includes

  • Bitesize Training
  • External Guest Speaker
  • Networking

To book your place on any of the VCSE Online Network events click here.

Meeting notes

Enhanced members kick off VINs Leader in You series

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18 Enhanced Member Organisations joined VIN and the Speaker with the Orange Tie (AKA Steve Beccles-Ebusua) at St Crispin’s Community Centre in Northampton on the 23rd September 2021. The first of two sessions from his Leader in You Programme was interactive, full of interesting content and explored the concept of Leadership, what it is, could be and what’s involved. As community based organisations continue to struggle with COVID, reduced Funding and increasing demand, Leadership as a skill is becoming vital. This first session introduced how perception plays a role in Leadership, how conditioning can affect decision making and what staff teams truly value from their Leaders. Feedback included:

“Fantastic Session, very informative and enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next one.”

“Really enjoyed the workshop: Many Thanks.”

“It was great listening to the various different types of leadership which I will seek to implement.”

“Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.  A few hours well spent.”

The second session takes place on Thursday 21st October 10.00am, at St Crispins Community Centre and the Eventbrite Registration Link can be found here.

Please note that these sessions are for organisations who have paid an annual fee to become an Enhanced Member of VIN. If you wish to attend the second session and take advantage of the Enhanced Member Benefits click here