Introduction to AI for small charities

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Join us for introductory interactive training on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help your small charity improve efficiencies, enhance communications and support fundraising efforts.

You’ll learn about opportunities for your small charity or community organisation to use AI creatively and in an informed and safe way. You’ll take part in quizzes, discussions with peers and start using commonly used AI tools and techniques for your everyday work.

You’ll also gain a policy or guidance template you can adapt for your organisation along with further resources to support you to take the next steps in your AI journey.

This course is being developed in partnership with NAVCA, Superhighways, Councils for Voluntary Services in the UK and Voluntary Impact Northamptonshire. By taking part and giving feedback you will be supporting other small organisations to learn more about AI.

VIN AGM and Signed Accounts

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VINs Annual General Meeting took place on the 13th of November 2025.

The AGM Presentation can be found here, and VIN would like to thank all the speakers for their contributions:

The AGM Minutes can be found here

VINs Signed Accounts can be found here

 

Consultation on Draft Active Travel Strategy, Draft Mobility Hub Action Plan and Draft Rail Action Plan

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Over the past few months West Northamptonshire Council have been developing a series of supporting strategies following the adoption of the Local Transport Plan in March 2025. These draft documents set the policy and actions for the Council to take over the coming years to implement the infrastructure detailed in the Local Transport Plan. West Northamptonshire Council have brought forward the first three of these draft strategies for public consultation, which have now been published for an 8-week consultation period. The draft documents are:

  1. Draft Active Travel Strategy.
  2. Draft Mobility Hub Action Plan.
  3. Draft Rail Action Plan.

The consultation will be open for responses from the 3rd of December 2025 until the 27th of January 2026, and the documents and consultation forms can be accessed via the Council’s dedicated consultation portal. The link to the consultation is here:

 

https://westnorthants.citizenspace.com/place/transport-strategy-and-action-plans-consultation/

The Council greatly appreciates the contributions already made by our stakeholders at the in-person events, and through written feedback. Should you have any questions or feedback that you’d like to send to the team, please contact us with our dedicated email address:

LocalTransportPlan@westnorthants.gov.uk

Members of the Highways and Transport Planning Team will be hosting virtual events in early January 2026 for any stakeholders who wish to discuss these supporting strategies directly with the team. Further information on these events will be shared closer to the time.

Asset Based Community Development

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West Northamptonshire have commissioned VIN with a piece of work aligning strongly to the principles of Asset Based Community Development or ABCD.

VIN is now looking for 20 individuals from 20 different organisations who might be interested in joining the programme.

The programme consists of:

  • A 2-day classroom course delivered by Forever Manchester at a Northampton venue. This is an accredited ABCD course.
  • A Community of Practice Meeting with VIN to digest the learning from the course.
  • A bursary of 1K to run a small project which distils the learning and shows trace elements of ABCD.
  • A reflective Community of Practice at Project end.

To be eligible VCSE organisations must be based in West Northamptonshire and must commit to all elements of the programme. Nonattendance will mean removal from the programme. In addition, eligible VCSE organisations must have 1 of the following 3 components:

  • Be undertaking some form of Outreach or Development work.
  • Have a hub which beneficiaries visit.
  • Be working with a specific health inclusion group.

Organisations can submit their interest by E-mailing russell.rolph@voluntaryimpact.org.uk

When E-mailing organisations must identify which LAP area they work in or more if that’s the case.

A list of interested parties will then be forwarded to West Northamptonshire Council for their final decision.

It is envisaged that this programme will commence in late January 2026. All selected organisations will be contacted directly by the VIN CEO.

VIN signs to the International Ethical Recruitment Charter

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The International Ethical Recruitment Charter for West Northamptonshire has been launched.

This is a significant achievement which VIN took part in and plays a pivotal role in creating a document that upholds the highest principles of ethical and respectful recruitment for international care workers.

The Charter is now live and available for sign-up on the West Northamptonshire Council website, where care providers can formally commit to its principles.

Explore and share the Charter: https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/irec

VIN AGM

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Join VIN at our Annual General Meeting. Learn about some of our organisations and the support that VIN has provided and in addition understand how Neighbourhood Health might impact on the VCFSE and how West Northamptonshire Council will be changing its approach to Community Investment. Take part in Lunch and the opportunity to network with other likeminded organisations.

Please book your ticket here 

Northamptonshire Community Pot – The Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant (DATRIG)

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This grant is issued as part of the Government’s overarching strategy to reduce harm from substance misuse and to support long-term recovery, as outlined in the 10-year plan: From Harm to Hope: A 10-Year Drugs Plan to Cut Crime and Save Lives.

As part of this strategy, the Community Pot focus is on enhancing recovery capital, increasing access to services for marginalised and underserved populations, and promoting culturally responsive, inclusive, and innovative approaches to support for Northamptonshire residents.

The Community Pot aims to reduce barriers to treatment, build resilience at the local level, and foster recovery-oriented environments that complement the wider drug and alcohol treatment system.

This approach supports the national ambition of delivering a whole-system, person-centred response to substance misuse.

Community Pot outcomes:

 

  1. Enhanced Access- Increase access to recovery support within local communities, particularly for hard-to-reach groups.
  2. Community Empowerment -Strengthen community resilience and ownership of substance misuse issues through local co-production with people with lived experience.
  3. Early & Alternative Engagement – Improve engagement of individuals not in structured treatment via trusted community-based pathways + community led pathways.
  4. Diverse Support needs – Broaden the range of inclusive variety of support models available to meet diverse needs across the local population.
  5. Sustainable Capacity- Increase sustainability and visibility of organisations working within the recovery and harm reduction space.

 

The Initiatives focus is to dismantle barriers to access for marginalised and underserved communities, considering diversity in ethnicity, faith, disability, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, and other factors.

Approaches that integrate cultural competence, inclusivity, and innovation into service delivery. Community-based pathways that complement structured treatment and strengthen whole-system responses.

 

Funding Available:

  • Total funding available: £30,000.
  • Maximum award per organisation: £4,000.
  • One application per organisation per funding round.
  • Spend deadline: All awarded funds must be fully utilised by 31 March 2026 and applications must be submitted by 12 Noon on the 17th of November 2025.

 

The application form can be found here: https://forms.office.com/e/ha5yDPUbhX

Northamptonshire Suicide Prevention Strategy

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The all-age, county-wide Northamptonshire Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan 2022-2025 is due to come to an end this December 2025. There will be the development of new West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) and North Northamptonshire Council’s (NNC) Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Strategies and Action Plans, with a proposed launch in April 2026.

 

These Strategies and Action Plans will underpin the county-wide Northamptonshire Suicide Prevention Steering Group.

 

To support the development of these new documents, a county-wide approach is being taken, led jointly by WNC and NNC Public Health Teams.

 

During November and December 2025, there will be 4 online workshops (2 hours each), with each workshop focussing on 2 of the national suicide prevention priorities.

 

The online workshops will allow time to reflect on what has been achieved locally for these priority areas to date and discussion time to explore potential objectives and actions to address future areas of focus. These discussions will need to be aligned with current resource and system to ensure the development of achievable action plans.

 

The below table highlights the priorities each workshop will focus on:

 

Workshop  Priorities 
1  Priority 1: Improving data and evidence to ensure that effective, evidence-informed, and timely interventions continue to be developed and adapted.
Priority 3: Addressing common risk factors linked to suicide at a population level to provide early intervention and tailored support.
2  Priority 2: Tailored, targeted support to priority groups, including those at higher risk, to ensure there is bespoke action and that interventions are effective and accessible for everyone.
Priority 5: Providing effective crisis support access sectors for those who reach crisis point.
3  Priority 4: Promoting online safety and responsible media content to reduce harms, improve support and signposting, and provide helpful messages about suicide and self-harm.
Priority 6: Reducing access to means and methods of suicide where this is appropriate and necessary as an intervention to prevent suicides.
4  Priority 7: Providing effective bereavement support to those affected by suicide.
Priority 8: Making suicide everybody’s business so that we can maximise our collective impact and support to prevent suicides.

 

If you are interested in attending any of the online 4 workshops, please respond to this email by COP Wednesday 15th October 2025 with your name, email address, and the workshops of interest.

 

You will then be sent the relevant workshop meeting invitations.

 

Please note that a pre-reading document will be shared ahead of the workshops with essential and recommended reading. This is to ensure attendees have a good understanding of the work area and to help maximise discussion time within the workshops.

 

Funding Symposium 2025

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SAWN held its first Funding Symposium on the 25th of September 2025 at Waterside Connect, the home of SCCYC.

Over 40 delegates attended, and heard presentations on Gift Fundraising, Financial Resilience, and Partnership working.

There was also an update on the merger between SNVB and Daventry Volunteers, followed by a round table world café.

You can view the slides here and here

Russell Rolph, the CEO of VIN states:

It’s always good to get the VCFSE in a room, not least for the networking but also to check how they are feeling. It’s a tough and challenging environment out there in a County of much transformation. We hope we can grow these SAWN yearly events for the future and are happy to take ideas from people about what they should include.

Upcoming dates for your diary:

VCFSE Engagement Group of West Northamptonshire Tickets, Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite

CEO Network of West Northamptonshire Tickets, Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 11:30 AM | Eventbrite

 

 

 

 

An Update on Connect to Work

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Following a Market Supplier Engagement Event last week regarding the Connect to Work programme, please find attached the slides from the session which can be accessed here.

Every VCFSE organisation should examine the contents of the presentation and decide whether or not it fits your ability to deliver.

Notable concerns are:

Volunteering is not seen as an output. For many VCFSE organisations who work with vulnerable cohorts Volunteering is often seen as an important first contribution in building a CV.

Timelines: These are tight and therefore it’s aimed at those who are immediately ready for work without barriers or obstacles.

Funding: The funding amounts to 2100.00 per individual and that support is a balance of pre and post-employment.

The Procurement Process is shown as content within the Presentation.

VIN held a Focus Group last week of a select number of VCFSE organisations form West Northamptonshire tag work around the subject area of Worklessness or Economic Inactivity. For many, the programme is seen as challenging given the type of individuals they work with, some of whom are the most displaced from the employment market.

Further updates will be provided on the VIN website so visit regularly to ensure you do not miss out on vital information regarding this fund.