What's new at the Resource Centre

Equipment A to Z

2010-04-27T11:48:00.002+01:00

In response to feedback from user groups, we have added an A to Z section to our online Equipment hire catalogue.

We have also simplified the categories used to list our extensive range of equipment, which is available for hire to any community or voluntary group based in Sussex.

We hope these changes will make it easier for groups to find information about the equipment they need.

Money in Mind: helping community groups look after the pennies

2010-01-22T09:36:00.003Z

The Money in Mind project provides support and advice to community groups in Brighton & Hove on how to manage their money. It is being run by the Resource Centre, Impact Initiatives, and the Working Together Project for the next five years, and funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

Free support is available for all small groups who want it - in a variety of formats, to suit different groups. Any not-for-profit group, based in Brighton & Hove, with an annual income below £35,000, could get some practical help from the project. For example:

Free one-to-one support and advice
Free training courses
A free examination of accounts service
Online reference information, free for any community group to download.

You will find more information about the project and the support your group may be able to get at www.supportforgroups.org.uk/moneyinmind

Welcome to Mireille, our new worker

2010-01-08T10:39:00.001Z

Our new worker, Mireille Shimoda, started work on 4th January, increasing the number of staff from six to seven.

With increased use of the centre in recent years we have known for some time that we needed to increase the number of workers we have. For example, last year usage of our reprographics service increased by 37% on the previous year.

Having an additional member of staff had become necessary to cope with the ever increasing demand from users. We hope that it will enable us to respond more quickly to requests for support and advice, and that groups coming into the centre to do printing or collect equipment will not have such long waits when we are busy.

New information sheet on designing and using Questionaires

2010-01-04T10:11:00.002Z

Is your group thinking about carrying out a survey to evaluate your activities or gauge opinion? Not sure how to go about it? Get some helpful tips from our new information sheet 'Designing and using questionnnaires'

New information sheet on Public Liability and Insurance

2009-10-01T10:19:00.001+01:00

"Do we need public liability insurance for the activity we are planning?"
Groups frequently pop in or ring us to ask this question, so we have put together a short information sheet on Public Liability.

It explains what public liability is, why you might need insurance, and what you can do you make sure you members, volunteers and visitors are safe.

New print facilities at the Resource Centre

2009-03-24T15:31:00.003Z

Community and voluntary groups in Brighton & Hove now have access to the latest equipment for:

Colour photocopying - from 20p per copy A4
High quality copyprinting - faster and better than ever
Automatic collating, folding and stapling of booklets
Accurate and fast folding of leaflets
Colour scanning up to A3 size
Banner printing - just £5 for a colourful glossy paper banner 1.2 metres long

New information sheet on petitions

2008-10-21T14:16:00.001+01:00

Our new information sheet on Organising a petition gives simple tips and info on how to word a petition, who to present it to, and the pros and cons of using online petition websites.

Updated information sheets

2008-10-20T12:24:00.002+01:00

We have recently updated our information sheets on:

We aim to keep our information up to date, clear and relevant for small community groups. We are always keen to hear of corrections to our information or suggestions for information sheets that would be useful for groups.

New funders for local community groups added to our Favourite Funders directory

2008-10-15T14:46:00.002+01:00

This week we have added the 'Community Matters' fund from Waitrose and 'Changes Spaces: EcoMinds' from the Big Lottery Fund to our Favourite Funders directory of essential facts on the best funders for small local groups.

Community Matters: every Waitrose shop will distribute £1000 each month to local welfare organisations, community groups, schools or charities, with customers and staff nominating groups and voting for which ones should receive support.

EcoMinds: funding for organisations to help people with direct experience of mental distress become involved in environmental projects that improve mental and physical health and local communities. There are four funding bands:

small grants of up to £20,000
medium grants between £20,001 and £60,000
large grants between £60,001 and £150,000
flagship Grants between £150,001 and £250,000.

Price changes and new games for Summer 2008 at the Resource Centre

2008-04-22T09:35:00.003+01:00

Thanks to a generous grant from the Argus Appeal, we are revitalising our stock of fairground games and play equiment, in time for this year's summer season. New equipment now available includes:

Milk the cow - a fun game for fetes and fairs, where players 'milk' the wooden cow, and challenge themselves to get the most water in the bucket within the time limit.
Multi target - 2m circular pop up target, with sticky velcro balls. A large and colourful game that can be played indoors or out.
Skittles - good quality wooden skittles
Tug of war rope - supplied with gloves and line marking spray
Bubble machine - adds to the party atmosphere, wherever you are

We've also increased our stock of several of our most popular items, so that fewer groups will be disappointed. We now have threee candy floss machines, two buzzer hands, two giant connect 4 games, two clown striker (test your strength) games, and we'll be bringing in more new stock in the next couple of months.

Most of our fairground games are now £5 for up to a week's hire (a few 'premium' games are more expensive), and most play equipment is a bargain £2.50 for up to a week. Drop in to the Centre for a new leaflet and price list, if you want all the details to hand.

At the same time, things are changing in our print service. Changes in paper supplies mean we have had to increase some prices and change the range of colours we have available. See our print quote calculator for full details, or contact us for a quote.

Resource Centre receives funding from Argus Appeal

2008-02-06T11:34:00.000Z

We are very pleased to announce a grant of £4,190 from the Argus Appeal for the Resource Centre's Fun and Funds Project.

The money will be used to update and renew our stock of play equipment and money-making games for groups to use at fetes and fairs.

Watch this space for news of:

another candy floss machine
a range of new and exciting fairground games, including pop up goals, tug of war and skittles
more giant games - connect four, buzzer hand, and test your strength
a bubble machine
banners to add colour to groups' events

Professional quality video camera and editing software now available

2007-11-15T14:33:00.000Z

We now have a 3 CCD mini DV video camera for hire for £15 per week for local community and voluntary groups. We also have a wide screen laptop that is particularly suitable for video editing. We have Premier Elements video editing software on all our laptops for hire, plus one of the desktop computers for public use at the Resource Centre.

We would like to thank the Capital Learning Fund for their grant that has enabled us to buy this equipment.

For more details see the Equipment Hire page of our website or phone us on 01273 606160.

'Raising Money from Local Trusts' Information Sheet

2007-05-18T10:13:00.000+01:00

Our new Raising Money from Local Trusts Information Sheet gives brief details of small Grant Making Trusts that give grants to groups in Sussex. It includes contact details, the type of activities the trusts support, the geographical area they cover, and deadline details if we have them.

It is intended to complement our Favourite Funders directory that gives more in depth information about funding available to local groups and our Raising Money from Local Businesses Information Sheet.

Although many of the trusts do not give large amounts of money, it is possible to raise significant sums by applying to a range of funds to cover several projects. We therefore hope that this will be a very useful resource for local groups.

New books in our reference library

2007-03-01T10:52:00.000Z

Here is a selection of books that we have added to our reference library in recent months.

The good employment guide for the voluntary sector
Firstcheck: a step by step guide for organisations to safeguard children
See it Right - making information accessible for people with sight problems
The good practice safety guide for small and sporting events taking place on the highway, roads and public places
Risk Toolkit: How to take care of risk in volunteering
Charity and Voluntary Workers - A guide to health and safety at work
Ready Steady Go - starting up and running your out of school kids club
Applying for your project overheads: guidance for big lottery fund applicants
Finding company sponsors for good causes
Model constitution for a community association
Reference Manual for Community Organisations Advisers
First Steps in monitoring and evaluation

Our reference library has books and information for community and voluntary groups. You are welcome to come in and use any of these books. We have a small area where you can sit and browse through our information, take notes, or make photocopies. We also have a full page magnifying lens available.

To view the full catalogue of books in our library just click on the Reference Library tab at the top of the page.

New 'Responsibilities of Registered Charities' Information Sheet

2007-01-23T14:59:00.000Z

This 'Responsibilities of Registered Charities' information sheet is a quick and easy summary of the responsibilites of relatively small registered Charities, who have an income below £100,000 and are not Limited Companies or Charitable Trusts.

It has sections on: keeping your charitable status; following your constitution; accounts; trustee annual report, annual return; publicity; register of charities; and the Charity Commission.

It complements our exisitng Information Sheets on Charity Registration and Charity Reports & Accounts.

Trustfunding.org.uk

2006-07-13T16:05:00.000+01:00

The Resource Centre now has a subscription to this database of 4,400 UK grant making trusts that is regularly updated. If you would like to use Trustfunding.org.uk please phone and book a time to come in.

New Equipment for Hire

2006-05-09T09:00:00.000+01:00

We would like to thank SRB for additional funding that has enabled us to buy new Digital Cameras, DVD Video Cameras and Water boilers for hire to community and voluntary groups.
These will all be available for hire by the end of May. The DVD Video Cameras come with a tripod and will enable groups to record events straight onto DVD. The hire charge for these is £11.00 per week.
The Digital Camera are faster that our old ones and will enable you to take higher quality photographs to download straight to a computer or print out. The hire charge for these is £5.50 per week.
We bought two additonal water boilers to meet high demand and so hopefully there will now be one available whenever you need one!

Policies and Procedures now available on our website

2006-02-06T10:08:00.000Z

Writing policies and procedures can be a daunting task and it is often useful to see the framework in which other groups work. We have therefore published all of the Resource Centre policies on our website for groups to download and use.

We hope in the future to add policies from other organisations. If your organisation has any policies that you think would be useful to other groups please contact us at: library@resourcecentre.org.uk

If you want view any of our policies and procedures now please click on the links below.

Web Pages
Health and Safety Policy (HTML)
Health and Safety Procedures (HTML)
Disciplinary Procedure (HTML)
Grievance Procedure (HTML)
Capability Procedure (HTML)
Equalities Policy (HTML)
Monitoring and Evaluation Procedures (HTML)
Financial Management Policy (HTML)
Financial Rules (HTML)
Equipment Hire Policy and Procedures (HTML)

PDF Format
Health and Safety Policy (PDF: 109K)
Health and Safety Procedures (PDF)
Disciplinary Procedure (PDF: 68K)
Grievance Procedure (PDF: 59K)
Capability Procedure (PDF: 64K)
Equalities Policy (PDF: 156K)
Monitoring and Evaluation Procedures (PDF:104KB)
Financial Management Policy (PDF: 68K)
Financial Rules (PDF: 76K)
Equipment Hire Policy and Procedures (PDF: 52K)

New Giant Fair Stalls

2006-02-03T11:36:00.000Z

Two eye catching fair stalls have just arrived in the Centre. Funding from Change Up has enabled us to add a Clown Striker and Giant Live Wire to our already extensive range of stalls that are ideal for fundraising fetes and fairs. Local community and voluntary groups can hire them from us at £11.00 for up to a week.

The life size Clown Striker is a game of strength. Participants use a hammer, aiming to hit the box hard enough to ring the bell on the clown's bow tie.
The Giant Live Wire requires skill and a steady hand. Participants aim to pass a wand all the way along the wiggly wire without setting off the buzzer.

Just About Managing?

2006-01-26T16:45:00.000Z

The Fourth Edition of this very useful book on the effective management of voluntary organisations and community groups has just arrived on the shelves of our reference library. It includes sections on:

governance and management
communication and decision making
managing people
planning, doing and evaluating
external relationships
managing day to day

Our small reference library has a wide range of books on running a group with information on:

Management of community and voluntary groups
Fundraising
Equal Access
Health and Safety
Charitable Status
The Law
Publicity and Campaigning
and much more...

If you neeed information on any aspect of running your group please feel free drop in and use the books in our reference library.

New information sheet on getting a group started

2006-01-06T16:14:00.000Z

We have completely revised our information sheet on Getting a group started and the new version is now online.

As always, any feedback and comments are welcome.

New equipment for hire

2005-12-07T15:36:00.000Z

We would like to thank Change Up and the Capital Learning Fund for their recent funding. It has enabled us to update and increase our equipment for hire for meetings, conferences, training sessions, workshops, fetes, fairs, and social events. We have also been able to improve our computer network and printing services available to groups.

The funding from Change Up is to support groups when they:

communicate with their members and the public
run meetings, conferences, training sessions and workshops
raise funds at fetes, fairs, social evenings and other events
involve hearing aid users in their activities

We have the following new items for hire:

Inflatable bouncy castle
Wireless PA with a stand, wireless microphones and CD player
Data Projector Speakers
Display boards - 2 new free standing sets and a table top set
Table Football
Table Ice Hockey
Tombola Drum
12 more Money Aprons
Popcorn Machine
25mm Button Badge Machine
Karaoke Machine
Giant Live Wire game for fetes and fairs (available from February 2006)
Giant Clown Striker for fetes and fairs (available from February 2006)

We also have also purchased:

a portable hearing loop
a replacement digital print machine that can link up to our computer network for quality printing in large quantities
a high quality A3 colour laser printer

The funding from the Capital Learning Project has enabled us to increase the audio visual equipment that we have for hire. The following new items are now available:

2 more Data Projectors
3 new Data Projector screens
another Laptop
flatbed Over Head Projector

We have also been able to renew four of our network computers, and update our software.

Translated information about the Centre

2005-10-14T16:18:00.000+01:00

We now have a range of leaflets about the Resource Centre, published in the nine main community languages used in Brighton & Hove. To see the leaflets online, just click on the buttons on our home page. For a printed copy of any of the leaflets, just contact us.

New 'Responsibilities of the Management Committee' Information Sheet

2005-09-19T16:03:00.000+01:00

This information sheet looks how the Management Committee can make sure your group: does what it was set up to do; has enough money and does not get into debt; and is well run.

It has sections with practical advice on:

running the group and meetings
keeping the group on track
finances
fundraising
general organisation
legal liability
organising events and activities
members of the group and the people you work with
employment and volunteers
premises

New Games Centre to Hire

2005-09-07T11:41:00.000+01:00

We now have a multi-game centre for groups to hire for at a cost of £2.20 for up to 1 week.

The centre is ideal for playschemes and creches catering for under eights and includes hoopla, basket ball, a small football net, noughts and crosses and various throwing games with targets. All this packs down into an easily transported storage box.