News - BTCV Thames & Chilterns
This is an archive of local BTCV news.
New Training Project for West Oxfordshire September 2007
Following a successful application for funding, we've recently heard that the West Oxfordshire Network, through LEADER+, has agreed to provide resources to support BTCV to deliver a new, short-course training project. This will enable BTCV to offer a range of nationally accredited, one and two day training courses in West Oxfordshire. Places on these courses will be subsidised and in some circumstances made available for free to people who live or work in the District. The courses will be advertised within our existing, Local Training Programme as and when they’re arranged, so please check that out if you think you might be interested in taking advantage of one of these learning opportunities. This project will run until August 2008.
Funding for Projects with Young People (16 - 25) September 2007
BTCV is presently running a range of conservation focused projects and activities locally, for which we have money and resources to work with individuals and groups of people aged 16 - 25. We have funding available to both cover our time and to provide some materials and other equipment, so we may be able to do this for you for free. If you're this age or work with groups of people of this age and might interested in getting involved, we would really like to hear from you.
New Employee Action Days September 2007
BTCV has recently adopted a national approach to its work with companies and other organisations who want to carry out some sort of employee volunteering events; we're calling these Employee Action Days. If you work for an organisation that might be interested in BTCV running an event like this, please contact Paul Forrest-Jameson at our Reading office.
Further Funding Received for BTCV's Work with Young People in Bicester June 2007
We have recently heard that the Young Persons' Charity V has agreed to match the funding we've already been offered by Waste Recycling Environmental Limited (WREN) for the new Bicester Green Pioneers. We are now looking to recruit 100 young people in and around the Bicester area (16 - 25 year olds) who want to try out conservation volunteering for the first time. So if this is you, or you work with people within this age group that might be interested, please let us know. As well as a chance to try out conservation volunteering, we will be looking to identify a smaller group from within these people to take on a larger, environmental project in the Bicester area. We can't tell you what that will be yet, as this will be up to those that take part. This project will run until March 2008. For more details please contact Alison Smith at our Aylesbury office.
Funding for BTCV's Work with Young People in Berkshire and North Hampshire June 2007
Not to be outdone further south, we've also recently received funding from V via our local radio station 2-Ten FM to deliver the new 101 Green Pioneers project in Berkshire and parts of north Hampshire. This funding will enable, yes 101 young people, to again try out conservation volunteering for the first time. In this case we'll be working with BTCV's network of local groups in the area, to help them to recruit new, young volunteers. This project will run until December 2007. For more details please contact Andy Noyes at our Reading office.
Chipping Norton Green Gym Now Operational June 2007
The new Chipping Norton Green Gym has now been officially launched in both Woodstock and Chipping Norton itself. A programme of regular sessions is now underway. If you would like to join the Green Gym, please contact Nina Sperinck at our Aylesbury office.
Free Training for Young People June 2007
Thanks to support from the young persons' charity V, until the end of September most of our local training courses are free to anyone aged from 16 to 25, provided he/she hasn't volunteered with BTCV before.
Excellence in Training! June 2007
In 2006 we ran 14 training courses locally and the feedback from those attending them indicated that 92% rated their overall learning experience as either "excellent" or "good".
Most BTCV training is delivered under the NCFE's Investors in Quality Licence. The NCFE is a National Awarding Body. NCFE accreditation enables BTCV to provide a nationally recognised certificate to the learners that attend its training courses.
BTCV Renews its Investors in People Status June 2007
BTCV has just been successfully reassessed to the Investors in People (IiP) standard. BTCV was the first national, environmental charity to gain IiP status (in 1996) and has held it ever since.
Chipping Norton Green Gym March 2007
A new member of staff has joined the BTCV Team in Thames & Chilterns. Nina Sperinck has recently started work as the Chipping Norton Green Gym Project Officer. If you want to find out about BTCV's newest Green Gym, join it, or have a practical conservation project in West Oxfordshire that you might like the Green Gym's members to help carry out, please let Nina know. Nina is based at BTCV's Aylesbury office.
National Online Volunteering Programme March 2007
Under 'secret' development for over a year, BTCV's UK-wide, online volunteering programme is now live. Along with the information on Conservation Holidays and Training that's already listed online in the BTCV Shop, this now means every volunteering opportunity offered by BTCV anywhere in the UK and internationally can now be searched for in this way. Why not try it out? BTCV Volunteering Opportunities.
More Local Groups Join the BTCV Community Network March 2007
We would like to welcome two, new, local groups to the BTCV Community Network: the Maids Moreton Conservation Group (in Aylesbury Vale) and the Great Kingshill Residents Association (in Wycombe).
77 Veteran Tree Recorders Trained in Wokingham March 2007
The Wokingham District Veteran Tree Project is going from strength to strength. Over 500 Veteran Trees have now been identified in the area, with more records being send in all the time. BTCV has recently run two training courses for new recorders, in partnership with the recently formed Wokingham District Veteran Tree Association. 77 new recorders have been trained so far this year and the Association is now planning another course, for the first time without needing BTCV's support to do so. Ancient and veteran trees are an important part of our natural heritage and for environmental and historical reasons we should know what they are and where they grow. As well as being a great way to involve volunteers, tree surveys help us to do this and enable us to ensure that as far as possible they are properly managed and kept in good health. More details (including a Google Map and aerial photos showing the locations of the trees), can be found here: Wokingham District Veteran Trees Map.
Funding Successes March 2007
The West Berkshire Primary Care Trust's Partnership Development Fund has recently decided to provide BTCV with funding to promote the heath benefits of conservation volunteering. This programme, called Your Home Your Health You Life, will focus on Wokingham and the surrounding area. South Oxfordshire District Council and Wokingham Borough Council have also recently agreed to renew their revenue funding for BTCV for another year, which is very welcome news.
New Green Gym for West Oxfordshire January 2007
We are pleased to announce the development of a new Green Gym to be based in Chipping Norton, funded through LEADER+ and West Oxfordshire District Council. The fifth Green Gym in Oxfordshire, it will be launched in February 2007.
New Volunteering Opportunites for Young People in Bicester January 2007
We have also recently heard that we are to receive funding from Waste Recycling Environmental Limited (WREN) for a project called the Bicester Green Pioneers. This will enable around 100 young people to get a taste of conservation volunteering for the first time. We are presently hoping that the new young people's charity, V, will match the funding we have already received from WREN, to enable the project to get even bigger. Bicester Green Pioneers will be launched in April 2007.
Naturally Better Lives January 2007
BTCV's Naturally Better Lives project has made it through to the second (and final) stage of the Big Lottery Fund Well Being Programme's selection process. If successful, BTCV's application would enable it to set up nearly 150 new Green Gyms in England, (as well as run a range of other Green Gym related practical activities). Two of these have been identified as being based Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (operational from Autumn 2007) and Witney, Oxfordshire (operational from Autumn 2009). There are also likely to be other Green Gyms run under a special licence agreement by some of BTCV's partners. The final outcome will be known in the summer.
Core Funding Successes January 2007
Reading Borough Council and Aylesbury Vale District Council have both recently decided to renew their 'core funding' for BTCV's work in Thames & Chilterns. So a big thank you to them.