27 January 2022 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. Every year on that day Holocaust Memorial Day takes place. In the words of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Holocaust Memorial Day encourages remembrance in a world scarred by genocide.

One Day is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 – a day that we put aside to come together to remember, to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, in the hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide. We learn more about the past, we empathise with others today, and we take action for a better future.

The UK Ceremony for Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 will be streamed online on Thursday 27 January at 7pm. Register HERE to watch the Ceremony online.

At 8pm, get ready to Light the Darkness with us. Households across the UK will be lighting candles and safely putting them in their windows to remember those who were murdered for who they were stand against prejudice and hatred today.

There are a series of events planned in Tower Hamlets including reflections on Holocaust Memorial Day from the Tower Hamlets Interfaith Forum. Please CLICK HERE for more information and event listings.

#HolocaustMemorialDay #LightTheDarkness

Thursday 20 January / 7.00 to 9.00pm / Zoom

An online panel event exploring how academic research, art and exhibitions can generate public awareness about the past and present. Following the success of last year's guest exhibition at Four Corners Gallery, 'My name is Sara', this online panel event curated by the artist Sara Davidmann explores how academic research, art and exhibitions addressing issues of antisemitism and the Holocaust can generate new ways of raising public awareness about the past and present, including highlighting the rise of xenophobia and populism today.

Chaired by Prof David Feldman, Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London.

Speakers:

James Bulgin, Head of Content, Holocaust Galleries, Imperial War Museum 

Alex Maws, Head of Educational Grants and Projects, Association of Jewish Refugees

Dr Simone Gigliotti, Deputy Director, Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London 

This event is made possible thanks to the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR)

Cervical Cancer Prevention Week is an opportunity to raise awareness on the risks of cervical cancer, and help women and people with cervixes learn about how to reduce these risks and prevent the illness.

It's vital that you are: Attending cervical screening when invited; knowing the symptoms of cervical cancer and seeking medical advice if experiencing any; taking up the HPV vaccine if aged 11-18, and encouraging others to do so; knowing where to find support and further information.

See Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust for more information on how to get involved in the 2021 campaign, and Grace or more information on gynaecological cancer awareness.

The Together South programme works to support non-EU migrants and refugees in South and East London. Together South provide ESOL classes, employment services, and cultural insight sessions. They offer both one-to-one as well as group classes. Their sessions are largely informal and, therefore, do not have attendance requirements. Furthermore, it should be noted that the sessions are currently online. 

In terms of the target community and participant requirements, Together South specifically work with populations from outside the EU that have already been granted leave. Therefore, they cannot work with participants that are still awaiting immigration decisions (e.g. asylum seekers).  

For more information about our programme, please contact Josh Schneider at Joshua.schneider@groundwork.org.uk.

The new instalment of the Better Health campaign has launched to encourage adults across the nation to lose excess weight, eat more healthily and get active in the new year.Find out about free, local weight management programmes that can support you with achieving your goals.

New! Disability Weight Management Service by Ability Bow
A 12-week programme of focused one-to-one and small group exercise and nutrition sessions. For more information, contact reception@abilitybow.org, or telephone 020 89807778. For health professionals wishing to refer patients, please email nelondon.abilitybowreferrals@nhs.net.

New! Shape Up Programme
The Community Learning Disability Service (CLDS) and Create are introducing a Tier 2 weight management programme to support adults with learning disabilities within Tower Hamlets to lose weight and to develop healthier and more active lifestyles. Participants will be offered weekly fitness and information sessions over 12 weeks as well as one-on-one input from health and lifestyle professionals working within the CLDS. For more information, contact the Community Learning Disability Service on 0207 771 5500 or Create on 0207 364 6950 for support to self-refer - elft.shapeup@nhs.net.

Better Health Campaign
New Better Health campaign offers free support and guidance to those working towards a healthier weight. A range of free digital resources can be downloaded from the Campaign Resource Centre to help you support the campaign.

The Equalities Hub is key to the new direction for the Council’s equalities provision, providing a central strategic focus, responding to the community’s needs and issues. The Hub will be vital to bringing about a more coordinated approach to equalities in the borough. 

Tower Hamlets Equalities Hub is a partnership between Tower Hamlets CVS and Healthwatch Tower Hamlets and funded by Tower Hamlets Council.

The Limehouse Project and Women's Inclusive Team have worked together to create the BAME Network. The aim of the BAME Network is to raise the profile of the local BAME communities, share ideas and explore current issues. We aim to build a strong and supporting network and become a resource for local communities. More information on our events and how to become a member can be found on the website: www.towerhamletsbamenetwork.org.uk

Monday 17 January / 6.00 to 8.00pm / Online event

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is both a form of discrimination and a violation of human rights, which includes a wide range of abusive behaviours including physical, sexual, financial, emotional and psychological abuse.

Faith communities can play a big part in combating VAWG - some survivors with a faith feel that some specialist services and society, in general, are unable to understand their experiences of abuse, and their barriers to accessing support due to their religious identity or their faith community.

Wednesday 26 January / 6.00 to 8.00pm

Join our January Forum Meeting to hear from Tower Hamlets Mind's new service, Safe Connections. The Forum would like to hear your views on key issues affecting the LGBT+ community's mental health and Tower Hamlets new Suicide Prevention Strategy working to improve suicide prevention in Tower Hamlets.

The Forum is a project that aims to bring together LGBT+ people (and allies) who live, work, study or socialise in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to discuss and have an influence on issues which affect the local LGBT community, as well as network, socialise and meet other local LGBT people.

Healthwatch tower Hamlets have been gathering your views on what makes your community healthy for nearly two years now. Your feedback has helped everyone involved in providing health and wellbeing support to understand:

• What local residents think is important to wellbeing during the pandemic such as access to safe open spaces and to good mental health support.
• Which groups of local residents are experiencing the greatest impact from the pandemic 
• How services have changed for the better or the worse

Healthwatch want to continue to provide this vital voice for local residents and although we know many are of you are getting consultation fatigue we are asking again if you can give some of your valuable time to complete this survey.

From Monday 10 January / 2.00 to 4.00pm

This course teaches healthy eating and gentle exercise to residents of Tower Hamlets to help manage the following conditions: Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, Chronic Kidney Disease and Hypertension.

To book a place on a course, make a referral or find out about Good Moves, please email nimom@safh.org.uk or telephone 020 8510 1970.

What is the Community Outreach Fund?
The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, via the Investment Advisory and Monitoring meeting (IAM) were asked to approve the creation of a Community Outreach Programme Fund to support local community groups, organisations and charities in bidding for grant funding to attract people from underrepresented groups to join the Metropolitan Police.

Community Outreach Fund seminar dates in January 2022 (click on date below for Zoom link): 

Monday 17 January 2022 @ 12noon
Wednesday 19 January 2022 @ 3pm
Tuesday 25 January 2022 @ 11am
Thursday 27 January 2022 @ 6pm

These seminars are aimed at providing further information on the Community Outreach Fund as well as answer any questions you may have.  

If you have any questions about the seminars, application process or require an application, please email: CPIEMailbox-.Outreach@met.police.uk.

Deadline for applications is 4.00pm on 28 February 2022

Deadline: Monday 17 January

Co-ordinated by Alternative Arts: Celebrating women artists, activists, writers, performers, and community organisations, with a diverse programme of exhibitions and events across East London.

If you are planning a relevant exhibition / performance / event / workshop, either live or online, during March 2022, please let Alternative Arts know so that they may include your activities in the Women’s History Month programme which will be widely promoted. Participation is FREE.

The programme will also include events celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March 2022 and International Women’s Week 5-12 March 2022.

Please send the following details and an image to info@alternativearts.co.uk: Venue and address with full postcode, Nearest tube/station, Website and phone number, Title of Event/Exhibition (& online link), Date(s) and time(s) of Event/Exhibition, Admission charges (if any), Names of Artists/Performers/Writers involved, Brief description, Contact name and email (not for publication), One image

Wednesday 19 January / 1.00 and 3.00pm / Zoom

The Connecting London Team are hosting a zoom based event to explore Dry January and all things alcohol recovery and support! There is bound to be some inspiring content to help people stay on track!!

Meeting ID: 862 3255 5461 / Passcode: DRYJANUARY

Thursday 20 January / 10.30am to 1pm / on Zoom

This practical, interactive, online session will provide an overview of the essential aspects of managing volunteers or coordinating a volunteering programme during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. It is aimed at staff who are fairly new to managing volunteers (or have not previously had formal training) as well as those who need a refresher.
 
By the end of the course, you will:

• Understand the key principles of good practice in managing, supporting and motivating volunteers
• Have identified good practice at each key stage of a ‘volunteer journey’ (eg enquiring, application, interview, induction, support and supervision, exit) as well as in developing roles and managing risks
• Understand the policies and procedures you should have in place to recruit and safeguard volunteers
• Know where to find practical support with volunteer management
• Have identified actions that you can take back to your organisation to improve how volunteers are managed

Cost: FREE. This training programme is kindly subsidised via a grant from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Saturday 22 January / 12.00 to 2.00pm / The Glasshouse Community Centre / 161 Old Ford Road - London E2 9QB

Trapped in Zone One is hosting a series of FREE workshops for females, led by Kay Arty to create a body of new works for upcoming exhibitions in March 2022 at St. Margaret's House and GreatArt for International Women's Day.

Monday 24 January to Monday 28 March 2022 (no session 14 Feb 2022)

Times: Juniors (ages 7-11) - 3.45 to 5pm / Seniors (ages 11 to 18) - 5 to 6.30pm

Where: The Chapel at St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL

Hilarity Academy is a free, fun space for young people to learn and engage in the skill of making people laugh. Workshops include lessons on learning how to tell jokes, creating sketches, writing stand up material and clowning.

Tuesday 25 January / 2.00 to 3.30pm

This online session will be delivered by Jean Eveleigh, who is a recipient of social care, and who has been writing her own care plan for the last six years. She finds there is a huge difference in quality when she writes the plan and when it is written by social services. Creating her Own Care Plan has been instrumental in her fight for receiving the right care she is entitled to. At this session, she will be sharing her story and answering questions on how you can start writing your care plan.

The Real Advocacy service will also be joining. They have over a decade of experience on supporting clients with securing care.

Tuesday 25 January - Tuesday 15 March / 2.30 to 3.45pm (8 week course)

Are you a man living with chronic pain or a long-term health condition? Would you like to learn new tools to help manage your pain and illness? Mindfulness has been shown to reduce the anxiety, depression, irritability, exhaustion, and insomnia that arises from chronic pain and illness. Join experienced mindfulness teacher Satyamanas for an 8 week mindfulness course designed specifically for men. Sign up for free: (open to Tower Hamlets Residents only)

In partnership with Globe Community Project and the Take Back Your Life project, funded by Tower Hamlets Council.

Thursday 27 January / 11.00am to 1.00pm

Tailored to HR professionals and managers involved in the recruitment of people. Any organisation based in London is welcome.

Employers typically use interviews to assess the suitability of candidates. This webinar explains how to conduct your interviews most effectively and inclusively. It also explores alternatives and additional assessment methods, which may be better predictors of future performance. Find out more about what the UK law says and how to ask candidates about what adjustments they may need during your selection processes.

Thursday 27 January / 2.00pm

Join Veritas for their UK&I Manufacturing Market Insights Research Webinar. This webinar focuses on a recent quantitative research study conducted with UK and Ireland IT decision makers (ITDMs). It explores how Manufacturing organisations are:

• Approaching cloud adoption
• Where the key challenges
• How they can overcome these challenges through making improvements to their approaches to data management and data protection

Senior Director and Head of Technology Sales, Ian Wood and Senior Research Manager, Charlie Wood, will be sharing the latest industry updates and answering your questions!

Thursday 27 January / The Education Centre, St Joseph's Hospice, Hackney, London E8 4SA

This one-day course is aimed at any professional or volunteer tasked with delivering group work regularly in a community setting. It is specifically tailored for those running groups of service users who can be described as “hard to reach”.

Appropriate participants: Professionals and/or volunteers leading or supporting group work. This could include homeless support workers, rehabilitation workers, youth workers, those working or volunteering in community organisations such as Home Start and local charities delivering outreach work in a group environment.

The cost per person is £99 (plus VAT). This includes a sandwich lunch, teas, coffees and refreshments. For more information, please email enquiries@bemagnificent.uk or call 07986 951154 

Saturday 29 January / 10.30am to 12.30pm / Zoom

If your finances have got into a bit of a tangle, why not make 2022 the year to sort them out? To give you a helping hand, you are invited to attend a fun and entertaining workshop about Women and Money. The workshop is offered in partnership with the Money Charity, an organisation that has a long history of helping people to manage their money well including saving few pounds. 

The session will cover:

• Understanding the financial challenges women face throughout their lives
• Understanding the importance of budgeting, savings, investments, credit and debt
  how to shop safely online
• How to reduce the risk of fraud and identity theft
• Recognising different types of financial scams

To book you place, please email cherifa.atoussi@account3.org.uk

Tuesday 1 February / 12.30 to 1.00pm / Zoom

Come along to this informal session to find out your voluntary group, CIC, social enterprise, church, school, sports club or charity can benefit from unrestricted funding in 2022.

Community Fundraising Manager Becky Coleman will talk through how your volunteers, staff and supporters can use the easyfundraising platform to raise donations for your organisation when they shop with thousands of leading retailers. Becky will demonstrate how it works, show you how to get started and answer any questions you might have. easyfundraising is free to use and is trusted by 170,000 good causes around the UK.

LBTH Public Health have commissioned WAVE Trust to deliver training about trauma and trauma informed approaches between January and June 2022 (3-4 dates each month for Module A and B below and monthly Q&A sessions, and more dates to be added):

Module A: Understanding trauma (2 hour online session)
Module B: Implementing trauma-informed approaches (2 hour online session)
Q&A sessions for practical questions

Each week the Director of Public Health, Dr Somen Banerjee, publishes a Covid-19 update to keep residents and partners informed about Covid-19 locally in Tower Hamlets.

Covid-19 rates in Tower Hamlets are high. More than 8 out of 10 patients seriously ill in hospital with Covid-19 aren’t fully vaccinated.

Anyone aged 12 or over can book first and, if you are eligible, second or booster jabs online. Visit our website to find your nearest vaccination site.

Deadline: Thursday 20 January @9am

LIFT Access to Funding is a 12 week programme designed for existing businesses in the creative, science and digital sectors (known as the knowledge economy) that are active and generating revenue, but unsure of how to access funding to take their operations to the next stage. The programme provides founders with the resources, tools and knowledge of the types of financing available and suited to their individual businesses.

The sessions will be done remotely, to be led by experts within the industry, as well as peer to peer support. Applicants must be over 18 and a resident of a LIFT borough (Camden, Hackney, Islington or Tower Hamlets).

Deadline: Monday 31 January / 12 noon

The Jubilee Celebration Events Fund has been set up to award grants of up to £500 to organisations delivering events and street parties to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The Jubilee Celebration Events Fund focuses on community cohesion and re-connecting communities who have been most affected by the pandemic. Events must take place over the bank holiday weekend (between Thursday 2nd June and Sunday 5th June 2022).

Grant Amount: Organisations can apply for grants between £350 and £500.

Guidelines: Tower Hamlets Council Mayor’s COVID Recovery Cohesion Events Fund – Jubilee Celebration Events Guidelines

Application Form: Jubilee Celebration Events Application Form

Deadline: Sunday 6 February

On behalf of East London Foundation Trust (ELFT), Compass Wellbeing CIC is inviting local voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations to come forward to express an interest in providing Community Connector roles, as part of the ELFT’s ongoing Community Mental Health Transformation programme.

This opportunity is available for Tower Hamlets, Newham and City & Hackney for a five year period from 1st June 2022.  ELFT are committed to developing these roles and are actively considering ways to increase the number of posts in future but this will be dependent on local and national funding opportunities. As such, there is a possibility of additional roles being created in future which could either be procured through a separate process, or as contract variations through this process.

Deadline: Monday 28 February / 12 noon

Grants of between £750 and £10,000 to support new creative and cultural activities and events developed for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee taking place in June 2022. Applicants are strongly encouraged to partner with an artist, creative or cultural organisation to help deliver their project. Culture and creativity come in all shapes and sizes, and to be eligible projects should engage with at least one of the artforms which Arts Council England supports through its funding which are: Music, Theatre, Dance, Visual arts, Literature, Combined arts. The Fund will open for applications on Tuesday 4th January 2022

This fund will make awards, using National Lottery funding, of between £300 and £10,000, from a total pot of up to £5m.  

Sport England want to mark and help celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year by supporting projects that bring a community together and provide opportunities for people who may be less physically active. They want organisations to consider how they could work more collaboratively across their community, in order to make the biggest possible impact.There are always more applications than Sport England are able to fund and so their priority is to support projects working with people in disadvantaged communities.

Funds are available for project costs such as facility hire and coaching, as well as for small capital improvements.

Don’t forget to apply for a two-year unrestricted grant of £50,000 before the end of the year. Check your eligibility in less than five minutes on our website by selecting one of 11 complex social issues. If the majority of your trustee board self-identifies as belonging to a Black, Asian or minority ethnic community, you can apply under our Racial Equity strand.

For its Spring 2022 funding round The Fore is offering 6-18 month grants of up to £15,000. The Fore make unrestricted grants which have the potential to have a transformational impact on an organisation. Transformational impact includes helping organisations become more sustainable, more efficient, to grow significantly or enabling an organisation to take a major step forward of some kind.

The Fore is particularly looking to fund small organisations working with marginalised groups and led by people in the community that may have found it hard to access trust and foundation funding in the past.

The Marketors City Livery Company has announced a new Charity Marketing Grants Programme for 2021-2, funded by its charity The Marketors’ Trust. A total of £20,000 is being made available as grants for small charities (turnover between £10,000 and £100,000 annual income) to run marketing and fundraising campaigns. There is one grant of £10,000 and four grants of £2,500 each

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has partnered with Enterprise Nation to deliver the Pivot Project, offering 150 small businesses in the borough a programme of business support and financial support of up to £1,000.

The initiative is open to businesses with up to 49 employees who were trading in Tower Hamlets before 30 June 2021 and whose business needs to adapt to a new business environment.

LBTH is offering social value resources for organisations with a turnover of less than £100,000.

Organisations can apply for resources including first aid training, ICT support, equipment in good working order, annual subscriptions, and officer support and mentoring from senior managers. Organisations can apply up to a value of £2000. Resources will be offered first come, first served as organisations who fit the eligibility criteria apply.