Crawley Carnival 2013
Interested...?

A recent Crawley Observer article said that the Crawley Lions would like to bring back the Carnival for 27th May 2013 at West Green playing fields near Sainsburys. Ifield Community Youth Service's Chris Cook will be chairing the committee for Crawley Lions tasked with working with the community to see if there is an appetite for staging this event and whether people/organisations will work with the Crawley Lions to make this part of the landscape of Crawley events for 2013 and beyond. There are plenty of details to iron out, decisions to make, and agreements about how this will be funded and profits distributed. There will also be a need to consider other companion events that could run alongside the fair in the period immediately before and after the Carnival itself.

To help start this up Crawley Lions is inviting anyone who is interested in helping to organise the event to e-mail Gary Davies at: gjldavies48@yahoo.co.uk, or to join the working group on Wednesday 30th May at the Grasshoppers Pub, Tilgate from 8pm. Please RSVP to Gary to give a rough idea of numbers.

Overcoming anxiety and depression
New Time to Talk courses

Time to Talk is running groups focusing on Overcoming Anxiety and Overcoming Depression. Participants will be helped to recognise the symptoms, understand their mood, and be given practical skills to overcome and combat anxiety or depression. Find out more here, telephone: 01293 843300, or speak to your GP if you are interested in attending.

Crime and Community Safety survey
From West Sussex County Council...

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) want to know your views on crime and community safety in your local area and in West Sussex. Police, Local authorities, NHS, Fire and Rescue Services as well as local community groups work in partnership to reduce crime and disorder to make residents feel safe. WSCC wants to understand your priorities and the areas you think services should be focusing on in the future. The Survey can be downloaded here, and will take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Latest HealthWatch reports
Find out more...

HealthWatch will be the new consumer champion for both health and adult social care. It will exist at two levels – Local HealthWatch, at local level, and HealthWatch England, at national level. £3.2 million is being made available to establish the Local Health watch service across the country. Local HealthWatch will be established in April 2013. Until then Local Involvement Networks (LINks) will continue.

The aim of Local HealthWatch will be to give citizens and communities a stronger voice to influence and challenge how health and social care services are provided within their locality. The duty to involve the public in the planning and development of health services, as set out in section 242 of the NHS Act, remains as before. A Local HealthWatch (eg across West Sussex) will be an independent organisation, able to employ its own staff and volunteers, so it can become the influential and effective voice of the public. It will have to keep accounts and make its annual reports available to the public. To read more, Click Here.

Diamond Jubilee Volunteering Awards 2012
Nominate your organisation now...

If your organisation has 25 or more people involved in volunteering, it can now be nominated for this special award to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee this year. Nominations are open until 9th September 2012. Find out more here.

Building a website
New service from ICIS...

Need to spread your message, or get more clients and customers? Call ICIS. This is an exciting new opportunity for voluntary services and small businesses to have their own website at an affordable price. Using their expertise in developing websites and promoting services in West Sussex, ICIS is now building small websites to increase the visibility of services. ICIS can develop a small website packed with functionality: photo gallery and slideshow, surveys and forms, social media feeds, embedded calendars and videos and much more. There is no monthly maintenance fee and charges are priced per webpage. For more information contact ICIS on: 01903 859928, or download its Brochure.

More news
See more news, events and important dates on the CCVS Forum webpages...

CCVS has news and events pages for its four Forums:

Crawley Community Relations Forum
Crawley Housing & Homelessness Forum
Crawley Older Persons Forum
Crawley Children & Young People's Partnership Forum

Send in your news, events and dates and we will do our best to publicise them for you. Please send your news items to Lisa Phillips at: lisa.phillips@crawleycvs.org, or tel: 01293 657000.