Also, look out for the new short course programmes for Brighton & Hove and West Sussex, winging their way to a desk near you – or keep an eye on the Community Training section of the website.

Particularly if you are outside of Sussex, there are a range of Courses-by-the Sea in the Organisational Development section of the website. If you would like someone to come and talk to you to help you think through your training needs, then do give us a shout.

We will also be running some training a bit later in the year about influencing the decisions that affect our communities. If you want to know more, then do get in touch.

Hopefully you can find something to offer some support during these cash strapped times, and if you can’t, then let us know what you think we should be delivering.

We are thinking about organising some action learning to support managers of third sector organisations through these difficult times. If you’re interested, then do let us know.

What I do is provide training courses for people involved in their local communities to help them run their groups better. For example, we recently put on a Food Safety course in Hangleton for people who volunteered in the local community café. We have also run an Event Planning course for a multicultural women’s group who are planning a festival later this year. These courses take place in neighbourhood venues so that they are easy to get to and familiar [approachable and accessible].

Other courses we have run include Making Meetings Effective, Involving People in your Group, Newsletters and Publicity and Fundraising.

All sorts of people come on our community training courses, but they are all involved in their neighbourhood in one way or another. We have had people from Residents’ Associations, community centres, support groups for the over 50s or for single parents, Guides and Scouts, Friends of local parks, Local Action Teams and a football team – not a whole one.

“I Will benefit from my improved skills as a manager and hopefully more successful negotiations with funders”

This course is for people with experience of partnership working, but who would like to further develop their influencing and negotiation skills, particularly with public sector commissioners.

The training will explore:

• the steps for effective negotiation
• analysing your own personal negotiating skills
• how to gain clarity about other people’s negotiation styles, which will enable you to adapt your style to suit individual situations
• the importance of listening – to understand exactly what the other party is saying
• the importance of questioning – to resolve any ambiguities to help you to assert yourself effectively

The course will also look at how to work with others more confidently, build relationships with commissioners, gain the support and collaboration of colleagues, avoid miscommunication and be able to deal with trade offs and concession tactics.

“As a result of attending the course I am clearer about my availability and less immobilised by work overload”

This one-day course is for people who feel that events are constantly running away with them. Time management involves managing yourself, others and your environment to achieve efficiency and effectiveness.

The course will:

• Give you the chance to recognise and explore the main barriers to effective time management
• Explore the key elements to overcome those barriers
• Help you identify the skills you can exploit and the ones you need to develop
• Learn some useful techniques to help you in the future
• Provide an opportunity to think about how your own attitudes and values both improve and exacerbate your experience of time related stress

This free 12 week programme of leadership training is for anyone living in Brighton and Hove, planning to take an active leading role in their local community, who has a desire and commitment to have a strong voice to influence decisions that will make changes in their community…

The course will include a visit from the Democratic Services team at Brighton & Hove City Council and a day trip to the Houses of Parliament

You will develop confidence, learn about what makes an effective leader, explore and practice the skills involved including: influencing and persuading, communication, dealing with conflict, motivating volunteers, and time management.

Following the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to attend three peer support workshops to provide further help, as you put your learning into practice.

The course is accredited at Open College Network levels 2 & 3. It will take you about 15 hours work outside the course to develop a portfolio.

Course Dates/Times:

course starts: Wednesday 22nd September 2010 to 15th December 2010 (excluding half-term 27th October)

Peer Support Workshops: 5th January, 2nd February, 2nd March

Time: 6.00pm–8.45pm
Venue: Dorset Gardens Methodist Church

All day visit to UK Parliament (date TBC)

“Thank you – the course has delivered above my expectation”

This course will provide you with a range of practical tools and interventions that a facilitator can use in their work with groups. It will also focus on ways of facilitating teamwork or group strategies, and developing a range of appropriate responses to challenging situations that may arise in a group.

The course will cover:

• The role and skills of the facilitator
• Negotiating with a group to develop a safe and supportive environment
• Agreeing with the group what you will help them to achieve
• Making sure that everyone in the group feels able to participate
• Summarising the discussion and moving it on
• Developing common ground and bases for decision-making in a group

How do we use the internet to influence social and environmental change? The 2010 General Election was billed as the ‘internet election’ but how much impact did the ‘bloggers’ and ‘twitterers’ have and how can you use these tools for more than just the general election?

This short course, run over 2 evenings, is for anyone who is or wants to be involved in using the internet for influencing, lobbying and campaigning.

The course will help you to:

• Understand e-democracy
• Understand the different online tools that are freely available
• Examples of successful electronic campaigns
• How you can use e-democracy in your own areas of interest

“It is a brilliant course”

This two-day course is aimed at people who are new to fundraising, or who want to refresh their skills.

It will help you:

• identify which activities you want funding for
• understand how to find out about different funders
• identify the different types of funding that are available
• develop an overview of the main things to address when writing any funding application
• develop a strategy to decide your funding needs and priorities
• understand the language and key terms used by funders and how to deploy these in making successful bids
• ensure your objectives are attractive to funders;
• identify where you can go for information, advice and support
• search the Internet to find the right sources of funding
• research online information for your bid
• explore other opportunities to raise funds via the Internet.

Please bring any bids you might be working on and a USB memory stick (if you have one) for taking work away with you.

“It was excellent! Please run it again – my colleagues need to go too!”

“Thanks for a very well balanced theoretical and practical foundation management course that was v. well delivered – brilliant resources and a chance to really reflect on practice”

This two-day course is for paid staff who directly line-manage others and would like to learn more about the skills and processes essential to effective management.

The course will cover:

• what makes an effective manager and where leadership skill fit in the world of management
• balancing the drive to deliver quality services with the needs of the team and individuals
• managing the performance of self and others, using clear objectives, delegation, feedback and accountability
• what motivates someone to perform at their best
• creating a workplace culture where communication is open and conflict can be addressed in a positive manner
• show your working style and values impact on those you are managing

You will have the opportunity to practise skills learnt in a safe and supportive environment

“The course has helped me write effective press releases and has helped me start thinking about a marketing strategy”

This one-day course is aimed at people who want to get more out of working with the press, think about other aspects of marketing and develop a simple but effective marketing plan.

The course will cover:

• writing for the press
• fitting your message into the media agenda
• how to format a press release
• identifying other forms of marketing
• beginning a marketing plan

Feel free to bring something you’re working on, if you want to receive some practical feedback.