Category: Charity News

What works to support diversity in the creative industries? Insights from theatre/dance roundtable of the APPG for Creative Diversity

Stuart Mitchell

February was the first meeting of the APPG for Creative Diversity for 2021 and focused on theatre and dance. As in previous months, the roundtable raised themes that will be familiar to those who have followed the 2020 sessions. The session also reflected the range of artforms, businesses, organisations, and practitioners captured under this particularly broad umbrella. The roundtable recognised that theatre and dance have a history of not being representative of the breadth of communities that constitute contemporary society. In particular, several participants discussed how they were inspired to…

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Read ‘n’ weep: child literacy on decline as children fail to identify Aslan and Dorothy Gale

Stuart Mitchell

Sainsbury’s research reveals that child literacy is on the decline in the UK, with children unable to identify once popular fictional characters. Just 22% of children know the Chronicle of Narnia’s Aslan, 10% The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy Gale and 3% Charlotte Web’s Charlotte.  Instead, children are finding inspiration online, with 30% able to identify Jojo Siwa, an American YouTubber and dancer, 24% recognising Surprise Toys, a YouTube channel dedicated to watching people unwrap toys, and 18% identifying YouTuber Zoella. The news comes as research from Sainsbury’s reveals that just…

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Major Environmental Groups Call On Businesses To Lead On Climate Policy

Stuart Mitchell

Eleven leading environmental and sustainable business organizations published an open letter in the New York Times today, urging the CEOs of Corporate America to step up their engagement on climate policy. Signatories include the heads of BSR, C2ES, CDP, Ceres, Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, The Climate Group, The Nature Conservancy, the Union of Concerned Scientists, World Resources Institute, and World Wildlife Fund. In the letter, the organizations call on businesses to adopt a science-based climate policy agenda that is aligned with the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate…

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New research shows charity staff highly skilled but questions raised over diversity

Stuart Mitchell

Charities are employing highly qualified staff but this may be at the cost of excluding people who face greater barriers to education and experience, new NCVO research suggests. Over half the voluntary sector workforce (51%) is educated to degree level, researchers found, while over 70% of voluntary organisations put ‘critical’ or ‘significant’ value on applicants having relevant work experience. As many as 43% of voluntary sector employers say their staff have skills and qualifications that are more advanced than required for their current role, higher than in the public sector…

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Third Sector Podcast #7: Charity shops

Stuart Mitchell

Enclosed below is the new Third Sector podcast which may be of inteerst to some of our readers: In this episode, we take a look at the charity shop market, the Code of Fundraising Practice and social media crisis communications   Our seventh monthly podcast looks at charity shops, delving into the benefits and challenges of charity retail.  Features and analysis writer Rebecca Cooney speaks to Jason Lomas, head of portfolio development at the disability equality charity Scope, Reena Mukherji, director of the Octavia Foundation, which provides community support and opportunities for people in…

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