Ramadhan is a time when many community organisations and Mosques benefit from the generosity of Muslim people. Many organisations don’t realise that by registering with the Charity Commission the money they are given could go even further, helping them to make an even greater impact on their communities.

This Ramadhan the Charity Commission, the independent regulator of Charities in England and Wales, is encouraging organisations that think they might have charitable status to contact them on 0845 300 0218 to find out how they can register.

There are many benefits of registering as a charity. Charities registered with the Charity Commission:

* Have the benefit of a charity registration number and the badge/brand of charity, increasing public trust and confidence in their organisation.

* Can maximise the financial benefit of donations through Gift Aid arrangements. This means that currently for every £1.00 donated through Gift Aid charities can claim back up to 28p from the government.

Attached is information of a forthcoming conference organized by JUST West Yorkshire, a racial justice and human rights organization.

It explores the contemporary challenges facing the region following the Northern riots, the 7/7 London bombings and the government’s ‘War on Terror.’

I would be grateful if you could circulate the attached messages and the cover note to colleagues and friends. If you would like to attend the event, conference and booking are attached for your information

Thank You

Ratna Lachman
Director
JUST West Yorkshire

New Sustainable Communities programme, run by Inspire East in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University.

The programme has a number of attractions:
-Introductory courses run by Inspire East.
- Flexible, modular structure (delegates can attend as few, or as many, of the modules as they like) run by Anglia Ruskin
University.
- Online Sustainable Communities reading
- Competitively priced: £95 public and private sector, £60 voluntary sector (attend all 8 modules and get the 8th free).
- Alignment to the Excellence Framework, an online toolkit used by EEDA to appraise funding applications and grounded in
current government policy and good practice.
- Cross-disciplinary approach to sustainable communities agenda enabling delegates to see how their role fits in
the 'bigger picture'.

Open the attached flier, follow the link for more information and booking, email events@inspire-east.org.uk, or telephone 01223 484644 to book a place. Book early to avoid disappointment.

The Planning for BME Communities project, funded by Integreat Yorkshire and run by Yorkshire Planning Aid, supports people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities to understand and engage with the planning system. This is achieved by running training sessions on the planning system and consultation workshops on planning documents which affect local people. It also seeks to raise general awareness of the role the planning process plays in every day life.

A number of events will take place over the coming months.

Hull: On the 28 August, Yorkshire Planning Aid will be helping communities in Hull comment on three Local Development Framework documents – the Core Strategy and two Area Action Plans affecting the east and west of the city.

Calderdale: In September, consultation will continue on Calderdale’s Core Strategy, building up links with various community groups and arranging a number of facilitated workshops for October.

Kirklees: Work is underway for two training days on planning applications in October in the Kirklees region, one in Huddersfield and one in Batley.

A three month dialogue to discuss the future of the Compact and the role of the Commission for the Compact is now underway. The Commission for the Compact issued a discussion document containing questions to stimulate the debate.

The three key questions in the discussion document are:

What sort of agreement should the Compact be in the future?
How could the form and content of the Compact be enhanced to make it fit for the future?
How could the Commission for the Compact change to ensure better implementation of the Compact?

A dedicated email address - debate@thecompact.org.uk - has been set up to receive comments and will be open until Monday 10 November 2008. The Commission will then analyse the views and evidence, and forward proposals to the Minister of the Third Sector.

To download the paper and for more information visit http://www.thecompact.org.uk/information/100016/101784/commissionissuesdiscussionpaperonthecompactsfuture/