 The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that starts on Friday 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until Saturday 10 December, which coincides with Human Rights Day.
This campaign aims to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls around the world, calling for global action to increase awareness, promote support and open discussions on challenges and solutions.
There are a range of events taking place during the 16 days which are open to everyone, including a charity football match and harassment bystander training (see details below).
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As part of our ongoing activities to protect Redbridge Council staff and the Council’s network from malicious cyber threats and attacks, we’re rolling out a new antivirus software.
On Monday 21 November, ‘Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’ will replace Kaspersky as the Council’s primary antivirus software.
What do I need to do?
A pop-up notification will ask you to restart your device to remove the old Kaspersky antivirus software. You’ll have the option to delay this, however, we’d recommend restarting your device as soon as possible.
Please note: If you choose to delay, the restart will become mandatory after 4 hours.
LBR IT apologises in advance for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your co-operation.
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This week marked Inter Faith Week 2022, where we celebrated, championed, and most importantly, shared stories, food and experiences relating to our diverse Interfaith community.
On the topic of sharing, Joanne Smallman, one of our Neighbourhood Street Scene Managers, has written a blog on sharing, humanity, and sustainable communities. Her blog helps us to “acknowledge all those who share, who have shared with us, and consider how receptive we are to being a recipient of a shared humanity.” Read Joanne’s blog now.
As we close Interfaith Week, the Faith Network invite you to join us at 1pm today, Thursday 17 November for our final session, exploring our faith community's response to the cost-of-living crisis. This will be chaired by our Head of Anti-Poverty Programmes, Randal Smith, and is not to be missed! You can add to your calendar, or join directly through Teams.
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Have you signed up to our very own Redbridge Charity World Cup to help us raise awareness and tackle violence against women and girls?
Our special football tournament, organised by the community safety team in partnership with Frenford Clubs, will be taking place next Saturday 26 November from 1pm to 5pm at the Jack Carter Centre in Ilford. This is open to all Redbridge colleagues and forms part of our 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. The deadline to sign up is 5pm tomorrow, Friday 18 November so start asking around!
We are looking for teams of 5-7 players to sign up using the Eventbrite link. In the tournament, teams will play multiple games with rolling subs throughout the day. If you don’t have a team but still want to take part, you can sign up as an individual and we will find one for you.
Participants are encouraged to donate £3-5 to enter. All funds raised will go to towards the women’s and girl’s programme at Frenford’s.
Invite your families and friends to come along and cheer as we raise awareness over an important issue.
Reserve your spot now through the online form! For more information, please see the event’s intranet page or contact Elliot Flitman.
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Do you have one hour to spare? It’s White Ribbon Day next Friday, 25 November and we’re looking for male volunteers to encourage the community to sign the ‘Redbridge Pledge’ to end violence against women and girls (VAWG). You will also be handing out white ribbons, and talking to residents about women’s safety to change the perception that this is not only a women’s issue.
White Ribbon Day is a day that signifies the work that men are doing to address violence against women and girls, and we are requesting more male volunteers to give some time to this important and topical cause.
We will have a gazebo set up outside the Town Hall from 11am to 4pm and are asking for 30 minutes – one hour of your time so we can have a rota of volunteers in the gazebo throughout the afternoon.
If you’d like to support us on the day, please email Sharna Ahmed by Monday 21 November to volunteer with your preferred time slot.
A white ribbon flag will also be raised at the Town Hall at 11am and we will hear speeches from Cllr Jas Atwhal, Leader of Redbridge London Borough Council, as well as Cllr Thavathuray Jeyaranjan, Mayor of Redbridge.
Find more information about White Ribbon Day and join the cause!
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Would you know what to do if you saw someone being harassed in the street? For the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the UK’s leading personal safety charity, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, will be delivering a Stand up Against Harassment bystander training for staff on Wednesday 30 November from 11am to 12pm.
The free one-hour training is designed to empower people to be active bystanders when they see harassment taking place, without putting their own personal safety at risk. To join, please register in advance through Zoom. Add it to your diary now so you don’t forget.
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It’s time for IT maintenance – thankfully it’s happening on Sunday 20 November so it shouldn’t cause any inconvenience.
Please see the planned updates below:
- VMWare Remote Desktop Solution (VDI) – 8am to 12pm
- Netloan Service – 8am to 9am
- Always on VPN and DirectAccess for remote working – 12pm to 2pm
- Revenues & Benefits System – 8.30am to 10am
- Housing System – 9am to 10.30am
- Planning – 9.30am to 11am
- Agresso – 10am to 12pm
There may also be some general disruption to other IT systems during this period (8am to 5pm). To minimise impact, we recommend that you avoid using these systems for those hours, but if you are working, please make sure you save your work regularly.
Please contact ServiceNow IT if you have any questions.
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Don’t forget your first One Brilliant You conversation should take place by the end of this year. If you missed out on a briefing, we have arranged more, and have added additional useful information to the toolkit including key slides from previous briefings.
Sign up to one of the final One Brilliant You briefing sessions for 2022, below:
For managers:
For staff:
Our performance management scheme, One Brilliant You, was relaunched in September 2022 following feedback from the annual staff survey.
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The Redbridge Staff Women’s Network recently launched the Women’s Safety Walking Bus to enable colleagues to 'buddy up' and walk with someone else or in a group to their desired location to/from the office.
This was set up because we know there are colleagues who may feel anxious and unsafe when travelling to/from the office in the dark, especially now when it’s dark by 4pm!
We are currently trialling a spreadsheet tool where colleagues who are leaving the office can put their name down if they are looking for someone to walk with, and for anyone who is happy to be a buddy to do the same. For more information about how it works, please read the Network Co-Chairs' blog.
We’re keen to find out what staff think of the name of this tool. Please tell us which name you prefer by 12pm on Monday 28 November by voting on the poll through Yammer. Thanks for your help!
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Claire’s monthly video blog (vlog) is usually published on the last Monday of the month. However, we’re pretty sure no-one’s going to be working on Boxing Day. Therefore, Claire’s final vlog of the year will be published on the Chief Executive blog channel and sent via an all-staff email one week earlier on Monday 19 December.
Please send any suggested content for Claire’s final vlog to the internal comms mailbox two weeks in advance on Monday 5 December. The deadline to send your agreed content will be brought forward to Monday 12 December. Visit our internal comms intranet page for information on what type of topics we now cover in Claire’s vlog.
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Due to the Christmas and New Year’s Day Bank holidays, there will be no Staff eNews on Thursday 29 December 2022 and Thursday 5 January 2023. We will return on Thursday 12 January 2023.
If you have news to share in the final edition of 2022 which will be published on Thursday 22 December, please send content to the internal comms inbox by 9am on Monday 19 December. Thank you.
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Staff eNews is our weekly internal staff newsletter where colleagues share information on things like key organisational changes, campaigns, events, and good news stories.
If you’ve missed a previous edition of Staff eNews because of annual leave, being off-sick, or too many deadlines, then we’ve made it easy to catch up on previous editions. We now have a link on the intranet homepage which saves you from having to trawl through emails – you’re welcome!
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