Investing in Volunteers

We are accredited by NCVO’s Investing in Volunteers, the only UK quality assurance in Volunteer Management.

Volunteer Documents

Please find our most up to date version of our Volunteer Handbook here.

Please find our current Volunteer Policy here.

Why do People Volunteer With Us?

 

Volunteer Projects

1. The Young Volunteers Project

We are delighted to confirm that we have been awarded a grant from the Jack Petchey- Giving Something Back Volunteering Programme.

Our Young Volunteers Project will run from February 2020 to January 2021 and is focused on increasing our volunteer base from 7 young volunteers to over 40 volunteering with us over the year.

We will do this by increasing meaningful volunteering opportunities for young people who currently access our services and also increasing recruitment efforts in local schools, colleges and universities. We will focus on offering flexible volunteering opportunities that will appeal to young people.

The grant will also support a Youth Board made up of our young volunteers, that will offer feedback and advice on our young volunteering project , as well as design and deliver their own social action project within the local community on an issue that is important to them.

Please see our project application video below and watch this space for news on the project progression throughout the year! 🙂

2. The Peer to Peer Project (Supporting Families Service) 

The Peer to Peer project started in 2017 as an initiative for parents to learn volunteering skills and support other parents.

The Peer Volunteers are experts by experience and provide the most comprehensive support to parents in similar situations to them.  Some of them have been with us for a few years, others for a few months and some are new and beginning their journey. The main aim of the project is to offer parent carers practical one to one support around form filling as well as emotional support and helping to break social isolation. Parents supported by Peer Volunteers are empowered, better informed, and feel more in control of their lives. It is a project that also helps volunteers to gain new skills, and as many of them say, it is a chance to give back to the community they belong. Our monthly Coffee Morning and weekly Knit and Natter Club are part of the Peer to Peer project and run by Peer Supporters.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak we have also started a Peer to Peer Telephone Befriending service to support some of our isolated family carers.

We are delighted to say that this important project is now being funded and supported by the National Lottery Community Fund. This money will enable us to continue developing the work of our Peer Volunteers to do a befriending program and to run training and workshops. Thank you to Community Fund for their support!