May 2018 volunteering update A volunteer is for life, not just Volunteers Week What better way to introduce an article about celebrating and recognising volunteers than to talk about the fabulous main and highly commended awardees from #dva17? These wonderful volunteers were nominated and recognised for their outstanding commitment, and desire to make a real difference in local communities. Dudley CVS recently had two wonderful celebrations when the Mayor and Mayoress, Cllr Dave Tyler and Barbara, welcomed these exceptional volunteers to the Mayor's Parlour and Council Chamber. These lucky guests enjoyed a special behind the scenes tour and enjoyed tea with the Mayor and Mayoress. Volunteers Week a national celebration of all things volunteering Volunteers Week takes place from the 1st to the 7th June and is an annual celebration of volunteers and volunteering. It's a great opportunity to do something special for your volunteers to say thank you and maybe recruit some new volunteers too! Why not get thinking about how you are going to celebrate your Volunteers? There are lots of tools you can use to retain your volunteers once you've found them and one of the best is by showing appreciation and simply saying thank you. It's also important to consider who should be saying thank you, for example, the person who supervises the volunteer, the volunteer coordinator holding an informal event to recognise the contribution of a group of volunteers, or for a more formal event what about the Chair or Chief Executive saying thank you? If you plan to organise an event to recognise and celebrate your volunteers you may have a number of things to consider: How many volunteers you have Availability - when you need to hold the event to ensure as many can attend as possible Is it an informal gathering or a more formal occasion? Where will you be holding it? Think about geographical location, parking, access for those who may be less mobile and how big a venue you may need. Who to invite - if you need someone key to attend such as your Chair, Chief Executive, the Mayor or a local MP, you may need to work the event around their availability.
Event programme - a rough plan of who's doing what and when is always reassuring and if it's a more formal event, you may wish to have a printed programme for guests. Budget - If you are a small organisation and don't have a budget for volunteer recognition and celebration, this may restrict your plans a little. You can do a great event on a shoestring if you can find a free venue, free certificates from your local Volunteer Centre, and ask people for contributions towards refreshments/buffet etc. There are also lots of ways you can do tell the world, or at least the local area, how much you value your volunteers, and most of them are free: Newsletters - have you got an organisational newsletter? This is a great place to tell other staff, volunteers and clients, just how wonderful your volunteers are. Website/Blog/Twitter/Facebook/other social media - a popular way to share what you think of your volunteers is via your website or social media streams. Local media - newspapers, radio and TV - are a great way to show your pride in your volunteer[s]. Don't forget to tell them why your volunteer[s] deserve recognition and hopefully, this will also help raise the profile of your project or organisation. Awards - the Dudley Volunteer Awards is an annual event held alongside Dudley CVS's Annual General Meeting. Local volunteers [both individuals and groups] can be nominated, winners are chosen by a panel made up of the Mayor, local decision makers, voluntary sector reps and Chairman. Nominations for Dudley Volunteer Awards open in June each year and everyone nominated for the awards is invited along to the Dudley Volunteer Awards celebration in October. You can nominate now on this year’s Awards blog https://dva2018.wordpress.com/https://dva2018.wordpress.com/%20 by visiting the Nominate page. Queens Award for Voluntary Service [QAVS] - if you want to nominate a group of volunteers, why not consider this award? It's a prestigious award and equivalent to an MBE for voluntary groups and charities. You can find out more by visiting the Queens Award website or by contacting Eileen at Dudley CVS Volunteer Centre on eileen@dudleycvs.org.uk
Training Volunteers and the Law I am looking to run another session in July 2018, but need a minimum of 6 attendees, so please drop me an email to eileen@dudleycvs.org.uk if you are interested. Do volunteers have the same rights as employees? Health and safety doesn’t apply to volunteers does it? Do your volunteers sign a contract? Are you aware how easy it is to create a contract with volunteers? Many volunteer-involving organisations are not aware of the legal implications when working with volunteers. Our session aims to dispel myths and clarify your legal responsibilities. We also use actual case studies where volunteers have taken organisations to court, to help demonstrate bad practice when involving volunteers.
Tools and Techniques to Manage Volunteers Effectively I am looking to run another session in July 2018, but need a minimum of 6 attendees, so please drop me an email to eileen@dudleycvs.org.uk if you are interested. Do you think you need to update your volunteer management systems? Have you suddenly acquired volunteer management responsibilities and don’t know where to start? Whatever your needs, our special full day session on volunteer management techniques and tools is bound to help! You will take a journey through every element of good practice for a volunteer programme, right from preparing necessary policies before involving volunteers, through planning volunteer involvement, recruiting, supporting, retaining, to volunteers leaving. Every learner will be provided with a resource CD of information sheets, publications and sample documents to take away and of course, the Volunteer Centre will be happy to support learners as they develop their systems, offering ongoing support and information.
Community Information Point Network and Training Healthwatch Dudley has taken an innovative approach to information giving We have teamed up with local organisations to train an army of information champions to give community information. Information points have been springing up all across Dudley borough in libraries, cafes, pharmacies and other places where people already access information about local services. For more info and to book your free training place please click here.
Connecting / Events Connect with other groups and potential customers via INTERESTSME Are you a voluntary, community, faith or not-for-profit group? Do you struggle to reach new customers and make new contacts? You need to list your events on InterestsMe There’s a local one for Dudley borough and if you aren’t from the local area, there is probably one for your area too. Why not have a look?
Information Have you visited www.volopps.com yet? It’s our new searchable online portal for volunteering opportunities and we are hoping to do a formal launch in Volunteers Week. Volunteers - Please do feel free to signpost any clients looking for voluntary work that way Volunteer-involving organisations – If you involve volunteers our services are completely FREE and we can promote and share opps with potential volunteers, including our daily OPP OF THE DAY on our Facebook feed. Why not get in touch. Just drop Eileen an email on eileen@dudleycvs.org.uk
Funding
Latest Dudley CVS Funding Bulletin Looking for funds for your group or organisation? Anyone can sign up to receive our free regular funding bulletins, along with our electronic newsletter by contacting Dale at Dudley CVS on dale@dudleycvs.org.uk