Working With Volunteers - Good Practice
Calling all Volunteer Managers and Coordinators!
Volunteer Centre Derby would like to come and visit you! The team can help you review your volunteering programme, help you consider other ways of recruitment and support, and pick up on any best practice tips you may have to share with other organisations.
The team has been out to see a number of organisations recently, one being Derwent Stepping Stones. Lucy from Derwent Stepping Stones explains:
"The support we received from Community Action in setting our volunteer programme up was invaluable. They were able to assist us with template documents to work with, lots of advice on what a good volunteer policy should contain and also shared good practice from other organisations to enable us to create a programme we are very proud of. The ongoing support and information updates we receive from Community Action is fantastic and they actively encourage us to continuously develop our service".
Maggie Attenborrow from Steps for the Future also adds:
"I just want to say a big thank you for the time you gave us when you visited our office. Up-dating our volunteers site has worked wonders and we now have some excellent volunteers who have come through Community Action.
Also I want to thank you for putting me touch with Rolls Royce. I have had a very interesting meeting with them, which I hope results in Steps for the Future being chosen to work with a group of graduates from Rolls Royce. This project could last one year.
I will of course keep you up to speed with any developments. Once again thank you and Community Action for all the help Steps gets from you, Community Action are always there if I need them, and that is such a support."
To arrange for a visit speak to Simon Hancox at Community Action on 01332 227718 or email Simon on simon.hancox@communityactionderby.org.uk
i-volunteer
You can stay one step ahead with national and local volunteer management best practice by joining our Derby Volunteer Managers Network on the very splendid i-volunteer social action network. A social network for good, i-volunteer is about sharing experiences, offering advice, finding things to do, connecting with volunteers and charities and voicing opinions about anything and everything to do with volunteering and social action. Sign up here or double click on the i-volunteer icon on the left hand side of this page.
Policy and process templates
The following policies and procedures are based on those we have created and used here at Community Action. We have been using these for a number of years now and they are reviewed annually by our staff and volunteer team. The policies are modelled on Investing in Volunteers (IiV) best practice and other volunteer models of excellence.
In no way do we suggest that you have to use these or indeed adopt them exactly as they are. All policies and procedures should be adapted to each individual organisation. This process shouldm involve consultation with staff, volunteers and where appropriate stakeholders. However, we do recognise that many organisations don't have the necessary experience or time to write their own from scratch so we have put ours here for you to take a look at and adapt for your own organisation. For more information email simon.hancox@communityactionderby.org.uk or call Simon on 01332 227718.
