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Working with Volunteers

Volunteering

Working with volunteers

Good practice and resources for volunteer-involving organisations

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Useful links to good practice guidance and resources for volunteer-involving organisations

Essential Skills for Volunteers course


University of Leeds has created the Essential Skills for Volunteers course, a free online training programme designed to help people build confidence and develop key skills for volunteering, with the support of their Volunteer Coordinator. The course recognises that volunteering is not only a valuable contribution to communities, but also a pathway to learning, confidence, and personal development.

The 2.5-hour online course covers topics including confidence building, teamwork and communication, safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion, and wellbeing. Learners can also earn digital badges to recognise their achievements.

The course highlights the wider role that volunteering can play in strengthening communities and promoting lifelong learning. By combining core volunteering topics with a strengths-based learning approach, the programme reinforces the idea that volunteering is not simply about giving time, it is also about building skills, connections, and civic engagement.

You can access the full training course here: https://onlinecourses.leeds.ac.uk/cross-platform/esv/evolvePack/

Investing in Volunteers

Information on how to gain the UK quality standard for all organisations which involve volunteers.

Find out more at:  https://investinginvolunteers.co.uk/

NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations)

NCVO has a whole host of resources available around involving volunteers. Their website offers practical and step by step guidance to help you manage volunteers and the process of volunteering well. 

This includes support with:

  • Planning for volunteers
  • Recruiting and welcoming volunteers
  • Supporting and managing volunteers
  • Valuing and developing volunteers

Find all this and more on the NCVO website: www.ncvo.org.uk/help-and-guidance/involving-volunteers/

The National Youth Agency

Website aimed at organisations that are involved in young people's personal and social development.

Find out more at: www.nya.org.uk 

Time 2 Volunteer

Time2Volunteer is a volunteering platform that has a range of helpful resources for volunteering organisations. These include:

  • Volunteer Management Templates

  • Volunteering Policies

  • Volunteering Principles & Charter

  • Volunteer Management Useful Links

Find the Time2Volunteer resources at: https://time2volunteer.org/resources/lets-get-started

Vision for Volunteering

The Vision for Volunteering is a movement to create a diverse, innovative, ambitious, equitable and person-centred future for volunteering.

It's a ten-year collaborative project that sets out a view of what volunteering needs to look like, and how this will make volunteers feel about their roles, by 2032.

Find out more about Vision for Volunteering at: www.visionforvolunteering.org.uk

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