Stress Line 0300 123 2000

Are you volunteers driving you up the wall?

We have been informed that there is a free service available to everyone called the NHS Stressline.  If people are seriously affected by the recession/credit crunch and would like to talk to someone confidentially, they may call a freephone number – 0300 123 2000 – where they can speak to a trained health advisor for practical advice and emotional support. 8am to 10pm.

Thanks to Linda at Erewash Volunteer Centre for this snippet.

Operation Christmas Dinner – Coffee and Cakes

Operation Christmas Dinner 2009 Volunteers pictured with their "Thank You" certificates at South Derbyshire CVS coffee morning on 4th February 2010

Volunteers who had served dinners on Christmas Day to isolated elderly people were thanked this morning at a celebration event here at South Derbyshire CVS.

The Volunteer Centre team was joined by 16 volunteers who taken time out from their own Christmas Day to cook and deliver a Christmas dinner. This scheme has been running for a number of years, organised by Alan Jeffrey, himself an active volunteer, with support from the Volunteer Centre team.

At today’s informal event, we served coffee and cakes  and presented the volunteers with certificates to show our appreciation of their commitment.

South Derbyshire is now the only area of Derbyshire, and very probably of the East Midlands,  where volunteers provide Christmas dinners. Speaking at today’s event, Volunteer Centre Manager, Dave Thomas, said,

“When I came to South Derbyshire a year ago, I was surprised that there was a need for volunteers to provide Christmas dinners, and it’s great to know that there are people who are willing to provide them.”

Dave continued, “We will continue to provide that link between Social Services and volunteers for as long as we are needed, so with continued support, this scheme will certainly run next year.”

One of the volunteers, Margaret Chester, was enthusiastic in her praise for Alan Jeffrey’s coordination of the scheme.

Top Of The Pops – Ten Great Reasons for Volunteering

1. Get fitter and healthier
   We can’t promise you a gym but research has shown that volunteering can improve people’s health and fitness. In a survey in 2004, nearly half of all volunteers questioned (47%) said volunteering improved their physical health and fitness and half of all people (48%) who volunteered for more than two years said volunteering made them less depressed.
2. Enjoy life more
   Given the hectic, stressful lifestyles many of us lead, it is no wonder that “enjoying life more” has become a popular resolution in recent years. Volunteering can be a great way of escaping the rat race and boosting your morale and self esteem. Many people come to volunteering looking to change career and gain experience for a more meaningful and less stressful career and ultimately enjoy their life more!
3. Do some travelling
   As a volunteer you could have the opportunity to travel and if you became a full-time volunteer you could even live in a new part of the UK – and it won’t cost you a penny!  You could be experiencing the coasts of Cornwall, the buzzing atmosphere of Edinburgh, the excitement of Cardiff or the tranquil countryside of Cambridgeshire.  With hundreds of volunteering opportunities, you could find yourself travelling to anywhere in the UK.
4. Take up a new hobby
   Our volunteers often accompany people to activities they enjoy and end up joining in too! So you might find yourself trying gardening, bingo or salsa dancing!
5.  Learn new skills
   There are so many skills that can be gained from a volunteering opportunity. Volunteers tell us that they gain skills such as team working, communication, time management and interpersonal skills to name but a few!
6. Find a job
   Volunteering can be a great way of improving your CV and opening the door to employment. Many volunteers tell us the practical experience they gained has been invaluable in helping them improve their job prospects and stand out from the crowd in a competitive job market.
7. Try something new
   With a diverse range of opportunities from supporting people with disabilities, helping homeless people, befriending older people or mentoring young offenders, you’re bound to be doing something you’ve never done before. 
8. Be better with money
   If you’re an unemployed volunteer you’ll need to learn how to live on a budget!  You won’t receive a salary but you will be provided with out-of-pocket expenses.
9. Meet new people
   Volunteering opportunities often involve helping and supporting others so you should have plenty of opportunities to meet new people. You might even be volunteering alongside people elsewhere in the UK or from other countries so it’s a great way make new friends and widen your social network.
10. Make a difference
    Wherever you are placed, you’ll certainly have the opportunity to be involved in a worthwhile and valuable activity which will be helping to make a real difference to individuals, organisations and communities.

 

Our thanks to CSV’s Full Time Volunteering team for this top ten.

Email: volunteer@csv.org.uk
Web: www.csv.org.uk/ftvol
Tel: 0800 374 991

25th Hour Campaign – Get Your Volunteers In The Movies

We’ve had this unusual request from Blue Rubicon, who want to film your volunteers for an Olympics-inspired campaign.

 I am currently working with The Government Olympic Executive on the social legacy campaign to ensure that hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London provides inspiration to millions of people throughout the UK to get involved by giving one of the most valuable things they have: time. 

I wondered if you’d be interested in helping source a couple of your star volunteers to take part in a short, three-minute film, that will seek to galvanise support and enthusiasm throughout the country for the campaign? 

It will be used for the duration of the campaign – which means beyond the Games in summer 2012. This will create an opportunity for your volunteers to highlight the good work they already do and be part of a hugely high-profile campaign from its inception. This could be one of the biggest campaigns of the next two to three years.  We will need about 30 mins of their time to film them saying one line for the film. As such, it’s going to be similar to the Make Poverty History adverts that happened around Live8.It will play a pivotal role in inspiring and encouraging people around the country to support the campaign and give some of their time; and in turn their participation will be a key driver of its success.Our issue is timing; we’d need to start filming next week or W/C 8^th Feb! So if you’d like/be able to put forward some stars, then the sooner the better really! We’d really love to work with you and your volunteers.Different people will want to get involved in different ways, but we believe they can be united by a common inspiration arising from the Games. We believe that we can make this an Olympics for everyone, everywhere.    

Of course the reality is that it won’t just happen. There needs to be a focal point around which people can rally. That’s why we are launching a campaign called the 25^th Hour with the backing of Lord Coe and Olympics Minister, Tessa Jowell.The 25^th Hour is a metaphor for the time we can invest in others. The time we give to people and places that matter to us. It’s time that makes things happen. And, ultimately, it’s time that we get something back from too. It creates opportunities to meet people, embrace new experiences and develop skills. It makes us feel better about ourselves, how we live and where we live.Millions of people already give time formally or informally. Whether it’s a little or a lot, they recognise the power of the 25^th Hour. Imagine if we all gave some time to the things that matter where we live. It would be a powerful force for social cohesion in our communities. That is what this campaign is all about. 

The 25^th Hour campaign will celebrate and recognise the achievements of unsung heroes and inspire millions more to join them. 

As part of the campaign we support taking the Olympics on the road to drop in on thousands of projects where people already use the power of the 25^th Hour. We want to recognise them for their efforts. The very best will receive golden tickets to the Games to say thank you and to allow them to celebrate at our greatest ever event. 

We will campaign to get new people to give time forming a movement and building up to a national festival of events in villages, towns and cities – all spotlighting what we can do with our 25^th Hour. It’s a festival to bring people together; to get them involved. It will happen every year on the Sunday of the clock change, a symbolic moment when we all get an extra hour. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this far…

Best wishes,
Natasha Jacobs
Consultant

Blue Rubicon
5th Floor
6 More London Place
London
SE1 2DA 

Telephone 020 7260 2700
Facsimile 020 7260 2701 

South Derbyshire Strategic Volunteering Partnership

Here in South Derbyshire, we have a well-established Strategic Volunteering Partnership that involves people from voluntary, public and private sector organisations. We meet every couple of months to discuss volunteering issues across the district and to plan some of the year’s key volunteering events. We welcome anyone with a strategic interest in volunteering in South Derbyshire to become part of this friendly group. If you would like to come along, or if you simply want to find out more about the partnership, please contact Dave Thomas, Volunteer Centre Manager on 01283 550163 or email davet@sdcvs.org.uk

These are the dates for the partnership’s meetings for the rest of this year.

All meetings will be held at South Derbyshire District Council Offices.

• Wednesday 24th February - 10:00 am – Training Room

• Wednesday 28th April – 10:00 am – Training Room

• Wednesday 30th June - 10:00 am – Committee Room

• Thursday 26th August - 10:00 am – Committee Room

•  Thursday 28th October – 10:00 am – Committee Room

Many thanks to Sally Cope at SDDC for sorting these dates and room bookings for us.

I’m compiling the agenda for this month’s meeting at the moment and I’ll circulate it next week. If there’s anything you’d like us to discuss, please let me know by Monday 8th February

Thinking Beyond Every Tuesday at 10 0′clock

Most volunteer managers need volunteers who can put in a regular committment every week or so. But it is increasingly obvious to us in the Volunteer Centre that more and more volunteers want something different from their volunteering.

One-off volunteering has been around for a while. Things like a team of volunteers who spend one day painting a room in a community centre, or a weekend creating a community garden. A small group of young people doing Christmas shopping for elderly people or a volunteer developing a website for an organisation. This kind of volunteering is getting more and more popular, so volunteer managers are having to come up with new ideas to engage volunteers. In fact, there’s  even a trendy new name for this kind of volunteering. Look out for a lot more about Micro-volunteering in the coming months.

Then there is online and “virtual” volunteering. The website volunteer is an obvious candidate, but how much more could a volunteer contribute to your organisation online.

At the other end of the scale, how could you use a volunteer who offers themselves full-time?

These are all challenges to the way that we have traditionally thought about involving volunteers in our organisations. They are challenges that we are going to have face sooner rather than later because these are the linds of opportunities that volunteers in South Derbyshire are looking for right now.

8000 Visitor Milestone Reached

Today our blog  had its 8000th visitor! We have been running for less than a year, so we are absolutely delighted that to have become so popular in such a short time. We hope that many of these are repeat visits from volunteer managers here in South Derbyshire, as well as from people dropping in from across the UK and beyond. Wherever you come from, thank you for visiting and please come back soon.

Look out for another news update tomorrow morning.

Ex-Offenders and Volunteering – Online Resources

Clinks is an organisation that supports voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families.  It is well-known that ex-offenders face many barriers to their involvement with society, but volunteering is an effective way for them to break down some of those barriers.

At the same time, many volunteer managers are very wary of taking on ex-offenders as volunteers. So it’s great news that Clinks has issued a series of Volunteering Guides.

Setting up a Project

The purpose of this guide is to help support organisations who are setting up a mentoring or befriending project to work with offenders and ex-offenders. The guide goes through the different elements that need to be considered when planning for a new service and gives interesting case studies of organisations working with offenders and ex-offenders.

Download here

Managing Volunteers

The purpose of this guide is to help ensure that organisations working with offenders and ex-offenders use volunteers well. There is a lot of good practice in the Criminal Justice System of involving volunteers. However, there is also inconsistency in the way that volunteers are recruited, managed and reimbursed.

Download here

Demonstrating Effectiveness

The purpose of this guide is to help support organisations working with offenders and ex-offenders to demonstrate their effectiveness. The guide goes through the different steps that need to be considered when planning to demonstrate effectiveness with a particular focus on when volunteers are contributing to the delivery of a service.

Download here

Quality Standards

The purpose of this guide is to help support organisations working with offenders and ex-offenders to gain an external quality standard for their work with offenders, ex-offenders, or their families. This guide explains what external quality standards are, why you would consider getting one, and then goes through the quality standards that are currently available and allows the reader to select which one is best for their organisation.

Download here

This information is from Clinks Website at http://www.clinks.org/volunteeringguides.aspx

Volunteer Centre and CVS People Make TV News

TV’s Channel 4 News were in South Derbyshire on Monday 25th January to link in with the official end of the recession. They contacted us here in the Volunteer Centre last week to ask if we were aware of people who had been affected by the recession.

On their behalf, we invited three people with close links to CVS to be interviewed by their reporter. CVS Lunch Club Organiser, Mary-Atkinson-Wright was filmed at Lunch Club in Willington, while volunteers, Sharon Grundy and Steve Krneta, were filmed at Sharpe’s Pottery Museum in Swadlincote.

You can see the video here:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=63269261001

or the original Channel 4 News web page that includes the video is at:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics/exclusive+poll+economic+recovery+will+not+save+labour/3515437

v20 Recruits Required!

The national Youth Volunteering charity v, is on the lookout for 20 young volunteers.

Our thanks for this news item to “Reach Out”, the e-bulletin from Community Action Derby

v is led by the interests, cares and passions of young people. Each year they recruit 20 young people to their national youth advisory board. These 20, fun, dynamic and inspiring young people make up v20, influence the work of v and ensure that it remains focused on young people.  v20 advise v and help v to meet its goals to:
 

• Increase the numbers of young people volunteering;
• Improving volunteering opportunities for young people;
• Increase the diversity of young volunteers; and 
• Act as a youth volunteering ambassador.

The v20 opportunity is open to all young people aged 16 to 25 in England. They are looking to recruit a diverse mix of young people, spread out across the country, for this reason they encourage all young people to consider applying to become a member of v20.  
 
Volunteering with v20 brings huge opportunities for both personal and organisational development.  It requires time, dedication, energy, creativity and a good sense of humour!  Previous seasons have worked with all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds so flexibility and tolerance is much in demand.  

 
If you are aware of any young people who may be interested in joining the v20 Youth Advisory Board, please forward the link to the application form which is downloadable from the vinspired website. If you have any questions about the form please email Gary Brunskill

Please note that the closing date for applications is 5:00 pm on Wednesday 17 February.