Volunteer Centre re-accredited by Investing in Volunteers

31st Jan 2012

Develop Partner Community Links Bromley (CLB) has been re-accredited with the Investing in Volunteers Award. The Award provides evidence of the positive way CLB manages a team of volunteers and the impact the tasks undertaken by volunteers have on the quality of services delivered to local organisations.

Diane Diamond (pictured), Volunteer Centre Manager said “I am delighted with this Award. Although we know that we all do our very best to ensure CLB’s volunteers enjoy a positive experience, this award is proof of that.”

CLB is strongly supported by 10-15 volunteers undertaking a wide variety of office based tasks, from processing applications for volunteering across the borough to helping maintain an up-to-date database and reporting systems. The volunteers are essential to the work that CLB carry out and their retention rates are high due to the way they recruit and manage the team.

The Investing in Volunteers accreditation demonstrates a commitment to high quality volunteer management to potential volunteers, funders and service users. It is a chance to assess the quality of your volunteer management and involvement, prove and improve the effectiveness of your work with volunteers and enhance your organisation's reputation.

An example of the support CLB offer to their volunteers is the great news that Robert Jansz has achieved a Business Administration Level 2 Apprenticeship qualification whilst volunteering at Community Links Bromley. He joined Community Links Bromley, on a full-time basis, as part of the Future Jobs Fund initiative. Once he had undertaken six months of work, he stayed with CLB as a volunteer to complete his apprenticeship and achieve his qualification.

Robert’s tasks included work on Health and Safety, team working and customer facing tasks like dealing with phone enquiries and greeting visitors to the Centre. He was also substantially involved with the early days of checking data for the BiG Community Directory.