Volunteering

Volunteer Centre re-accredited by Investing in Volunteers

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.

Government unveils new plans to massively expand volunteering and training opportunities for the unemployed

Unemployed people will be able to access thousands of new volunteering and training opportunities to help them take their first steps back into work - under new plans unveiled today by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith (pictured right).

Under the scheme advisers from youth charity The Prince’s Trust and other local government voluntary organisations will be located in Jobcentre Plus (JCP) offices to signpost jobseekers of all ages to volunteering and training opportunities in their area. The new initiative will particularly benefit young people as they will be able to get more support to help them into jobs, education and training.

Ministers are keen to strengthen partnerships with the voluntary sector as it is uniquely placed to help disadvantaged groups and communities. They believe that increasing the support for this sector will be crucial to get Britain working again.

Download full press statement here

Introduction To The World Of Volunteering - free two day course

Last month, the Volunteer Centre, in conjunction with local charity CREDO, put on a free two-day course on volunteering.

The course covered:

• What volunteering is and what the benefits are to you
• Identifying the skills and experiences you have to offer
• Disability Awareness
• What type of organisation you could volunteer for
• Case studies – volunteers talking about their experiences
• Next Steps – where to find out more about volunteering vacancies.

The course was very well received and, due to demand, the course will be repeated in March 2011.  For further details please contact Diane Diamond at the Volunteer Centre on 020 8315 1930 or Jan Lovett at Credo on 01689 862296

Nominate your Volunteer of the Year for Bromley

The Volunteer Centre will be hosting their third Volunteers' Week Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 1st June 2010.

All organisations involving volunteers within the Borough are eligible to nominate a volunteer for an award.

This year there will be 5 categories:

• Young volunteer: Under 16s and between 16 & 25
• Overcoming barriers
• Outstanding contributions
• Leslie Marks Trusteeship Award - created by Community Links Bromley to recognize the valuable contribution Leslie makes to the voluntary sector across the borough.
• Volunteer Manager of the Year - an opportunity for volunteers to nominate their Manager/Supervisor

The ceremony itself will take place on Tuesday 1^st June and each volunteer receiving a certificate will be entitled to invite a guest.   Refreshments will be available.

Download nomination forms in MS Word:

• Young volunteer, Overcoming barriers and Outstanding contributions
• Leslie Marks Trusteeship Award
• Volunteer Manager of the Year  

Volunteer Centre welcomes new recruit!

We are pleased to announce that Jane Kay has started work with Develop Partner The Volunteer Centre in Bromley. Her post is funded for 2 days a week by the Lloyds TSB Foundation and her role is to support people with disabilities to take up volunteering placements.

Jane will also be looking at setting up a mentoring scheme, recruiting and training volunteer mentors to help build confidence in people with a disability looking to volunteer.

She will generally be available on Wednesdays and Thursdays, although this is subject to change from week to week.

You can contact Jane at her e-mail address, janek@communitylinksbromley.org.uk or telephone her on 020 8315 1920.

Bromley Mind looking for Peer Support Volunteers

Do you have current or past experience of mental health problems? Would you like to spend four hours a week supporting people with mental health problems emotionally and practically?

Then why not apply to join Bromley Mind's friendly Peer Support team running social ‘Open Access' sessions where people can have fun, share experiences and support one another? High quality training and ongoing support provided.

Full details can be found here