Social Media Tools: How Can they Help YOU?

Anyone involved in the voluntary sector in Sheffield is invited to drop-in at a Social Media Workshop to take place after the Volunteering Strategy Launch on 14th January 2010.

If you're like to find out how Twitter, Blogs, Facebook and other Social Media tools can help you with your work, from marketing to fundraising to simply sharing information and keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in your field, then come along!

Whether you know nothing about social media or are already using some of the tools, you will be able to chat to the friendly (and knowledgeable) NAVCA staff and GIST BashMash volunteers (see http://bashmash.org/) over a cup of tea/coffee and get their advice and practical tips. They will help you look at different free websites and services, and discuss with you how it could all fit in with the work you do.

This informal drop-in session is open to anyone who thinks it might be useful - feel free to pop in any time between 5-7pm. It will be taking place directly after the Volunteering Strategy Launch event at The Circle (33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield, S1 4FW), so if you are coming along to that why not stick around for the Social Media Surgery too?

Let us know you are coming by clicking here: http://sheffieldsms0110.eventbrite.com/

Lighting the Flame for Volunteering

With 2012 fast approaching, Sheffield's sports clubs are gearing up to make the most of Olympic fever to encourage more and more people to participate in sport.  And who do they need to help with all the coaching, stewarding, admin and myriad other tasks that go along with sporting events and activities?  Yes, volunteers of course!

To that end, sports professionals and volunteering groups from across the city are joining forces to acheive 2 objectives: more people entering sports-related volunteering and enabling existing volunteers to follow progression routes.  Chaired by Val Stevenson from Sheffield Hallam University, the Sports Volunteering Group met for the second time last Thursday, and comprised various sports clubs, Activity Sheffield, Wisewood School & Community Sports Centre,  Sheffield Volunteering (University of Sheffield) and me.  Together we are developing an action plan to assist Sport Sheffield to achieve their vision of using "2012 to help inspire and create a strong infrastructure for sport volunteers".  Anyone interested in participating in the group should contact Katy Burnett on 0114 2039540 / Katy.Burnett@sheffield.gov.uk or for more info on Lighting the Flame visit http://www.sheffield-lightingtheflame.com/ .

Volunteering Strategy Launch - Volunteering England CEO and Council Leader to speak!

It is with great excitement that I can announce that The Sheffield Volunteering Strategy will be officially launched on 14th January 2010.

Partners from across Sheffield's voluntary and community sector, public and private sectors will be coming together to see the unveiling of the Sheffield Volunteering Strategy (and associated Action Plan) that they themselves have been involved in developing, and to meet the key delivery partners.   I am also delighted to be able to tell you that we will be joined by Dr Justin Davis-Smith (Chief Executive of Volunteering England) and Cllr Paul Scriven (Leader of Sheffield City Council).

Dr Justin Davis Smith's background includes working as the Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research. He has also advised the UK Government, the World Bank and the United Nations over the development of volunteering policy, is a trustee of the youth volunteering charity v, former chair of the Nationwide Foundation, and was a member of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering (where he assisted the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games in developing its 2012 volunteering strategy).

Cllr Paul Sciven's history involves senior management with the NHS (where he become one of the youngest hospital managers in the UK), and setting up his own business in the tourism industry for which he was named one of the Top business people in Yorkshire. In 2000 he was elected represent the Broomhill ward on Sheffield City Council and was later elected Leader of the Council, a position he still holds today.

If you would like to join us for this exciting event, please get in touch at c.walsh@vas.org.uk!

Pre-Volunteering Training Partner Confirmed: Bridge Employment

As part of the Sheffield Volunteering Strategy, Bridge Employment are set to put together a programme of Pre-Volunteering Training for people in Sheffield who have disabilities, learning difficulties and mental health problems. 

Subject to successful funding bids in the New Year, Bridge Employment have confirmed that they will be able to run a series of 8-week training programmes to encourage and support people who typically face barriers to volunteering, to enable them to participate.  This is exciting news, as it will hopefully enable eighty people per year from all areas of Sheffield to access volunteering opportunities who would ordinarily find it very difficult to do so. 

The content of the training will be informed by guidance from the Supporting Volunteers Focus Group (set up during the Volunteering Strategy consultation period, and comprising representatives from a range of charities working with people with support needs such as physical and sensory disabilities, mental health problems, asylum seekers and ex-offenders).  The Focus Group identified a 'wish list' of key areas that such a programme would tackle.  Topics are likely to include: The Benefits of Volunteering, Rights & Responsibilities, Time Managment, Effects on Welfare Benefits, Career Development Opportunities, Team-working, Transport Tips, Communication Skills, and potentially other specific skills around customer care, food hygiene and fundraising.

The Pre-Volunteering Training will be open to anybody who falls into Bridge Employment's client group (i.e. learning disabilities, mental health problems and other disabilities), so if you work with people who could benefit from this scheme get in touch!  c.walsh@vas.org.uk

For more information on Bridge Employment: http://www.bridgeemployment.org.uk/

High Hopes for a Sheffield Compact Code of Practice for Volunteering

It's been a busy week this week, with meetings galore about the Sheffield Volunteering Strategy.  Amongst those meetings was one with the Sheffield Health Compact.  Sheffield is rather unusual in that it has two Compacts: one between the voluntary sector and the local authority(http://prospectus.shu.ac.uk/CourseEntry.cfm?CourseId=518 ) and another between the voluntary sector and the NHS (http://www.sheffieldnhscompact.co.uk/ ).  However work is now under way to bring them together.  And what better piece of work to start the ball rolling than a Volunteering Code of Practice?!

Many areas already have Volunteering Codes of Practice as part of their local Compact Agreements, but to date that has not been the case in the Steel City.  The development of the Volunteering Strategy is now giving the opportunity to address that, and with the added impetus of aligning the two Compact Agreements hopes are high that such a Code will be adopted here. The aims of adopting the Volunteering Code of Practice in Sheffield are to ensure that the VCS and Public Sector are committed to maintaining best practice in the promotion, development and celebration of volunteering, and to make sure that organisations which have signed up to the Compact work with volunteers in a consistent way.  Each of Sheffield's Compacts has its own steering group, and on Wednesday the Health Compact Steering Group joined its local authority counterpart in giving its endorsement to the principle of adopting a Volunteering Code.

A draft Volunteering Code of Practice has already been drafted in consultation with the VCS, public and private sector (click on the link on the right to see the June Partners in Time event for more details).  This draft is now being examined by each of the Compact steering groups, who will feed their comments back by Christmas.  A re-draft will then be taken back to them in the New Year, so watch this space in 2010 for the fully-adopted Code!

Steering Group: Strategy Will Strengthen Volunteering

Sheffield's Volunteering Strategy Steering Group has been meeting every two months since May 2009 to guide the development of the business plan.  It comprises a range of influential figures from across the city's voluntary and community sector and the public sector:

Nick Warren, CEO, Voluntary Action Sheffield

Kirstie Haines, Interim Director, Sheffield First Partnership

Vince Roberts, Partnership & Local Action Manager, Sheffield City Council

Jeanette Miller, Head of Patient Experience & Engagement, NHS Sheffield

Sarah Shaw, Business Coordinator, Business in the Community

Julia South, Manager, Volunteer Centre Sheffield

This week the group came together once more at The Circle, to examine how the strategy has progressed since the Partners in Time 2 (Call to Action) consultation event that took place at the end of September.  Agreement was reached to remove certain actions which were deemed by consultation participants as unlikely to have high impact (such as the development of family volunteering opportunities), amend others (including changing the plan for an online forum for volunteer coordinators to an online 'notice-board')  and to add a few more (such as embedding volunteering referrals within the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme).

All in all, the steering group meeting was a very positive one, and confidence is high in the likelihood of the strategy to achieve real success!

Volunteering in Sheffield: The Way of the Future

Sheffield organisations are continuing to sign up to deliver the city's Volunteering Strategy... momentum is growing!

Yes, Sheffield Health & Social Care Trust, Sanctuary Housing, Business in the Community and Sheffield City Council are amongst those who have committed to joining Voluntary Action Sheffield, Volunteer Centre Sheffield and the Sheffield First Partnership in leading key actions of the Sheffield Volunteering Strategy.  That strategy aims to achieve more people undertaking high quality volunteering roles across Sheffield, improving residents’ quality of life by contributing to the objectives of the City Strategy. It's really getting quite exciting now that organisations of all shapes and sizes are getting on board and committing to make volunteering in the city even bigger and better than it already it!

For updates on the strategy development, keep your eye on this blog or sign up to follow http://twitter.com/ClaireSVM