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!