Volunteers hit the Campaign Trail

Volunteers in Sheffield quizzed local Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) yesterday in a debating session following the Question Time: Meet the Candidates event at Voluntary Action Sheffield.

Conservative candidate Nicola Bates (Sheffield Hallam), Labour candidate Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) and Liberal Democrat candidate Simon Clement-Jones (Sheffield Heeley) spent an hour discussing the crucial role volunteering plays in Sheffield with volunteers (and volunteer coordinators) from the Broomhall Centre, Catch 22, Embrace (The Children’s Society), Reading Matters, Sheffield City’s Council’s Community Justice Panels, SAFE@LAST, Sheffield Samaritans, and Sheffield Volunteer Centre.

The ‘Meet the Volunteers’ event was prompted by a batch of letters I sent out to local MPs and PPCs, requesting that they sign up to Volunteering England’s Volunteering Pledge (see previous post). That letter invited recipients to come to meet local volunteers to find out more about what they do, and yesterday’s resulting discussion was a really interesting session. Each candidate sat on a table with 5-6 volunteers and volunteer coordinators, then moved round the other tables to ensure they had a chance to speak to everyone. Whilst they already had knowledge of volunteering (Nicola has volunteered with Crisis Open Christmas and the Special Constables, whilst Paul Blomfield was involved in setting up Sheffield Volunteering at the University of Sheffield), they certainly learnt a lot more thanks to the well-informed and passionate volunteers they spoke to yesterday! Issues raised included concerns for future funding (with the need to understand that volunteering does not come for free and requires financial investment to ensure it is well managed) and a request for high level support for the development of more volunteering opportunities.

Paul Blomfield (who had already signed the Volunteering Pledge) said he had found the event very informative and had been very interested to hear about a range of issues from a variety of perspectives. I am very much hoping that Nicola Bates and Simon Clement-Jones will now sign up to the Pledge - watch this space!

Thank you very much to all the volunteers, PPCs, and volunteer coordinators who took part, for your valued time and input.

Pushing the Political Agenda for Volunteering in Sheffield

What does the future hold for volunteering?  With an election just weeks away and the likelihood of 'deep cuts' in public spending looming, I think anyone could be forgiven for feeling uncertain.  Volunteering has never been higher on the political agenda than it has been over recent years, but as local and national government looks for cost-saving opportunities, we need to make sure that the vital contribution made by volunteers is recognised and understood by all.  

Thankfully, Sheffield City Council is supporting continued funding for the implementation of the Sheffield Volunteering Strategy until the end of March 2011.  Still more work needs to be done however to convince all of our MPs and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) of the value of volunteering.  To that end, Volunteering England have launched a Volunteering Manifesto and Pledge, calling on all MPs and PPCs to sign up to:  "work hard to support volunteers and organisations that involve volunteers, both in my constituency and across the country... by:

• Recognising the value of volunteering in building a strong society
• Promoting positive messages about volunteering
• Encouraging more people to give their time by helping free volunteers from red-tape
• Supporting the organisations who support volunteers.

Already, some influential local MPs have signed up, namely Angela Smith, Nick Clegg, and David Blunkett.  I have also written to all the others encouraging them to do so.  As a result, two PPCs (Nicola Bates for the Conservatives in Sheffield Hallam, and Paul Blomfield for Labour in Sheffield Central) will be meeting local volunteers after the 'Question Time: Meet the Candidates' event at Voluntary Action Sheffield this Tuesday afternoon (30th March), to find out more about what Sheffield volunteers do to help local people and why their work is important.

If any other Sheffield volunteers are interested in coming along to speak to Nicola and Paul, their contributions would be most welcome - please get in touch with me beforehand at 0114 2536638 / c.walsh@vas.org.uk

For more information on the Volunteering Pledge, see http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Policy/Volunteering+Manifesto

[Places are still available to come to the Question Time event itself too, free of charge: http://www.vas.org.uk/documents/voluntary-community-sector/election_question_time]

Using 2012 to Inspire Local Volunteering!

Feeling excited about the 2012 Olympic Games coming to the UK?  Lots of people are!  And we in the world of volunteering can make use of that excitement for the good of our own communities and organisations...

Volunteer Centre Sheffield has been elected to work with Volunteering England on their Inspiration and Legacy from the 2012 Games project.  That means that volunteer-involving organisations from across the city and wider area will soon be invited to a workshop (probably taking place in June / July) to look at how we can use the excitement generated by the Olympic Games to direct more people into volunteering with us on a local level.

Of course, many people will be volunteering at the Games themselves - 70,000 of them in fact.  But already more than 300,000 people have registered their interest in helping.  So what are the 230,000 people who don't get a place going to do?  Well, volunteer in their local area instead we hope!  The idea is that organisations and groups in Sheffield can draw attention to the fact that they have volunteering opportunities that could be of interest to those people, by labelling them 'Games Inspired'.  They could fall into one of three categories: Sports, Arts & Culture, or Environment/Conservation.  Those opportunities can then be listed on a government portal (via Volunteer Centre Sheffield), which unsuccessful 2012 Games volunteering applicants (and other interested people) will be directed to.

We'll let you know the date and further details in due course, and if any of your volunteering opportunities (or potential opportunities) are linked to sports, arts/culture or the environment, keep an eye out for that workshop!  In the meantime, check out the Volunteering England 2012 web-pages (http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Projects+and+initiatives/2012+Inspiration+and+Legacy+programme/) and the official London 2012 webpages on volunteering (http://www.london2012.com/get-involved/volunteering/index.php)

Bursaries for Volunteer Managers' Training

You may have heard about the new bursary scheme being funded by Capacity Builders and rolled out through 4 organisations across the country, including Voluntary Action Sheffield.  Below is the information from Capacitybuilders on this great opportunity:

Develop the knowledge, skills and confidence you need to better support and inspire your volunteers and enhance the impact of your organisation.

From Monday 22 March, Capacitybuilders is offering volunteer managers across England the opportunity to apply for a skills development bursary up to £1950. Each bursary will fully fund an approved skills development package, delivered regionally by experienced training providers and aligned to the national occupational standards in volunteer management.

There are three levels of access tailored to suit your experience and role, each with the option of nationally recognised accreditation and including distance and online learning opportunities. There are a limited number of bursaries available, so early application is advised.

If you’d like to find out more about the programme, please visit www.capacitybuilders.org.uk/vmpskills

Using T'Internet to Get Volunteers!

A quick thought for a Friday afternoon on how we can use the internet to get new volunteers ...Use Google Alerts to find relevant conversations and then join in.

We know that most volunteers get into volunteering through word of mouth (about two thirds in fact).  But how do we make the most of that?  Well more and more 'conversations' are taking place online now, through places like Sheffield Forum.  Recently I've taken part in various conversations on that esteemed (and very lively) website, some of which started off being about volunteering and others of which were requests for ideas for new hobbies or ways of gaining new skills (so of course I recommended volunteering as being a great means of doing both those things!).  But I, like most people, don't have the time to trawl through forum after forum looking for such conversations to put in my two-pence-worth about volunteering.  So what's the solution?  Well I dare say there are many, but the one I'm quite liking at the moment is Google Alerts.  This allows you to enter in certain key words that you are interested in (e.g. 'volunteering' + 'sheffield') and it will send you a regular email summarising all the times that those words have cropped up online.  That allows you to quickly get to relevant postings and (and useful information) and either simply get a feel for what people are saying about your organisation, or go a step further and join in. 

If you happen to come across conversations which are negative about your organisation, don't shy away!  This is a crucial opportunity for you to redress the balance, and give a more positive view.  Be careful of course not to alienate the person/people who originally made the negative comments (which could escalate problems) and don't be tempted to cut and paste stock responses.  Being open and transparent (and willing to accept criticism) is an important way of gaining people's trust, and when combined with positive action has been shown to successfully convert people into positive advocates. 

So go forth and spread the word about your volunteering opportunities on the wonderful t'interweb!

Volunteering Ambassadors To Fly the Flag for Volunteering

From theory to reality... the Sheffield Volunteering Strategy is now coming to life!  There's a vast amount to do, but at the moment attention is focusing on funding applications for the main projects and on preparing for a year-long volunteering publicity campaign across the city.

An important element of that publicity will be a team of Volunteering Ambassadors.  Those Ambassadors will be people who are currently (or have recently been) volunteers for Sheffield organisations / groups / charities.  They will help to spread the word on how fantastic it is to volunteer, letting people know about the benefits first hand - straight from the horse's mouth.  This will entail attending relevant events, taking part in media interviews, and contributing to social media conversations (e.g. blogging and tweeting etc).

I am therefore now looking for a team of eight people who would be willing to act as Volunteering Ambassadors - if you know somebody suitable, please ask them if they would be interested and let me know.  Input would be spread amongst the group and so time commitment for each individual would be kept to a minimum.  It will be an informal group, where members can choose which sorts of publicity activities they are more comfortable with / interested in.  And of course, for volunteer-involving organisations this is a chance to 'fly the flag' for your own organisation too!

Drop me an email (c.walsh@vas.org.uk) or call me (0114 253 6638) for more information or to suggest somebody who could help.