Three months into the implementation of the Sheffield Volunteering Strategy and the story is somewhat mixed.  Things have been a little in the air, and to an extent they remain that way, but here is the update on what is going on...

As for much of the voluntary sector, funding some of the projects contained within the Strategy Action Plan is proving to be a tough challenge.  Two applications to the BIG Lottery Reaching Communities fund for the Hub & Spoke project have been turned down, as have our application to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for the Time-bank in Manor and the bid to the Humber Learning Consortium's European Social Fund for Pre-Volunteering Training scheme (for people with disabilities and mental health problems).  These set-backs are not however the end of the road!  We are planning a third application to Reaching Communities to address their feedback on our second application, which we feel we are able to tackle through more consultation with local people and services.  For the other projects we had already identified alternative funding streams and so work will progress on approaching them.  A decision from Awards for All is still being awaited on the Buddy Scheme project.

Elsewhere, work on publicity for volunteering has been racing along!  You may have seen Sheffield Quality Time on Facebook and on Twitter, as well as information on plasma screens in the central Bus Interchange and the council's Howden House.  Fliers and posters will also soon appear in shops and cafes around the city, encouraging people to visit the volunteering in Sheffield campaign website.  Further to that, the team of Volunteering Ambassadors (comprising 15 volunteers from a range of organisations including Sheffield Samaritans, SAFE@LAST, Embrace, and Whirlow Hall Farm), have been out and about at events across the city to let people know about the benefits of volunteering and how to get involved - they have so far attended 12 events and given information to in excess of 200 people.

In terms of the numbers, it was disappointing to find that Sheffield City Council's Interim Place Survey showed a 1% decrease in the number of respondents saying that they volunteer regularly.  However there was a 3.2% confidence interval, meaning that any change (up or down) under 3.2% cannot be read as a true result as it may simply be due to methodological error (due to the small number of respondents).  Indeed the most national Citizenship Survey also reported a 1% decrease in regular volunteering across the country, and deemed that to be 'no change'. Furthermore, that survey was taken in the Autumn of 2009, significantly in advance of the implementation of the Volunteering Strategy.  Conversely, the proxy measure used to report progress to the Sheffield First Partnership showed an average 23% increase in volunteer numbers across 15 organisations/groups in Sheffield that report their figures to me.  Of course that does not mean that there has been a 23% increase in people volunteering across the city overall, but it would certainly suggest that progress is moving upwards rather than downwards.  (Those 15 organisations are of varying sizes, from having under 10 volunteers to over 200, and are from both the voluntary and public sector.)

Finally, on a more jolly note: watch out for an online game about volunteering in Sheffield, which will be winging its way out across the city shortly!  And in the meantime, you are welcome to take a look at the interview I gave recently to Action for Employment (feel free to pass the link to anybody who might be interested).