Volunteering England, in partnership with 15 local volunteer centres, has been awarded a £1.9m Big Lottery Fund grant over three years to help communities most affected by the recession through stimulating volunteering.

The project, delivered by the volunteer centres, will use volunteering to engage those furthest from the job market, to assist them in utilising their skills and talents to help their local communities.

The volunteer centres are part of an England-wide network of over 250 centres which provide support and expertise within the local community. The project seeks to strengthen volunteering locally by enabling these volunteer centres to extend their activities of supporting people as volunteers, increasing the opportunities for volunteering and engaging more fully with their communities.

The project will also incorporate a research component, undertaken by Volunteering England’s Institute for Volunteering Research in partnership with Birkbeck, University of London. Over a three year period, the research will examine the project’s outcomes and explore the role volunteering can play in helping communities to cope with the recession and public spending cuts. The resulting knowledge will inform wider application of the project’s principles in other communities around the country.

The 15 Volunteer Centres involved in the project are:

•  Volunteer Cornwall (covering Cornwall)
•  Volunteering Bristol (covering Bristol
•  Exeter CVS (covering Exeter and North Devon)
•  Volunteer Centre Oxfordshire (covering Oxfordshire)
•  Volunteer Centre Sutton (covering the London borough of Sutton)
•  Volunteer Centre Camden (covering the London borough of Camden)
•  Voluntary Action Islington (covering the London borough of Islington)
•  Volunteer Centre Dacorum (covering Hertfordshire)
•  South Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Service (covering South Lincolnshire)
•  Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service (covering Nottingham)
•  Voluntary Action Sheffield (covering Sheffield)
•  Tamworth Council for Voluntary Service (covering Staffordshire)
•  Volunteer Centre Liverpool (covering Liverpool)
•  2D, Voluntary and Community Support (covering County Durham)
•  Volunteer Centre Blackburn with Darwen (covering Pennine Lancashire - the local authority districts of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley and Rossendale)