Papworth Trust is to hold two days of recognition for its volunteers after they clocked up almost 40,000 volunteering hours for the disability charity in the last year.
The Trust will hold two days of celebration where its 209 volunteers will be treated to food and drink at events held on 4 June at Papworth Everard and 10 June at Bury St Edmunds. Volunteers, who contributed to 39,216 hours of work in the past year, will receive certificates and pins from the charity’s CEO Adrian Bagg and special rewards will be proffered for long service and outstanding contribution.
This is the first time the organisation has recognised its volunteers in such a way, and is the result of the organisation’s restructured volunteering unit. Mark Louisy was brought in as volunteer programme manager reporting to the fundraising director in January. And Jane Mumford joined as volunteer coordinator in March.
Culture change
Louisy says the upcoming events are part of a culture change in the organisation:
It’s something that should have been done previously. With new members of staff in the team and with new ways we recruit, manage and support our volunteers we view it as very important going forward that we do recognise volunteers’ contribution,” he said.
"With a fresh impetus we’ve made some dramatic changes to volunteering effort. The more volunteers we have, the more support we’re able to provide to our clients in terms of improving and maintaining quality of standard, we see volunteers as an integral part of that.”
The Trust is linking the event to its new recruitment drive, calling for additional volunteers who can participate throughout the organisation be it in its social enterprise cafés, in administration or directly with its clients. The charity’s strategy aims to deliver one fifth of all its services through donations, fundraising and volunteering. Asked whether the move was motivated by squeezed finance, Louisy said:
“We’ve always used volunteers but what we’re looking at is using more volunteers than we have previously. Whether you look at the financial model or whether you look at a more social model, the impact that volunteers make is really quite significant.
“Our volunteers do fantastic work for us, with many hours contributed, providing ideas and support to us and the clients. It’s important that we do recognise that. They are the unsung heroes.”
The Trust has actually boosted its incoming resources in its latest accounts from £18.8m in 2011 to £20.5m in 2012. This is predominantly a result of a £1.3m boost in income from charitable activities. However its cost for charitable activities increased at a similar rate, resulting in a net boost in income of around £230,000.
The charity supports around 20,000 disabled people every year.
