The end of the 30th annual Volunteers' Week is in two days. It's been a positive week for volunteers and their charities, bar a Telegraph story suggesting older volunteers at the National Trust are being worked too hard. Leon Ward looks at this and other highlights from the week.
1. Volunteering platform Do.it.org held an event at Nesta which brought together volunteer managers and organisations who are leading the way in volunteering. At the event, the Media Trust announced their #SomethingBrilliant campaign, which encourages people to ‘do more of the little brilliant things that make a big difference’. Team London also announced its partnership with Do.it.org to develop a new ‘speed’ volunteering platform which will enable younger people to volunteer quickly and easily for up to 6 hours harnessing the power of social media to promote these opportunities.
2. NCVO chooses 30 ambassadors to mark the 30th anniversary of the week. Among the crop were a canal restoration volunteer, a special constable and a few names the sector knows well - shadow charities minister and foodbank volunteer Lisa Nandy MP, chair of the NCVO Martyn Lewis and Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. The 30 ambassadors have been chosen to demonstrate the important, diverse roles that volunteers play.
3. The Cabinet Office released a list of 111 ‘outstanding’ UK volunteering groups to receive the Queen’s Award for voluntary service. The national honour was created by Her Majesty to mark the Golden Jubilee in 2002. It has an equivalent status for voluntary groups as the MBE has for individuals.
4. Citizens Advice publishes a ‘value of volunteering’ report which highlighted that during 2012/13 22,000 volunteers who clocked up and donated nearly 7 million hours of their time had delivered £109m worth of volunteering hours. The report also contains information on the impact for volunteers. One poignant stat, for me, is that 22 per cent of its new volunteers are 25 or under, perhaps indicating that young people are taking practical steps to ‘skill-up’.
5. The skies above Camden Town were given a dose of colour when Genesis Housing Association released fifty balloons to celebrate volunteers’ week. The balloons marked a key milestone for its volunteering programme, which has now placed just over fifty volunteers in paid employment.
6. Lambeth Council invited volunteers to a ‘big thank you’ summer party and was simultaneously tweeting messages of thanks to volunteers who had been mentioned by members of the public. Those that are mentioned may also be nominated for the council’s awards ceremony. The council has also extended the week and earmarked the entire month, in the hope that council staff will use their 21 hours to volunteer in the community. Lambeth are certain this will leave a year-round legacy of involvement.
7. CLIC Sargent has taken the opportunity to survey regular and one-off volunteers to scope out their feedback of the charity's volunteering programme. CLIC Sargent is keen to ensure that those who donate their time make the most of it and the organisation is supporting volunteers in the way that they need and expect.
8. It wasn’t all good news. A National Trust guide told the Telegraph that the Trust is asking too much of its older volunteers and one admitted to being ‘exhausted’ and noted that some guides have reduced when they are available. Demands for longer opening hours and increased visitor numbers are proving too strenuous for the Trust and that filters right to its volunteers. The trust has clocked up 70,000 volunteers, with many of them in their 80’s.
