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Rotherham Volunteer Centre Newsletter

Edition 4 2014 – 17thNovember 2014

For the latest volunteering news, support and information:

News

National Volunteer Website Changes (Do-It.org)

Most of you will be aware that the National Volunteer Website known as Do-it is changing dramatically. We use the website to promote your vacancies from the volunteer centre. We are currently in a holding period until the new website is launched so we are unable to make any changes to opportunities at this time. We expect this to be the case until the 23rd November.

You may also experience issues with your Do-it recruiter log in over the next few days, this is due to information being moved from one system to another, please keep trying, however we cannot change login details at this time.

We will be changing our forms to match the new fields on the new website so we will be using a new organisation form, and new opportunity forms.

Please rest assured that your volunteering opportunities are still be advertised at this time, and volunteers will still be able to apply – we just can’t change anything through the back end of the website like we have been able to until the move is complete.

Please bear with us for the time being. Hopefully once they are up and running things should run much better than they have previously.

Once the system goes live we will need a logo for each of the organisations to use on Do-it. Therefore can you please send us your logo. Please can you send it to the following email address to save blocking up one of our email accounts with logo’s:

You may find your opportunities are not live on the new system if you don’t send us your logo as soon as possible.

Any questions please contact Julie Adamson at .

The Sheffield4Jobs Hub

A really useful tool for volunteers or anyone looking for work is There is help and information as well as the latest job vacancies. It is produced by Matt Gaines, who is based at Sheffield Jobcentreplus.

By entering your email address into the box on the right of the home page, you can get updated versions which are usually released each week. The menu in yellow at the top of the home page has useful sections for example for single parents and help creating CVs etc.

In the 17th Oct edition of the JobsHub newsletter Matt has included an article about volunteeringwhich you can see below:

Voluntary Work

Today I wanted to talk about Voluntary Work, what you can do and why it’s a good idea.

First things first, to get a popular myth out of the way: In most cases, doing voluntary work does NOT affect benefits. As long as you are declaring it to your local office, you can do as much as you want. Check with your advisor beforehand to make 100% sure. But volunteering is not just for those who are claiming benefit; there are plenty of reasons for anyone to consider it.

Working as a volunteer is a fantastic way of learning new skills and meeting new people; it’s great for your confidence and looks fantastic on your CV. It’s also a good way to get a reference for prospective employers. Meanwhile, the organisations you work with benefit from your help, with many depending on its volunteers to keep them running. Basically, everyone’s a winner.

So if you’re interested, what do you do next?

There are many charities and organisations who are regularly looking for people to volunteer. Below are links to some of them;

Voluntary Action RotherhamVoluntary Action Sheffield

ReachRSPCA VolunteerDo-It. Volunteering Made EasyWRVS

If you claim a benefit and are successful in finding voluntary work, make sure you tell your advisor fully of what is happening to avoid any misunderstandings

Update on changes to DBS application forms.

On the 12 March 2014 the DBS disclosure application form was amended to reflect changes in legislation which resulted in the filtering of old and minor convictions and question e55 now asks:

‘Do you have any convictions, cautions, reprimands or final warnings which would not be filtered in line with current guidance?’

All applications should be submitted on the new, revised disclosure application form. This form can easily be identified as the form reference number at the top right-hand side begins with F01. The form reference number on the old forms begins with F00.

From the 1st of December 2014 the DBS will no longer accept the old forms with references beginning F00. If you still have a stock of old forms, please destroy them. If you need new forms please let us know by emailing Allison Carr on: or tel: 01709 834460.

New DBS Identity Checking Guidance

The DBS have changed their identity checking guidance. Changes have been made to the lists of identity documents which can be used to verify identity. A copy of the latest guidance can be found here.

If you have any questions, please contact Allison Carr on the details above.

Publicise your event for free

The Community Spotlight S66 magazine will include articles about local events for free. This is circulated around the Rotherham S66 area and you can find out more on their website at or email them on .

Training

Active Citizens Programme 2014…….

Do you know someone who is passionate about making a difference in their community? This free short course might be perfect for them!

Interested in communities? Why not take part in our training aimed at people who want to make a difference. It’s called Active Citizens and it’s funded through the British Council. This is the third time that we are delivering it in Rotherham and places are filling up already. The programme is limited to 30 places. The programme is run over 5 sessions; please see the dates and times below. During the programme, we will explore culture, identity, your local community (including a bit if community mapping) and how to plan and evaluate a social action project. There is also an opportunity for 3 participants from our programme, to travel on an Independent Study Visit to a city in the UK (either Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or Croydon, England) where they will meet other participants from around the world and share ideas and experiences about how they deliver their own social action projects in their communities. As you can appreciate it’s also a great networking opportunity and a chance to establish some international links. All participants will receive a certificate for attending. Refreshments and dinner will be provided at each session, as well as travel expenses.

Monday 24th November (5:00pm – 8:30pm)

Thursday 27th November (5:00pm – 8:30pm)

Tuesday 2nd December (5:00pm – 8:30pm)

Thursday 4th November (5:00pm – 8:30pm)

Saturday 6th December (10:00am – 4:00pm)

All sessions will be delivered at Voluntary Action Rotherham.

The programme is open to anyone aged 18yrs+

Volunteer Management Training Courses

Getting it right from the start…..

2nd December 2014 - 10:00 AM

Venue: VAR, The Spectrum
Cost: £25

This full day course (10:00am – 4:00pm) is perfect for new volunteer managersor useful as a refresher for existingmanagers (paid or unpaid)who are lookingto recruit and induct new volunteers.

It is the first in a series of volunteer management courses delivered by Kerry McGrath at Voluntary Action Rotherham.

This course has been heavily discounted to £25 per place. The training course includes; lunch, refreshments and a toolkit crammed full with useful templates and good practice information to help you in your role as a volunteer manager.

Staff – Volunteer Relationships….

4th February 2015 - 10:00 am

Venue: VAR, The Spectrum
Cost: £25

This is a brand new course from Rotherham Volunteer Centre and explores staff-volunteer relationships.

This full day course (10:00am – 4:00pm)focuses on identifying roles and responsibilities and developing strategies for improving relationships between staff and volunteers.

Suitable for established volunteer managers (including paid or unpaid staff/volunteers) in the public, voluntary or community sectors, or brand new volunteer managers, who are new to the role.

The course will be delivered by Kerry McGrath, who works in the Volunteer Centre team at VAR. Kerry has over 7 years experience of delivering volunteering management training and supporting local organisations to improve their volunteer management systems.

For something a little different, for paid staff or volunteers:

Project Planning Training….

9th February 2015 - 10:00 AM

Venue: Voluntary Action Rotherham, The Spectrum, Coke Hill, Rotherham, S60 2HX
Cost: £Free

Monday 9th February 10am -3pm (9:30 onwards for registration)

Project planning will give you all the skills you need to effectively identify your aims and objectives, create a detailed project plan, consider the resources required for your project and ensure timescales are kept to and deadlines are met.

Learning Outcomes

Through attending this training you will understand……

Ways to identify and outline effective aims & objectives
How to plan, design and implement a project plan
Techniques on how to ensure timescales and deadlines are met

This is a free course and places are limited, please book early.

What are you waiting for? You can book now and reserve your place!

All places must be booked. Where possible, VAR tries to accommodate small groups with no paid staff, by providing bursaries for free places. These are limited and offered on a first come, first served basis. Please book via our website – . For more information about any of our courses, please contact Kerry McGrath on

Tel: 01709 834451.

All courses need to be paid for 7 days prior to the training course, or we are happy to accept cheques on the day. Cancellation charges will apply if you cancel your place. Please read our terms and conditions.

Brokerage

You may be aware that the national recruitment website volunteer centres use to promote your opportunities is changing. Unfortunately there are delays to the launch of the new system which does mean that we are in a bit of a hiatus at the moment. We initially decided that new opportunities would be held back until the launch of the new site but as that has been delayed twice now we have made the decision to add the opportunities now to the old site. We will then have to add them again once the new site comes live. Please bear with us as it is a very frustrating time for all concerned. If your role is not urgent please let us know and we will see if we can just populate the new site with the information rather than having to do it twice.

Good Practice Development

Volunteer Coordinator Forum Update:

RVC coordinates and facilitates a free bi-monthly forum which brings together volunteer managers whether in a paid or unpaid capacity to network, share good practice and generally trouble shoot. September’s meeting was well attended and saw more new faces from: Lifeline, Rotherham District Scouts, Age UK, Safe@Last and Rotherham Diversity Forum – welcome Matt, Neil, Julie, Ami and Sirea! A huge thank you too to Tracey Harrison Marr and the team at the Rotherham Hospice for hosting the meeting. New members always welcome; to find out more or to confirm your attendance contact Alison Thorp on 01709 834462 or email

The next meeting is an extended meeting and is scheduled for Tuesday 25th November between 9am and 12:30pm and is being held at the Dearne Fire Station in Manvers. With meetings more popular than ever and a constant stream of new faces, members agreed that it would be useful to take stock, find out more about each other’s area of work/ good practice and identify both common ground and opportunities. We will also use the time to facilitate more in depth discussions in groups; informal training of sorts. The topics which have been suggested inc:

Difficult conversations with volunteers – sharing experiences and strategies
Starting out in volunteer management – the importance of a good peer support network and sharing knowledge
Managing volunteers who develop additional needs – sharing experiences and strategies

Please note I have updated the forum page on the VAR website to include Minutes and Agendas should you need them I’ve also added various downloads including relevant forms and guidance

Spotlight on Motivating Volunteers:

Given that it’s easier to retain existing volunteers rather than recruit new ones, closer attention needs to be paid to the motivations driving all volunteers whether consciously or unconsciously in order that the investment made by both the volunteer and organisation is justified. We must recognise that volunteering today is not what it was 30 years ago when people perhaps had more altruistic motives for giving their time; sometimes referred to as ‘true volunteering’ and adapt. In a climate of austerity with no such thing as a job for life, a competitive job market and women combining raising a family with work, we are seeing a shift away from altruistic motives in favour of what volunteers seek to gain, be it a good reference, valuable work experience or high quality training. Volunteers may have no legal rights as such but increasingly they are not afraid to assert their expectations; if you’re not offering what they want or need they don’t engage at all, if you fail to deliver they opt out and even if you do deliver (often at considerable cost to your organisation in terms of time and training) many still move on very quickly in search of paid employment or return to their studies.

So what’s the answer? Some groups and organisations are forced to review the way they engage volunteers in their activities in order to try and maximise a good return on their investment. For example, do we need to introduce more short-term or one off volunteer opportunities or develop more informal volunteer opportunities which groups, including families, could engage in. Do we accept a limited return on our investment in some volunteers as part of our commitment to corporate social responsibility; it’s the right thing to do? In other instances, rather than ‘fight’ against the inevitable, perhaps we need to think creatively about an individual’s skills and create roles which utilise these skills for as long as we have them at our disposal. So for example, if you are lucky enough to engage an IT student, maybe it’s about giving them a discrete piece of work e.g. developing a basic website, a template for a newsletter or a database of some sort which will give them the experience which they are looking for and you something tangible which can positively support your area of work.

I think we also need to recognise that not everyone is using their volunteering to secure paid work and avoid over generalising particular groups of volunteers e.g. young volunteers are unreliable, students won’t stick around, older volunteers are always reliable etc. For example, some young people recognise that they have a lot of time on their hands and volunteer because they’re bored, others volunteer because they want to meet new people, some volunteer to test out a career idea, are passionate about a particular cause or simply want to give something back. Whatever the reason, volunteer managers need to be open minded and responsive and hopefully they will be amply rewarded with a diverse, productive and loyal volunteer team. We need to keep in mind that the retention of volunteers isn’t an end point, if volunteers move on, it’s not the moving on which you should be worried about it’s their reasons for moving on which are key and if you’ve done your best by them they will be great ambassadors of your organisation, spreading the word about the good work that you do and inspiring others to come forward.

A suggestion: during the recruitment process; ask on the application form or in the context of an informal chat why the individual wants to volunteer/what they are hoping for from the volunteer opportunity, how you can make them feel valued and how they’d like you to communicate with them.

If you have the answers to these key questions at your fingertips you can optimise the variables which are necessary for every individual to accomplish themselves in their role and thrive. Regular feedback in different forms is crucial hereon in, whether in the form of verbal and written feedback against core competencies in the context of supervision or formal training, a brief chat on the way out of the social area or a personal thank you note.

If you would welcome an informal chat about this issue or indeed any other area of volunteer management good practice, please contact Alison Thorp.

Community Volunteer Ambassador Project Update

The Community Volunteer Ambassador team continues to promote the many benefits of volunteering to individuals and groups in their communities and to signpost individuals and groups to further support where appropriate. They do this in various ways depending how confident they feel and what time they have available. For some it’s informal conversations with neighbours, group members and associates, for others it’s supporting the VC or representing the VC at local events or writing a volunteering article and for others it may be displaying posters in public places around the borough and sharing their knowledge of groups in their local community. All of these contributions are valuable to the VC team and the wider sector and help to inspire local people and raise the profile of volunteering in the borough.