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GoldStar - Promoting good practice in managing volunteers from socially excluded groups


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Formal Structures

Some volunteering organisations may have formal structures that can be used for progression pathways. Such structures may be able to indicate volunteering activities that become open to volunteers as they demonstrate their capability in those areas. A number of organisations have developed structured links wit particular educations organisation or employees that help provide progression routes for individual volunteers

 

Groundwork Rossendale have developed a set of structures to help young people to progress into further volunteering, training or employment
View Good Practice Guideline

 

Ground Work

 

Groundwork Rossendale is an organisation whose purpose is to "build sustainable communities in areas of need through joint environmental action". With this in mind Groundwork believes that young people are part of the solution to improving quality of life in local areas, and helps them to participate in their communities.

Groundwork's Youth Works programme has proven the link between harnessing the energy of young people and dealing with issues connected with crime and criminality.

This is because involvement in the programme allows young people to develop greater self esteem and confidence, which help to reduce the risk of involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour.

Groundwork have developed a set of structures and associated opportunities to help young people to progress further into volunteering, training and work. The key features of this approach are in:

  1. Showing confidence - the belief in young people is exemplified by encouraging positive involvement, for example, by enabling them to run steering groups themselves;

  2. Meaningful training - training opportunities in-house include accredited learning, for example, the young person in a case study progressed to Level 1 NVQ Horticulture;

  3. Supporting initiatives by young people - an example is where one young person had taken on responsibility for updating other young people about project progress and in the formation of a new group of volunteers;

  4. Working with partners - the Groundwork Youth and Learning Team worked successfully with Greenvale Homes, Rossendale Police, and Rossendale Borough Council in an intervention that contributed considerably to reducing the incidence of anti-social behaviour in the area;

  5. Attracting new support - successful working with partner organisation leading to new sources of support where partners look for grant funding to assist the Group in its work.

 

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