Supporting volunteers at the recruitment stage

It is essential that the volunteering organisation understands the barriers to volunteering faced by groups and the support they may need. In this way it can ensure that it has measures in place to facilitate the recruitment process effectively, such as appropriate help with the process itself, and finding suitable volunteering roles.


Below are a few examples of how other organisations have accoplished this:


Westminster Volunteer Centre has a dedicated outreach worker for their projects
Sutton Volunteer Centre ensure that they can engage with volunteers with additional support needs

Westminster Volunteer Centre have assigned a dedicated outreach worker for each of their target groups, (BME community, those with learning disabilities, those at risk from being homeless).

For example the learning disabilities project is managed by a part time development officer, who works with an advisory group of volunteers with learning disabilities to ensure that the project is user led. It aims to make volunteering more accessible to people with learning disabilities both, throughout the process of obtaining a voluntary position and during the first few months of the placement.

They offer support to potential volunteers in many ways including providing accessible information on volunteering, empowering the volunteer, offering tasters, application form support, providing voluntary coaching and careful matching to appropriate voluntary roles.

The project has enabled many people to successfully pursue voluntary work in a variety of placements including: volunteering in charity shops, with children and older people, in day centres, on gardening projects, in offices and with practical tasks. Activities for volunteers who may not be ready to work independently or who simply enjoy the social side of volunteering are also undertaken

Sutton Volunteer Centre has been successful in attracting resources to enable engagement with volunteers who have additional support needs, and with older people.

A number of practical steps have been put in place to encourage recruitment and retention of volunteers at risk of social exclusion, including the following:

Production of a range of recruitment leaflets and posters that are colourful and attractive which provide unambiguous information, these are available in large print and available in other languages;
The centre is accessible for people with disabilities, including ramps and toilet provision. A text phone is available for people with hearing disabilities;
Volunteers’ complete equality and diversity monitoring forms and the information is collated and compare with local demographics on a monthly basis. Appropriate action is taken to address any issues that may arise;
Effective partnership arrangements ensures the project receives firsthand feedback from volunteers with additional support needs and also facilitates the identification of young people and sharing of good practice when working and engaging with “hard to reach” young people;
The project co-ordinator liaises with Sutton Racial Equality Council to identify BAME groups, especially new and emerging groups and those working with refugees and asylum seeks to encourage and enhance good practice in volunteer management among these communities.

Supporting volunteers at the recruitment stage

Sutton Volunteer Centre ensure that they can engage with volunteers with additional support needs

Sutton Volunteer Centre has been successful in attracting resources to enable engagement with volunteers who have additional support needs, and with older people.

A number of practical steps have been put in place to encourage recruitment and retention of volunteers at risk of social exclusion, including the following:

Production of a range of recruitment leaflets and posters that are colourful and attractive which provide unambiguous information, these are available in large print and available in other languages;

The centre is accessible for people with disabilities, including ramps and toilet provision. A text phone is available for people with hearing disabilities;

Volunteers’ complete equality and diversity monitoring forms and the information is collated and compare with local demographics on a monthly basis. Appropriate action is taken to address any issues that may arise;

Effective partnership arrangements ensures the project receives firsthand feedback from volunteers with additional support needs and also facilitates the identification of young people and sharing of good practice when working and engaging with “hard to reach” young people;

The project co-ordinator liaises with Sutton Racial Equality Council to identify BAME groups, especially new and emerging groups and those working with refugees and asylum seeks to encourage and enhance good practice in volunteer management among these communities.

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