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Brief Report

Date	Event
05.07.2006	Goldstar Regional Conference (North West)

Number of Delegates	Location
65 (click to view list)	The Lowry Salford

Format
1. Interviews with GoldStar Exemplar project managers 2. Workshops relating to recruitment and selection and progression pathways

A more detailed outline of some of the issues arising as part of the event is also available on this websit

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Four GoldStar project managers/representatives provided a number of insights into how volunteers are recruited and supported:

• Jane Farell from The Prince’s Trust – Lancashire Area Office. The purpose of the Prince’s Trust, (Lancashire Area) GoldStar Project (The East Lancashire Community Programme) is to help reduce offending behaviour by young people and divert them from engaging in criminal activity.

• Mark Pritchard from Manchester Event Volunteers, which is an established volunteer brokerage service and a legacy of the Commonwealth Games.

• Vicky Corlett from Bolton Lads and Girls Club. The Mentoring Project began as a direct result of growing concerns from staff and volunteers within the Club that many of the young people that attended the evening youth club were experiencing a wide range of complex issues leading to social disaffection and needed some additional support from someone who was credible in terms of being a non-professional.

• Alfred Chung from Wai Yin Chinese Women Society. Wai Yin Chinese Women Society has developed and runs a wide range of services for the Greater Manchester Chinese community, with over 800 people using services each week.

Two key themes were addressed as part of the event, these being recruitment and selection and supporting volunteers.

The following views expressed by delegates at the event provide a flavour of some of the issues raised.

“The way I work is that I wouldn’t send a volunteer to a place I wouldn’t go myself”

“We still have language barriers in our voluntary scheme. We need a lot of people to tell others, OK, you can’t speak the language but you can still work. The best way to do this is show someone who is already volunteering”

“We have very good community networks in Burnley, Pendle and Blackburn, so we recruit that way”.  

“I think what is key also is linking in to other agencies, because we don’t provide all the training, there is no need to do that and we link our volunteers into that training” .  

“We have volunteers that maybe haven’t achieved anything at school, got to do some voluntary work, really enjoyed it and been able to get a qualification out of it”  

“We have disguised the training sometimes and put it on a one to one basis”.

A more detailed outline of some of the issues raised as part of the event is also available on this website. See full report

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