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Good Practice







Induction and Training
Assessing training needs
Tailoring training to individual needs
Accreditation
Matching volunteers to roles
Induction Training
Training and Activities
General

Assessing training needs

Information Available Very Soon

Tailoring training to individual needs

01 121 Youth Befriending: Volunteer Open Learning Pack

Initially 121 Youth Befriending training was carried out over three weeks comprising of 3 x 2 hour sessions. However, the Project could never seem to find a date that suited everyone, and were always trying to juggle groups or help volunteers catch up on sessions that they had missed. The Project consequently lost volunteers, because they just got tired of waiting for suitable dates.

In order to address this issue the project developed an Open Learning Pack in order that volunteers could work at home, in their own time and at their own pace. This has worked well, but the Project felt volunteers missed out on an important part of training which they get from being in a group situation, with associated peer support and sharing of ideas and concerns.

The solution for this has been the development of Express Training, a volunteer preparation pack. All new volunteers receive a pack containing information on befriending and worksheets, which they complete and return to the person responsible for this part of training. They receive brief feedback on their responses and will then be expected to attend further training/support sessions where they will also meet with other volunteers. These sessions are tailored to the groups needs by using the information from completed worksheets.

The Project suggests volunteers complete this pack within a month.

The 121 Volunteer Preparation pack covers a number of areas of befriending, these being:

This approach has been recognised by Home Office evaluators as an innovative way to engage volunteers with busy lives and will hopefully be linked to an online text messaging facility in the future.

An educational consultant helps to ensure that it uses the most effective teaching and it is continuously developed to reflect current needs. Participants receive feedback and support on each module before proceeding to the next. They are given a contact name, telephone number and an e-mail address for support and their views and comments on the pack are invited.

02 Communities United Project (CUP)_Training and Support

All volunteers have an individual learning plan which is developed in order that their training & support needs are met and relevant training & education courses & programmes are accessed. The aim is to enable volunteers to learn or relearn the skills for them to be able to continue to provide activities for young people on their estates once CUP has ceased working in the area.

Each volunteers individual learning plan is updated regularly. Any in house training is offered to volunteers as well as staff. Opportunities are also available for them to be involved in organisational reviews to enable CUP to gain feedback from volunteers and for them to have an input into issues affecting volunteers and their work.

Volunteers receive an induction to the organisation at which time they are given a volunteers handbook to enable them to keep a record of their voluntary activity.

Each volunteer has a personal file that contains their application form and any other information relevant to their placement. This and their handbook remains their property, which they can take when they leave the project. This information is kept in a locked filing cabinet. CUP also keeps a database of volunteers – volunteers are not identified by name but by reference number. This information details date of birth, date started with organisation, ethnicity and whether they have any previous volunteering experience.

Records maintained of volunteer/mentor sessions include:

Lesley Steel, the Manager of the Communities United Project indicated that many volunteers decide to undertake accredited training in relation to sports:

“Quite a number of volunteers have undertaken accredited training in terms of sports coaching, which is what we basically do with young people. For instance we have a lot of volunteers who have done Level 1 football coaching. Also athletics, rugby, athletics at Level 1”.

Cheetham Hill Advice Centre: Individual development plans

Progression to further training and/or employment is actively encouraged through implementation of individual development plans and access to a range of further training and skill development opportunities.

CHAC invest considerable resources both in the recruitment and retention of volunteers. However, many volunteers do not stay with the Project for much more than a year. This is mainly because they move on to further study, volunteering or paid work in advice or related fields. As long as people are moving on for positive reasons, as part of their own personal development, having benefited from the volunteer project, and are becoming more active citizens in the process, the Project consider this to be a success. However, this approach does mean that CHAC have a continuous cycle of volunteer recruitment.

CHAC do not see retention for its own sake as a necessary indicator of success, if impact assessment shows that volunteers have moved on to other things at an appropriate time in order to continue the process of personal development, which began through their volunteering. This is a lesson that CHAC seek to share with other organisations: that it is the reason that the volunteer leaves that is more important than the fact they have left in assessing the effectiveness of the project. This approach also provides volunteering opportunities for new people who would not be able to access the project if volunteers never moved on.

Once volunteers have completed the 10-day advice workers training with CHAC various progression routes are possible. Rob Clarke the Project Manager at CHAC commented:

“Once they have completed our course we then have a meeting with them (volunteers) and determine where they want to go in terms of their own training. It does afford a bit of flexibility. For example, if you have a particular interest in working with refugees and asylum seekers then they can access training for giving advice for that group. Similarly debt advice…It does lend itself to a degree of specialisation.”

Progression routes available to volunteers at CHAC include:

04 Gateshead Access Panel: Promoting volunteering as adult learning

The Project has found that an emphasis on promoting volunteering as adult learning is particularly useful as a means to promote best practice issues.

One of the important aspects of the project has been the promotion of good practice in volunteering, highlighting the specific and sometimes complex support needs of disabled people, the majority of whom do not have any formal qualifications, with many requiring some Skills for Life support. In 2005 a number of volunteers successfully completed the City and Guilds 9295 certificate in Adult Learners Support, which will help GAP in its work with volunteers to identify whether any individuals need assistance with a basic skill in literacy or numeracy.

This is further highlighted by a case study of a GAP volunteer, presented at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education conference (NIACE) ‘ Is Volunteering, Adult Learning’ by the coordinator of Gateshead’s Life Long Learning Partnership (LLLP). He outlined the case of a woman with physical disabilities and mental health issues, who came to GAP with no current qualifications/skills and lack of self-esteem and confidence. The woman had not left her house for 10 years when she was persuaded to come along to a GAP focus group. After attending focus group meetings for 6 months she had gained confidence and skills to be able to represent the organisation as a volunteer. She then did a 10 week accredited course in Financial Skills through the project – the first thing she had ever achieved. With the support of GAP she continued to build her confidence and skills and went on to do an honours degree course and was last year successful in gaining employment. The LLLP coordinator described this example of good practice as ‘inspiring’ and a good indicator that ‘volunteering is adult learning’.

In line with good practice GAP offers all volunteers on the job training and continued learning. Volunteers receive specific on the job training to provide them with the information and skills necessary to perform their volunteer task. Additional training and educational opportunities are made available to the volunteers and this might be provided either by the organisation or by assisting volunteers to participate in educational programmes provided by other groups. GAP works with the volunteer to decide which course to undertake and then assesses what equipment or support they may need to carry out the learning. Volunteers have been assisted on to courses as diverse as basic skills.

0405 Somerset Youth Volunteering network: Flexible training

In relation to induction and training Scott Macmillan of SYVN stressed the difference between how SYVN implement training and a number of other mentoring programmes. He commented:

“It can be up to six months between a volunteer starting and actually getting their first mentee and actually doing it. Particularly with young people you will lose them, particularly if you sign up today but you can’t start until next Easter. They are going to disappear”

In order to tackle this issue SYVN take on volunteers in a ‘tiered approach’, but commented, “underneath that we have to have an emergency back up system. We have a duty worker 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have other things in place so that when things disappear, they can be supported”

“You have to be there when they volunteer. There is no point in doing 9-5 Monday to Friday, unless that is when young people do their volunteering”

Youth 4 Youth training is delivered in 4 flexible but progressive levels (bronze, silver, gold and platinum). Each level is delivered in small bite size chunks which are flexible enough to fit in around young persons other commitments. The flexibility of the levels also enables a young person to take a break from mentor volunteering at busy or difficult times, such as exams and school holidays and then dip back in again once life is a little less hectic.

Every mentor starts at the Bronze level where young volunteers are inducted into mentoring and befriending skills. For those mentors wishing to enhance their mentoring development, silver and gold levels are advanced levels:

At the Platinum level, mentors are trained to become trainers themselves, and start being given the skills to begin taking an active role in training the next generation of Youth 4 Youth mentors.

It usually takes an individual around a year of committed volunteering to reach gold standard. All mentors are supported by SYVN staff and have the opportunity to access ‘ Talking Time’ a counselling service for both mentors and mentees as an ‘emotional safety net’ if they have had an experience with a mentee that has traumatised them. In this respect it was commented:

“The other thing we have in place is a type of counselling service. Because, although we are about supporting volunteering, young people come with all these other issues that just seep out, for want of a different phrase and we have to pick that up”.

The project takes the training and support of volunteers very seriously. Scott commented:

“You have got to take it (training) seriously. You are asking a young person to take on a role of responsibilities for another young person. You can’t expect them to do that if you don’t put the advice, the support, the training, the back up into that young person”

 

04 Age Concern Islington: Tailored Training to individual Roles

Age Concern Islington (ACI) is the primary voluntary sector body working for and with older Islington residents. It's work is about quality of life, seeking to ensure that older people and their carers are able to maintain their self respect and independence, and that they are able to enjoy freedom of choice and equal opportunities.

Age Concern Islington manages a number of diverse projects and activities and has developed good practice with the aim of ensuring that volunteers are given training that is appropriate for their individual roles. The main features of this practice are as follows:

 

 

04 The Latin American Women's Rights Service (LAWRS): Specialised training for volunteers

The Latin American Women's Rights Service, (LAWRS),  volunteering project was created in recognition of the difficulties that Latin American women face in entering the labour market in the UK.  The project targets refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, offering unpaid (voluntary), work experience in advice and guidance, interpreting, outreach and other areas identified by volunteers to match their skills.

LAWS have sought to provide improved support and training to volunteers, by engaging external trainers to provide:

Specialised training for volunteers has included: 

 

Accreditation

01 Bolton Lads and Girls Club: Internal mentor training programme

In addition to comprehensive induction training, appropriately experienced Mentors are also offered a full structured internal Mentor Training Programme, which is now accredited through the Open College Network. The first group of volunteer mentors recently achieved a Level 3 Mentoring Skills Qualification. This opportunity is also available to external organisations.

Mentors are offered a full structured induction and training package. From the interview stage this is fully explained. The core-training programme consists of a number of different sessions:

The core training is mandatory for all new mentors. In the core training the emphasis is to identify the existing skills that Mentors already possess and build on them as well as building on their knowledge around mentoring. The training outlines the role and responsibility of the Mentor and of the Project. A lot of time is spent looking at guidelines and procedures, emphasising issues of boundaries, confidentiality and child protection. All training is evaluated at the end of each session and also at a later date to ensure the training has been put into practice and has been productive to the Mentor and Mentee. This is done at the Development Review stage, which is usually conducted two months after the Mentor has been matched.

Training is currently accredited externally through the National Open College Network, and all mentors have the opportunity to achieve a Level 3 Mentoring Skills Qualification. The training programme emphasises, in the first two sessions, personal safety, personal and professional boundary issues, do’s and don’ts, how to safely conduct meetings and reiterates the role and responsibility of the Mentors. All Mentors are made aware of how to contact individual members of staff in an emergency and out of hours.

Ad-hoc training sessions over the course of the year are also included in the training programme, which are more issue based, and give guidelines on how to deal with such issues. These currently include awareness sessions on Mental Health, Bullying, Domestic Violence, and Eating Disorders, Drug and Alcohol Awareness and Valuing Diversity.

Further internal training is offered on a regular basis to all volunteers, in areas of youth work practice, personal development, assertiveness, sports development and Customer Service and IT skills. In addition Bolton Lads and Girls Club play an integral role in signposting volunteers onto other training opportunities within the town, for example the Youth Service 12 month Youth Work Training Programme.

02 Cheetham Hill Advice Centre: Advice training

Potential volunteers receive a an in house 10-day Advice Work Training Course, that is currently delivered through a franchise with Manchester Adult Education Service and accredited by the Open College Network North West Region. This “professionalisation” of volunteer training has ensured that the Projects systems withstood the scrutiny of auditors and other regulators and provided assurance for volunteers that they were received a high standard of training. The advice work training course has been one of the major achievements of the project so far, in terms of:

The project has also developed a clear progression route for volunteers and created links between academic learning and practical reality. CHAC have learnt from experience in this regard. Initially the 10-day course was viewed as an Induction Course, held in a training room offsite, which had to be completed before volunteers started volunteering at the Centre. It was found that this separated the course too much from the volunteering in the Centre and that some volunteers found the transition from the “classroom” to the “workplace” quite difficult. Some learners were only really interested in the qualification and not volunteering in the Centre at all, whereas others who preferred to learn by “doing” were frustrated by having to complete the whole course first.

To address this issue the course and activities at the Centre were packaged in such a way, as it has to be done together. As new volunteers learn about the principles of advice work on the course, such as confidentiality, they are also observing how these principles are worked out in practice in the advice centre at the same time. Volunteers also complete induction tasks in the Centre, such as telephone and door answering, and using the computer network, so that they begin to feel involved in the life of the Centre from an early stage. This approach has helped volunteers to settle in more quickly and feel part of advice team, develop working relationships between new volunteers and other staff members, and assisted volunteers with differing learning preferences to successfully engage with the volunteering experience. Once volunteers begin to advise in the Centre, CHAC are then able to offer them further training, both internal and external, as well as work shadowing and support to develop towards more complex casework such as representing clients at Appeal Tribunals.

The taught sessions are complimented by “in house” activities to induct volunteers as to the office procedures and observational tasks in preparation for beginning to advise clients. Part of the training includes assessed role-plays to determine when a volunteer is ready to start seeing clients. There is then a progression for volunteers from filling in basic forms for clients, through to giving basic information advice to clients, to the volunteer managing their own caseload and eventually being mentored to assist with and then conduct their own, tribunal cases. The speed of progression and destination of each volunteer is dependent on their own individual development plans. For example, at present some volunteers only fill in forms, whilst others are assisting with tribunal cases with a view to securing paid employment in advice work in the near future.

03Manchester Event Volunteers (MEV): Event Volunteering Qualifications

MEV focuses on providing progression routes to employment, especially through training. Following an induction session, volunteers are offered the opportunity to undertake qualificationsin Event Volunteering, which are offered at entry levels 1 and 2. Modules offered within those qualifications include:

Attendance allows the course tutor to identify further training needs (e.g. Skills for Life). Additional training can also include disability awareness, Child Protection and Welcome Host. Training opportunities are provided through established partnerships with local FE providers.

MEV has also trained mentors and team leaders and proposes to introduce a ‘buddy’ system this year whereby new volunteers will be offered the support of a more experienced volunteer at their first event. MEV will also have a member of staff present at events whenever possible.

Promoting mentor training is identified as an important aspect of spreading good practice with other voluntary organisations and MEV plan to facilitate training of 50 mentors per year.

Volunteers receive regular communications from the MEV team via a monthly newsletter which is also available on line and evaluation is conducted following all training and volunteering experiences through completion of an evaluation form that can be completed on line or in printed format.

Mark Pritchard, the manager of MEV, highlighted proposals to use future induction sessions as a means of encouraging volunteers to undertake further training towards qualifications:

“The clever thing that we are going to do is that at the end of the induction session we are going to say to people right you have done three hours of an induction, Did you realise that if you did another 27 (hours), which is not necessarily class contact time, that you could get a qualification out of this and give people the option to opt out at that point. It just means that more people will go through a specific event volunteering qualification and then on to the event management qualification.”

4 Renewal, Refugee and Migrant project: Volunteer training

The mentor training is delivered in 10 weekly sessions spread over two and a half months. The weekly session runs for three hours between 10-1pm on Saturdays or between 5.30pm and 8.30 pm during weekdays. After three trial training sessions mentors are matched with mentees. Subsequent training continues side by side with mentoring activities until the ten sessions are completed. This enables mentors to apply what they have learnt in class into their mentoring practices in the training sessions.

The mentors training is accredited by the Open College Network London (OCN).

The accreditation offers volunteers at RAMP the opportunity to work towards a qualification during their volunteering. The qualification is a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) that is accredited at levels 2 and 3.

The ten training sessions are structured as follows:

The structure of the training programme is set out in more detail in the RAMP Mentor Training Brochure, May 2006

Matching volunteers to roles

01 Age Concern Gateshead: Varied opportunities for volunteers

The Project takes full advantage of the fact that Age Concern Gateshead operates a wide and varied set of services and activities. This is exemplified in a number of ways, particularly in terms of enriching the volunteering experience and achieving a good match between volunteers and activities. It also allows the organisation to respond positively to evidence that individual volunteers may need to be retrained or reallocated in order to re-energise and motivate them. This approach also contributes to good rates of volunteer retention. Ian Hutchinson, the Volunteer Co-ordinator, at Gateshead Age Concern highlighted the importance of the initial interview with volunteers in relation to the different opportunities available for volunteering:

“Part of the initial interview will be going through the projects. I will go through each project and explain a little bit about what we are doing and get a sort of initial signal from the person in what they are interested in. You can get a good feeling talking to somebody as to where their interests lie and which projects may be suitable.”

An idea of the range of services provided through Age Concern Gateshead is highlighted by the fact that during 2004/2005:

Ian also values the use of a trial period in relation to volunteer placements:

“We have a trial period which is useful for us because it allows us to see whether they are any good and it useful for them because it gives a feel for the project. Sometimes it can be that it is not what they expected and we can then have a look at another project.”

All Age Concern’s projects involve volunteers, so there is a wide range of opportunities to choose from. For example, it is possible to:

2 Chance UK: Mentor Training

At every stage of the recruitment, induction and training process a range of measures are in place to ensure that recruits are trustworthy, committed and passionate about the work of the project and are safe to work around vulnerable children. Chance UK also aims to have 50% more mentors than children to ensure the best possible match can be made. Attention to the supervision and management of the volunteers has seen Chance UK winning an award from Camden Volunteer Bureau.

The mentors receive 21 hours of training before they are interviewed including meeting three current mentors. This gives them an opportunity to see if this particular volunteering opportunity is for them. The training is envisaged as getting the mentor ready for the first session. The ongoing supervision (a minimum of once a month) with their programme manager will also identify additional training and support needs. Chance UK also has group sessions with mentors and their children and match up volunteers with similar children for additional support. All mentors receive an induction pack which includes policies on expenses, Chance UK’s child safety policy, healthy eating policy for the children, health & safety, confidentiality and complaints procedure.

The Volunteer Mentor Training Programme is delivered over three consecutive Saturdays. Participation on all three days is a requirement for successful completion of the mentor training. The training is very practical, participatory and activity based. It encompasses a range of core knowledge and skills required for mentoring. The overall objective is to prepare volunteers to be good enough mentors. It is delivered through a combination of short presentations, individual and group exercises, role-plays, group discussions, plenary sessions and sessions with current and past mentors. Participants also work in groups during the week between training days on assigned tasks and they present their work at the following training day. The emphasis of these and other exercises is on creativity and transferability, thereby developing their skills to engage effectively with children during the mentoring.

The training is quite intensive and is structured as follows:

3 Renewal, Refugee and Migrant project: The induction process and matching mentors to mentees

The underlying philosophy of the Renewal, Refugee and Migrant Project (RAMP) is to facilitate progress toward full integration into the mainstream communities in a self-reliant way as soon as possible. One of the ways that this is done is by mixing the cultural backgrounds of the mentors and mentees, but ensuring that they have something in common. Mentor training and assessment processes follow the Rogerian approach of ‘learner-centredness’.

Dr Hailu Hagos who manages the Refugee Mentoring Service commented, “It is such a diverse group and it is very difficult to set a standard for these groups. So we are flexible and diverse in our activities. What we are proud of is it is a multicultural organisation. The mentors are as diverse as the mentees themselves”.

Mentors and mentees are offered separate mentoring inductions to help them familiarise themselves with RAMP’s mentoring programme. They learn what mentoring is and how they can benefit from it in plain English. Interpreters are assigned as necessary for those mentees whose level of English is low. Induction is considered crucial, as both mentors and mentees need to have a clear idea of their roles and responsibilities in the mentoring relationships from the outset.

As well as group inductions, the Mentoring Co-ordinator organises three-way meetings with individual mentors and mentees. Apart from background information about RAMP and the Mentoring Scheme, ethical codes of practice, such as confidentiality and boundary issues, details of the support system of the mentoring project are provided during induction.

Within the induction process steps are taken to address the complexity of a range of languages, cultural sensitivities, etc. to ensure a good match between mentor and mentee.

The project highlights how recruiting mentors and mentees is a balancing act of obtaining the right people at the right time and for the right match. It needs adequate planning before reaching out to people. RAMP Volunteer Mentoring Handbook sets out how one to one matching of mentors to mentees is carried out in practice, with the following factors looked at carefully:

 04Age Concern North Tyneside (ACNT): Clear role descriptions and matching volunteers to activities

Age Concern North Tyneside (ACNT) recognise the need to ensure that volunteers become involved in the right area of activity for them and has evolved a good practice that is intended to achieve this. The main features of the practice are as follows:

 

 05Age Concern North Tyneside (ACNT): Diverse Range of Projects

Age Concern North Tyneside (ACNT) provides volunteering opportunities to a wide and diverse range of prospective volunteers, and recognises the need to offer opportunities that meet their own needs and the aims and aspirations of the volunteers. Seeking to have a diverse range of projects has been developed by ACNT into a good practice, the main features of which are as follows:

 

 06 CSV Volunteering Partners: Volunteering Opportunities that Benefit the Community

CSV Volunteering Partners run the Yu-act Project with the aim of increasing the number of young people involved in volunteering in Luton and South Bedfordshire, promoting volunteering as a fun way to get involved in something different. By introducing them to volunteering it also aims to encourage young people to move on to other volunteering opportunities.

The Yu-act Project believes that the volunteering activities should not only be useful to the volunteer, but also to the wider community. This concept has been turned into a best practice by Yu-act, and the main features are as follows:

 

 07CSV Volunteering Partners: Volunteer Opportunities Based on Young People's Wants and Interests

CSV Volunteering Partners run the Yu-act project with the aim of increasing the number of young people involved in volunteering in Luton and South Bedfordshire, promoting volunteering as a fun way to get involved in something different, and introducing young people to volunteering and encouraging them to move on to other volunteering opportunities.

CSV recognises that its volunteering opportunities need to be attractive to young people if they are to be encouraged to participate and has developed a good practice around the idea of volunteering opportunities based on what young people want or are interested in. The main features of this practice are as follows:

08 North Tyneside Voluntary Organisations Development Agency (VODA): Volunteer Challenges

North Tyneside Voluntary Organisations Development Agency, (VODA), provides training, information and support to voluntary organisations to promote the development of the voluntary and community sectors to achieve a Borough-wide community that is rich in volunteers.

Among other things, VODA organises a range of volunteer challenges, which have proved to be successful in involving young people. Many volunteer challenges have now been undertaken and it is now regarded as an area good practice, the main features of which are as follows:

 

Formal evaluation - this is a key part of the volunteers' input, and young people themselves have been involved in the design of forms

 09 Tyndale Voluntary Action (TVA): Innovative Project Work

Tynedale Voluntary Action, (TVA), is a local volunteer centre with a mission to promote enable, and develop volunteering throughout Tynedale, seeking to breakdown barriers and make volunteering accessible to all sections of the community. The Project aims to overcome the effects of isolation and deprivation by working with community groups and individuals in collaboration with similar organisation and local partnerships, to realise social inclusion.

TVA recognise that to achieve its aims it needs to offer volunteering opportunities that are appropriate and attractive to a wide variety of prospective volunteers; therefore an innovative approach to the creation of project work is essential, and seen as a good practice. This practice is exemplified by the following examples of innovative project work:

 

 

 10 WORLDwrite: Variety of Volunteering Opportunities

WORLDwrite is a charity whose objectives are to advance the education of young people by way of international exchanges and tours covering various subject areas, and interpersonal relationships and life skills. The charity does this by providing opportunities to develop and deliver events and programmes using their own experience and ideas.

Volunteering opportunities need to suit the need, interests, and aspirations of the individual volunteers and assist them in developing these flexibly, according to ability and need, avoiding an "off-putting" allocation of tasks that may be too hard or belittling in scope. It is necessary therefore to ensure that there is a variety of volunteering opportunities available through activities, projects, and events. This is regarded as a good practice, the main features of which are as follows:

 

 

 10Age Concern Islington: Clear Task Descriptions

Age Concern Islington is the primary voluntary sector body working for and with older Islington residents. Its work is about quality of life, seeking to ensure that older residents and their carers are able to maintain their self-respect and independence, and that they are able to enjoy freedom of choice and equal opportunities.

Age Concern Islington (ACI) manages a number of diverse projects and activities, and places a strong emphasis on finding a role that meets the potential volunteer's needs and interests.  For this reason they have developed a best practice of creating clear task descriptions, the main features of which are as follows:

 

 

 

 10 The Latin American Women's Rights Service, (LAWRS): Increasing organisational capacity

The Latin American Women's Rights Service, (LAWRS),  volunteering project was created in recognition of the difficulties that Latin American women face in entering the labour market in the UK.  The project targets refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, offering unpaid (voluntary), work experience in advice and guidance, interpreting, outreach and other areas identified by volunteers to match their skills.

The overall approach taken by LAWRS is about providing purposeful volunteering opportunities to enable LA women to use their new skills to contribute to improving the lives of other LA women experiencing disadvantage. LAWRS have specifically sought to strengthen their organisational capacity as a service provider by building on and increasing the skills of volunteers. The role undertaken by volunteers has enabled LAWRS to enhance existing information, advice, counselling and outreach support services. Taken together, these types of capacity building initiatives provide a model of organisational good practice, which includes:

 

 

 10 Poole Volunteer Centre: Senior Snippers Project

 

The Poole Volunteer Centre is a project of Poole CVS and runs the Older People’s Volunteer Project. The aim of the project is to involve more older people in Poole in volunteering, especially those who may face barriers to volunteering.

 

The aim of our Senior Snippers project was to fill the need for suitable volunteering placements for isolated, housebound older people.  

Volunteers provide a cutting service, which involves volunteers cutting out information of interest to local charities from magazines and newspapers.  The charities can then feed back this information to their service users.  The Senior Snippers project:

 

One partially sighted older lady came forward to help but her sight wasn’t good enough to do the cutting.  The project therefore offered her the role of phoning all the Snippers to help co-ordinate their efforts and give them some regular social contact

 10 Refugee Action: Good Quality Volunteer Placements

Refugee Action aims to assist refugees and asylum seekers (ASRs), in finding work, being less isolated from, and having better contact with their host community through volunteering activity.

The aim of Horizons project is to assist asylum-seekers and refugees into a wide range of good quality volunteering positions. Research, backed by the experience of Refugee Action, has shown that good quality unpaid work that provides supervision, support, assessment and training significantly improves refugees’ life chances. Good quality volunteer placements enable asylum-seekers and refugees to:

 

 

Horizons seeks to ensure that good quality volunteering positions are provided through a system of quality control. In particular Horizons makes sure that it only registers organisations that provide a minimum of support for their volunteers (e.g. full induction, nominated supervisor and regular supervisions). Horizons also aim to encourage and support placement organisations to develop their services, policies and procedures as a result of having an asylum-seekers and refugee volunteer for the first time.

 

 10 CSV Volunteering Partners: Volunteer Opportunities Based on Young People's Wants and Interests

CSV Volunteering Partners run the Yu-act project with the aim of increasing the number of young people involved in volunteering in Luton and South Bedfordshire, promoting volunteering as a fun way to get involved in something different, and introducing young people to volunteering and encouraging them to move on to other volunteering opportunities.

CSV recognises that its volunteering opportunities need to be attractive to young people if they are to be encouraged to participate and has developed a good practice around the idea of volunteering opportunities based on what young people want or are interested in. The main features of this practice are as follows:

 

 

 

Induction Training

01 Volunteer Centre Sutton: Volunteer training

The needs and capabilities of potential volunteers are recognised as key from the outset and so the Project takes great care throughout the recruitment, training, and matching process.

In relation to training and induction Volunteer Centre Sutton p provides all in-house volunteers with a Volunteer Handbook as part of a structured induction training programme and offers a variety of training provision relevant to specific roles, such as:

Health & Safety

The main purpose of volunteer training is to provide the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge, which will enhance the volunteer’s competence in their volunteering. Volunteer training should thus improve standards of service.

It demonstrates to volunteers that the Centre values their contribution by investing some of its resources in this way

It is one way of showing recognition to volunteers.

02 Home-Start Leeds: Structured induction process

Potential volunteers undertake a 10-week structured induction process prior to recruitment, linked to NVQ accreditation. An integral part of this induction process involves the detailed matching of participants to suitable families.

The Home-Start Leeds Preparation Course for all volunteers is mandatory and consists of 40 hours induction, spread over 10 weeks. A minimum 80% attendance is required, which has to include Child Protection with follow-up sessions offered for those missed. The aims of the induction preparation course are to:

There is an option to work towards preparation course accreditation at OCN level 1 & 2.

Induction packs and learning portfolios are provided free for all volunteers, with crèche facilities and lunch provided.

The courses are held at flexible times in the day & evening and are delivered in the community to help with access. The timing of courses takes into consideration school hours and term time. All training is delivered in a style that is accessible and sensitive to the needs of all participants, in particular considering the needs of those with difficulty accessing written English. In addition to the above:

03Multiple Choice: Induction programme

A comprehensive six-week training programme is provided to volunteers as part of their induction process. This is provided by the Volunteer Coordinator, peer mentors and paid staff (who provide induction for specific roles).

The induction process covers all the basic policies and procedures and includes specific training around roles.

Soo Nevison the former Development Manager of Multiple choice stressed the importance of potential volunteers understanding the boundaries that have to be maintained as a volunteer, this being a key aspect of the induction training. She also indicated that help is provided for those not able to fill the application form in. Given the high proportion of ex service users taken on as volunteers, she also stressed the importance of being able to manage people in and out of service.

The induction process covers the following areas.

Week one is designed to provide essential information needed to complete the training programme and covers:

Week Two covers e ssential training for volunteering ANYWHERE. These sessions are designed to let participants know what restrictions they will have to work within whilst volunteering at Multiple Choice. Topics covered are:

Week Three involves m ore work around some other essential policies that affect everyone at Multiple Choice. Also there is the chance to look at on-line training opportunities at Multiple Choice. Topics covered are:

Week Four is a week of fun designed to strengthen the bonds between fellow volunteers - both new and experienced!!

Week Five provides t ime to catch up with respective volunteers Mentors and relax over coffee and time to get confident in talking in front of groups. Topics covered include:

Week Six provides a n in-depth look at the roles on offer; some initial information about do’s and don’t’s in these roles. Understanding the relationship between the volunteer and the Volunteer Coordinator, how it will work and what other support volunteers will be offered.

Induction training is provided by the Volunteer Coordinator, peer mentors and paid staff.

Volunteers recently completing the induction process have indicated that they feel that from doing these six weeks they have learnt so much and even if they don’t stay they have now got a tool kit for the future. Comments made in relation to the induction included informative, brilliant, funny, lovely people, looking forward to the future and enjoyable.

The six-week induction course is treated as a part of the recruitment process, “to filter people out”. It was commented that many potential volunteers who have been service users “don’t actually understand a lot of what goes on behind the scenes when they are a client”. The approach of Multiple Choice is to provide clients with a safe and supportive environment without bothering them too much with how this is done, but when ex service users come to Multiple Choice to volunteer that need to learn how this process works in practice. As result some potential volunteers drop out. “They say, actually I didn’t realise it was that difficult”

This induction process has already been shared with similar agencies in Leeds.

The induction process is only one part of a continuous process of training of volunteers. In relation to training Soo indicated that this “never stops really” and should be seen as a process of personal growth. She commented, “I don’t like using the term professional development because that can be a bit scary, so it is growth. Volunteering is about starting with the individual and allowing an individual to get to where they want to be”. She stressed the importance of being flexible to the needs of individual volunteers and allowing volunteers to go at their own pace

 

04 The Envision (Environmental Vision): Training on youth led facilitation and support

The Envision (Environmental Vision), Project in London is an educational charity that aims to enable young people to realise their capacity to make a difference by supporting them to set up and run their own projects tackling issues of concern in their schools and local communities.

Adults volunteers are placed in pairs with young person teams. They receive training on youth-led facilitation and support from Envision over the year via a named Project Coordinator, networking and top up training events.

All adult volunteers receive two evenings induction/training before placement.

 

Training and Activities

 

01 Barnardos NE: Training and Personal Development Plans

The Party promotes training to volunteers and engages them in activities to raise their self-esteem and encourage them to realise that they have transferable life skills that they can use elsewhere in work.

Learning and Development is considered a high priority for the Project, particularly as Service users may have no formal qualifications. For some volunteers achievement of Open College accreditation may be the only chance they have to gain a “certificate” and be a significant personal achievement.

Personal development plans are put in place for those who want to use their volunteering as a means to develop career skills.

Part of “The Party’s” aims is to develop opportunities that take into account the needs of the individual. So instead of just advertising a particular opportunity The Party will develop a new opportunity to respond to a volunteer’s interest or need.

This care with matching volunteer to opportunity and creating specific opportunities ensures greater retention of volunteers.

Because young people don’t always come ready equipped with training qualifications and an understanding of the way social care organisations work, young people from Barnardo’s services have designed and compiled “Clued up”, by young people, for children and young people (aged 8 years plus). These are peer participation training programmes. This is a ground breaking, successfully piloted concept, and consists of the guidance and subsequent training coming from a young person/ child centred perspective.

Service users, volunteers and young workers were involved in designing this training and it will be delivered by young workers and volunteers in the near future.

This course is currently being accredited. Young people will deliver the accredited course to other young people, assessing their peers’ success and ensuring that some of the most disaffected young people gain an accredited qualification.

Although “Clued Up “is being accredited through the Open College Network, the Project is also looking into how young people’s developing skills could be recognised through the National Accreditation framework, the Youth Achievement Awards.

Barnardos’ does offer other more conventional training to staff and volunteers to enable them to participate in Volunteering. The organisation has an accredited training pack called “Working for Children”. The title reflects the belief that all volunteers can access this training, whether or not they work with children.

Barnardo’s have undertaken an assurance that this training will be made accessible to all volunteers by taking into account those with learning disabilities or physical or sensory impairments.

All Volunteers attend an induction programme.

02Hull Volunteer Centre - Diversity training events

Under GoldStar funding the Volunteer Centre is planning to run a number of Diversity Training events. The Centre previously ran one of these events in September 2005, with workshops covering:

Since this was held, the Diversity Training programme has been completely revamped, the first of these training days will be delivered in October 2006 followed by one in Spring 07 and Autumn 07. The training is designed to highlight a range of issues for those at risk of exclusion from volunteering and aimed at introducing these subjects to volunteer involving organisations.

General

 

01 Richmond CVS: Training and Education

A key element is the delivery of high quality training and induction.

WinG provides an initial taster training day followed by a 10 week training programme for all volunteers, covering all aspects of decision-making roles in the community and ICT training. This training is delivered by two highly qualified project staff.

Although there is a lot of training material already developed in relation to supporting volunteers and management issues, the project identified a lack of developed training material specifically aimed at diverse groups of women to get them into decision-making, so project staff decided to write this from scratch.

The Open College Network (OCN) has accredited the WinG training programme units “Power & Diversity” and “Participation in Local Governance” at Levels 2 and 3, offering external confirmation of the quality of the training provided as well as formal recognition of the volunteers’ achievements.

35% of volunteers have gained the accredited qualification through participating in the WinG training. The course has been externally assessed by OCN London, who highlighted the strengths of the project and praised its inclusive delivery and consistently high standards.

One of the innovations of the Project is the creation of specialist IT training. This recognises that the ability to use computers – particularly email and Internet - is an essential skill for those seeking a governance role.

The project stresses the importance of flexibility in terms of delivery and support tailored to individuals needs.

In order to cater for women with school age children the project made a commitment to teach between 10-2.30 so participants got an hour either side to drop off and collect their children. The project also pays for childcare for pre-school children, for carers, and for transport and in special circumstances for taxis. One of the key challenges for the project has been finding affordable and accessible venues (The project has a limited budget).

Although there are dropouts from the programme, this is identified as mainly an issue at the “front end” of the programme, after which women usually stay the course. However, there have been some concerns with participants not completing project work. To address this a wide range of support has been developed.

The project tries to encourage volunteers by doing things like sample assignments so they can see the sort of thing they might want to aim for, having individual learning plans fairly near the beginning of the course so the trainer gets to know the individual learners and what their sticking points might be, where they might need support and what might make them more comfortable. Volunteers have emails and telephone numbers of key staff and even the trainers’ mobile numbers. At the end of the course a “coursework surgery” is held in order to resolve any issues. If particular volunteers haven’t started coursework the trainer tries to work out a plan of action. Volunteers are encouraged to form coursework networks, to communicate and support each other. This might involve a more social element, as volunteers often go to each other’s houses and have a coffee or a glass of wine and talk.

02CAN Footsteps Basic Drugs Awareness Course

CAN has a 30 year history of designing and delivering high quality training. This has included training undertaken on behalf of Drug Action Teams, national businesses, Drug and Alcohol Services, Probation Departments, Counselling Agencies, Primary Care Trusts, Young Peoples Services ad Social Care and Health.

Among other courses, CAN runs a 1 day Basic Drugs awareness course, designed for people new to working with substance use issues.

The aim of this course is to provide an overview of the effects of drugs on the individual, their relationships and society.

Following completion of the course, participants:

Other courses run include:

James Prochaska and Carlo Diclemente developed a user friendly Model of Change in 1982. The model is unique in that it sees change in human behaviour as being cyclic. Part of the cycle may include relapse. (http://www.habitsmart.com/motivate.htm)

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) aims to increase the availability, capacity and effectiveness of treatment for drug misuse in England.

03The Prince’s Trust: Training

Successful recruitment and training depends on many factors. The Prince’s Trust makes a particular point about being explicit from the outset about the aims of the project, both in terms of clients and volunteers. It also ensures that there is flexibility in the delivery of training, using evenings and weekends. New volunteers in training are given a binder with the policies of the Prince’s Trust that are subsequently used as an operating manual.

All prospective volunteers undertake three induction sessions. Each session lasts about 3 hours. The sessions are structured as follows:

These induction sessions are run when there are sufficient prospective volunteers, in practice about every six weeks. Flexibility of delivery of induction training is highlighted as particularly important. In practice most sessions are run in the evening because of people who are employed, but some weekend training is also undertaken. Volunteers are consulted before the times for training are set in order to identify when the majority of the group would like to have training.

During these sessions the staff trainer observes how volunteers interact with each other.

Following the three induction sessions a one to one session is undertaken to determine if volunteering is right for the prospective volunteer.

There is no fixed time to complete the induction process, but this is tailored to the needs of each individual, depending on when they are ready.

Once CRB forms are returned these are evaluated and may have an influence on the choice of activities undertaken. Issues arising on the CRB check may not stop a volunteer participating but may mean certain activities are not suitable.

Prior to volunteers undertaking one to one mentoring the Trust considers it very important that volunteers attend group sessions with young people.

Use of a ‘buddying’ approach is utilised with prospective mentors, which is identified as a particularly useful way to transfer skills form experienced mentors to other volunteers.

 

03 SCAN: Volunteer Handbook

SCAN is a young person-led charity in Newcastle that aims to grow the amount of young volunteers active in the community, and to develop new areas of working in collaboration with the local community. It also acts as a referral service to over 200 community groups and charities in the North East. We have been working in conjunction with our partners to organise and develop fully inclusive new short-term and part time volunteering opportunities that will work with young people from a low achieving demographic.

Providing volunteers with a handbook is clearly good practice, and at SCAN this practice includes the following features:

 

03 The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust (WWT):Training

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust (WWT) exists to create a sustainable future for wildlife and people.  Work is wide ranging and falls under three goals: creating and enhancing havens for wildlife; standing up for wildlife; and reducing our ecological footprint.  Volunteering is fundamental in enabling WWT to achieve its goals.

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust provide training to appeal to as many different volunteers as possible but with the common goal that all volunteers will be able to access the work for which they’ve volunteered and also that, on a personal level, their skills have increased for any future environmental activity they may pursue:

 

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