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Good Practice







Recruitment and Selection
Providing information to prospective volunteers
Targeting recruitment and engagement activity
Supporting volunteers at the recruitment stage
Recruiting service users
General

Providing information to
prospective volunteers

01 Bolton Lads and Girls Club: Mentor Portfolio Handbook

In addition to a range of clear recruitment procedures potential volunteers are provided with a Mentor Portfolio Handbook.

The Mentor Portfolio Handbook gives lots of relevant information to the organisations Mentors, including:

The portfolio also has space for training notes and useful contact details, etc. This is given to the new Mentors at the first training session, Induction to Mentoring.

If for any reason Bolton Lads and Girls Club feel an individual is not suitable as a Mentor, or to be a volunteer within other sections of work, the organisation has a procedure in place. This may be for several reasons, such as disclosure of criminal offence, conflicting information on receipt of CRB form, oppressive or wrong attitude etc. This is discussed with the Mentoring Project Manager, and a confidential letter is written explaining why the volunteer is not suitable for the role of mentor and inviting them to contact the Project to discuss further. Any response to this letter is then followed through the grievance procedure, which is included in the Mentor Handbook.

02 Manchester Event Volunteers (MEV): Volunteer Handbook

A handbook has recently been developed which explains the service in detail. This includes policies (e.g. equal opportunities, code of conduct), procedures and contact details. This will be issued to new volunteers during an initial induction session and will include the following sections:

  1. FAQ on things you need to know before you start volunteering

  2. Taking part in events

  3. Your privacy and happiness

  4. Use of personal information

  5. Volunteering and employment / benefits

  1. FAQ on things you need to know when working at events
  2. Volunteer Health and Safety
  3. Reporting lines
  4. Personal Injury
  5. Personal Belongings / Valuables

  1. Do’s and Don’ts
  2. Personal Safety
  3. Code of Conduct
  4. Working with people with disabilities

  1. Equal Opportunities
  2. Health and Safety in detail
  3. Policies
  4. Reward and Recognition for Volunteers
  5. Contact details

 

02 Women's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre in Cornwall, (WRSAC): Clear Policies

The Women's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre in Cornwall, (WRSAC), delivers accessible, reliable, and effective support services for women who have experienced rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence.

The nature of the work of the Centre means that it is essential that its policies are clear, and the commitment to this aim is seen as a good practice, the main features of which are as follows:

 

02 Refugee Action:Volunteer Role Descriptions

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.

Refugee Action's Horizon Project based in Manchester has identified the importance of clear Volunteer Role Descriptions as a good practice that will improve the effectiveness of its operations. The main features of this best practice are:

 

 

 

Targeting recruitment and
engagement activity

01 121 Youth Befriending: Recruiting hard to reach volunteers

The ability to attract potential volunteers from hard to reach communities is critical to the success of the Project. Therefore time and effort is spent being seen and heard in these communities in order to win their confidence, and this effort is sustained over time. Similarly, where target communities have a focus around places of worship the Project seeks to win the support of respected elders and community leaders/clerics.

The Project has a new campaign during 2006/2007 working with an advertising company donating their time ‘in kind’. The new campaign is ‘Heroes’. We will bring out the hero in you!’

121 Youth Befriending has a bespoke website outlining different activities, which provides information on overall activities with different projects, together with specific activities undertaken through the Zero Project. This includes a Zero Project worker profile accessible in four languages, other than English, these being Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu and Chinese.

Radio and volunteer centres across west Kent are targeted at known areas of high ethnic population and social deprivation.

Recruitment is via media, local radio, magazines and papers. Leaflets are distributed locally in a range of venues, including libraries, railway stations, shops and leisure centres. Talks are given to local groups.

Volunteers are screened using enhanced CRB checks, doctor’s references, two personal references and a social services check. The volunteer is given a job role document and training is completed in their own time. Volunteers are interviewed at the beginning and end of this process, before being matched with a young person.

In response to an initial enquiry, 121 Youth Befriending send information, an application form asking for relevant personal information, 121 leaflets and a latest copy of the AGM report.

The first interview takes place in the prospective volunteers home, meeting not only the volunteer, but also any family members who live there. During this interview the Project Co-ordinator examines the applicants history, attitude to young people, relationships they have had with young people and work/volunteering record.

Face to face training is undertaken to ensure child protection and policy procedures are understood. Further training, such as Endings and Exits are provided with ongoing support in relation to training and reading materials available to all potential volunteers.

The project works in partnership with the Racial Equality Council, Denton Multi Cultural groups, the local churches and temples via ethnic minority groups.

Once satisfactory checks and training have been undertaken the volunteer is ready to undertake a final interview with the project co-ordinator before match up with a young person begins.

02 Volunteer Centre Westminster: Dedicated Outreach workers

The Centre targets specific groups of volunteers (Those from the BME community, those with learning disabilities, those at risk from being homeless). In each case a dedicated outreach worker is assigned.

The Developing Volunteering Opportunities for People with Learning Disabilities Project was established in 1996 and is managed by a part time Development Officer, who works with an advisory group of volunteers with Learning Disabilities, The Happy Group, to help ensure that the project is user led. The project aims to make volunteering more accessible to people with learning disabilities throughout the process of obtaining a voluntary placement and during the first few months of working as a volunteer.

The Development Officer offers support to potential volunteers in many ways, including the use of sensitive interviewing techniques, providing accessible information on volunteering, empowering the volunteer to choose from a variety of opportunities, offering tasters of voluntary work, giving support in completing application forms, taking up references, providing voluntary job coaching and careful matching to appropriate types of work.

The project has enabled many people to successfully pursue voluntary work in a variety of placements including: working 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.

In recent years the project has produced an accessible 6 monthly newsletter with the help of its users to promote the achievements of volunteers and to encourage other people with learning disabilities and organisations to get involved with the scheme.

The Refugee Project was established in April 2003, with a Development Officer appointed in June 2003. The role of the Development Officer and other staff includes:


03 Volunteer Centre Sutton: Engaging volunteers with additional support needs

Volunteer Centre Sutton has been successful in attracting resources to enable engagement with volunteers who have additional support needs, and with older people. This includes a Tenants Garden Maintenance Scheme where volunteers with additional support needs provide gardening services for 300 older, vulnerable tenants, plus the setting up of a new Social Enterprise to enable volunteers with additional support needs to participate in supported horticultural volunteering and training.

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

04 Thirsk, Sowerby and District Community Care Association: Recruitment of volunteers within a rural area

The Thirsk, Sowerby and District Community Care Association has successfully recruited and trained a diverse range of local volunteers from this predominantly rural area.

A wide range of different recruitment techniques has been employed in order to engage different volunteers. This has included use of:

The Thirsk, Sowerby and District Volunteer Bureau (part of the Community Care Association) information leaflet sets out the areas that are covered during the initial interview process, including:

05 Richmond CVS: Targeting volunteers

Reaching the target potential volunteers is a critical challenge for WinG. The project has built an effective network of partnership arrangements with BME, refugee, disability, carer and lone parent support organisations to enable a grassroots recruitment campaign to be implemented. The project is also made attractive to people with no qualifications by having approved learning provider status from the Open College Network, and policies to support learners from all backgrounds. The project also tackles language barriers for those from BME and refugee communities through the use of volunteer translators.

The origins of this project was the recognition that women were under-represented in governance roles - a situation addressed in a Richmond CVS report in 2000. The Report – and other research by the Fawcett Society - noted that only 2% of participants in governance were from BME sources. The cause was taken up by Richmond CVS’s CEO who drove the project and conceived the idea of a three borough approach with Richmond, Merton, and Kingston.

The Project is developing relations with organisations that deal with those from socially deprived backgrounds, but also stresses that the intake of volunteers needs to have a cross section of the population including those from well-educated backgrounds.

The project identifies the need to constantly nurture contacts with the local voluntary sector, as well as contacts in organisations such as local authorities, business organisations, (useful for getting female mentors), and the volunteers themselves.

WinG proactively delivers outreach events to maximise the diversity of volunteers – including work with disability, BME and refugee organisations. WinG’s promotional materials and website meet best practice in accessibility, and stress the inclusivity of the project. Understanding diversity is also covered in the accredited training delivered to volunteers. Further, the WinG team all work within the Richmond CVS “Equal Opportunities” policy, and have developed policies on the involvement of volunteers from diverse backgrounds on the WinG project as part of the projects accreditation with OCN.

Since October 2003, 145 volunteers have been recruited, ahead of the original planned delivery schedule for the project. A wide range of recruitment methods have been deployed, including: poster and postcard campaigns, community outreach sessions, roadshow events and media liaison. This has enabled people from diverse communities to access information on the project and become engaged as volunteers.

06 Communities United Project (CUP)_Recruitment of non-traditional learners

The Communities United Project, on invitation from a community, develops tailor made initiatives to meet the demands and needs identified by local people. CUP provides a critical community development role, concentrating efforts within depived communities and providing support and resources to enable adult residents to develop constructive opportunities for local young people aged 8 to 16 years.

Volunteers recruited to Communities United Project are non-traditional learners. CUP uses the “hook” of sport to engage them in volunteering activities. Lesley Ste