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

Home

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

GoldStar Projects

Good Practice Toolkit

Ambassador Bank

Volunteer Case Studies

Other Useful Information

Snapshots


Project	Description
Carlisle CVS	Helping voluntary groups in Carlisle to share ideas and good practice

Carlisle CVS aims to develop voluntary organisations within the City and District of Carlisle, support existing voluntary organisations in their growth, liaise between voluntary organisations and statutory bodies, and enable representation of the voluntary sector to statutory bodies and local Government. The main objectives that Volunteer Centre Carlisle aims to achieve are the 6 core functions set by Volunteering England, which are brokerage, marketing volunteering, good practice development, develop volunteering opportunities, policy response and campaigning and strategic development of volunteering.

Carlisle CVS recruit volunteers for volunteering in other organisations as well as for their own projects. Currently the CVS Outreach Programme, ‘Reach, recruit and retain’ involves seven volunteers, all of whom initially needed extra support due to their disabilities or anxiety problems. Volunteers are involved in the work of the CVS through Volunteer Get Togethers, which bring together all registered Volunteer Centre volunteers to meet and share volunteering experiences and ideas, and provide feedback on good practice issues.

Good practice in other organisations is encouraged and supported by Carlisle CVS. All organisations that register with the Volunteer Centre have to go through a registration process, which includes a one-to-one meeting to find out about their good practice. Any areas for improvement can then be identified and advice, support and information is provided. Ongoing support is available through the Volunteer Centre, Carlisle Good Practice Guide When Involving Volunteers, a library of best practice publications and current monthly good practice email bulletin. In addition, awareness raising is done through meetings, newsletters and Carlisle CVS Volunteer Co-ordinators network meetings.

Volunteers are recruited from a wide range of backgrounds, and the outreach project aims to recruit volunteers from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, e.g. disabled people, people who live in rural or deprived areas, people with no qualifications or ex-offenders (N.B There are very few people from BME communities in Carlisle and district). This is achieved by very targeted recruitment, through talks, presentations and workshops and working in partnership with organisations such as Rathbones, Connexions and the Probation Service. Outreach sessions are held at Community Centres in deprived and socially disadvantaged areas, drop in sessions at mental health clinics, and talks through the Ability First programme.

Publicity and promotional materials are also targeted at particular groups such as the disabled, and those with no qualifications, again working in partnership with referral agencies and local media. Many promotional materials are created by volunteers from the target group, for example a Volunteering Presentation on Movie Maker was designed by a Rathbones placement and is now used to recruit new volunteers.

Back to Snaphots