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

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

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Project	Description
The Junction	Information and support for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people

The Junction is a registered charity based at Redcar in the Borough of Redcar & Cleveland. It provides a range of information and support services to around 400 young people a year up to the age of 25 who are vulnerable and/or disadvantaged as a result of their life circumstances, and who are in difficulty due to problems ranging from homelessness and substance misuse to physical or mental abuse. It aims to help by providing a range of free and confidential information and practical support services to enable the young people to make informed decisions for themselves. The charity develops and trains a support network of volunteers to work with young people and to further their personal development.

The Junction also has a contract with Social Services to deliver a support service for the young carers of Redcar & Cleveland that provides emotional, social and practical support to 120 young people aged 15 to 18 who have significant caring responsibilities for their parents and/or siblings.

The GoldStar Project is called Opportunities for Volunteering and it aims to add value to the existing work as well as creating new opportunities for volunteering and promoting good practice. It has been particularly successful in recruiting volunteers from disadvantaged and difficult backgrounds. Of the 64 volunteers recruited since September 2001, 15 have been disabled or had long-term illness, and 35 have had no formal qualifications. Innovative ways are found to reach target groups for example using schools to promote opportunities to lone parents.

The Project recognises the importance of guiding new volunteers into the recruitment process in a measured way. This means not overloading them with information on initial contact, and using existing volunteers to discuss their experiences with them. New volunteers also have the opportunity to “shadow” an experienced volunteer. It also means providing extra support for those with low educational attainment. This approach continues after volunteers begin active service by enabling them to limit their involvement to a level that they feel comfortable with, i.e. layers of involvement with encouragement but no pressure. In the end, the work of the Project is not suitable for all volunteers. Where this is the case, individuals are helped to consider other volunteering opportunities.

The approach to assessing the impact of the Project takes account of the value of an impartial view. The Project uses external consultants to measure impact, plus group evaluation sessions. There is also the acceptance that there is a gap in evaluating impact by failing to seek the views of other agencies about their performance.

The Junction takes a “bottom up” approach to policy development so that volunteers and clients have an input. An example of this is the recognition of the need to have a policy on the subject of sexual health. There is also a sub-committee whose function is to carry out a rolling review of policies on an annual cycle.

www.thejunctionredcar.com

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