These are challenging times and communities need to be resilient, pull their resources and work together. Organisations too are feeling a need to change, to create new partnerships, to work differently together to continue to meet their objectives. This is currently true in the statutory, private and in the voluntary and community sectors. Different ways of working, new initiatives are needed.
How to grow a volunteer
Most volunteering still happens at a local level. People want to volunteer either near where they live or near where they work. To keep people volunteering you need to give them a good experience. So recruiting volunteers is important and here new technology and social media are the future but the quality of the experience – the volunteer opportunity takes precedence if you want to grow volunteering. Here, the role of the local Volunteer Centre is pivotal.
Volunteer Centres provide local support for volunteering and their services have never been in greater demand. More people are turning to volunteering to effect the transitions they have to make through life in a complex and competitive world. Local voluntary organisations are increasingly being asked to support the delivery of local services. Communities are rediscovering their strength and potential when they work together to find solutions to their identified need.
The unique selling point of Volunteer Centres
Volunteer Centres have expertise in good practice in volunteer management, combined with:
- local knowledge
- local reach
- trust.
NCVO nationally accredits Volunteer Centres through the VCQA quality mark which embodies their USP through the five core functions of local volunteering support:
- Strategic engagement – engaging local networks and decision makers to keep volunteering flourishing and relevant
- Good Practice development – consistency in volunteering programmes
- Developing opportunities – improve the quantity, quality, and diversity of volunteering locally
- Voice – increase awareness of the issues impacting on volunteering
- Brokerage – Provide access to an effective and efficient brokerage service by matching individuals and groups interested in volunteering with appropriate opportunities in their local community
Putting the cart before the horse in the digital age
Successive governments have sought to grow volunteering through recruitment and we in the voluntary sector have been complicit in this strategy mainly because of funding imperatives. New technology is a powerful tool in attracting a new generation whose factory settings are digital but it’s what happens after recruitment that will grow volunteering sustainably.
We need new technology to enhance and facilitate the volunteer journey, but it is the volunteer experience which will make the difference. Here local support for volunteering is key. All organisations, national or local, existing new or emerging, need ongoing support to develop their local volunteer opportunities and programmes to reflect the changing needs, aspirations and diversity of local people.
Find out more
For more information on Volunteer Centres, you can contact me at john.carlin@ncvo.org.uk
John is NCVO’s volunteer centre support manager. He is responsible for NCVO’s strategy for maximising the impact and sustainability of Volunteer Centres and other local organisations in England. 
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