Volunteering round up: May 2017

Posted on May 16, 2017 by Will Downs
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NCVO’s general election message: charities and volunteering make Britain great

Ahead of the general election on June 8, NCVO have set out how government can support people and charities to create a better society, as Karl outlines in his blog.

Our message is clear: charities and volunteering make Britain great. We have called on political candidates from all parties to recognise this and to work across sectors to support charities through five key principles.

As Kristen explains in her blog, volunteering is at the heart of much of our manifesto and we make a number of bold calls to make volunteering easier, more rewarding and more accessible.

We see this as the start of developing an agenda for change around volunteering and once the new government is in place this will influence our volunteering policy work and work with government for the next year and beyond. However, it’s an agenda we want you to work with us on to continue to shape. Read our full manifesto, let us know what you think and share your own ideas.

Volunteers Week 1-7 June 2017: You make the difference

How to get involved…

It’s just two weeks until Volunteers’ Week 2017, the annual event to celebrate the difference volunteers make to every community across the country!

We have over 250 events on our map so far- everything from barbecues to theatre productions- get your event on our map now! Everything you need for a successful event is in our resource pack, available on the Volunteers’ Week website.

Don’t forget to tweet us @NCVOvolunteers #volunteersweek to tell us how you’re celebrating and share your great photos with us to get them on our Volunteers’ Week 2017 Pinterest board.

Join our Twitter party

If you can’t hold an event during the week you can celebrate on social media by joining our Twitter parties on 1 June, 12.30–13.30 and 5 June, 14.30–15.30.

During this time organisations across the country will be tweeting to say thank you to their volunteers using #volunteersweek.

Celebrate your own volunteering and inspire others by taking photos of yourself using our banner and #ivolunteer to tell everyone why you volunteer. Why not decorate your workplace and get your colleagues together to do the same!

Free resources from NCVO

To mark the occasion, this year we are also providing free NCVO resources for the whole week, including:

Share Your Pledge Day

Also, on 7 June, the #iwill campaign are holding their annual Share Your Pledge Day to celebrate the difference young volunteers make when they get involved in social action. Find more in the Share Your Pledge Day comms pack

Almanac 2017 launched

This month also saw the highly-anticipated publication of the NCVO Civil Society Almanac 2017.

The Almanac brings together a huge amount of data to provide a comprehensive overview of the UK voluntary sector. As ever, there is some fascinating stuff on volunteering trends. Joanna Stuart, Senior Research Officer, outlines the five key volunteering headlines on her blog.

If you are an NCVO member, you can also go to the members’ area of the Almanac website to download:

  • a PDF of the publication
  • the presentation from the launch
  • an additional slide pack of key findings

Department of Health VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance

NCVO is delighted to announce that we are part of the Department of Health’s new VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance. The alliance brings together a range of partners that will work closely with Department of Health, Public Health England and NHS England to support their work with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

The aim of the alliance is to support the transformation of health and care systems to promote equality and address health inequalities and help families and communities to achieve and maintain wellbeing. We will provide future updates of our work as part of the alliance, particularly in relation to work related to volunteering in health and care.

NCVO Annual Conference 2017: Leading with Purpose

On 20 April, over 600 delegates from across the sector joined us as we discussed what the future holds for the voluntary sector, and explored how you can lead your organisation with purpose. Read the full text of Sir Stuart Etherington’s state of the sector address, in which he calls for a bold approach to volunteering.

You can access slide decks from the day’s workshop sessions on our Annual Conference page, including from a workshop chaired by Kristen called What does the future hold for volunteering? Key trends and how you can lead your organisation to adapt its volunteering.

Upcoming training opportunities for you and your organisation

For more training dates, see our events listing page. Find out about our great membership benefits (including discounted training!).

 

Congratulatory corner

Finally, we want to say congratulations to all 15 organisations who achieved the Investing in Volunteers standard last month!

 

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Up until July 2018, Will supported NCVO’s policy work on volunteering development. His interests include the role of volunteering in public services and removing barriers to youth volunteering. He produced the monthly volunteering round-up blog and supported Volunteers’ Week.
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