News Articles
Equation receives Queen's Award for Voluntary Service
Congratulations to Nottingham-based domestic abuse, sexual violence and gender equality charity Equation for receiving The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. The QAVS is the highest award for voluntary groups and is the equivalent of the MBE. It is awarded to outstanding groups of volunteers whose level of initiative and impact are truly exceptional. The charity was nominated for the…
Is the person applying for your volunteer role allowed to do so?
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS writes... In our enthusiasm to involve new volunteers, we often say that we welcome anybody whose skills, interests and enthusiasm fit with the role that we are seeking to fill. However, there are a number of legal constraints on who we can allow to volunteer. There are also people who may think they are prevented from volunteering who are not…
Is It finally time to open up volunteer roles again?
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes... Six months ago, in August 2020, when the first wave of the pandemic seemed to be easing off and lockdown was lifted, I wrote a blog post asking Leaders of Volunteers to review their pre-lockdown opportunities. From where we are now, in March 2021, it is easy to see that I floated that idea too early. We…
Supporting online and remote volunteers
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes... Although online, remote or virtual volunteering is nothing new, over the past year (2020-2021) there has been a fantastic growth in the number of such opportunities and in the organisations offering them. Many Leaders of Volunteers have responded to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic by supporting remote teams.…
Is that new role really a volunteer role or should it be a paid job?
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes... I have long been an advocate of the principle that volunteers can do anything. As long as people with the right skills are involved in the right roles, this has always been true. The voluntary sector is made up of hundreds and thousands of small organisations with no paid staff where volunteers have to do everything. But…
Involving young volunteers
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes... Over many years, we've seen that young people have a passion and enthusiasm to be involved in their community and make a difference through volunteering. Here at the NCVS Volunteer Centre, we're keen to encourage Leaders of Volunteers to harness young people's desire to help and give back to their…
Reviewing your pre-lockdown volunteering opportunities
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes... The pandemic hasn't gone away but now that lockdown has eased, I am seeing a real determination from many Leaders of Volunteers to re-engage with their volunteers and harness the enormous amount of goodwill towards volunteers and volunteering that has come about as a result of the outbreak. Almost six months ago, at the start of…
Beyond promotion - the second step in the volunteer journey
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes... A very wise Leader of Volunteers once told me that it’s hard enough to get a volunteer to turn up once, but it’s far harder to get them to turn up for a second or third time. As Leaders of Volunteers, you put a lot of energy into attracting volunteers by creating great volunteer role profiles, superb social media posts and…
Volunteering by people with support workers
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes... Here at NCVS, we are passionate about volunteering and we constantly promote the benefits of volunteering. When we see that support workers are also suggesting volunteering to the people that they are supporting, we get really excited. So if you have a support worker or if you are a support worker, you may be interested to know more…
Volunteer Recruitment and Social Distancing
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS writes ... In my last message, I invited Leaders of Volunteers to think about how their volunteer programmes will adapt as we come out of lockdown. Several leaders have been in touch and we have discussed how volunteer recruitment can be safe, while still adhering to volunteering good practice. One way to do this is to slightly change the…
