VOLUNTEERING DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT
Substantial experience in Volunteering, gained and practiced for over 22 years, in:
· The development & management of volunteering and Volunteering Programmes.
· Identifying and developing Volunteering roles and promoting Volunteering opportunities.
· The recruitment, induction, training, support & recognition of volunteers.
· Policy development, promotion, and training regarding volunteering good practice, health & safety and legal issues associated with volunteering.
· Advising and supporting groups, organisations and individual workers regarding Volunteering issues, good practice, legal requirements, management, etc.
· The recruitment, induction, training, support & supervision of paid staff, volunteers and student placements.
· Recording, monitoring, evaluation & reporting on volunteering numbers, activity, outcomes, impact and regarding financial reporting to funding bodies.
· Training needs/skills identification; development, management, administration and delivery of extensive volunteer and external training.
For 20 years, I was involved with ‘Leicestershire AIDS Support Services’ (LASS), a major local care, support, advocacy, information & training charity that supported some of the most marginalised, disadvantaged and discriminated people, particularly instrumental in:
· The overall creation & development of the organisation and particularly its successful Volunteering & Training functions, initially as a Volunteer & Management Committee member for 2 years and then employed for 18 years, becoming a key, influential & senior employee, public representative & respected trainer and volunteering development manager, receiving ‘Honorary Life Membership’.
· Creating, administrating, managing, co-ordinating and continually reviewing & developing an extensive and well-respected Volunteering Training, Development & Support Programme involving and supporting over 500 volunteers, with its quality being recognised by being East Midlands Regional ‘Make A Difference’ Volunteering Award Winners; successfully gaining national ‘Investing in Volunteers’ accreditation; and praised in national research regarding staff/volunteer retention and measures to respond to stress and avoid ‘burn-out’.
· Organising many volunteering recruitment events, promotions and particularly Volunteer Training Programmes, including a total of 15 full-weekends (Sat/Sun); 20 evening programmes (involving around 10-12 sessions each); 10 daytime programmes (involving around 6-8 full days each); as well as regular ongoing training sessions, support groups, and events.
· Developing and providing induction and comprehensive initial & ongoing training and support to develop volunteers, especially as effective ‘Befriending’, ‘Mentoring’, ‘Support’, ‘Awareness-raising’, ‘Information providing’, ‘Fundraising’ and ‘Reception’ volunteers; and also ‘Training the Trainer’ sessions to enable others to represent the organisation.
· Identifying, developing and recruiting student placement opportunities within the organisation, liaising with Universities, and being Practice Teacher & Supervisor for many student placements from Police Training; Youth & Community and Social Work courses.
· Developing, administrating, organising and managing an extensive, well-attended and evaluated varied external/public training programme for Leicestershire & Rutland of over 50 training courses a year for a total of over 17,000 participants from community groups, schools & universities, employers, police, prisons, probation, hostels, hospitals, local authorities and health & social care staff; in addition to specific sessions ‘in-house’ for the Volunteers & Staff from groups & organisations from all Sectors.
· Being pro-active in identifying, initiating, developing and delivering training, awareness-raising and joint working to support volunteering & service-provision, including regarding HIV/AIDS; Hepatitis; TB; Sexual Health; Black & Minority Ethnic Communities; Equality, Diversity & Disability Discrimination; Asylum Seekers/Refugees; Women, Children & Families; legal & good practice issues; and related to health, social care and service provision; particularly in partnership with medical staff and many groups & organisations.
o “Your support in providing the TB sessions has proved invaluable for us because attendees on your courses have been from such diverse & useful professional backgrounds. Thanks so much for all your hard work”. Clinical Nurse Manager, Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland TB Service (Leicester City PCT)”.
o “You have made an enormous contribution to the welfare of those affected by HIV in Leicestershire and will be missed. I hope we don't lose your expertise completely. I've enjoyed working with you. All the very best for the future. Senior Consultant Infectious Diseases, Leicester Royal Infirmary”.
o “This was the first of many workshops for Home Care. Gordon has delivered the training at the right (perfect) level to address issues within our service area (regarding knowledge, attitudes and health & safety). As the Lead Officer involved in setting up this training, I am delighted with the start. Well done Gordon”. Lead Officer, Leicester City Council, Home Care Service”.
· Developing & implementing Monitoring & Evaluation systems; collating evidence; and producing regular output, outcomes, targets & impact reports, especially for funding bodies.
· Facilitating many sessions, meetings and groups, helping others to review; recognise needs; develop knowledge, understanding, work plans/strategies, finding ways to put things into action, and supporting each other.
· Managing development & achieving PQASSO 'Quality Assurance' recognition.
· Devising and implementing marketing, promotion, press releases & extensive media work.
· Partnership working and multi-agency training, service provision, awareness-raising, policy and campaigns, including regarding ‘World AIDS Day’; ‘World TB Day’; wider poverty work through the national ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign (and later the ‘Leicester Make Poverty History Group’) being ‘founder’ partners of both; regarding the ‘Earth Summit’ in a multi-agency partnership called ‘Globeshare’; and with press & media, schools & colleges, etc.
· Developing and carrying out an action-research study, involving detailed interviews with people living with HIV about their personal experiences of service provision to influence quality and availability of services which was used as an advocacy tool and shared with the NHS ‘Director of Public Health’ to highlight deficiencies in medical care to improve how services were provided.
· Organising a networking National Conference to provide new information and highlight new and developing issues & concerns, especially relating to Women and HIV, following a 15-day study tour of ‘New York City’, USA, with 3 invited community activist female speakers from USA.
· Developing ‘Open College Network' accreditation of Volunteering Programme; supporting & assessing students; and being external moderator for other ‘Open College Network' programmes.
For three years, I also worked as ‘Youth Volunteer Development Manager/Project Co-ordinator’ for the vinvolved team covering Leicestershire & Rutland, part of v, the national youth volunteering programme, promoting, developing & increasing the quality, quantity, promotion & diversity of volunteering opportunities, placements & participation for 16-25 year olds, particularly:
· Project Co-ordination, networking, representation, and devising of project policies & procedures.
· Recruiting five staff; directly supervising one; and overseeing & co-ordinating the project team.
· Devising, overseeing, managing and reporting on the £600,000 project budget.
· Identifying, developing & promoting 5240 short-term & 4531 part-time Volunteering Opportunities (exceeding our funding targets by over 3000); and also 119 full-time volunteering opportunities with a wide range of groups, clubs & organisations.
· Providing information, advice, support and training, including on Employment, Health & Safety, Safeguarding & Volunteering policies, procedures & good practice, making sure legal requirements were understood, for a wide range of groups, organisation, employees and volunteers.
· Planning, overseeing, monitoring & reporting quarterly/yearly on outputs, outcomes, impact & evaluation targets.
· Developing systems to evaluate volunteering, training and services; recording, processing and reporting the results/findings.
· Devising, constructing and processing an on-line evaluation survey involving 130 volunteers and representatives from 80 groups and organisations.
· Creating, developing, promoting, administrating, facilitating and providing training for a new County-wide multi-agency Forum, holding five half-day meetings bringing together over 100 people from more than 70 groups & organisations throughout Leicestershire & Rutland, with over 150 contacts in the email information Network with me providing regular email newsletters.
· Developing, promoting & encouraging recognition and celebration of Volunteers, including awards, certificates and ‘Youth Volunteering’ & ‘Sports Volunteering’ Celebration Events, to assist volunteering involvement, development and retention.
· Managing the achievement of the ‘REACH' quality standard for youth participation from the national ‘Youth Action Network'.
· Creating & implementing Employment, Health & Safety, Safeguarding and Volunteering policies, procedures & good practice, making sure all legal requirements were met.
· Developing publicity, promotion, website development & management.
Previously, I worked as a ‘Volunteering Development Officer’ at ‘Leicester Volunteer Bureau’, involved in recruiting, interviewing, placing, and supporting volunteers; identifying volunteering opportunities; encouraging volunteer involvement through talks and presentations; and advising and assisting groups and organisations to involve volunteers, particularly young unemployed people and those on ‘Employment Training’ programmes.
For many years, I have been an accredited multi-agency trainer for the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland 'Safeguarding Adults' initiative, enabling those who work with ‘vulnerable adults’ to gain a good insight and understanding about safeguarding, adult protection, policy, procedures and legislation; and ways to reduce risk & create a safer environment.
Through being a designated ‘Health & Safety Officer’, responsibility for the development of health & safety policy, procedures & risk assessment; and the provision of information & training around health & safety issues, including lone working and personal safety with adults and young people.
I have also worked as a freelance trainer/consultant, including for ‘Nottingham City Council’; Rotherham Borough Council’; ‘Nottingham AIDS Information Project’; Charnwood Community Council’; ‘Busy Bees Consultancy’; ‘Arden Films’; and ‘Coleshill School’.
KNOWLEDGE OF BEST PRACTICE IN VOLUNTEERING AND DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION OF POLICIES, PROCEDURES & GOOD PRACTICE:
Through my many years of specific Volunteering work, I have developed a substantial knowledge of good practice and production of policies & procedures; been responsible for development & implementation; and also for enabling other groups & organisations to improve what they do, including:
· Providing information, training, advice & support on all matters of volunteering for a wide range of groups & organisations to help develop volunteering opportunities; good practice; understand & improve safeguarding; recognise & reduce barriers; improve involvement/retention; identify and become more successful in funding applications; and to develop and promote beneficial volunteering opportunities.
· Developing volunteering policies, procedures & good practice guidelines/checklists, making sure all legal requirements were followed and promoting Good Practice in volunteering.
· Devising an extensive range of Policies & Procedures & Leaflets, Booklets & Articles (often having to clearly present complex medical & legal information), including for Social Services, NHS and Local Authorities.
· Developing workplace policies, procedures, risk assessments and also training for volunteers/paid staff regarding employment; Health & Safety; Personal Safety; Lone Working; Display Screen Equipment Use; Manual Handling; COSH; Safe Systems of Working; First-Aid and Infectious Diseases; Workplace Stress, Data Protection Act, Reception staff, etc.
· Developing and providing five meetings of a ‘Youth Volunteering Forum’ for Leicestershire & Rutland to provide information and training (including on reducing barriers in volunteering; increasing funding; and developing volunteering opportunities) to support Volunteering, promote good practice and develop more appropriate volunteering opportunities.
· Being involved in the development & promotion of 'Sports Volunteering' and involvement in County-wide sports partnership/strategy work, particularly with ‘Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport’, Local Authorities, School Sports Partnerships, National Governing Bodies, etc.
BARRIERS TO VOLUNTEERING, EMPLOYMENT AND PARTICIPATION; AND INFLUENCES REGARDING VOLUNTEER RETENTION:
There are many ‘barriers’ that can influence ‘volunteering’, as well as gaining employment or succeeding in life, including:
· Having no qualifications or specific work experience.
· Experiencing health problems or disabilities.
· Drug, alcohol and substance misuse.
· Experience of domestic violence.
· Having a criminal record.
· Being homeless or living in chaotic environments.
· No jobs being nearby or lack of knowledge about vacancies or being able to access them.
· Lack of transportation – own or public.
· Being in or from ‘care’.
· Longer-term unemployment – causing de-motivation and lack of routine.
· Early/teenage parenthood – and lack of childcare.
· Having ‘special educational needs’, such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, etc.
· Problems with literacy and numeracy.
· Lack of confidence and low self-esteem – especially affecting job applications/interviewing.
· Educational dissatisfaction, ‘exclusion’, etc.
· Being a young ‘carer’.
· Becoming ‘institutionalised’ and/or dependent upon others.
· Having experienced prejudice/discrimination/bullying.
· Becoming ‘stuck’ in familiar pattern of existence/life; scared of ‘change’, etc.
There are also various factors influencing the successful retention of volunteers, including:
· Volunteers understanding the organisation’s mission and vision and being connected to it.
· Beneficial Volunteering roles & clear understanding of what’s needed, what’s involved, etc; and volunteers understanding their role and being able to cope with it (creative role development, appropriate recruitment, induction, training, adequate support, support volunteers/mentors, etc).
· Feeling appreciated and being thanked (verbal, cards, newsletters, public events, celebrations, ‘National Volunteers Week’, etc).
· Seeing they are making a difference (newsletters, sharing impact publicly, celebrations, updates, etc).
· Having opportunities for development (relevant training, updates, courses, awards, qualifications, becoming a Volunteering Champion or local Co-ordinator or similar ‘leadership’ possibility, etc).
· Receiving public and/or private recognition and/or Celebration.
· Being recognised as an ‘individual’ (equal opportunities, respect, birthday cards, personal contact, etc).
· Having their time & involvement recognised (appropriate internal/external certificates & awards, etc).
· Having a sense of belonging & being part of a team.
· Being listened to, feeling involved in the process & decision-making, asked for feedback, etc.
· Being communicated with regularly & effectively (personally, groups, newsletters, social networking, etc).
· Having expenses paid so not out of pocket financially.
· Provision of fun, social & support events.
· Recognising all volunteers have a ‘life cycle’, personal circumstances can change – what support can be offered? How can involvements be adapted so they can still be involved in an alternative way, etc? Exit interviews? References being offered? Final ‘thank you’? ‘Honorary Life Membership’ if appropriate?
My work supporting volunteer-involving organisations has regularly focused upon ‘barriers’ and what can help or hinder involvement, including providing training, particularly through the ‘Youth Volunteering Forum’ for groups & organisations in Leicestershire & Rutland, that I was instrumental in developing.
Page Last Updated - 28/07/2011
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