Volunteer Coordinator Forum – May 2019

This time round, we met at the Booth Centre, a day centre that offers advice, activities and support to homeless people in Manchester. It was great to meet in a space that was obviously thriving with activity.

We had many new faces at the forum many of whom were new to their role, this is one of the main reasons the Volunteer Coordinator Forums are so important. It allows people to build that network of support among those who share the same experiences. I hope that those who made connections will take time out of their busy schedules to meet for a coffee and share their experience of being new to the role or pass on advice from years of Volunteer coordination.

As always, there were many among the group who found recruiting volunteers a challenge. Happily for some it was a their volunteers had moved on to employment or positive developments in their lives - however, as much as you want the best for volunteers it does leave you with a volunteer shaped hole to fill.

If you're recruiting or will be recruiting shortly then do get in touch, in the meantime check out these top tips from Volunteering Matters and this list of organisations and Volunteer Centres you can advertise your roles with online in the Greater Manchester Area.
 

Volunteers' Week:

Top of the agenda was Volunteers' Week, which kicks off on the Saturday the 1st June.

I shared the booklet from our project-planning workshop, which was full of handy tips for increasing the impact of your activity during the week. I spoke about our certificate scheme of which there were 875 applications for volunteer thank you certificates, the Lord Mayor of Manchester is going to have a sore arm signing all those.

We have some of the wonderful Volunteers’ Week selfie frames, which we’re loaning out to organisations for their event. So if you would like one then do not hesitate to get in touch!

Everyone there had something going on during the week – including thank you BBQs, Music events, social media campaigns and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescues’ bubble blowing parade vehicle out on show. The Volunteer Centre will be trying to capture and share as much of this as possible during the week so keep up to date by following us on twitter and Facebook and make sure you share your activity with us using the hashtags below.

Make sure you upload your volunteer roles to the Volunteers’ Week website so people can find out what you are up to.

 

Volunteer Centre/Macc update:

Again, I mentioned our Skill Givers project, which has recently launched here at Macc, is great way to get some support to tackle that wish list of tasks you would love to do if only you had the time and skills at your disposal. So if your organisation helps get people active then you could definitely benefit from this project. Just get in touch with the project coordinator Hayley Lightfoot on [email protected] or 07912 259 255.

Opportunity Round up:

Finally, we talked about opportunities and resources that might be useful which are listed below:
 

• Co-op is creating an online platform to help communities co operate; and they’re doing it co-operatively.
   
• WOW Podcast – recommended by Laura Hamilton, Volunteering Consultant as a great resources for learning and development.
   
• The Ticket Bank: for charities and community organisations that want to improve access to the arts for their service users; or as a reward for their service users/beneficiaries. Keen to work with anyone that supports individuals facing barriers to attending events and who are less likely to have engaged in arts and cultural activities.
   
• Inspire at HOME: £1 tickets available to people who wouldn't ordinarily be able to visit. It is available to charities, voluntary organisations and community groups within the Greater Manchester region.
   
• NCVO National Volunteering Forum - 15th May
   
• Studio Graphene want to build apps for charities and good causes
   
• Free space at the The Old Bank, NOMA - A bookable event space that is free to anybody that is working to make Manchester an even more interesting place to be.
   
• Volunteering leadership Assessment and recommendation tool from Volunteering New Zealand
   
• Training:
  
  Recruiting and Managing Volunteers
  
  Trustee roles and responsibilities 
  
  Assertive Communication
  
  Managing difficult conversations with staff
  
  Gathering Stories
   

A big thank you to Bella at the Booth Centre for hosting the VCF and we look forward to joining Annabelle at the Red Cross in July.

Our Volunteer Coordinator Forums are open for any volunteer organisations working in Manchester City so make sure you register ASAP.