We have recently completed a piece of work capturing learning on sustainability strategies developed by voluntary organisations who have recruited volunteers supported through the Department of Health Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund. Three issues struck us most forcibly.
A personal, practical and intensely local experience
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As a researcher with an interest in volunteer roles in health, I am often asked for evidence of impact. This request usually comes not from the sceptics, but from people engaged in supporting volunteering or who want to explore the added value of volunteers in health and social care. In other words, we want research to back up the...
Outreach means reaching beyond or reaching further than something or somebody – going the extra mile. Your audience are groups of people who cannot or are not accessing services and those in need of more support than mainstream services can provide. Successful community outreach works with those in greatest need and engages them to a degree...
Volunteering works – many people who volunteer or work with volunteers know this intuitively. They have seen people grow in confidence as volunteers, they have witnessed volunteers connect with people through that human touch and they have seen what health and social care services can achieve where there is a cohort of active volunteers on...
Over 15 years ago I sat in my first official training session delivered by the Institute of Fundraising. They taught me their mantra “charities exist because donors want a problem solved."
I was challenged by it at the time, with lots of internal debate around the needs of beneficiaries, or the fact that as charities we are often...
