News

Volunteer Friendly Award on Facebook

25 June 2014

We now have a page on Facebook. Please check it out and like and share.

https://www.facebook.com/volunteerfriendly

Volunteer Friendly Award in Highlands

25 June 2014

Congratulations to Birchwood Highlands who recently achieved Volunteer Friendly Award from Voluntary Action Lochaber.

Well done to all involved. Check out what other groups have achieved Volunteer Friendly Award in Highlands from our Highland's page.

Volunteer Friendly Award in Aberdeenshire

21 October 2013

Many essential services in Scotland’s communities are enhanced by volunteers. Volunteering also has a significant social value as it is increasingly being used to give excluded individuals the chance to build their confidence and skills through helping others.

It has never been more important for groups to be able to show how good they are at involving and managing their volunteers. Volunteer Friendly helps you to take a systematic look at what you do and how you do it.  It offers a flexible approach which allows your group to work at its own pace, with full support from the Volunteer Centre Aberdeenshire.

Read recent press coverage from Volunteer Centre Aberdeenshire

Latest Volunteer Friendly achievers in Aberdeenshire

16 September 2013

Grampian Opportunities has become the latest Aberdeenshire charitable organisation to receive a Volunteer Friendly Award at an event held at the St Mary’s Church Centre, Inverurie on Wednesday September 4.  

Grampian Opportunities (GO) supports disabled people and people with mental health problems to have choice and control in their lives.  GO supports its members to increase their confidence and skill levels by providing supported opportunities in admin/office work, marketing, advertising, finance, events organisation, journalism, IT, driving and much more.

GO also runs its own mentoring service –New Explorations Mentoring Service. This gives members the opportunity to explore issues and the chance to talk through experiences and problems with a trained mentor, who will support them to reach a decision with which they are happy and confident about.  GO has a number of other projects including Voices for Change (VfC) which is a peer-led project designed to give disabled people a voice and the chance to give their opinions on the services they receive.

The Volunteer Friendly Award is a simple, user friendly quality standard based on the Investing in Volunteers criteria and was devised by Volunteer Centre Dundee as a way to recognise and reward groups who are good at involving and supporting their volunteers. 

Leanne Smith, a volunteer with Grampian Opportunities (supported by Linda Singer, GO Development Worker) was given the task of putting together a portfolio of evidence which was then assessed by Volunteer Centre Aberdeenshire (VCA).

VCA’s Development Officer for Garioch & Formartine, Edith MacDonald said: “This Award is the perfect way for organisations to show their volunteers and the wider community that they recognise the importance volunteers make to their organisation.  GO has become the 7th organisation in Aberdeenshire to achieve the award and I wish to congratulate them on their achievement.  They are now part of a small but very select group”.

Linda Singer, GO Development Worker said: “We are delighted to have achieved the Volunteer Friendly Award, and all at GO wish to acknowledge the work done by Leanne in preparing the portfolio of evidence. 

“Ensuring our volunteers are supported and appreciated is of paramount importance to us, and we are thrilled to have received an award in recognition of this.”

Many essential services in Scotland’s communities are enhanced by volunteers.

Volunteering also has a significant social value as it is increasingly being used to give excluded individuals the chance to build their confidence and skills through helping others.

Source: Inverurie Herald

http://www.inverurieherald.co.uk/news/local-headlines/race-night-in-meldrum-1-3087064

Volunteer Friendly in the Borders - ChildLine

12 March 2013

The ChildLine Schools Service has become the second service in the Borders to receive a Volunteer Friendly Award, in recognition of its success in training, motivating and supporting its invaluable team of volunteers.

Pupils from P6 and P7 watched excitedly as some of the ChildLine Schools Service volunteers who have been helping them understand issues such as abuse and bullying received the Award at St Peter’s Primary School in Galashiels this week. The ChildLine Schools Service programme consists of assembly-style presentations by volunteers to the whole-year group, followed by workshops in individual classes.

Tony Brown, Area Co-ordinator for ChildLine Schools Service, said, “We rely on volunteers to deliver the service in school and help P6 and P7 children learn how to protect themselves from abuse and bullying. This Volunteer Friendly Award means a huge amount to us as it shows that we are giving our volunteers the recognition and treatment they deserve.”

ChildLine won the accolade after convincing assessors from Volunteer Centre Borders (VCB) that it follows best practice towards its volunteers, and producing a folder of material evidence to back this up. Award winners must demonstrate that they manage their volunteers properly, treat them fairly, train and support them, offer them the opportunity for personal development and celebrate their contributions to the organisation.  The first organisation to win a Volunteer Friendly Award in the Borders was Citizens Advice Bureau Peebles in December 2012.

With the voluntary sector growing daily, management of volunteers is a subject increasingly on the agenda, and there is a growing need for standards in volunteering to be of the highest level.

Susan Swan, VCB’s Executive Officer, said, “There are lots of benefits to having a Volunteer Friendly Award.  Managers will have better motivated volunteers, who will, in turn, have confidence that they are being looked after well. Volunteers can be sure that they are joining a group that will value and protect their interests. And having a Volunteer Friendly Award shows funding bodies that good practices are in place.

“ChildLine Schools Service submitted an excellent portfolio which covered all aspects of good volunteer management. VCB assessors felt that the evidence showed that volunteers could feel confident about volunteering there and would be well supported, protected and valued.”

ChildLine School Services Volunteer Kirsty Essery (middle) and Area Co-ordinator Tony Brown receive the Volunteer Friendly Award from Susan Swan, Volunteer Centre Borders’ Executive Officer.

Volunteer Centre Dundee is Volunteer Friendly

06 November 2012

Volunteer Centre Dundee's Investing in Volunteers accreditation expired this year so we thought that it was about time for us to put together the evidence that we are Volunteer Friendly.  It was a good time to review our practices as we've been recruiting new volunteers to help us with the administration of the Saltire Award and with delivery of services in the Voluntary Gateway, which we operate in partnership with Dundee Voluntary Action and Dundee Social Enterprise Network.

Two members of Dundee's peer assessor group got together at the end of October with some visitors from Voluntary Sector Gateway West Lothian to look at our portfolio of evidence.  We're very pleased to say that we've been approved as Volunteer Friendly!