Newsletter April 2003

This issue:

Celebrate volunteers:
Millennium Volunteers awards
Striking the Balance:
20 Years of the Support & Advice Team
Virtual Volunteering:
How to involve e-volunteers
Miles Ahead:
Volunteering research on social justice 'milestones'
Measuring Up:
low cost, high quality training
Other Stuff:
Moving premises, European Year of Disabled People

Millennium Volunteers Awards

What a party! Friday 14 March wasn’t just “Big Hair Day”, it was also the night of the biggest and best Millennium Volunteers Award Ceremony yet. Over 250 volunteers and guests packed into the Queens Hall to cheer, applaud & wolf-whistle (its not just the Oscars that have beautiful people!) as an awesome 104 MVs received Awards & Certificates. Beat 106 DJ, Paul Harper, performed the presentations and then took control of the turntable as the action moved to the dance floor.

Organised jointly by the 9 MV projects based in Edinburgh and the Lothians, the evening was an opportunity for their volunteers to celebrate their achievements. Around 40 volunteers received Millennium Volunteer Certificates to mark 100 hours of volunteering whilst the remainder collected Awards of Excellence, signed by First Minister Jack McConnell, in recognition of 200 hours of volunteering and achieving the personal goals set when they started volunteering.

In the midst of the current rash of Award Ceremonies honouring the rich and famous, it was refreshing to witness the genuine pleasure and triumph of the young people receiving plaudits at our event. Unlike their Hollywood counterparts, they are addressing real issues in their local communities, not simply portraying moral and social dilemmas for our ‘entertainment’. They are involved in huge variety of volunteering activities working across the entire range of client groups, paying no heed whatsoever to the luvvies adage of ‘never work with children and animals!’

Big Hair Day wasn’t forgotten in all the excitement. Some of the guests arrived sporting wigs and exotic hairstyles, many left with hair braids and henna tattoos which were being offered in return for a donation to Comic Relief.

For more information on Millennium Volunteers contact: Linda McNeill at the Volunteer Centre on +44 (0) 131 225 0630 or email: linda.mcneill@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk.

^top

20 Years of the Support & Advice Team

It’s hard to believe that our service which deals with volunteers with extra support needs is now into its 21st year of operation! Over the years we have seen a few name changes – the original “Voluntary Work as Therapy” project became the “Community Care” project, which in turn became the “Support and Advice Team” in 2001. We have developed from being a “one man band” to a fully fledged team – the original project worker Mary Weir is now Chief Executive of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (Scotland) and was, until recently, a member of our Board.

While the name and staff may have changed, the focus of core work remains very similar, i.e. interviewing, placing and supporting people who wish to volunteer but require a degree of guidance and assistance to get involved. The original remit was to work with people with mental health problems; the team now deals with people who have a wide and complex range of support needs – disabilities, sensory impairments, addictions and asylum seekers.

The major change has been in the sheer volume of work – in 1982, 130 volunteers were interviewed; in 2002 over 300 were seen. In 1982 we held information (on little index cards!) on under 100 placements; our new database of opportunities is fast approaching the 400 mark. Edinburgh was the first volunteer centre in Scotland, and the UK, to work specifically with volunteers with extra support needs. Our model has been replicated throughout the country and there is now a network of similar well established projects. There has also been international interest in the project with a similar service being established in Edinburgh’s twin town Dunedin, New Zealand!

Volunteering itself has undergone significant changes over the past 21 years. It has an increasingly high profile which can attract individuals who have perhaps never had the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to their community. On the downside, the “formalising” of voluntary work, and the pressure on placement agencies, can pose major obstacles for people who require a bit of support to get started. The Support and Advice Team’s latest ventures into buddying and preparation courses will hopefully help to address this.

What hasn’t changed is the vast amount of work undertaken by people in overcoming personal difficulties to become volunteers in their communities. The contributions they make to local services and organisations is immeasurable, as is the sense of personal satisfaction they achieved. To each and every one of them a very big THANK YOU!

The Support and Advice Team is frequently asked to speak at a number of events about its work to groups of people who may consider volunteering as their next step in getting back into circulation. Over the past year we have been joined at these presentations by individual volunteers who have been willing to share their experiences and explain, warts and all, what is really involved in becoming a volunteer! Their contributions have been greatly appreciated – there is no doubt that everyone pays far more attention to the actual experiences of a real volunteer than anything staff from the Volunteer Centre would say! We are very grateful to the following past and current volunteers for their help: Ian Baillie, Jimmy Donnelly, Jim, Donald, Jo McFarlane, Jane, Emma Gillon and Lizanne Burton.

Marion Findlay, Team Leader

^top

Virtual Volunteering

If I was ever compiling a list of frequently asked questions for the Resource Unit, top of the list would be “How do we get more volunteers. In our increasingly busy and complicated world, volunteer involving organisations face the challenge of how to attract people who have limited time and many other responsibilities. Unfortunately, there is no single magic answer to this, but one response may be to consider if there are ways of involving volunteers that may be easier for some to fit in to their lives, such as virtual volunteering.

Virtual volunteering (also known as online volunteering or e-volunteering) is the involvement of volunteers in tasks that are completed, in whole or in part via the internet and a home or work computer. Using the internet means that volunteers do not have to be based within an organisation’s premises, and in many cases they may not have to live in the same city or even the same country as the organisation they are involved with.

One of the main benefits of virtual volunteering is that because volunteers can work from home it can allow the participation of individuals who would find other forms of volunteering difficult due to circumstances such as work commitments, parenting, caring or family responsibilities, disability or lack of available transport. Because virtual volunteering does not have to involve a regular and fixed commitment of time, volunteers can fit their involvement around other commitments and provide assistance at a time that is convenient for them. For organisations, providing a range of ways that people can become involved can increase the range of skills and expertise that is available to them and their service users.

Kathryn, a Millennium Volunteer, says of her experience of virtual volunteering:

“I became interested in online or virtual volunteering from looking at the online volunteering site www.netaid.org. I thought the concept sounded novel and a way to introduce volunteering to other sectors of society who might not perhaps consider it and to individuals who can’t contribute as much time in person. I worked or ‘completed an assignment’, as NetAid puts it, for Global Volunteers, which is based in Minnesota. I first completed a form on the website, chose my areas of interest, and one of the directors of the organisation got in touch with me about helping out with their website. To date my involvement has entailed editing an article and providing some on the website. I feel that it is just as rewarding helping out ‘virtually’ as in person; the organisations are of course just as grateful for help you can give them. It makes a change to volunteer ‘in’ a different country, if you like, particularly if the organisation cannot locate the appropriate skills within their geographical area. I’d recommend it - it’s a good way to volunteer, and it’s a refreshing feeling to be able to help people in other countries, but without incurring the cost.”

It is important to remember that the involvement of virtual volunteers does not reduce the need for effective and appropriate training, support and recognition for volunteers. If your organisation is considering involving virtual volunteers issues to be considered include:

Support - for volunteers working remotely from an organisation regular contact and support is very important and consideration needs to be given as to the best way to provide this. In this context actually meeting with volunteers may not be possible or appropriate, but providing support via e-mail or the phone can be just as effective. The way in which you support virtual volunteers may be different from other volunteers but it will still be time consuming, so it is important to be realistic about the number of volunteers you and your organisation can effectively support.

Technology – you will need to have a reliable and consistent connection to the Internet in your organisation and you need to be able to handle the basic standards of the Internet such as e-mail and web browsing. The person responsible for managing virtual volunteers needs to be reasonably competent and confident in using computers and the Internet.

Confidentiality & safety – consider how you will need to adapt your current confidentiality and safety standards to incorporate the work of virtual volunteers.

Recognising and informing volunteers – all volunteers need to feel part of and connected to the organisation that they are involved with and this can be particularly important for volunteers working ‘offsite’. You will need to think about how you will keep virtual volunteers up to date with news and information about the organisation and how they can contribute their thoughts and ideas – consider starting an e-mail newsletter for volunteers and/or developing a volunteer page on your website (both of these could be tasks for a virtual volunteer).

This is only intended to be an introduction to some to the issues that will need to be taken into account if your organisation is considering involving virtual volunteers (further sources of information and expertise can be found at the end of this article). As with any volunteer involvement, having effective volunteer management structures in place before engaging volunteers will help to ensure the experience benefits both the volunteer and the organisation.

Virtual volunteering is not a replacement for other forms of volunteering and few, if any, organisations would use it as their sole means of involving volunteers. However, it can offer some organisations another way of attracting volunteers and provide the opportunity for some individuals who would otherwise find it difficult to become involved.

There are a wide variety of ways that organisations can involve virtual volunteers, including:

Designing and updating a website
Campaigning
Fundraising
Online research – e.g. investigating legislation
Giving specialist advice – e.g. legal expertise
Providing IT support – e.g. developing databases.
Designing a newsletter
Writing and editing newsletter content
Providing translation services
Proof reading documents
Graphic design
Email befriending/mentoring

Further information
www.netaid.org
www.serviceleader.org/vv/direct/
www.energizeinc.com
Guide to Virtual Volunteering – available to download from our website (see Services to Organisations – links)

Virtual Volunteering graphic: Jack Goodway (virtual volunteer)

^top

Miles Ahead

Do Volunteers help older people stay out of residential care? Does volunteering make any difference to social justice? These are the two main questions being explored in a research project looking at Measuring the Impact of Volunteering on meeting Edinburgh’s Social Justice Milestones.

Those of us involved in volunteering may wonder why the questions need to be asked. We know volunteering makes a huge difference because we see it in practice daily. However, policy makers, planners and funders want proof. So the Volunteer Centre, with funding from the Capital City Partnership, has contracted the Scottish Council Foundation, a respected independent think tank, to carry out this research.

Over the next few months Deirdre Elrick, the researcher, will be meeting with volunteers, project workers and service users to gather hard evidence on the difference volunteers make. The research report will be published early in 2004. If you are a project working with volunteers supporting older people and would like to take part in this research please contact Harriet at the Volunteer Centre.

Harriet Eadie, Director

^top

Low Cost.. High Quality

The trouble with low cost training initially is finding it, and when you do you can’t help but wonder if it is going to be any good? Sometimes we can see “more expensive” as “better quality”. That’s not to say that expensive training courses are always good, more than once I have been on costly training only to find it lacking in relevance, interest and even being delivered with very little flair. Low cost, high quality training, is it an urban legend?

At the end of last year, we ask literally hundreds of you what short of training for volunteers you would consider sourcing from us? Our aim was not to re-invent the wheel of volunteer training but to fill gaps, pick up slack and hopefully offer something different. With the consultation done, graphs produced and much talk of accreditation be variously a panacea or a pain in the rear, we developed and advertised our first programme of training for other peoples volunteers.

First Aid was a big hit and booked up in hours. Dealing With People was still born due to lack of interest and that left us with three courses. “Equal Opportunities and Disability Awareness”, “Boundaries and Confidentiality” and “Dealing with Difficult Situations”. All booked up quickly and there was even a small waiting list. We were offering the course at our usual fee of £10 including lunch so no one could accuse of us of not playing the low cost card, but what about the quality?

Feedback has been great. All who attended rated it either “Very High” or “High” in terms of usefulness. Certainly on the day; they all took part, challenged me with relevant points and personal situations. Keeping the focus practical and “real” produced an enthusiastic response. It’s not always easy for a trainer to train such a diverse group of people, all intact with their personal experiences, agendas and focus on the type volunteering that they do. Any personal anguish on the sheer variety of issues that could be thrown up is outweighed by the benefits of volunteers learning from each other’s diverse experience. The real value of hearing, understanding and learning from each other’s experience in different settings is incredible.

Low cost, high quality training….an urban legend? No: it’s available from your friendly Volunteer Centre.

Paul Wilson, Training Officer

^top

European Year of Disabled People

2003 is the European Year of Disabled People. The Scottish launch of EYPD took place on 23 January 2003 when First Minister Jack McConnell addressed a large audience at a reception at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Among the organisations represented was Volunteer Centre Edinburgh. We have received an EYDP grant to promote personal development by people with disabilities, through volunteering.

Update: All change on May 1!

Goodbye the Greens, long gone the Maroons. After seven years on Easter Road, and the previous twenty years in Dalry the Volunteer Centre is at last shaking off any football allegiances and moving into the centre ground.

We are moving into the city centre to raise the public profile of volunteering and to be more accessible to people from all over the city. We all know that more people volunteer when they are asked to, and when they know where to go and how to get there. Our website and our marketing do a huge amount of this, and we very much hope that our new location in St. George’s West Church Centre will do more of this. The new premises will also give us a bit more space and our own small training room.

Come to our Launch Event in Volunteers Week: 5 June between 12 noon and 7pm.

More important than our move are the local and parliamentary elections. Volunteering itself has no party political bias; but volunteers themselves are what make change happen. There will be hundreds of party political volunteers knocking at doors in the next few weeks. There have been thousands of peace volunteers filling the streets most recent Saturdays. (Our email bulletin straw poll came back with strong responses saying that anti-war demonstrators are clearly part of volunteering.)

We need to make sure that our elected representatives recognise and value volunteering and its huge role in the city. According to the Scottish Household Survey 28% of the adult population of Edinburgh volunteers. If each volunteer gives only 1 hour per week (and most do much more) this contributes more than £66 million pounds to the Edinburgh economy – around 10% of the total Council budget. But as well as this achievement there are still far too many barriers to volunteering. More well off people volunteer than less well off. Many, many volunteers still cannot claim out of pocket expenses. Too many volunteers with additional support needs face unwelcoming attitudes. If volunteers have the power to change their own lives and the lives of others then everybody who wishes to must be able to volunteer freely. We have a responsibility to make this happen, and to elect politicians who will support us in this goal.

Harriet Eadie, Director

The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of Volunteer Centre Edinburgh.

Please send all contributions to mark.steven@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk.