Newsletter Winter 2002-2003

This issue:

Editorial
Information & Communication Officer Mark Steven gloats over his impending departure to New Zealand, and introduces the new Volunteer Centre membership offer.

Best Buddies
Sarah Cleary is on location, buddying a volunteer with BTCV.

Volunteering from home
We report from a focus group on volunteering for the housebound; and suggest a number of practical ideas for home-based volunteering.

Asylum Seeker Response Unit
The Social Work Department is encouraging Asylum Seekers to get involved in voluntary work. We give some practical tips for involving asylum seekers as volunteers.

Volunteer Profile (Fresh Start Volunteer)
Profile of an asylum seeker volunteering with Fresh Start.

A Café Latté
What's to become of volunteering at the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in a Public - Private Partnership regime?

Making Volunteering Better
The results of our recent stakeholders event.

CRBS
An update on what's happening with Criminal Record Disclosures in Edinburgh.

Best Buddies

Standing knee deep in muddy water pulling weeds from an overgrown pond; sorting through dozens of second hand clothes checking for missing buttons and stuck zips – not tasks you automatically associate with day to day work at the Volunteer Centre! For Sarah Cleary from the Support and Advice Team they have, however, become familiar tasks in her new role as “buddy” to new volunteers.
“The buddying project is a pilot” explains Sarah.

“The aim is to support potential volunteers who lack confidence or need a bit of help to get started. I accompany the volunteer to their placement on four occasions and work alongside them, giving a bit of guidance and encouragement. It helps them settle and find their feet in their new routine. The placements also find it helpful to have someone initially working alongside a new volunteer who needs a bit of support.”

Helen from BTCV says that the buddying has allowed them to engage with a wider range of volunteers and still be able to concentrate on the work being undertaken.

Sarah currently spends one day a week as a buddy in addition to her other responsibilities within the Volunteer Centre. She has already supported volunteers in environmental work, charity shops and a disability project.

“ It has been quite an eye-opener for me” says Sarah. “As well as helping individuals get settled into a new job it has helped make me much more aware of the subtle difficulties facing some volunteers other than just learning the task to be done. It has also been really useful to get first hand experience of what volunteers actually do in different settings and in turn I have become much better informed of the needs of the organisations .”

For more information on the buddying project contact a member of Volunteer Centre staff from the Support and Advice Team.

Volunteering from Home

The Volunteer Centre recently organised a focus group on the issue of volunteering for people who are “housebound”. This was possible thanks to a small grant from Lothian Health. The group was facilitated by Fiona MacColl, Project Manager at Encompass.

What follows is a brief summary of some of the outcomes. Hopefully with a willingness on the part of organisations, more volunteering opportunities will be made accessible to people identified as “housebound”.

There are many reasons for being “housebound” – health and disability featured highly in this group – but equally people may be confined to their homes for other reasons (regardless of their age) including a lack of confidence and support, transport difficulties (or expense), caring responsibilities, as well as language and cultural barriers.

Organisations should not exclude those who cannot easily leave their own homes or do not wish to do so. Utilising the skills and experience of people who are “housebound” is an excellent way of increasing the pool of volunteers, and giving “housebound” people a degree of choice and independence.

So think about it, just what can be achieved by someone volunteering from home? The more you think about it, the more you will realise is possible! Start by identifying tasks that can be done from home, re-organise the way that you work so that particular pieces of work can be set aside for someone volunteering from home. Think about how you communicate - what can be done by post, telephone or email? Look at the resources available to you to support this type of work. Make it happen!

Lara Celini

Ideas for Volunteering from Home

Administrative
Finance and accountancy
Secretarial work
Collation of mailshots
Newsletters, publicity materials

Campaigning
Writing letters and articles
Planning and organising
Recording radio and TV programmes

Fundraising
Collecting stamps, paper etc.
Letter writing
Compiling competitions

Nature, animals, wildlife
Bird monitoring
Phenology
Pet sitting

Organising
Rota keeping (e.g. sports clubs, meals on wheels etc.)
Collating research
Correspondence

Personal support
Telephone befriending and assistance
Providing companionship
Counselling, giving advice
Distance learning
Letter writing, pen pal schemes

Publicity and design
Artwork and design
Editorial work, writing
Proof-reading
Press work
Collecting press cuttings

Other stuff..
Compiling Braille tapes/reading
Baking, catering
Sewing, knitting
Flower arranging, growing plants
Craftwork
Tutoring

Extracted from Volunteering from Home, Published by Age Concern Scotland (February 1999) 

Asylum Seeker Response Unit

The Asylum Seeker Response Unit (ASRU) was set up in April 1999 to support asylum seekers arriving in Edinburgh who had no entitlement to social security benefits. ASRU is a Social Work Department resource based in the Housing Department. Currently ASRU supports 334 asylum seekers, including 28 families with fifty-three children and a few older people. They come from 40 countries, the highest numbers coming from Algeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan and Turkey. ASRU provides financial support to asylum seekers, helps find accommodation and offers further support and effective sign-posting through regular on-going contact.

Legislative changes in July 2002 excluded asylum seekers from applying for permission to work. Prior to this asylum seekers currently in the U.K. could apply for permission to work from the Home Office after six months of submitting a claim for asylum, although in practice it could be very difficult for asylum seekers to secure employment. Barriers to employment included the legal process; conversion of existing qualifications to U.K. requirements; language needs; obtaining references and work experience. These latter barriers can often be overcome by working voluntarily. As a result many asylum seekers are keen and motivated to work in this area. The energy and enthusiasm of asylum seekers has been consistently remarked upon by the agencies that involve them as volunteers. Volunteering acts as an aid to integration for asylum seekers disadvantaged by the system and who would otherwise remain socially isolated. The ASRU is therefore keen to work collaboratively with other voluntary and statutory agencies to improve the range and quality of services provided to asylum seekers and refugees.

To contact the Asylum Seeker Response Unit call 0131 529 7138 or email asru1@edinburgh.gov.uk

Volunteer Profile: Fresh Start Hit Squad

Heather at Fresh Start describes the experience of volunteer Rafet.

Rafet is a 23 year old Yugoslavian, who came to Britain as a refugee two years ago, with his wife and young child. He was a skilled painter in his hometown, but had no wallpapering experience. This was due to the fact that in his home country they don’t wallpaper hang, just paint straight onto bare plaster.

He was finding it very difficult to gain employment in this country because of this lack of decorating experience and English not being his first language. I was contacted by the Job Centre to find out if Rafet could become a volunteer to help him increase his skills and eventually gain employment.

Rafet was interested in working with people who had experienced homelessness as he and his family had lost everything they owned, he knew how difficult it was to start again. Also he was keen to learn new skills while learning a new language.

Rafet successfully completed the two-day Hit Squad training and started volunteering as a Hit Squad volunteer. During the 9 month’s Rafet was involved with Fresh Start he was an excellent volunteer, he could successfully wallpaper hang and was a skilled painter. He also picked up the English language very well and could converse with the clients, while offering encouragement.

Rafet felt he gained a lot more that just wallpaper hanging skills, his English improved, he became a little more confident and enjoyed his time with Fresh Start as it was a great learning experience. He is now enjoying full time employment.

Tips for involving asylum seekers as volunteers

Asylum seekers get only 70% of income support, so make sure you pay expenses. Do not pay fixed amounts: this could be construed by the Home Office as employment, and jeopardise a claim for asylum.
Organisations working with children and young people may face difficulty accommodating asylum seekers: criminal record checks are meaningless for someone who has recently entered the country.

Handbooks, policies and other written information will be more accessible if it is written in clear, simple English.

Asylum seekers will have to attend hearings, appeals etc. This may require some flexibility on the part of the organisation.

Supervision should be sympathetic to external problems facing many asylum seekers e.g. low income, poor housing, bureaucracy, racism.

A Café Latté?

Thirty – odd years ago, when I first arrived in Edinburgh, I got a job working in the Hospital Planning division of the Scottish Home and Health Department. One of the projects “on the books” at that time was the replacement of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Well, here we are about to move into 2003 and that replacement hospital has at long last become a reality. What some of us have been wondering is what part, if any, volunteering will play in this much-hyped Public/Private Initiative.

The many thousands of patients and visitors who have crossed the threshold of the old Royal Infirmary may or may not have been aware of the contribution made by legions of volunteers over the years. The trolley service, the café, the assembly of packs of toiletries for those patients admitted as emergencies, the flower arranging, the chaplaincy and visiting service have all been dependant on individuals willing to give some of their time to provide these essential services.
Anyone who has visited the new hospital will be immediately confronted by a Starbucks café. So where are the Friends of the Royal Infirmary or the WRVS? Is there no place for them in this Brave New World?

This was the question I posed to Diane Sutherland-Lockhart, recently appointed as Volunteer Services Manager to the Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust, who will be responsible for volunteer services at the old and new Royal Infirmary, the Western General, Royal Victoria and Liberton hospitals.

Diane started her career as a nurse but has worked for some years in the voluntary sector, most recently as Employer Supported Volunteering Development Officer with Volunteer Development Scotland. She is committed to the preservation and indeed the development of volunteering opportunities in hospitals and has the support of the Trust in this, which is reassuring to those of us who were sceptical as to whether volunteering would be allocated a role in what appears to be a very commercially- oriented enterprise in the new hospital.

Diane is soon to meet with a representative of Consort, the private partner in the PPP, to look at volunteer roles within the new Royal Infirmary. Although many of the current volunteers have elected not to transfer to the new hospital, mainly because of the travelling involved, there is a group of around 30 volunteers who have agreed to go.

We wish Diane well in her new post and look forward to seeing volunteering flourish within the hospital setting.

Irene Whittaker

Volunteering in Edinburgh – what would make it better?

On 4 November we held a Stakeholder Event to ask you what you thought would make Volunteering in Edinburgh better, and what the Volunteer Centre might do to help to make this happen. 50 people including volunteers, volunteer managers, referrers of volunteers, staff of the Volunteer Centre and other interested stakeholders came together for a highly participative morning of discussion and debate.

The wish list from the morning was huge and covered a huge range of issues; there should be award schemes, there should be more men in care volunteering, there should be no benefits barriers, there should be better press coverage of volunteering, there should be better networking, better training, more resources….

Meeting the whole wish list from the morning is not our role – it is a responsibility shared among everyone involved in volunteering but it will guide our planning and service delivery for the next year. We know there is much more to be done. However one of the main points we took from the morning was that too many stakeholders only connect with individual services at the Volunteer Centre and are not aware of the range of services we deliver.

CRBS

Access to disclosures (police checks) continues to be an issue for many volunteer- involving organisations. As a result the Volunteer Centre has met with the Central Registered Body in Scotland (CRBS) in order to identify ways of making access to the checks easier. From the spring of 2003 we will be the Visual ID Centre for Edinburgh. This means that during the registration process you will be able to come to us to have your identity verified, rather than having to go to the CRBS. To facilitate the rapid growth of our knowledge in the area, and to ensure that we continue to offer quality advice, we will be organising a focus group to pool information and experience of the Disclosure system.