Background to the Development of the Volunteering Strategy for Edinburgh

1 The Context

The Scottish Executive published a Volunteer ing Strategy in 2004 with the following key Strands:

focusing on Project Scotland and young people
dismantling the barriers to volunteering and closing the opportunity gap
improving the volunteering experience
monitoring, evaluation and ongoing policy development

The Edinburgh Compact Partnership, the key community planning partnership for Edinburgh , identified developing a Volunteer ing Strategy for Edinburgh as a priority in their Action Plan for 2006. A Volunteer ing Strategy Working Group (VSWG) was formed to help develop this Volunteer ing Strategy. This will be the first such local strategy in Scotland .

The Edinburgh Volunteer ing Strategy aims to be comprehensive, and workable, with commitment from all Compact partners and volunteer involving agencies in the City.

2 Evidence of the need for a Volunteering Strategy

Volunteer Centre Edinburgh's 2003 Service Review with volunteer involving organisations showed that 60% had difficulty recruiting enough volunteers

Evidence gathered from volunteers through the Volunteer Centre Edinburgh shows that their interests and availability do not always match the volunteering opportunities available, that is, there is a mismatch been supply and demand

Research for the 2004 Scottish Volunteering Strategy highlights the need for active interventions to include those at present excluded from volunteering activities

3 Developing the Edinburgh Volunteering Strategy

A Subgroup of the Edinburgh Compact Partnership, the Volunteering Strategy Working Group (VSWG) was formed in August 2005, with members from the police, statutory, voluntary and the business sectors. The VSWG reports to the Edinburgh Compact Partnership.

The group met regularly and identified some of the main themes for consultation on the Strategy.

Some initial consultation themes identified by the VSWG includeD:

how barriers to participation in volunteering can be minimised and the gap in participation in volunteering between more and less affluent closed
how agencies are better able to deliver services of public benefit through the support of volunteers
how volunteers can be better recognised, supported and valued