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Written by Trevor Collinson
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Thursday, 22 April 2010 15:14 |
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Not sure what to do for Volunteers' Week in 2010?
The following list may give you some inspiration...
Publicise your project
Volunteers' Week is an ideal time to grab attention for your work and try to recruit new volunteers....
- Get together with your Volunteer Centre or other like-minded organisations and set up an information booth in your local shopping centre to inform people about volunteering with your organisation.
- Organise taster sessions for potential volunteers, and ask your current volunteers to get involved as 'ambassadors'.
- Get together with local community groups and put on a fete with attractions such as face paints, fire-eaters and musicians to raise awareness of your organisation, demonstrating how it benefits the local community.
Publicly thanking current volunteers
It's also worth combining a local recruitment drive with public recognition for your volunteers...
- Make a photo display to showcase your fantastic volunteers and display the entries in a public place, such as your local library.
- Take part in the VIP challenge and ask a local celebrity or MP to make a guest appearance at your Volunteers' Week celebrations.
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Written by Trevor Collinson
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Wednesday, 24 March 2010 11:24 |
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Three very successful training events were run by the Volunteer Centre in Bridlington, Goole and Beverley during February; funded by Capacity Builders as part of the Volunteer Manager consortium project the events were the forerunners for further sessions to be delivered during 2010. Whilst the events could have been better attended the feedback was very positive and further subject matter has been identified by the delegates who attended to be delivered in future training events.
Data Protection
Those of you who attended the training will remember we briefly looked at Data Protection, lest anyone think that data protection is unimportant or does not apply to voluntary organisations: a national charity was in February 2010 found by the Information Commissioner to be in breach of the Data Protection Act, after several laptops were stolen during a burglary. The laptops were not locked away, and one contained unencrypted details of 1000 staff, including addresses and national insurance numbers.
The Society had to give an undertaking that "portable and mobile devices including laptops and other portable media used to store and transmit personal data, the loss of which could cause damage or distress to individuals, are encrypted, physical security measures are adequate to prevent unauthorised access to personal data; staff are aware of the data controller’s policy for the storage and use of personal data and are appropriately trained how to follow that policy; and the data controller shall implement such other security measures as it deems appropriate to ensure that personal data is protected”. Further data protection breaches could lead to criminal prosecution.
Clearly ICT security is essential — not just in relation to data protection, but to protect all of your organisation's information. The 34-page Computanews guide to ICT security, published in October 2009, is essential reading for all organisations. Download from tinyurl.com/ykxxlm3.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 24 March 2010 11:25 |
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Written by Trevor Collinson
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Thursday, 07 January 2010 15:35 |
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Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has accepted all of Sir Roger Singleton’s recommendations to make sure that the Government’s Vetting and Barring scheme draws the line in the right place and protects children without getting involved in private arrangements between parents and friends.
And he pledged to make the necessary adjustments to the rules of the scheme to ensure it strikes the right balance between protecting children and vulnerable adults without being unnecessarily burdensome. It is estimated that once these adjustments have been put in place, the number of people who will be required to register will fall from 11 million to nine million.
In his report,
Drawing the Line, he recommends that private arrangements between parents and friends should continue to remain outside the scheme. But where an organisation makes the decisions on which adults should work with their children then the requirement to register will apply.
Recommendations include:
Where organisations such as schools, clubs or groups make the decisions as to which adults should work with their children then the requirement to register with the VBS should apply, subject to the frequent and intensive contact provisions
The frequent contact test should be met if the work with children takes place once a week or more (at present the test is if activity happens as often as once a month). The intensive contact test should be met if the work takes place on 4 days in one month or more or overnight (this change is designed to make the scheme easier to understand and put into practice, since at present the test is 3 times in every 30 days or overnight)
Individuals who go into different schools or similar settings to work with different groups of children should not be required to register unless their contact with the same children is frequent or intensive
The minimum age of registration for young people who engage in regulated activity as part of their continuing education should be reviewed. The Government will make immediate changes to the rules so that 16, 17 and 18-year-olds in education will not be required to register
Overseas visitors bringing their own groups of children to the UK e.g. to international camps or the Olympics, should have a three months exemption from the requirement to register for the work they do with children they have brought to the UK
Exchange visits lasting less than 28 days, where overseas parents accept the responsibility for the selection of the host family, should be regarded as private arrangements and will not require registration
Further recommendations made by Sir Roger Singleton mean that the Government will also take action to:
Consider whether private health practitioners, such as chiropractors and homoeopathists should be required to register. Current legislation allows them to register but does not require them to
Review the continuing need for ‘controlled activity. ‘Controlled activity’ is defined as a small number of activities where there might be opportunity for contact with children or vulnerable adults, such as working as a hospital or school receptionist, but falls short of the opportunities open to other roles such as nurses or teachers. This review will be launched in the New Year;
Review the law and the Government’s advice on when, in the future, workers who have already secured ISA registration, will have to get CRB checks.
The Government will also be renewing its work on communicating the details of the scheme.
The Scheme does not replace the need for Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosures. In fact, the Scheme will run alongside CRB disclosures. Eventually, anyone working in a Regulated Activity will have to apply for both an enhanced CRB disclosure and be registered with the ISA, but the Scheme is being implemented in phases to ensure smooth implementation. These phases begin in November 2010 and run to 2015 for deatils contact the Volunteer Centre.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 24 March 2010 12:38 |
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Written by Trevor Collinson
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Monday, 14 December 2009 16:01 |
Volunteer Centre
Volunteer Taster Sessions.
East Riding Volunteer Centre is working in partnership with the local Job Centres to provide an introduction to volunteering for the unemployed. If you could offer a few hours as a taster session we would cover the volunteer’s expenses and make a contribution to your supervision of the volunteer during the taster. To obtain more information contact Trevor at the Volunteer Centre Tel 01482 871077.
Beverley Folk Festival 2010
Could you be a Festival Steward? Beverley Folk Festival celebrates its 27th year in 2010 with a fantastic line up featuring 3 nights and 2 days of music, dance and comedy. In addition there will be workshops, craft stalls, great food together with the 'Festival Village in the shadow of the historic Beverley Minister. To enable the festival to take place a wide array of volunteers are required, if you think you can help out at the event give the volunteer centre a call.
Additional Funding for Volunteer Managers
East Riding Volunteer Centre have been successful in accessing a small pot of funding through Capacitybuilders Volunteering Management Programme to develop a Humber Effective Volunteer Management Project in partnership with other volunteer centres in the sub-region.
Between now and the end of March 2011 the project will focus on developing a Humber Volunteer Manager’s Network providing improved access to organisations managing volunteers. We are planning to do this through;
- The development of a dedicated website for the Humber Sub-region, providing information, good practice advice and support
- The development of a web and paper based newsletter.
- A series of local networking meetings and events organised by the four Volunteer Centre’s in our respective geographical areas.
- The project will later deliver a series of free one day accredited and non-accredited training events covering a range of issues pertinent to the recruitment of and management of volunteers.
- If you have any particular training needs you would like to see addressed through the Humber Effective Volunteer Management Project please make your Volunteer Centre Manager aware of it.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 22 April 2010 13:51 |
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