Volunteers’ Week: nine ways to get involved
For Volunteers Week 2021, a quick look at some of the platforms and organisations connecting prospective volunteers to opportunities and other kinds of support.
We’re now half-way through Volunteers’ Week, when we celebrate the contribution millions of people make in their communities in the UK (and sometimes further afield too, in global charities working in fields like international development).
But it’s also an opportunity for the entire voluntary sector to set out its stall and tell people how they can get involved, or moreso if they are already. This is especially true as volunteering changes due to COVID-19 - we have seen a younger, more diverse and digitally-skilled group coming to aid of community organisations on the frontline of pandemic. This week is a chance to capture and build on that energy.
If you are looking for how to make a contribution, here are just a handful of resources you might find useful.
1. Do IT
Do IT is an online platform that can help you search for and find a suitable volunteer role, allowing you to exhaustively search based on detailed criteria around your location, skills and availability.
2. Your local Volunteer Centre
Volunteer Centres are local community organisations that provide support to potential volunteers, existing volunteers and organisations that involve them. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has a postcode tool on its website to help you find your nearest Centre, which can signpost you to volunteering opportunities, training and other experience.
3. Volunteering Matters
Volunteering Matters build volunteering programmes to improve health and wellbeing and build stronger communities. Their projects are designed to suit you whether you’re looking for part-time volunteering, full-time volunteering or event corporate volunteering. They operate in England, Scotland and Wales (Volunteering Now advertise vacancies if you’re in Northern Ireland).
4. CharityJob
The recruitment platform CharityJob features a constant flow of unpaid volunteer and trustee Board posts you can apply for. But it also includes brilliant short-reads with tips on volunteering, how to make an impact and the interplay between volunteer and paid roles in the sector.
5. Reach Volunteering
Reach Volunteering is a leading skills-based volunteering charity – their pioneering digital matching platform has been stress-tested over the years with input from both charities and volunteers. They also have brilliant guides for if you’re thinking about becoming a trustee.
6. Trustees Unlimited
Another option for if you are focused on joining a trustee Board. As well as advertising roles, Trustees Unlimited‘s Step On Board and Thrive On Board programmes – currently provided digitally – aim to actively prepare and support you. (Other specialist trusteeship organisations also work specifically to confront the lack of diversity on Boards, notably Women on Boards and Action for Trustee Racial Diversity).
7. Business in the Community – Business Response and volunteering resources
Focused on businesses rather than individual volunteers, but since the onset of COVID-19 the responsible business network Business in the Community have set up a dedicated platform facilitating requests for support from charities and offers of help from socially-minded businesses. Beyond the pandemic, they also provide guidance and resources to businesses looking to set up corporate volunteering schemes.
8. Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)
Specialising in both corporate volunteering and youth volunteering for 18-35s, VSO is a UK-based organisation that aims to create lasting change through volunteering in poor and overlooked regions of the world.
9. Online Volunteering – United Nations
Finally, Online Volunteering is a platform linking people to international volunteering opportunities with the UN. It is currently being used to support UN agencies in their ongoing COVID-19 response.
Elliot Bidgood works as communications manager for the Eastside Primetimers Foundation.