Renewed efforts to tackle the ‘benefits barrier' to volunteering
Barriers to volunteering caused by the benefits system will be all too familiar to many volunteer-involving organisations and infrastructure bodies. A new national project, bringing together Jobcentre Plus and the volunteering sector aims to speed up the pace of change in tackling this long-running challenge.
The ‘benefits barrier’ is one of the volunteering barriers raised most often with Volunteering England.
Alan Strickland, Senior Policy and Information Manager, Volunteering England explains on how it is tackling this long running challenge.
Glove-compartment guide targets volunteer drivers
Safety charity the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has launched a new handbook for volunteer drivers. The Volunteer Driver's Handbook, which gives advice on all aspects of road safety practice and law, aims to ensure that volunteers fulfil the duty of care towards their passengers that health and safety law imposes. The handbook, which is small enough to fit in a glove compartment, has sections on journey planning, fitness to drive, speed, seatbelts, distractions, vehicle safety and emergency procedures. A spokeswoman for the charity said that all the issues in the handbook also applied to charity staff, but the organisation wanted to target volunteers specifically because they often don't work from a fixed location or have contact with a charity's head office. The guide will complement the voluntary sector manager's guide on road safety produced by Rospa in 2003. "This is something they can sit down with their managers with and go through," she said. "Also, volunteers often take the same people each week and develop close relationships with them. This highlights the personal costs of accidents." About 500 of the handbooks have been sent to road safety officers and charities that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents deemed likely to use volunteer drivers.
A pdf version of the guide can be downloaded from the society's website.
VOLUNTEERING ENGLAND – RECRUITMENT GUIDE OVERVIEW Getting the right people (and enough of them!) is one of the basic challenges of working with volunteers. Volunteering England has a guide on their website which aims to help, by highlighting some recruitment techniques and outlining good management practice. Recruiting volunteers is a chance to refresh and reinvigorate your organisation. A positive approach, combined with clear thinking and creativity, can make all the difference to your volunteer involvement. And remember, most people who don’t currently volunteer say that they would if they were asked! The Guide is available at: www.volunteering.org.uk Here you will find information on such things as:
- What to do before you recruit
- Key elements of support
- Key elements of selection
- Motivations for volunteering
- Making it easy
- Recruitment ideas
- Talks
- Events
- Local press and radio
- Diversity in recruitment
- Disabled people
- Young people
- Older people
- People from minority ethnic communities
- Unemployed people
