Volunteers' Week and beyond

By Heather Allen
Manager of Volunteer Centre Dacorum

Volunteers' Week is here again! Not just any old Volunteers' Week but the 25th Anniversary! Since 1984 these annual celebrations (June 1st – 7th) have inspired people to volunteer whilst recognising and rewarding those who already help out in a huge variety of ways.
For us at Volunteer Centre Dacorum, the celebrations started a couple of weeks ago and are set to last until mid June! Extending celebrations is no bad thing and recognising volunteers is something that should happen all year round anyway.

This year in Dacorum we are running a creative competition with the title “Volunteering is ...” We have been deluged with poems, pictures and collages representing different aspects of volunteering from people of all ages. Judging took place last week with a local celebrity panel of judges and winning entries will be uploaded to our web site shortly. Winners will receive some fantastic prizes thanks to sponsorship from 10 local businesses including £500 in Dixons vouchers from DSGi. The prizes will be presented on Friday June 5th by Rosemary Mula who has a long association with volunteering in the Olympic Games. She was a protocol co-ordinator at the athletes' village in Sydney and helped guide Kiribati through the International Olympic Committee's application process for Athens. Rosemary, who was born in Hertfordshire, is currently a guest of the Herts Ready for Winners Partnership. The London 2012 Olympics will give us all a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to highlight volunteering. Volunteer Centres in Herts are already working with Herts Ready for Winners to ensure there is a legacy of increased voluntary and community activity in the county. We are particularly lucky to have an Olympic site, the White Water Canoe Course in Broxbourne.

As part of Volunteers Week 25th Anniversary, Volunteer Centre Dacorum has been capturing 25 new images of local volunteering. 2 volunteers, Gita and Stars (yes, Stars is her real name and how appropriate is that!) have been out and about with their cameras snapping some magic moments. These are now on display at the Roundhouse, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead and everyone is invited to pop in and view the photos and the competition entries, and to join us in some light refreshments. Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday are the special open days.
The Roundhouse has been recently refurbished, thanks to a grant from Capacitybuilders, and we are keen to show voluntary and community organisations how they can use this great resource.

Last Friday I spent the day with a very special group of volunteers – the Trustees of Volunteer Centre Dacorum. We were hosted for an “away day” by Ashridge Management College to review progress on our business plan and draw up future strategies. Ashridge provides such a wonderful setting and creates just the right atmosphere for creative thinking. We are particularly fortunate to have an especially talented Board of Trustees and the day was very productive and re-energizing. I encourage everyone to look into the possibility of becoming a trustee of a charity. Best choose one that has a particular significance for you. You’ll be amazed how much you’ll learn from the experience, whilst contributing your skills and experience into guiding the development of the charity. Anyone over 18 can be a trustee and organisations will welcome new young blood. Do you have the skills? I bet you do – why not give it a go! Check the Do-it website for current trustee vacancies in your area.

On Saturday June 6th we will be having a Volunteers Week pub outing for our team of staff and volunteers. (We will also be saying a temporary goodbye to Zoe, our marketing and development co-ordinator, who is leaving to have a baby). The small team of Sara, Zoe, Max and the volunteers do a fantastic job in providing local people with all the information they need to volunteer. Just recently, with many people losing their paid work, the team has been inundated with enquiries. Maintaining confidence, morale and a sense of purpose will be important in helping people through the recession and volunteering might also reveal some skills and interests they never knew they had. All good when the job market eventually picks up.

The world of volunteering is affected by many factors – some within its control and some outside, including the current recession. With volunteering high on local, regional and national agendas there has never been a better time to launch a Volunteering Strategy for Hertfordshire. This will provide a framework to ensure that the county as a whole has structures, support and communications in place to guide the development of volunteering. The Strategy will receive its first airing on June 17th at the Open Meeting of Volunteer Centres Herts, before seeking endorsement from relevant county and local networks, agencies and partnerships. The Open Meeting will also be the occasion when the Valuing Volunteer Management in Herts Award will be presented to an organisation which has been nominated by its volunteers for excellence in volunteer management. The nomination extended deadline is 12th June, so please get your entries in ASAPon the Volunteering Herts website for a nomination paper and checklist of winning factors. The website also has details of the June 17th event and how to secure a place.

As you will gather, a busy time lies ahead for me, the rest of the Volunteer Centre team and my colleagues in other Herts Centres. From a personal viewpoint I think I’ll need to pace myself a little better than I have done previously, judging by a recent embarrassing experience. You know you’ve been working too hard when your hairdresser has to wake you up to ask which way your fringe goes! Thanks Freddie for the wakeup call!

HAPPY VOLUNTEERS WEEK AND HAPPY VOLUNTEERING!