Following discussions at the last Volunteers Managers meeting, Hull CVS are looking to create a volunteers forum to provide the opportunity for volunteers to come together to share views and experiences and increase engagement with our volunteers throughout the sector.
We would be looking for local organisations to consider the following:
- Does your organisation have potential volunteers who’d want to be involved?
- Could you support its creation as part of a task and finish group?
- How could we embed volunteer voice in decision making and developments?
What will the Volunteer Forum provide?
We want to empower the volunteers to share their voice, drive discussions surrounding volunteering and discuss the successes and challenges in volunteering.
From the perspective of Hull CVS, by facilitating this meeting for volunteers, this can help us to identify further support and which contributes positively to the work of our accredited volunteer centre. It can help us to help more individuals and organisations in including volunteers in key processes and will enhance discussions with volunteers throughout the sector.
What volunteers could expect from the forum:
- Volunteers have the opportunity to come together quarterly to discuss successes and pitfalls relating to their own experiences in volunteer roles.
- From the volunteers perspective, this forum can help volunteers to build further connections within their society, and become influential in changes throughout of voluntary sector.
- The volunteer forum is all about giving our fantastic volunteers a voice and, therefore, we want the agendas of these meetings to be open for discussion and at each meeting and provide opportunity for volunteers to explore different topics of volunteering.
Having a volunteer forum can also help by being a mechanism in developing:
- A Volunteers Charter similar to our Volunteering Principles and Charter.
- Volunteer Training Pathway/Academy – identified training that volunteers may require as part of their initial induction into volunteering.
- Volunteer Passport
What could involvement in this volunteer forum lead to?
- Enabling volunteers to help on volunteer project development and campaigns
- Possible representation on key steering groups linked to volunteering like: Building Forward Together (BFT) Volunteer group, Time2Volunteer Partnership group and T2V Festival planning.
When?
- These meetings can be on a quarterly basis, depending on the views of the volunteers which is open for discussion at our first meeting.
Interested?
If you or a volunteer within your organisation would like to be involved in a volunteer forum, please get in touch with me on hmeadway@hull-cvs.co.uk and I can then be in touch with them with a date of our first volunteer forum.