Please help us to promote Volunteers' Week by forwarding this email to your members and contacts

Volunteers' Week Newsletter

Volunteers' Week is a national celebration of volunteers and volunteering which takes place from 1 – 7 June of each year

Click here to view the online version of the newsletter

COUNT DOWN TO VOLUNTEERS' WEEK

Volunteers’ Week is co-ordinated in England by Volunteering England.  More information about the Week is available from the website at www.volunteersweek.org.uk or you can email the Volunteers’ Week team at Volunteering England at volunteersweek@volunteeringengland.org.

Reward and recognize

This year is the 22nd Volunteers’ Week and it continues to be an ideal opportunity to thank the millions of people who volunteer across the UK each year.

This year we are celebrating diversity. There is a volunteer opportunity to suit everybody, every interest and every skill from dispute mediator to cheerleader or environmentalist to radio producer.

Get involved

Each year there are hundreds of activities held during Volunteers’ Week, from award ceremonies to recruitment days.

For more ideas about getting involved and organising an event for Volunteers' Week visit the registered users area of the Volunteers’ Week website.

However you decide to join in, the aim is to get people talking about volunteering.

Shout about what's on

Don't forget to let us know if you are organising an event for Volunteers' Week by adding the details to the what's on page of the Volunteers' Week website. Some of the events already added include:

Community Transport Gloucestershire are launching a county-wide volunteer driver campaign. They will be hosting a roadshow on Gloucester High Street (Eastgate Street) with street entertainer, balloons and plenty of people to talk about volunteering options!

South Downs Health NHS Trust Annual Dinner is being held on 2 June and will be celebrating the work of more than 130 volunteers who help in many different ways to support the work of the Trust.

Children and Adults alike are invited to come along and climb the wall at the Lakeside shopping Centre where Kidney Research UK will be talking to potential volunteers.

In addition to helping us to build up a national picture of activities, adding details of your events to the site will help to promote your events to the public, and will give other groups some helpful ideas on events so please let us know how you’re planning to join in. All events added to the website will be put into a prize draw and three lucky event organisers will receive £20 of vouchers donated by Marks and Spencer.

Help us

If you are holding an event for Volunteers’ Week, don’t forget to take a camera to record the action and send us a picture to post on hte Volunteers' Week website.

The best way to take a picture is to fill the frame with the most important elements of the shot. If you are taking a picture of a stand with people working on it, get close, and make sure all the people can be seen as well as the Volunteers’ Week logo. Don’t take pictures of the backs of people’s heads, nor take photos of people or activities too far away. If someone is a volunteer carer, get in close and take a picture of the carer and the patient both together, filling the frame with their faces and their bodies.

You don’t have to put everything in a picture. A telling smile, or one person doing an activity says more than a picture that has too much going on. Look at newspapers for idea about how professional photographers take photos.

If you’re unsure about your abilities, why not invite your local paper to send along a photographer and ask them to donate images copyright free.

Resources

There is a range of Volunteer’s Week branded merchandise available to purchase from the online Volunteers’ Week shop such as pens, balloons and badges. Please all orders must be placed by Friday 19 May to avoid disappointment.

Volunteers’ Week certificates are also available as a download from the website so you can print as many copies as you need and distribute to your volunteers during the Week – it’s an easy way to say thank you for all their help.

Posters

In the Week prior to Volunteers’ Week, all members of Volunteering England will be sent a Volunteers’ Week poster and we ask for your help in promoting Volunteers’ Week by displaying the poster in a public area or on a community noticeboard. For additional copies, please email the Volunteers’ Week team.

Non members can also request a copy of the poster by emailing us.

COUNT DOWN TO VOLUNTEERS' WEEK

Volunteers’ Week is co-ordinated in England by Volunteering England. More information about the Week is available from the website at www.volunteersweek.org.uk or you can email the Volunteers’ Week team at Volunteering England at volunteersweek@volunteeringengland.org.