Volunteers' Week 2009

Rewarding, recognising and recruiting volunteers

Volunteers' Week Newsletter

Volunteers' Week is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009. This annual awareness week celebrates volunteers and volunteering. With more than 22 million people throughout the UK donating their time and effort in one way or another every year, this week is used to recognise their valued contribution to society as well as encouraging others to consider getting involved.

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Welcome

Hello and welcome to the first of a series of Volunteers’ Week enewsletters. We want to keep you informed and encourage you and others to get involved in the many exciting activities that are taking place to mark Volunteers’ Week. The week takes place from 1-7 June.

This first enewsletter will provide you with information about the Volunteers' Week website, merchandise and promotional materials. Please feel free to pass this enewsletter onto anyone who you think might be interested in Volunteers' Week. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about this year's Volunteers' Week please contact us at volunteersweek@volunteeringengland.org.

Volunteers' Week turns 25!

Volunteers’ Week reaches a significant milestone this year. This annual celebration of volunteers and volunteering turns 25 and we hope that you will join us in celebrating this special anniversary. To make this annual awareness week a truly national campaign, Volunteering England has joined with its sister agencies Wales Council for Voluntary Action, Volunteer Development Agency Northern Ireland and Volunteer Development Scotland to celebrate this year’s milestone across the UK.

The Volunteers' Week message

Volunteers’ Week is all about the 3 R’s – recognise, reward and recruit. It provides a great opportunity for organisations that involve volunteers like yourselves, to celebrate volunteering in a way that suits your organisation.

You may like to take the opportunity to say thank you to volunteers, either by presenting your exceptional volunteers with thank you certificates or organising an awards ceremony and inviting both staff and volunteers – so that everyone is able to see the fantastic contribution that volunteers make.

Alternatively, you may be looking to widen your pool of volunteers. Volunteers’ Week is a perfect time to do this. We are hoping to create a good deal of national media coverage prior to and during the week, in addition to the local coverage generated by the many events throughout the UK. Please contact us should you require any support or resources to generate local coverage. We hope that promotion of the week will encourage a lot of interest in volunteering, especially from prospective volunteers. Recruitment drives such as a ‘speed-tasting’ session or an information booth are good opportunities to meet people and highlight the variety of diverse volunteering opportunities that exist.

Our website

We will be continuing to use the dedicated website www.volunteersweek.org.uk as a focus for all of the activities for this special week. We are in the process of updating the website to include some interesting new features. One new feature will allow organisations and community members to upload their own volunteering story or 'thank you' message onto the website. We also encourage everyone to post pictures and videos of their volunteering experiences. Updates will be made over the coming weeks. You can expect to see our Volunteers’ Week shop reopening, access to the special 25th anniversary version of the logo, downloadable resources, template press releases and more.

Free materials

We are in the process of designing some great posters, fliers and 'thank you' ecards for you to use during Volunteers' Week. The posters can be used for your Volunteers' Week event or displayed in your workplace to let people know that you support the week. The fliers will be double sided and will have space for you to write or print details about any local event or activity taking place, so that newcomers can get involved. The addition of ecards will allow organisations and the general community to instantly 'thank' a volunteer by sending an electronic thank you card. These ecards can be passed on electronically to build upon the theme of recognising and rewarding the many volunteers in the UK. These items will be available on the Volunteers' Week website shortly.

Branded merchandise

A number of exciting new products are going to be available to purchase this year. The range will include trolley coin keyrings, coasters, sweets and phone charms as well as the more traditional items that are always useful in branding your activities. We are also pleased to offer a number of limited edition items of merchandise featuring the special anniversary logo.

We are considering the option of sourcing banners this year, in addition to bunting. These could be used both inside and outside and would be suitable to display against a table or on the wall of a building. However, we are unlikely to source both banners and bunting, unless the demand is sufficient. We would like you to let us know if you would be likely to purchase banners. Please let us know by emailing volunteersweek@volunteeringengland.org.

Subscribe to this enewsletter

If you have been forwarded this enewsletter and would like to receive regular updates please visit the Volunteers’ Week website www.volunteersweek.org.uk to subscribe.

An initiative of Volunteering England, Wales Council for Voluntary Action, Volunteer Development Agency (Northern Ireland) and Volunteer Development Scotland, the week will focus on rewarding, recognising and recruiting volunteers.