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

Welcome to the second edition of the Volunteers’ Week enewsletter. As the 25th anniversary approaches, activities continue to gather momentum across the nation. Volunteering England and its sister agencies Wales Council for Voluntary Action, Volunteer Development Agency Northern Ireland and Volunteer Development Scotland have all been busy preparing for the week and look forward to celebrating this very special anniversary with you all.

One initiative has seen the Volunteer Development Agency and Volunteer Centres Northern Ireland working with the Association of Charity Shops to promote volunteering on the high streets across Northern Ireland.  The Association's members are going to carry window displays to promote the week and will carry information inside the shops on how to get involved in volunteering locally through their charities and Volunteer Centres.

The Wales Council for Voluntary Action has developed bilingual Volunteers' Week certificates celebrating the 25th anniversary. This certificate, along with the usual Volunteers’ Week branded certificate will be available shortly and can be ordered via the WCVA's website. 

Meet our partners

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Volunteers’ Week, we have partnered with a number of national organisations that include volunteers in their work to showcase the diversity of volunteering opportunities and various ways people can become involved.

These organisations join us in recognising the value of volunteering: Red Cross, Scouts Association, The National Trust, Beatbullying, Samaritans, British Heart Foundation, English and Wales Cricket Board, Sue Ryder Care, St John Ambulance, Victim Support, Scope, Business in the Community, Sustrans, Timebanking, Rockcorps,The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Clinks, Envision, Christian Aid, YouthNet and V.

More organisations will be joining the ranks in coming weeks. These partnerships will reinforce our theme of challenging the traditional perception of volunteering but also tell the many stories of volunteers who are making such a fantastic contribution on a daily basis.

Our website

Work has continued on the dedicated Volunteers’ Week website. The new-look site will feature some great examples of volunteering, thanks to our partners. Some of these new features will encourage people to speak from the heart, sharing their volunteering experiences or thanking a volunteer who has helped them in some way.

The new-look will be unveiled mid-April and feature new merchandise in the Volunteers’ Week shop, access to the special 25th anniversary version of the logo, posters, flyers, certificates, ecards and media kits. All these items have been designed to promote your activities for the week and enhance the key messages of Volunteers’ Week: the 3 R’s: recognise, reward and recruit.

The Volunteers’ Week shop will this year feature limited edition items to mark the 25th anniversary of the week. Some of these items include badges, baseball caps, t-shirts, cotton bags, travel coffee mugs, plaques and pens. Items featuring the standard Volunteers’ Week branding will also be available for purchase.

Tell your story

As Volunteers’ Week is all about the 3 R’s – recognise, reward and recruit, we want to hear your story. Everyone has been touched by volunteering at some stage and we think this year’s 25th anniversary is a great time to tell these tales.

We encourage you and people you may know to jump online at www.volunteersweek.org.uk and tell your story, whether it be how volunteering has changed your life or what it brings to your life on a day-to-day basis. These are the stories we want to share; stories that will challenge the perception of volunteering and its role in society.

Alternatively, if you know of people who have been touched by a volunteer and want to say thanks we would like you to encourage them to head to the website and leave a message thanking those who have helped in some way.

Telling your story may just be what a potential volunteer needs to hear!

Registering your events

As you continue to prepare your activities and celebrations please remember to upload your events onto the Volunteers’ Week event finder. This is a great way to promote your event and an opportunity to recruit new volunteers. 

This year’s event finder is nation-wide and also features a new google map facility to make the search a little easier!

Again this awareness week is a way to celebrate the activities volunteers carry out throughout the year. So you may like to take the opportunity to say thank you to volunteers, or use the week to recruit new volunteers. How or what you do is up to you, but remember to register your event!

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.