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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Volunteers’ Week buzz

With the majority of Volunteers’ Week activities already over we are delighted to still be receiving some wonderful stories about the events and celebrations that took place during this year’s 25th anniversary.

A big thank you for sending this information through and we ask you to continue to do so as we start evaluating this year’s celebrations and begin planning for next year.

We will be conducting a survey in coming weeks, via this enewsletter and would appreciate your feedback about Volunteers’ Week, to ensure it continues to grow and create awareness of the diversity of volunteering as we celebrate in 2010.

Please keep an eye out for this survey in the next enewsletter along with an overview of some of the great media coverage Volunteers’ Week received during and after the week.

And the winner is…

Many thanks to those who took the time to send us summaries of events, press coverage and photos about their activities held during Volunteers’ Week.

From recruitment drives to tea parties and red buses we are always impressed with the originality of some events and the efforts many put in to ensure that volunteers are rewarded, recognised and recruited.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Wii and WiiFit is Solihull Volunteer Management Forum. Their week of activities, which were supported by SUSTAin and Solihull’s vinvolved team, saw more than 100 new volunteers recruited through taster sessions and road shows, all while promoting the great work of their volunteers.

Big congratulations go to all at Solihull Volunteer Management Forum. We hope you enjoy the Wii!

We are also pleased to announce the following organisations have each won a copy of The Rough Guide to Happiness. These are:

• Society for the Blind of Dewsbury, Batley and District
• Spurgeons Salford
• Halifax Street Angels
• The Leprosy Mission Scotland
• Willow Burn Hospice.

All these organisations produced wonderful events to not only recruit volunteers but also thank those who have helped them in one way or another. Their volunteers were treated to everything from an Oscars evening and tea parties to a sushi making course and meeting Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order fame.

It is clear that your volunteers would have appreciated the time and effort put into thanking them at these special events.

Youtube channel

Please continue to send us through some footage of your activities from Volunteers’ Week. We would like to collect as much footage as possible to feature on the Volunteering England Youtube channel and use in the future when reflecting on the 25th anniversary.

Please send your footage through to
volunteersweek@volunteeringengland.org. These clips do not need to be professionally made, but just tell a story about volunteering or the activities held during the week.

Northern Ireland news

Congratulations to three Northern Irish organisations who were presented with their Investing in Volunteers accreditation by the recently appointed Lord Mayor of Belfast Cllr Naomi Long, during Volunteers’ Week.

Forthspring Inter Community Group, The Cedar Foundation and VOYPIC (Voice of Young People in Care) will retain the quality standard status for three years, having demonstrated policies and procedures which value volunteers and support positive volunteering experiences.

For more information on Investing in Volunteers go to www.investinginvolunteers.org.uk.

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.