Volunteer with Civil Service Local

The Cabinet Office, working with Volunteering England and with the support of Civil Service Local is highlighting Volunteers’ Week 2012. This is an annual campaign which celebrates the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK. Up and down the country, individuals and organisations will hold events to celebrate the contribution of volunteers and inspire others to take part.
Every year, over 20 million people across England and the UK volunteer, donating more than 100 million hours to their communities every week. It has been estimated that the economic value of this activity is worth in excess of £40 billion to the economy.
Services and initiatives that are vital to the running of the country simply wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for volunteers. This includes the NHS, the Coastguard Rescue Service (3,500 volunteers), the Mountain and Cave Rescue Service (3,500 volunteers in England and Wales),
Natural England (2,200 volunteer wardens), the judiciary (30,000 volunteer magistrates in England and Wales) and the police (over 15,000 Special Constables).

In 2012 the central role of volunteers is even clearer, which means we have lots to celebrate. The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games could not happen without the efforts of 70,000 Games Makers, 8,000 London Ambassadors and countless more across the country.
Celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee will involve tens of thousands in community activities. The Jubilee Hour initiative, supported by organisations as diverse as The Women’s Institute, West Yorkshire Police and the Muslim Council of Britain, will encourage people to donate an hour of their time to help others either through an organisation or on a personal basis.
But volunteering has an even greater value than ensuring essential community services function and national events are a success. Every year, millions of people help others in all sorts of ways, most of which they probably wouldn’t even think of as volunteering. This makes a crucial contribution to binding communities, building cooperation and trust between individuals, and helping to make our communities better places to live and work.

There is lots of information and resources available at www.volunteering.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/volunteers-week to help plan either a team event or to volunteer as an individual.

Civil Service Local are actively supporting the Civil Service commitment to delivering 30,000 paid volunteering days per year and seeking to maximise the benefits for all by bringing together local opportunities and volunteers and guiding activities towards key government policy areas. Read the rest of this page for more volunteering opportunities together with useful information for prospective volunteers and their managers.

• See what the Open University has to say about the benefits of volunteering which include:

• a chance to develop existing skills or to gain new ones
• the experience of working in a different environment
• the opportunity to learn more about yourself and your capabilities, and to
• gain more self-confidence

• Don’t forget under the provisions of the Giving White Paper, each civil servant is encouraged to do at least one day of volunteering each year and the civil service has committed to delivering 30,000 volunteering days a year
• It is not just about volunteering, it’s about personal development, social mixing, community engagement
• Volunteering Research has found most volunteers gain “a sense of satisfaction from their involvement, a broader experience of life, and an opportunity to meet new people and make friends” The 2008 – 2009 Citizenship Survey also reports the benefits that people gain through volunteering.
• Business benefits from supporting paid volunteering include employee skills development, staff attraction and retention and increased staff morale and reduced sickness levels

Employer supported volunteering can complement existing training and development programmes, and provide real-life experiences which traditional courses cannot provide. It’s also possible those involved in volunteering can better identify positive innovations to help build more efficient working practices across the Civil Service.)

• Visit the Direct Gov volunteering website
• Visit the Do It volunteering website
• Visit the Volunteering England website
• Visit the Civil Service Local web pages or the Newsletter for your area.
• See your own departmental volunteering intranet pages
• See the local / regional opportunity section of these web pages :-

| CS NorthWest | CS North East | CS West Midlands |  CS East Midlands |CS East of England |

| CS Yorks and the Humber | CS South West | CS South East | Civil Service London  |

See the document ‘Getting the best from volunteering‘ for generic guidance for volunteers and line managers. Please also remember to check inside your department for other guidance. You also need to consult your Line Manager if you wish to volunteer during departmental time.

Volunteering can be an opportunity for your team to learn to work together better and to build relationships outside the normal workplace. The ‘Team Challenges‘ document gives guidance about organising this type of event. Remember that whilst team volunteering events can usefully supplement learning & development it is important to recognise the needs of the receiving charity / organisation.

- See the Volunteer Q&A questionnaire Discover Your Hidden Strengths

See an example of a Getting The Best From Volunteering Review Template that may be helpful for volunteers and their managers

Here is our first volunteering case study kindly provided by Kully who is one of the CSWM job coach volunteers.