Volunteering Infrastructure Interim Report 2010

1. Volunteering InfrastructureInterim Report 2010 Jonny Lovell Ripon CVS on behalf of York and North Yorkshire Infrastructure Consortium

2. What is Volunteering? The Volunteering Compact Code of Good Practice makes distinction between: • Informal volunteering: everyday activity, such as helping out a relative or friend • Formal volunteering: benefits environment, individuals, groups and local communities

3. Examples of volunteering in North Yorkshire • Supporting and mentoring young offenders • Helping older people to remain independent in their homes through befriending, shopping, DIY, and gardening • Supporting people with disabilities to access opportunities • Driving people to hospital and doctors appointments through community transport schemes

4. Examples of volunteering in North Yorkshire • Cleaning up, improving and developing the local area, nature reserves, and town & village centres • Volunteering in the local school or Children’s Centre • Helping to run local sports clubs • Running activities & clubs for young people

5. Local Economic Impact Studies suggest: • 1.5million Volunteer hours in North Yorkshire & York per year (Thriving Third Sector Report, 2008) • Up to £1.9 billion financial contribution to Yorkshire and Humber economy per year (based on regional non-manual average wage) (Mapping the Contribution of the Voluntary and Community Sector in Yorkshire and the Humber, 2001)

6. Benefits of volunteering • Health: Improves mental and physical health of volunteers • Employment: Provides opportunities to gain experience, skills, qualifications and employment – keep people active and work-ready • Social: Reduces social isolation • Creates safer communities and stronger social networks • Improves availability and access to services • Builds community pride • Improves local environment

7. Current situation • Tighter economic environment • Big Society agenda – active citizenship, communities doing more for themselves • Increased unemployment • Increased demand for volunteering opportunities • Need to review support for volunteering

8. How did we get to the interim report? • Research (review of national studies on volunteering) • Conference (attracted 70 statutory and voluntary partners) • Survey (160 responses from the voluntary sector) • Face to face interviews (with a range of organisations) • Reviewed each District’s Sustainable Community Plan • Reviewed capacity of current volunteering infrastructure

9. Sustainable Community Strategies Volunteer Centres contribute to all major targets on: • Children and Young People • Housing • Transport • Access to services • Tourism • Environment • Employment and Skills • Crime Reduction • Health • Social Cohesion and Citizenship

10. Support for the statutory sector Volunteer Centres across North Yorkshire recruit and support volunteers into a wide range of statutory settings, including: • Schools (learning assistants, extended schools activities, Governors) • Libraries • Health Services (including hospitals, First Responders, and GPs) • Police (PCSOs, Special Constables)

11. Support for the statutory sector • Fire Service • Countryside services, parks and gardens • Museums and arts • Sport and leisure

12. North Yorkshire recommendations • More volunteering and better volunteering experiences • Standardised, high quality, and high profile Volunteer Centre services across the county • Provide training & guidance on legal responsibilities towards volunteers

13. North Yorkshire recommendations • Develop positive image of volunteering • Improve understanding at a strategic level of how volunteering can provide solutions • Support volunteering among socially disadvantaged groups

14. Local District Priorities • Craven • Youth volunteering, especially with schools • Employee volunteering schemes to build on the good work that has taken place with HML and SBS • Further work with Job Centre Plus to enable unemployed people to access volunteering opportunities, including the DWP-type schemes • Address issues of rurality and lack of transport for people who would like to volunteer but cannot

15. Volunteer infrastructure in North Yorkshire Network of 12 Volunteer Centres • Promote volunteering in communities • Find & match volunteers for local organisations (statutory, voluntary and private sector) • Train organisations on volunteer management, compliance with legislation, good practice etc. • Create NEW volunteering opportunities • Help organisations to adapt existing opportunities to suit different people with different needs

16. Strengths of volunteer infrastructure in North Yorkshire • 12 Volunteer Centres working together to enable efficiencies (e.g. Quality Accreditation, joint funding, projects, & publicity) • Worked with 3,200 volunteers in 2009-10 (100% increase from 2007-8 without additional resources) • Took 674 enquiries from unemployed people in the DWP volunteer brokerage scheme – outperformed national success rates and neighbouring regions’ rates • Worked with 1,240 organisations to promote volunteering opportunities, and provide good practice advice and support

17. Strengths of volunteer infrastructure in North Yorkshire • Are working together to obtain the latest Quality award from Volunteering England • Are producing a shared website to raise the profile of volunteering and to improve communication between organisations, communities, and volunteers

18. Strengths of volunteer infrastructure in North Yorkshire • Craven Volunteer Centre and North Yorkshire County Council Libraries won the Yorkshire Forward Creating Better Futures Award 2010. • Recruited volunteers to deliver books to people in Skipton who could not access their local library. • There are currently 80 people volunteering across the Craven district, serving 240 clients.

19. Strengths of volunteer infrastructure in North Yorkshire • Joined forces to deliver on the Department for Work and Pensions Volunteer Brokerage Scheme. Encourage people who have been out of work for 6 months or more to volunteer as a stepping-stone to longer term volunteering and employment. • Up to April 2010, the conversion rate in North Yorkshire was 37% • For the rest of North East Yorkshire and the Humber the conversion rate was 16% • In West Yorkshire, the Conversion rate was 24%

20. Opportunities for the future: • More volunteering: enables more organisations and individuals to benefit • Attract out-of-county investment: Volunteer Centres can access funding from outside of the County – increasing resources and impact • Provide training & professional development to reduce costs for recruitment, management and retention of volunteers (high quality, flexible, customised training for Volunteer Managers has been developed and is being delivered in local authorities, health, and voluntary sector) • Help communities to become self sufficient - Big Society • Improve health and economic gains for individuals and communities through volunteering

21. Questions for the Area Committee Do you agree with the general recommendations? Do you agree with the assessment of local priorities?

22. North Yorkshire recommendations • More volunteering and better volunteering experiences • Standardised, high quality, and high profile Volunteer Centre services across the county • Provide training & guidance on legal responsibilities towards volunteers • Develop positive image of volunteering • Improve understanding at a strategic level of how volunteering can provide solutions • Support volunteering among socially disadvantaged groups

23. Local District Priorities • Craven • Youth volunteering, especially with schools • Employee volunteering schemes to build on the good work that has taken place with HML and SBS • Further work with Job Centre Plus to enable unemployed people to access volunteering opportunities, including the DWP-type schemes • Address issues of rurality and lack of transport for people who would like to volunteer but cannot

24. Questions for the Area Committee Do you agree with the general recommendations? Do you agree with the assessment of local priorities? Have any opportunities been missed? What would your top 3 priorities for volunteering be? Do you have any views on how to move forward?