Southwark Volunteer Strategy: we need you!

Community Southwark, Southwark council and YOU are collaborating to create a brand-new Southwark Volunteer Strategy.

(Published 25 March)

The Volunteer strategy will be a document that will have practical, tangible, collaborative and sector led activities that will meet the aims and objectives set out in the strategy. These will support organisations, individuals, and communities through all aspects of volunteering in Southwark.

To create the aims, objectives, and activities we have received people’s input through surveys and workshops. Thank you to those who have already contributed.

Surveys

We are running two surveys which are still online and available. To complete them, please see here:

• Survey 1: (23 responses so far) – This survey is for organisations who work with volunteers: Fill it in here
• Survey 2: (44 responses so far) – This survey is for volunteers, non-volunteers or anyone in the community: Fill it in here

Some key points that have been raised in the surveys so far are:

• Not enough information on volunteering
• Volunteering is not inclusive
• Lack of 18-21-year-olds and 60+ plus volunteering, particularly men
• Majority of people volunteering are white women
• Organisations would like more training to support them
• Most organisations need funding.

Workshops

We ran two workshops on the 17^th and 18^th of March:

• Workshop 1: 21 attendees – We looked at what aims could be in the strategy and why.
• Workshop2: 18 attendees – We looked at activities and outputs to achieve those aims.

Key points that came out of the workshops were:

Volunteers

1. Volunteers need the support of a pathway to help them with gaining experiences and new skills for future employment and growth in their role, or in education
2. We need to engage more young people into volunteering
3. We need to make volunteering more accessible, flexible, and inclusive
4. Volunteers need support via representative role models/ambassadors for volunteering.

Organisations

1. Need to make volunteering accessible for all
2. need to make volunteering more inclusive
3. Need to engage people and communities into volunteering
4. Need to ensure more network building between organisations
5. Organisations need the right support to give volunteers a pathway to help them with gaining experiences and new skills for future employment and growth in their role or education.

Next steps

• Survey responses – Surveys are still OPEN, please fill in, you have until the end of APRIL!! They will Inform how we write the new strategy
• Another workshop – We may be holding a third workshop, this is TBC
• Once the surveys are closed – Responses and a full report will be in our newsletter and on our website, so do look out for this around June time!
• Writing of the strategy – Once we have received all the intelligence, we will begin to write the strategy. The new strategy should be released later on in the Summer of 2021.

Book a Volunteer Advice appointment

Book a volunteer advice appointment here with our Volunteer Adviser and start your volunteer journey too.

Our training and events

We are always running lots of useful training and events, including for volunteers and volunteer Managers/Coordinators. Have a look! You will no doubt find something timely and topical for your charity.