Investing in Volunteers
CONGRATULATIONS we have achieved the Investing in Volunteers Award!
Investing in Volunteers is a National Quality Standard Award promoted by Volunteering England as a benchmark for Voluntary Involved Organisations to assess their management of Volunteers and on 9 February 2011 Plymouth Guild were awarded this important piece of accreditation.
Plymouth Guild is constantly working to improve the involvement of Volunteers in the organisation and as such have taken the opportunity to undertake the accreditation process with the guidance of the Basis 2 project which is funded by the Big Lottery.
In this way Plymouth Guild will establish a baseline for Best Practice in Volunteer Management for other Voluntary organisations in Plymouth and as an extension of the Basis projects aims, support and mentor a further 9 organisations through IIV in Plymouth in 2011 and 2012.
The Guild has always integrated their paid staff and volunteers so seamlessly together that it has not always been detectable as to who is who. Volunteers are an important part of the reason why we are able to deliver our services and they are placed in roles throughout the organisation from the Trustees to Advisory and Support Services.
Volunteers in the Disability Information Advice Centre
Successful accreditation means that we not only show a public commitment to our Volunteer Programme, but that we have also reviewed all of our policies and procedures in regard to the Volunteer involvement in the organisation, and we can truly say that it works well. The whole process was fully supported by all; from the Trustees to staff including Volunteers, and resulted in Plymouth Guild being the first organization in Plymouth to be awarded the Investing in Volunteers Award from Volunteering England.
The Award sits very nicely alongside others already obtained, such as the Investors in People and PQASSO.
If your organization is interested in finding out more about Investing in Volunteers, please contact Gill Stringer in the Volunteers Centre on 01752 201 766 or email gill@plymouthguild.org.uk
