News Articles
Who looks after Leaders of Volunteers?
NCVS Volunteering Development Officer, Dave Thomas, writes: Volunteers really can do anything! Every day, in organisations and groups across Nottingham, volunteers are stepping up to tackle a myriad of different challenges. The most effective volunteers also have good leadership. That’s where Leaders of Volunteers come in. We might call them Volunteer Managers, Volunteer Coordinators or Volunteer…
Unveiling volunteer motivation: insights from the latest data
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, has been reviewing some of the latest reports on VCSE sector trends, helping to draw out the facts and figures which relate to volunteering. Leaders of Volunteers already know that volunteers are the unsung heroes of our society, dedicating their time, energy, and skills to support various causes and organisations.…
Thank you to our Cheers for Volunteers partners
A big thank you to all fourteen volunteer-involving organisations who took part in “Cheers for Volunteers” at the Victoria Embankment Memorial Gardens. The event this month (October 2023), was designed to celebrate volunteers in the south of the city and to generally promote volunteering. All sizes and types of organisations had stalls. Nottingham Green Guardians and Parks Volunteers, Community…
Supporting and Supervising volunteers
A good practice article for Leaders of Volunteers by Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS. Two of the many hats that Leaders of Volunteers wear are those of Volunteer Supporter and Volunteer Supervisor. Often these two hats seem interchangeable, but it is good to think of them both as separate parts of volunteer leadership with quite different functions. In my Mind your…
What's in it for me?
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS, writes occasional blogs, reflecting on practice development for Leaders of Volunteers. In this latest thought-piece, Dave attempts to answer his own question... Leaders of Volunteers will have heard me saying "What’s in it for me?" in training sessions, network meetings and, seemingly at random, in other conversations. It's not…
Heritage Buddies: a new partnership for NCVS with Historic England
NCVS is working in partnership with Historic England to lead on a new Heritage Buddies Project. This is an innovative pilot project to test and trial an approach to delivering social prescribing and wellbeing through heritage in local settings, across Nottingham City.The project aims to help people appreciate the value of their local heritage and the local historic environment, experience how it…
Volunteer training - a suggestion
Your volunteer training has a monetary value. Are you making the most of it? Whether a new volunteer joins you to make the tea for your group meeting or becomes one of your trustees, they will need some training. There probably isn’t a volunteer role anywhere that doesn’t need some initial training or induction. As Leaders of Volunteers, training is a very important part of our function that can…
Thank you for celebrating volunteering at Nottingham's Arboretum
The Volunteers' Week 2023 Celebration Event took place on Saturday 3 June in the Arboretum, where 30 organisations came together in the sunshine to celebrate together. It was a fine, but slightly chilly morning at 8am when the first Nottingham City Council and NCVS team members arrived to set up. The crew from the gazebo company were setting up the rows of stalls, the Portaloos were delivered…
Employer Supported Volunteering
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS writes... For many years, some employers from all sectors have been willing to give their staff paid time to take part in volunteering. Some voluntary and community organisations have embraced this and have involved volunteers effectively in this way. Others have found it very difficult, or even impossible, to engage with this kind of…
Vision for Volunteering – What does it mean for us?
Dave Thomas, Volunteering Development Officer at NCVS writes... From my own involvement in this process, I am fairly confident that this is not another top-down attempt to regulate volunteering.I was one of more than 350 people involved and Nottingham CVS was one of more than 300 organisations that attended some of the 14 workshops. I was also interviewed as part of the consultation. (I even…
