We love volunteering in North Yorkshire

Volunteers are essential for many organisations and make a positive impact on the services that you deliver.

Our toolkits, resources and guides will help your organisation from becoming volunteer ready to getting to grips with volunteer recruitment, support and management.

Community First Yorkshire volunteering resources

Volunteering in North Yorkshire (VINY) directory – if you want to find volunteering roles or advertise your volunteering opportunities in North Yorkshire, our Volunteering in North Yorkshire website is the place to start.

Find out how easy it is to use our Volunteering in North Yorkshire directory to find the right volunteering role for you by watching our short video.

Join our Volunteer Coordinators Network  –  connecting you with other volunteer organisers. Share your experience , learn about new resources and policy development, and explore mutual topics of interest. Open to everyone who supports volunteers within North Yorkshire.

A-Z of Volunteering – a quick, fun guide to all things volunteering for you to download.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in volunteering – this resource will help you explore the benefits of recruiting a broad range of volunteers, working with different types of diversity and how to avoid discrimination so that you can embrace a diverse team of volunteers and improve your organisation’s approach to diversity and inclusion.

Volunteer Management toolkit –  for everything you need to know about recruiting, managing and supporting your volunteers, our toolkit is your go-to resource.

Trustee recruitment toolkit: enrich your board with the right trustees – our guide will walk you through your trustee recruitment journey from planning and identifying what you need, advertising, interviewing and appointment, to induction. We’ve included some useful templates to help you along the way.

Volunteering Charter – pledge your commitment to good volunteer management by signing up to our charter.

Flexible volunteering – what is flexible volunteering and how can it work for your organisation and your volunteers? Find out what to consider in this resource.

Creating a friendly volunteering environment – what steps should you take to create an environment where your volunteers feel welcomed and want to stay?

Finding your volunteers – a look at the different ways to find the volunteers you need.

Sample volunteer consent form for under 18s – a word form that you can adapt for your own purposes.

Involving young people – a guide to what you should consider when involving young people in volunteering.

Volunteer Agreements – it’s important to clarify what’s expected from a volunteer-involving organisation and a volunteer.

Sample volunteer policy – a sample policy that you can adapt for your own use.

Sample volunteering agreement – adapt this sample agreement to clarify expectations from you, the volunteer-involving organisation, and your volunteers.

Volunteers and employment law – while volunteers are not employees, this guide covers everything from expenses and insurance to safeguarding.

Volunteer role descriptions – what should you include in a role description for your volunteer?

Volunteer policy – having a volunteer policy ensures a consistent approach to working with your volunteers.

Recruiting volunteers – a useful guide covering everything on your recruitment journey from interviews and appointments, to how to welcome your volunteer.

What to do if things go wrong – a simple guide on what to do if problems arise with your volunteers.

Becoming a volunteer ready organisation – this guide lists the essential things you need to consider to become volunteer-ready.

Support & Supervision – what’s the best way to support the volunteers involved with your organisation?

Social Action Toolkit – what is social action and how can you make it work to improve or make changes in your community? Our toolkit will help you be inspired with practical tips, tools and resources for activities to help people get involved with local activities.

Why on earth would you want to become a charity trustee? – a guide to the joys and benefits of being a trustee, and the transferable skills you have which could be useful to an organisation.

Other volunteering resources

UK Civil Society Almanac 2022 –  the latest available data on the voluntary sector’s finances and people. The Almanac is a particularly useful resource for anyone involved in planning or strategy work, helping identify opportunities and challenges likely to impact your organisation in the future. It’s well worth sharing with your trustee board, for instance.

ACAS Equality, diversity and inclusion policy template – Equality, diversity and inclusion policy template an employer can adapt for their organisation

Prepare a health and safety policy (Health and Safety Executive) – setting out your organisation’s approach to health and safety, explaining how it is managed, who does what, when and how. This should include details of any specific responsibilities for volunteers.

Can you and your organisation support a team member with dementia?Dementia Forward would love to help community organisations to feel confident in recruiting volunteers with dementia, or retaining anyone who begins to show signs of dementia. Their leaflet will give you some ideas on how you can support people within your organisation.

7 steps to wellbeing through volunteering: How to link to social prescribing – The National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) and the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) created a guide to help volunteer-involving organisations support people who may come to volunteering as part of a social prescribing journey.

National learning hub for volunteers – are you a volunteer or do you work with volunteers? OpenLearn national learning hub for volunteers takes you on a journey with tools, resources and courses, to help you gain confidence and recognition.

Digital guide: Working with volunteers: Copyright considerations – This guide created by Naomi Korn Associates offers advice when it comes to the rights of volunteers and the material they create.

Action Towards Inclusion – presentation shared at our Volunteer Co-ordinators’ Network meetings about ATI’s support for people who are looking to gain employment and training to help them get closer to, or into the job market.

Jobcentre Plus – presentation shared at our Volunteer Co-ordinators’ Network meetings about the Department of Work and Pensions Customer Volunteering and Support.

NCVO – Volunteering: a family affair?

Innovations in Dementia – guide for volunteers supporting a person with dementia.

NCVO advice on involving and managing volunteers during the coronavirus outbreak

Institute for Volunteering Research (IVAR) – reports, data & statistics.

NCVO – get the perfect volunteer – creating volunteer roles.