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.
Vision for Volunteering
Across the nation, volunteering is being transformed. The Vision for Volunteering, developed through workshops, interviews, and written contributions from over 300 organisations, outlines potential positive changes in the volunteering sector. This framework aims to foster a brighter future for volunteering by inspiring and mobilising individuals committed to making a difference.
The Vision for Volunteering is a 10-year strategy. Launched in May 2022 it has five themes:
- Awareness and appreciation – a future where a culture of volunteering is part of everyone’s life and volunteer roles are given the recognition they deserve
- Power – a future where volunteers (and the communities they work with) lead on change that matters to them
- Equity and inclusion – a future where it’s easy for people to give their time and energy to the causes they care about, they feel welcomed, and the benefits are equally distributed
- Collaboration – a future where collaboration is natural and spontaneous, where people do great stuff together because they want to
- Experimentation – a future where communities aren’t afraid to try new things to develop their own innovative solutions to engaging and supporting volunteers.
Community First Yorkshire recognises that although many people volunteered during the pandemic, current volunteering rates are still below pre-Covid levels.
There has been an increase in informal, ‘micro’, and short-term volunteering, reflecting an evolution in volunteers’ expectations. Not everyone is able or willing to volunteer in traditional ways, so volunteering must be inclusive to stay relevant and keep volunteers engaged. More volunteers, particularly young people, desire a role in decision-making as well as in service delivery.
By integrating the themes of the Vision for Volunteering into your volunteer strategies and daily operations, we can explore the best ways to make volunteering more attractive and accessible to everyone.
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.
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.
