Vision for Volunteering is looking for community reporters to help gather lived-experience stories about volunteering. Reporters will be given free one-day training sessions to help them help people to tell their own stories in their own ways. Vision for Volunteering has also been working with NAVCA to create a toolkit on how to run your own session with your community. It includes ideas for how to plan a consultation event, social media messaging, feedback forms and a presentation about the Vision. For a copy, contact the Community Support North Yorkshire team.

On 3 August our Volunteer Network meeting explored ways of involving and supporting LGBTQIA+ volunteers. The latest census results show a rapid increase in diversity of sexual orientation among older people in the UK. Isn't this reason enough to celebrate and support this community? In this blog, Sarah Wilkinson explores the need to give much greater consideration to the needs of older LGBTQIA+ people. Our network resources can be found here.

Our June Network meeting explored how to involve and support Neurodivergent volunteers and those supporting them. As well as the Community First Yorkshire blog which accompanied the network meeting, this article by Ettie Bailey-King offers practical advice on how to attract and support Neurodivergent volunteers. It reminds us that diverse people with unique strengths and abilities will strengthen the teams that they work in. 

In this article, Rob Jackson delves into five mistakes that can turn your volunteer management journey into a nightmare. By avoiding these missteps, you can create an environment that fosters productivity, satisfaction, and long-term success for your volunteers and your organisation.

Volunteers play an important part in fundraising and supporting charitable giving. The Fundraising Regulator's volunteers guidance explains the different volunteer fundraising arrangements that exist, and what this means for charitable organisations and volunteers.

This Knaresborough Connectors Guide looks at recruiting volunteers using Google Forms. It also has other tips about planning and safeguarding in mutual aid projects.

Your volunteers are helpful, dedicated and demonstrate a strong commitment to you and your organisation. So are you showing them your appreciation? If your volunteers don't feel engaged with, they may find another place to offer their time. You don’t want to lose these unsung heroes! Here are some ideas that may prove lucrative in terms of your volunteer retention and recruitment.

The recent Time Well Spent report highlighted that volunteer participation and satisfaction is lower since the pandemic, and still in decline. However, it also confirmed that people's motivations to volunteer haven’t changed and that giving back it something most wish to do, despite some practical barriers. This Joe Lepper article looks at the value of virtual volunteering.

What turns a good volunteer manager into a great one? Do you agree with this list from the Canal and River Trust?

What makes an effective volunteer manager/ coordinator? What are the key responsibilities and how do they differ across the sector?

How can you ensure effective recruitment and induction of volunteers? What does volunteering look like in different contexts?