The following sources of free online training may be of use in helping to upskill staff and volunteers of voluntary and community organisations.

Free-Online-Training-Resources-for-VCS-organisations.pdf

Data protection is about protecting people’s privacy. This is the purpose of data protection in any organisation, including voluntary and community organisations, and is at the heart of data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It applies not only to employees but also to volunteers who may come into contact with and use confidential information.

Your new volunteers will need to know about your organisation including policies, information about the location and office, and the general description of their role. Involving an induction to your volunteer's plan will be vital to provide this information and assist them in understanding their part in your organisation.

Induction-of-Volunteers-NoT.pdf

The emergence of hundreds of localised COVID-19 Mutual Aid groups across the country was aweinspiring and demonstrated just how agile place-based communities could be in self-organising to provide a local response before many established charities were able to develop their own solutions.

Informal-Volunteering-Guidance.pdf

Strong, regular communication motivates volunteers and a lack of it is one of the main reasons they become disillusioned. Keeping your volunteers up to date on things going on inside your organisation is a vital aspect of keeping them engaged and ensuring they feel part of the team. Your organisation should consider how it plans to communicate with volunteers.

The amount and type of training that you will provide for your volunteers depends on the nature of the volunteering role. You may sometimes recruit volunteers because they already have specific qualifications or experience, but at other times you will need to provide your volunteers with training required to undertake their role safely and effectively.

Volunteer recognition is a critical part of volunteer involvement. Volunteers give their time willingly and without expectation of a reward. But if you recognise your volunteers appropriately, you will demonstrate how much your organisation values their contribution.

Volunteer-Impact-Assessment.pdf

Having a planned approach to recruitment will help your organisation find the right volunteers for the roles you need filled. Depending on the roles you are recruiting for, you are likely to engage in different recruitment processes. Implementing a broad recruitment strategy will help your organisation to understand how to approach different audiences to get the right outcome for your volunteering programs and projects.

Remote and home-based volunteering has been an option for many years, however, with the rise of technology, remote volunteering is becoming more common.

Remote-volunteering.pdf

The recruitment, selection, training and induction of volunteers can be an extremely time-consuming task. It is therefore a good idea to ensure that you do all you can to keep volunteers engaged.

Retaining-your-Volunteers-1.pdf

Having the right selection and screening processes in place will enable you to find the right volunteer for the role. The process needs to be proportionate to the nature of the role.

Selecting-and-screening-volunteers-NoT.pdf

A guide to the principles of Social Action, why it’s important and how it can benefit individuals, communities, and society.