It was fantastic to see the Hastings buzz around Volunteers' Week, with local organisations championing the value of volunteering, and celebrating the amazing work of their volunteers.
As part of Volunteers’ Week, HVA were involved with several activities and events. This included a painting session at the Y-Centre, where members of the team helped transform/refresh one of the Y-Centre’s spaces. As an organisation seeking to get more people to volunteer we like to practice what we preach, and one way we do this is to offer HVA staff paid time off to carry out volunteering activities. To us, this feels like a clear demonstration of how valuable we see volunteering. Is this something you already do, or could offer to your staff?
We attended Rother Voluntary Action’s community network event, in part to talk about how we’re working more collaboratively with a view to increasing engagement with volunteering county-wide. Over the past year, we’ve often shared stands at networking events, attended and cross-promoted each other’s training, and co-facilitated presentations at events.
HVA also took to Hastings Town Centre with other local organisations to chat to the public about our projects and services, as well as volunteering opportunities we currently have. The weather was on our side, and there was a steady stream of passers by that came to talk with us. There were also animated conversations between organisations about ways in which they could work together.
And finally, on the Friday of Volunteers' Week, HVA welcomed our own small team of trustees and volunteers for a coffee and cake ‘thank you’ at Khalid’s Kitchen. All in all, it was a wonderful week where a spotlight was rightly shone on the amazing volunteers in our town.
HVA (and RVA and 3VA) host regular Volunteer Coordinator forums where volunteer-involving organisations come together to discuss key issues affecting the sector. HVA's most recent forum discussed young people and volunteering; volunteering for Duke of Edinburgh; diversifying our volunteer pools; using Tribe (an app/online platform) to promote volunteering; advance planning for Volunteers' Week. If you work with volunteers, please do get involved with future conversation. For more information about upcoming events that address volunteering issues, please email [email protected].
HVA wants to continue to work with organisations in a joined-up way to raise the profile of volunteering in Hastings. This includes identifying and connecting with members of our community who may want to volunteer, but struggle to find suitable opportunities; getting businesses on board with volunteering; investigating micro-volunteering as a way to get volunteer-curious folk on board.
These and more form elements of our volunteering strategy which is available to view on our website. If any of the elements are particularly relevant to your organisation's line of work, then we'd love to discuss how we can work together.
