Corporate Volunteering

Community Transport enables people who are lacking transport options get to their medical and social appointments. It's not just about getting people from A to B, though that's a vital service. When the volunteer drivers collect their clients and ensure they arrive safely where they need to be for medical appointments and social activities, that keeps vulnerable people well and active and it helps prevent isolation. We are very fortunate in Hertfordshire to have several community transport schemes running in different localities. This week during Community Transport Week, we're shining a light on what they do and how you could get involved. We want in particular to highlight the role and importance of the volunteer drivers who are the backbone of the service. Volunteer drivers share what it means for them to be involved Hear direct from drivers Rob and Peter how they got involved and why they've felt a huge satisfaction from their volunteer driving. In our video, Jon Brown from North Herts & Stevenage Community Transport Scheme explains how the transport scheme works and driver Jenny and her client Royston talk about what the scheme means to them: Find out in more detail what is involved in driving for a community transport scheme in our interview with Communities 1st driver Robin: Be in charge of your own volunteering space and schedule! Driving is a great volunteering role for people with their own vehicle, who are friendly, sociable and enjoy helping others. It can be a particularly suitable activity for those who prefer not to commit to a regular time slot, as you get to set your availability and to be allocated trips to suit your schedule and commitments. The satisfaction of seeing the difference you make each time you volunteer Volunteer drivers regularly tell us how much satisfaction they get from volunteering with their local community transport scheme. Want to join them?

GoVolHerts already helps people find ways to volunteer across Hertfordshire. Now, in an exciting development enabled by the Volunteering for Health Hertfordshire and West Essex programme, we're looking at how to make it easier for people to do more. Volunteer Profile+ is a pilot scheme which will enhance our existing GoVolHerts platform. Launching early next year, it will give volunteers the option to add information about their experience, skills, training and checks to their profile. For volunteers this means they can keep all their volunteering information in one place and it can help them apply for other opportunities without having to provide the same information repeatedly. For organisations, it could mean less administration, additional information about potential volunteers and getting new volunteers involved more quickly. This isn't about encouraging volunteers to move from one organisation to another. We know local organisations invest time in their volunteers, and those relationships matter. The aim is to make it easier for people to get what they want to from their volunteering, and where appropriate, to extend or better utilise their skills. We hope it will enable people to give their time more easily and more quickly. That's the thinking behind Volunteer Profile+: a stronger, more connected volunteering ecosystem, where people can easily develop in their volunteering and organisations can better benefit from people who want to give their time. A new development thanks to the work of many volunteering partners This development is possible through the Volunteering for Health programme, which has brought together partners across health, care, local government and the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector to explore how volunteering can better support people and communities across Hertfordshire and West Essex. The functionality is being developed by Deedmob , the technology provider behind GoVolHerts, and will build on our existing platform. From theory to action Months in the planning, we're now moving from exploring the idea to designing it – with volunteers and organisations, not just for them. Over the coming months, that means speaking to volunteers, people who don't currently volunteer and volunteer managers about what they need from a Volunteer Profile and how it could work in practice. There will be opportunities to get involved and share your views as the development progresses. To be part of this, or find out more, email [email protected] . What matters most Ultimately, this is about a shared ambition: Making it easier for people to do good locally – and making it easier for organisations to benefit from that goodwill. About Volunteering for Health Volunteering for Health is a national programme designed to develop improved volunteering infrastructure to reduce barriers to volunteering. The programme has been funded by NHS Charities Together, with NHS England and NHS CW+. The Volunteering for Health Hertfordshire & West Essex programme is one of 15 partnerships selected to deliver activity: the partnership has focused on increasing capacity, developing an enhanced Volunteer Profile for passporting, and reducing inequalities. Find out more: Volunteering for Health - CW+

Volunteering is a great way to contribute to a cause that is close to your heart; it's also a way to explore new opportunities you might not have thought of. Below we hear from Samuel Farag, a volunteer at Bright Futures UK , a charity supporting children and young people who have had to take time out of education due to serious and long-term illness. Volunteers offer their support to those aged 5-24 through befriending, mentoring, tutoring and workshops. Despite having not wanted to get into education - and claims he still doesn't! - Samuel shares how volunteering has been an important part of his life and why working at Bright Futures has changed his perspective... 1. How did I get into volunteering? My first experience of volunteering was in 2019. At the ripe age of 14, I was eager to do my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award and within that, I started volunteering at Monkton Nature Reserve in Kent. Once finishing my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award, I continued to volunteer at Monkton Nature Reserve until 2020 – that pesky Covid-19 always finds a way into people’s stories! Once the pandemic and lockdowns were over, during the summer of 2021, I decided to go back to volunteering at Ramsgate Tunnels. Whilst I enjoyed it, I would end up shelving my volunteering experiences in late August of that year as I was to start my A-Levels! A couple of months afterwards, however, despite doing my studies and securing a part time job at Ask Italian in Westwood Cross, Thanet, I would re-enter volunteering, but in a different capacity. As someone who was deeply fascinated in history and politics, I become a Kent Youth County Councillor, Secretary to my Sixth Form’s Eco-Committee, a member of the British Youth Council (alongside the UK Youth Parliament scheme as a Deputy Member) and an Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust. From then, at the age of 16, my volunteering opportunities proliferated. Before starting university, I had volunteering experiences around a variety of things, from leading public speaking workshops, chairing meetings and working with Kent police as a Youth councillor, helping form the Thanet Youth Council and even organising my first event as Regional Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust. After joining university, eager to carry on my volunteering experiences, I would join other organisations such as the WWF, Bright Futures UK, the mentoring organisation, Business Education and Events (BEE) Network, Herts Young Homeless, Shoutout UK, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and even going to Calais to help volunteer with refugees. At the age of 21, I look back on a strong history of volunteering with happiness and excitement, but at the heart of all of the things that I have done, I can trace it to my early days of 14 when I started my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. 2. What attracted me to this role? I had always found teaching fun and exciting. Although I never wanted to be a teacher, nor do I still want to now, I still thoroughly enjoyed sharing knowledge with people. When I started at the University of Hertfordshire as young fresher, there was a part time careers fair ran by the university’s careers team and among the members of staff, was Bright Futures UK. As I was eager to know what each stand was offering, I went over. In this discussion, I learnt I could make a real difference in someone’s life just by simply talking to them about Geography! I was really eager to join, but as a first-year student, adjusting to university at first was quite difficult. It wouldn’t be until mid-way through the year, after learning the ropes, I realised I had time and the ability to start doing online tutoring. From then on, I began to email Bright Futures UK and they told me they were holding an online information session about the charity and what I could do as a tutor – I was hooked straight away. As someone who passionately believe in the power of education, I knew I needed to do something and from then on, I would join. 3. What do you enjoy about it? Honestly, I love everything about it! The young people you get to meet are incredible. Despite the things they have gone through, they are beyond inspiring. They constantly ask questions, they make you think and adapt and it is a wholly amazing experience. The thing I enjoy most however, is the connection you make with the young people and watching them grow. They begin to open up to you and they bring you into this exciting world of their own and it is terrific to be a part of. As they let you in, you help them with more than just the education side. You help them develop as young person and it is honestly an incredible thing to be a part of! 4. What has it brought you? It has brought me to understand the value of connecting with young people and believing in them. People can often dismiss students because of the ‘low’ grade they got and in reality, it is more than they just didn’t revise or don’t care. Bright Futures UK is a great way to bring young people back into education and I think being a part of that has be the most rewarding thing that I can think of. 5. What would you say to someone who is thinking about volunteering? At the risk of sounding like a Nike advert, ‘Just do it!’. It is an incredibly rewarding experience. You develop so much and you really begin to learn a lot about yourself. It is amazing the things that you end up doing, it pushes you so much and the impacts that you end up doing are incredible. You get to meet amazing people, whether fellow volunteers or staff, along the way and honestly it just makes the experience even better. I can never describe, nor put it into the words the feelings you can get or why you should do volunteering – I think partially that is because I change my answer every time someone asks me why should I volunteer. But the one thing that never changes no matter who the person that's asks me, the first three words that come out my mouth are ‘just do it!’.