ADVICE SERVICES VOLUNTEERING CAMPAIGN Central Bedfordshire. Report June 2015

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1 SERVICES VOLUNTEERING CAMPAIGN Central Bedfordshire Background Report June 2015 This volunteering campaign was organised on behalf of Central Bedfordshire s Advice Planning Board and the Stronger Communities Thematic Partnership. The initial driver of the campaign was to help provide links between Central Bedfordshire s Advice Strategy and its Volunteering Strategy. The overall aim was to attract new advisers to local advice agencies to help them meet the increased demand for advice especially as a result of Welfare Reform. Campaign aims The specific aims of the campaign were: To help raise awareness of advice services in Central Bedfordshire To encourage volunteers to join advice agencies in Central Bedfordshire - as advisers and in other support roles To help advice agencies work more effectively and to encourage the sharing of good practice in using volunteers To help raise awareness of the Volunteer Bureaux in Central Bedfordshire To help improve the information that the Volunteer Bureaux hold on advice agencies To encourage closer links between advice agencies and the Volunteer Bureaux Campaign partners This was a collaborative campaign involving 17 partners. Advice agencies: AdviceCentral Age UK Bedfordshire Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity Carers in Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire Library Service Disability Resource Centre Dunstable CAB Mid Beds CAB Sight Concern Bedfordshire SSAFA Volunteer Bureaux: CVS VCA Support partners: Advice Planning Board Bedfordshire Advice Forum Central Bedfordshire Council Stronger Communities Thematic Partnership Campaign facilitator: Infotrain

2 Campaign format The campaign consisted of 4 stages. Potential volunteers in the community Stage 2 Designing and distributing campaign publicity Stage 3 Enquiries from the public CVS and VCA Stage 1 Collecting information on advice services and their volunteer requirements Stage 4 Referrals to advice agencies Planning for the campaign started in October 2014 with a planning meeting for partners. Two further planning meetings took place in November 2014 and January Stage 1 - Collecting information from advice agencies and their volunteer requirements This stage took place in November and December As well as being essential for the campaign, this information generally helped to update the details held on advice providers by the volunteer bureaux at CVS and VCA. This gathering of information dovetailed very well with the updating of the data for the DO-IT website used by volunteer bureaux that was taking place at the same time. Stage 2 - Designing and distributing the campaign publicity This work took place in January Two versions of publicity were designed for the campaign - one was aimed at people who had retired and the other at people of working age. See overleaf for the designs. Both designs were produced as A4 posters and A5 flyers. Distribution of the publicity then took place in early February Publicity was distributed to partner agencies, libraries, children s centres, armed forces bases, and various community buildings in Central Bedfordshire. Additionally versions were sent though various local networks including Bedfordshire Advice Forum, and Town and Parish Councils. Partner agencies were also encouraged to publicise the campaign in their newsletters and outreach work.

3 Campaign posters Stage 3 - Enquiries from the public This stage took place in February and March People who were interested in volunteering at an advice agency were encouraged to contact the Volunteer Bureaux at the CVS and at VCA. Enquirers would then be interviewed to discuss their needs and their skills and experience. Suitable volunteers would then be referred to an appropriate local advice agency or other volunteer opportunity. The CVS and VCA agreed to monitor the number of enquiries that they received about volunteering in advice agencies and to compare this with enquiries made in the period immediately before the campaign Stage 4 - Referrals to advice agencies This stage was also planned to take place in February and March. When a potential volunteer was referred, the advice agency would then follow its normal interview and recruitment procedures. The partner advice agencies were encouraged to monitor the number of potential volunteers that contacted them during the campaign period and compare this to contacts made in the period immediately before the campaign

4 Review of campaign A review meeting to evaluate the different aspects of campaign was held in April The main comments made at the meeting are given below. Stage 1 - Collecting information from advice agencies and their volunteer requirements VCA reported that this had gone well. The information held on advice agencies at VCA needed updating, cleaning and sorting, and the new information collected was therefore very useful for VCA s in-house system. However, disappointingly the new national, DO-IT system has a reduced list of search options and does not currently allow for a search for advice as a volunteering option. VCA also felt that the campaign had been very useful for building up new contacts with some local advice agencies, and good relationships had been developed with AdviceCentral, Disability Resource Centre, and CBC Libraries. Some other agencies reported that the campaign had also helped to improve the internal procedures in their own agencies when volunteers were referred by VCA. Stage 2 - Designing and distributing the campaign publicity It was agreed that the campaign posters looked good and professional. However, it was also agreed that they were perhaps too text heavy and probably contained too many logos. Although the publicity had been fairly widely distributed (eg to libraries, children s centres, community buildings, advice agencies and work clubs) it was also agreed that further checks could have been done on the distribution to make sure the posters were being promoted. In general perhaps it would have been good to have had some extra time allocated on the publicity (both to help with design and distribution). It will be useful to compare the results for the Volunteering Campaign with the recent Community Safety campaign which used social media to publicise the campaign. Stage 3 Enquiries from the public, and Stage 4 Referrals to advice agencies VCA reported that the campaign had made the advisers at the VCA Volunteer Bureau much more aware of local advice agencies in general which had resulted in them highlighting advice work as a potential volunteering opportunity with more of their clients. VCA presented statistics showing the number of volunteers that they had signposted or referred to the 10 advice agencies involved in the campaign during the period November 2014 April Although the total number (105) was not especially high there had been a steady flow of potential volunteers signposted or referred to local advice agencies especially to AdviceCentral and to Dunstable CAB. However, disappointingly, there was no evidence that any of the volunteer referrals in February and March actually resulted from people responding to the campaign publicity. CVS also reported that there had also been no responses recorded as a direct result of the campaign. Disability Resource Centre reported that of the 39 potential volunteers that VCA signposted to them and to AdviceCentral, only about 20 had actually made contact. This had highlighted some problems with people getting past the initial reception process at DRC. However, it had resulted in three good volunteers actually starting two with DRC and one shared with AdviceCentral.

5 Case study We saw Ms. N at the Work Club in Dunstable. She was looking for some experience in administrative work as she wanted to find a job in that area in the future. We showed her roles in both AdviceCentral and the Disability Resource Centre. Ms. N. was interested in doing both roles on different days. We called the organisations on behalf of Ms. N. and she then spoke directly to the managers concerned. Appointments were arranged with both of them. As a result, she started volunteering for both organisations. Voluntary and Community Action CBC Library Service reported that 6 potential volunteers had been passed through by VCA to them and it is hoped that some of these will start as volunteers. Sight Concern had also stated they had seen an increase in volunteer contacts recently. However, Mid Beds CAB had reported that they had not had any enquiries from volunteers as a result of the campaign. Conclusion Outcomes from the campaign Although the original aim of the campaign (to encourage volunteers to join advice agencies) had not been successful, there was good evidence that the other five aims of the campaign had been either fully or partly met. Aim Met? Details To help raise awareness of advice services in Central Bedfordshire To encourage volunteers to join advice agencies in Central Bedfordshire - as advisers and in other support roles To help advice agencies work more effectively and to encourage the sharing of good practice in using volunteers To help raise awareness of the Volunteer Bureaux in Central Bedfordshire To help improve the information that the Volunteer Bureaux hold on advice agencies To encourage closer links between advice agencies and the Volunteer Bureaux x Partly met Awareness had been raised at CVS and VCA and amongst partners but perhaps not in the wider community Not met There was no evidence of volunteers contacting CVS, VCA or advice agencies because of the campaign publicity in February and March Partly met By bring agencies together to discuss their needs for volunteers this had begun to develop a clearer picture of local volunteering needs and some agencies were now working closer together (eg AC and DRC) Partly met Awareness had been raised amongst advice agencies about the Volunteer Bureaux - but perhaps not in the wider community? Fully met Information had been updated, cleaned, and sorted by CVS and VCA Fully met Closer links had been developed between advice agencies and CVS and VCA, and some good relationships have now been established

6 Learning points for future campaigns Two months is probably too short a time to measure the success of a campaign like this. Posters will remain on display boards and can continue to be used at events. Some volunteers may come forward later. The campaign had been very useful in building up new contacts and relationships between the Volunteer Bureaux and advice agencies. Again this should result in positive benefits in the longer term. (In fact, since the campaign, AdviceCentral has reported that they have started to receive regular referrals of volunteers from VCA). Campaign posters should be less wordy with a clearer message Fewer logos should be included in publicity documents More time should be allocated in future campaigns (possibly through the use of a volunteer?) in distributing campaign publicity and checking on its use Greater use of social media should be used in publicising campaigns in future Some stands/desks, providing face to face contact, could be used (eg in libraries or other public buildings) during future campaigns Infotrain June 2015