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Inspiring Volunteering: A Volunteering Strategy for Edinburgh
Minutes of Implementation Group Inspiring
Volunteering in Edinburgh
On: Thursday 13th December 2007
Times: 9.30am-11.30am
At: Volunteer Centre Edinburgh
Address: 45 Queensferry Street Lane, EH2 4PF
For more information: www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk/strategy
Secretariat: lara.celini@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk Direct dial: 0131 225 0640
Apologies
James Tindell sent his apologies, he has 2 big events running on the same day.
Graeme Mckechnie (CEC), Nina Giles (ELREC) and Donald Lumsden (Careers Scotland) also
sent their apologies. As did Aiveen Ryan (WRVS) who slipped on black ice (the group wished her
a speedy recovery) and Gavin Philip who had two lots of nightshift to work.
Present:
Harriet Eadie, Christine Harrison, Stuart Mair, Tim Montgomery and Graeme Reekie.
1. September Minutes were approved
2. Matters arising
Call to Action – Updates required from ALL iGIVE members!
It is almost a year since the Implementation Group formed to take forward the Volunteering
Strategy. In early December 2007 Lara emailed all iGIVE members asking them to take stock
and review where they where they were at, and what they were planning to do in terms of taking
forward the Strategy.
It would be helpful if all partners reviewed the action plan, and for consistency’s sake, referred
to the action plan available to download from
http://www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk/strategy/papers.htm under “Other papers” (as this version
includes updates that were made in April 07)
th
Copied from Lara’s email of 6 Dec 07 FAO all iGIVE Members:
If you could get back to me by email listing at least two significant achievements of your agency or
sector, in relation to the implementation of the Volunteering Strategy that would be much appreciated
(feel free to list more if you can!). Your thoughts on actions that you feel you will be able to take forward
over the next 6 months to a year would also be appreciated, as well as any general feedback about
your/our progress to date. Please let me know if you feel that anything in the action plan does not
accurately reflect how things stand at the moment (and feel free to suggest amendments, and/or new
actions that would help us to achieve our agreed outcomes).
Your responses will help provide the content for our annual report to the Compact, which will outline both
our achievements to date and our plans for the immediate future. We would also like to make the collated
responses available in a public report that we will post to both the Compact Website and the Volunteering
Strategy pages of the Volunteer Centre Edinburgh website, as well as including a summary in our e-
iGIVE Minutes 071213 P.1
bulletin to organisations. Therefore, it would be very helpful if when you are writing-up your updates on
progress, that you do so with a public audience in mind.
st
Please get your responses to me as soon as you can, and no later than Friday 21 December 2007.
Email message ENDS
If you have not already done so please email Jean Cuthbert ASAP
jean.cutherbert@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk.
Action Points from Action Plan & iGIVE meetings carried forward:
A number of actions that resulted from working through the Action Plan at the i-GIVE meeting in
April (070419) remain ongoing, here they are again in summary.
Action Plan Actions (APAs) numbered as per Action Plan (in Strategy) or if from a meeting as
per meeting minutes (including date of meeting).
APA 1.2.3 RE: Supporting parents and families to volunteer - HE to develop some suggestions
(070911) HE reported that she has met with Vivienne Robinson at ‘Working for Families group’, and
that they are keen that volunteering links in with work to get single parents back into volunteering. A
fund is available to pay for childcare
APA 1.2.4 HE to work with AR / WRVS on targeting older people
APA 1.3.2 VS to meet with Integration Team, and work on putting Volunteering on the agenda
APA 1.3.4 VCE to explore getting a “Volunteer Champion”
(070911) JT to identify potential champion from world of business eg. at CEO level, eg. in financial
services
APA 2.1.3 RE: City plans acknowledge volunteering inputs and outcomes & Neighbourhood
Partnerships include volunteering objectives within local plans - GM, TM, HE & GR to develop this
APA 3.1 Each partner to feedback about their resourcing and investment in volunteering at the next
meeting. Also to let partners know if they see any other opportunities for resourcing.
AP 2.3 (070619) GM to look into how VIAT could be written into quality assurance
AP 2.5 (070619) JT could speak to business contacts about providing free venue for training (eg.
HBoS)
AP 8.1 (070619) GM to compare CEC stats with those in private sector, and circulate to i-GIVE
AP 8.2 (070619) JT to provide i-GIVE with stats on volunteering within the private sector
4.1 (070911) All partners to reflect on their own ESV Policy and if improvements can be made and
implemented
3. Membership of iGIVE
We hope that Donald Lumsden, Careers Scotland Manager for Edinburgh will join us at
the next iGIVE meeting. Harriet said that we still have a strong relationship with Careers
iGIVE Minutes 071213 P.2
Scotland, and that it will take some time for them to adjust following merger with Learn
Direct.
Tim suggested inviting Patricia Dawson, Associate Nurse Director with NHS Lothian.
3.1 VCE to invite an ecumenical community representative – write to Victor to ask for a
new nomination
3.2 VCE to remind iGIVE members of their Role and Remit / expected participation
Group discussed value of getting wider representation from City of Edinburgh Council,
eg. someone from Children and Families Department. Tim also suggested approaching
Susan Moonie, Neighbourhoods Manager with Services to Communities Department,
might be worth chatting to David Jack about.
3.3 HE to ask Graeme if networks with CEC are working, and ask if there are other ways
of spreading word through the Council. HE also to follow-up possibility of getting
representation from Neighbourhoods.
4. Volunteering in the third age
Unfortunately Aiveen was not able to make the meeting, but the group looked at a print-
out of her powerpoint presentation.
HE said that she had been speaking to Brid Cullen at RSVP (Retired and Senior
Volunteer Programme) and said that Brid is keen for more work to be done in the field of
older people. Also runs “Older Volunteer’s Forum”. For more information visit:
http://www.csv.org.uk/Scotland/Senior+Volunteers/
Christine said that she had been asked to speak at CSV Conference.
4.1 Lara to make docs on VITA / Older volunteers available on website
HE mentioned that older men are a priority / require intervention to get more of them to
volunteer.
5. Local Volunteering Development Sub-group (LVDSG)
– update from Graeme Reekie (GR)
The remit of this sub-group is to “examine how the Volunteering Strategy can be
implemented in regeneration areas so that more people can be involved in volunteering
in these areas” and report back to iGIVE.
GR reported that the first meeting took place on 12th November 2007, and that
participation was good, with attendance from regeneration areas across the city: 7
organisations were represented, from North Edinburgh, Leith, Lochend, South
Edinburgh, Craigmillar, West Edinburgh, with commitment from Broomhouse to join.
GR said that the sub-group agreed that Volunteering Hubs are a priority, there is a real
enthusiasm for them and organisations from areas where VCE already has a local
presence reported the positive effects this has had on neighbourhood volunteering.
However he added that hubs alone are not the only answer – and that solutions need to
be much broader.
iGIVE Minutes 071213 P.3
Other key points made by the sub-group included:
The general feeling that many organisations are not familiar with the Strategy,
and that people who are familiar with it feel it has ‘gone cold’ since the launch
last year (2006)
Surprise at the number of organisations who don’t get funding for their volunteer
programmes, and a general sense that including volunteer programmes in SLAs
would be welcomed.
Better recognition of operational costs of volunteering in funding bids (this is
something that iGIVE could push for as “a recommendation”), including better
public sector investment in volunteering which recognises the value and benefits
of volunteering, and more “core” funding of volunteering.
The City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) was to be applauded for embracing the
Volunteering Strategy, and the sub-group would welcome increased integration
of the volunteering ‘message’ into core council communications.
A local presence and relationship with public is very important, hence the
enthusiasm for local Volunteering Hubs.
Need to look at specific barriers to volunteering in regeneration areas
Most organisations wanted more involvement from LOCAL people, and MORE
people generally to volunteer.
5.1 GR to draft list of “recommendations” and email to HE at VCE, along with list of
members of LVDSG
A brief summary of the sub-groups discussions can be found in the Progress Report
0711 filed under [Local Volunteering Development Sub-group] at
http://www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk/strategy/papers.htm
The group meets again on 25th February 2008 and quarterly thereafter.
iGIVE would like to thank Graeme Reekie for taking on the role of chairing this group
and reporting back to iGIVE.
6. Volunteer Recognition Events (Volunteers Week 2008)
See separate paper: [Edinburgh Volunteer Recognition Events 2008 v071211.doc]
for more details (circulated to iGIVE by email on 14/12/07)
It was agreed that VCE would take responsibility for the initial short list, and that iGIVE
members would serve as a panel for making final selection of awardees.
The proposal is for around five local award ceremonies, probably sponsored by relevant
local MSP, and one city-wide event.
VCE will appoint a Project Scotland (full-time) volunteer starting in January 2008 until
June 08. The volunteer is Sarah Watts and her role will be Events Assistant. She will
primarily be working with Ellis Ciruello (VCE, Public Services Manager) and Nick
Woodhead towards the Volunteer Awards in June 08.
iGIVE Minutes 071213 P.4
The 2008 Awards will be slightly different in that there will be 5 smaller
neighbourhood/local events (probably sponsored by relevant local MSP) in addition to
the city wide event at the City Chambers, which this year will have different categories of
award.
7. Items for information for group:
a) Report on “Get on Board” & Annual Volunteering Recruitment Fair 2007
Get on Board in Edinburgh (GOBiE) Brief Initial Feedback
Jean Cuthbert, Learning and Practice Officer at Volunteer Centre Edinburgh reports:
Get on Board Event was a partnership event between Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations
Council (EVOC) and Volunteer Centre Edinburgh (VCE) funded by Capital City Partnership. It
aimed to proactively recruit volunteers to boards and management committees, with the aim of
strengthening their governance function.
There were 93 enquiries about the Get on Board Event. Twenty one potential board/committee
members attended the event at the Assembly Rooms on 4 October, as part of the Volunteer
Centre Edinburgh’s Annual Recruitment Fair. Nineteen agencies were represented at the
Event, eight of whom were from the target areas (our target was 5) of the most deprived 15% of
neighbourhoods in the city (SIMD). All the remaining eight organisations offer services to the
target areas, although they are not based there.
Formal and informal feedback was very positive, both about the content of the presentation (on
what is involved in being on a board), and on the speed matching process which followed. The
majority of potential volunteers responding to our evaluation questionnaire stated that they
would not have thought of volunteering on a board, had it not been for the Event. So far we
have heard of five successful matches and four people have attended the follow up training.
There has also been an increased awareness of EVOC and VCE services to boards and
committees in Edinburgh, as intended. Evidence of this includes a 50% increase in agencies
advertising for board members on the VCE website.
The project provides a successful model and we hope it can be repeated.
A detailed report is being prepared at the moment by Jean Cuthbert, call: 0131 225 0639
GOBiE Organisations that participated:
Adult Learning Project LGBT Centre for Powerful Partnerships
Broomhouse Centre Health & Wellbeing PROP Stress Centre
Centre for Planetary Healing Lifecare The Patients’ Council
Cranston Street Hostel Lothian Autistic The Rights Office
Firsthand Society Homelink Wester Hailes Health Agency
EWRASAC Family Support WHALE
Goodtrees Neighbourhood Muirhouse Millenium WISE
Centre Centre
Report on Annual Volunteering Recruitment Fair 2007 at Assembly Rooms
Ellis Ciruello, Public Services Manager at Volunteer Centre Edinburgh reports:
The Assembly Rooms was a bustling hive of activity on the 4th October as we held our long
standing and repeatedly successful annual Volunteer Recruitment Fair. Once again the fair
attracted over 1000 members of the public, all seeking to find out more about volunteering
opportunities across the city. We were joined by 95 volunteer involving organisations, promoting
volunteering and engaging with the public to recruit volunteers to their organisation.
The feedback we received was both heartening and inspiring. It’s good to know that as a result
of all of our efforts, of the members of the public who came through the doors, 70% left having
signed up with at least one organisation in the hope of going on to volunteer with them. And this
iGIVE Minutes 071213 P.5
success rate was reflected by the organisations who took part too - feedback showed that
organisations were approached by an average of 50 potential volunteers and on average,
walked away with the contact details for 15 members of the public, all keen to volunteer with
their organisation.
Several representatives from organisations have fed back to us that the success they enjoy in
recruiting volunteers is only part of what makes this event so important;
“it’s the one opportunity we have of meeting both volunteers and voluntary organisations face to
face. This is a very important networking event”
“it was surprising to learn that many people did not know about our organisation, this was a
great opportunity to change that”
“we had lots of people approach who had not heard of our organisation, but now knowing about
us, may well be able to benefit from our services at some point in their lives”
(All quotes from organisations’ feedback forms from 2007 Volunteer Recruitment Fair)
They diary date for next year’s recruitment Fair is Thursday 2nd October 2008 and bookings
will be taken from July 2008.
b) EPIC & City Funding Strategy – update from Graeme McKechnie
Both Lara & Harriet attended the launch of the Funding Strategy which can now
be downloaded from: www.edinburghcompact.org.uk
“The Funding Strategy recognises the need to move beyond traditional funding routes. Moving
Forward: Together will foster the development of a more equal, more mature and more effective
relationship between funders and third sector organisations” Compact Website
c) Review of National Volunteering Strategy – Harriet Eadie
Mark Meiklejohn, Policy Officer at the Third Sector Team at the Scottish Government was invited
by Lara to speak at the December iGIVE meeting, but declined as there was not much to report.
We are still waiting for John Swinney to give his views on it. Harriet said that she expected that
the review would not focus exclusively on young people, and that strand one might be broadened
to focus on “lifelong” volunteering. Harriet also pointed out that the recent spending review did
not specifically mention volunteering.
d) Volunteering in NHS Strategy – Harriet Eadie & Tim Montgomery
The VDS Assembly in December 2007 helped launch a refreshed Scottish Government
volunteering strategy for the NHS.
The Scottish Government has said that all Health Boards will be required to achieve Investing in
Volunteers, the UK Quality Standard which benchmarks organisations commitment to high quality
volunteer involvement, by 31 March 2011.
For more information visit: http://www.vds.org.uk/tabid/232/Default.aspx
e) ESF Funding bid - Harriet Eadie
Harriet reported that bid has been submitted to ESF and we are awaiting a reply. Harriet also
reported that we are the One City trust’s favoured charity, and VCE has provisionally been
awarded £25K towards the development of 2local volunteering hubs. If ESF funding is not
forthcoming this will enable the work in West Edinburgh to be continued for a further year.
f) IiV Edinburgh Subsidy Scheme – Lara Celini
iGIVE Minutes 071213 P.6
Investing in Volunteers Edinburgh Subsidy Scheme 2007/08
Organisations that have benefited to date:
Edinburgh Chinese Elderly Support Association
Firsthand
Kids in the Street
Pilton Community Health Project
PROP Stress Centre
Re-Union Canal Boats
Craigmillar Books for Babies
World Development Movement
Care and Repair Edinburgh
Sikh Sanjog
8. Resourcing & Partners’ progress towards Action Plan
The intention is to use information about partner’s progress (over the last year) in an update to be
emailed to everyone who attended the Strategy launch event in 2006, and to be written-up as a
short progress report for the Volunteer Manager’s Bulletin, as well as circulating it via the Local
Volunteering Development Sub-group, Compact partnership etc. Please email updates to Lara
Celini ASAP.
9. AOCB
Royal Edinburgh Hospital update:
Tim mentioned that funds may be forthcoming thanks to a bid to the Endowments
Committee, while initial feedback has been positive this is still subject to
confirmation. The proposal was developed with Marion Finlay (Inclusion Manager
at VCE) and focused on promoting volunteering, and the involvement of patients,
carers and staff to improve morale. Bid was for £75K pa over 3 years, and would
involve SLAs with VCE, SBC and Artlink (eg. discussed making use of orchard
and allotment etc.)
Also developed a Heritage Lottery Fund Bid – big plans for 2009 (building will be
around 100 years old – building was started in 1809 and first patients arrived in
1813 - Centenary celebrations are planned)
New Chair of Board is Charles Winstanley
iGIVE would like to thank Tim Montgomery for his chairmanship of the group, and for his
continued commitment to promoting and developing volunteering in the City.
National Youth Work Strategy
Stuart Mair suggested inviting Ian Boardman to an iGIVE meeting to update us
on this.
10. Date of next Meeting:
Tuesday 11th March 2008, 9.30am - 11.30am at Volunteer Centre Edinburgh
And looking further ahead – please put these dates in your diary:
Tuesday 17 June 2008 9.30 - 11.30
Tuesday 16 September 2008 9.30 - 11.30
Tuesday 9 December 2008 9.30 - 11.30
iGIVE Minutes 071213 P.7
