Discussion group held on Tuesday 2 July 2024

“The best volunteers’ week to date”

Celebrations and activities

• Tea and coffee celebrations.

• Virtual coffee mornings.

• Online Mindfulness session for volunteers and staff.

• CEO’s and senior staff shadowing volunteers. Top Tip: Get the date into your senior staff diaries at the beginning of the year.

• Successful launch of new volunteer uniform during Volunteers’ week. “It was a really great time to do it as it made our volunteers more visible whilst celebrating them.”

Gifts

• A Trust canteen issued £7 vouchers for every volunteer.

• Branded key rings and Trolley coin keyrings were very popular.

• Hospice patients made Sunflower badges for each volunteer.

• One Hospice patient designed a Thank You card.

• Goody bags with donations from Hobbycraft and Lush.

Comms

• Showcased a different volunteer role each day with video recordings.

• Video recording with the CEO, staff and patients saying Thank You to the volunteers.

• Stands in different areas of organisations so that they were visible to patients and staff.

• Slot in a team brief meeting to share the volunteers’ journey with the patients.

• Drop-in sessions for staff to find out how volunteers can help in their department.

• Posting activities on the Staff Facebook page encouraging them to engage and praise the volunteers.

New Branding

• Some Comms Teams felt that it was more difficult to work with than last year’s.

• Some found that there were too many folders and that it was too time-consuming to go through them to find out what was in them.

Barrier

• Volunteers’ Week clashed with many volunteers going on their summer holiday.

Reflections

• It was a lot of hard work for many, but they all felt that they gained so much positive engagement from staff that it was worth it.

• On reflection, one VSM felt that perhaps they did too much over that one week and could maybe spread it out a bit more next year.

• Feedback from volunteers was positive and appreciative.

Final word

• Bringing volunteers together and increasing their knowledge of the organisation can be beneficial to both the organisation and the volunteer. It also gives them the chance to meet other volunteers and staff and open their eyes to other areas they may like to volunteer.