Archived decisions

Name of LSP

Winchester

Contact Name

Diana Wooldridge, WACA

Amount Requested

£5500

Summary of Bid

(Details of proposed activity the money will be spent on)

Employer supported volunteering project

This proposal is to enable Winchester Volunteers, the Volunteer Bureau of Winchester Area Community Action, to establish a pilot scheme for employer supported volunteering. This would benefit local services and community activity, employers and the volunteers themselves.

The pilot programme would be led by Winchester Volunteers working with the major employers represented by the LSP Partners (eg PCT and Hospital Trust, Constabulary, City and County Council, University College, South West Trains etc and with the private sector via the Chamber of Commerce).

Activities would include working with senior management/ Human Resource Departments of these employers to promote the value of volunteering, identification of opportunities eg for sponsored activities, challenge days etc, organisation of events and interviews with potential volunteers.

The aims would be:

· To identify best practice from existing schemes.

· To work with the targeted employers to develop and support schemes which meet their needs

· To identify existing volunteering opportunities for individuals to meet local community needs which could be promoted to participating employers (these would in most cases already be on the Winchester Volunteers vacancy database, linked to the National Do-It website)

· To identify opportunities for local community challenge events which could be undertaken on a group basis by a local employer. (This has already happened on a limited and occasional basis in the Winchester district.) Such events give people opportunities to experience for themselves the very positive benefits of doing voluntary work . A time limited activity also gets over a fear that some people may have about entering a long-term commitment

· To make and support the links between employers and local community services, voluntary and statutory

There is a commitment to share the learning from this pilot initiative throughout the County through the Volunteer Bureau Managers Network and thus support the relevant LPSA targets.

The pilot would also inform the development of a longer term programme which would need commitment and resources from all LSP members and possibly external funding.

Timescale

(anticipated period over which the money will be spent)

The project will run for one year from receipt of funding

How does this bid support the targets within the Community Strategy?

Winchester's Community Strategy, which was launched on 16 December by the LSP at a meeting of the Voluntary Sector Forum, highlights the importance of promoting volunteering to strengthen communities and increase active participation. It includes two specific improvement targets addressing this aim:

LR3 - To help recruit, retain and train volunteers, and

IS5 - To promote volunteering and encourage local residents to actively participate in the running of their local communities.

The benefits of the project would be;

for the community

· Increased community involvement by individuals in local activities

· Added value of volunteer time, enthusiasm and expertise for local voluntary and statutory services

· Increase in the potential pool of volunteers

- for local employers

· Demonstrates Corporate Social Responsibility, which is actively being promoted by government.

· Shows employees that they are interested in their local community

· Publicity

· Provides inexpensive training to employees in planning, team working and using initiative.

- for volunteers

· Opportunities to meet staff, other volunteers and users

· Learning new skills and personal development opportunities

· Opportunities to use their initiative

· Status and improved self-esteem

· Putting something back into society

Overall funding arrangements

(please specify total cost of project and the amounts contributed from other partners)

Initial development work as described above could be done by Winchester Volunteers over 12 months with a modest budget of £5500, as set out below:

Publicity 400

Travel expenses 80

Staff time (project manager 6hrs per week) 3220

Telephone, stationery & postage 100

WACA management support 500

Total 5500

Other LSP partners are committed to giving time to support this - IBM has led the business community in its community involvement programme and the project will seek the involvement of other businesses.

The additional staff input from Winchester Volunteers will be targeted at maximising the input from other partners.

Signed

(by Chair of LSP or on behalf of)

Date

Amount Agreed

Signed

(By HCC authority)

Date