We will be closed on 14-15th September
Owing to staff attending our Annual General Meeting, the Volunteer Centre will be closed on Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th September.
We will re-open as normal on Tuesday 21st September.
The Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove seeks to improve the quality of life of residents of Brighton and Hove and develop opportunities for people to help others, and in the process, develop their own skills and potential, through volunteering.
The Volunteer Centre mission is to promote best practice in volunteer management, ensure choice and opportunity for people wishing to volunteer and contribute positively towards to the community, through enabling an environment in which volunteering flourishes.
The Volunteer Centre Brighton & Hove is a quality accredited member of Volunteering England, focusing its work on six core areas:
- Strategic development of volunteering
- Good practice in the management of volunteers
- Development of volunteering opportunities
- Policy response and campaigning
- Brokerage of volunteering opportunities
- Marketing volunteering
The benefits of Volunteering:
- It's fun
- It improves your health and happiness
- You can try something different
- Make new friends
- Learn new skills
- Develop the skills you already have
- Get involved in your community
- Help local people and causes
Joining the Dots:
City Volunteering Strategy 2010-2015
The Volunteer Centre are pleased to present ‘Joining the Dots – a triple impact volunteering strategy for Brighton & Hove 2010-2015’. Commissioned by the City Employment and Skills Steering Group and with further financial support from Brighton & Hove City Council and the Stronger Communities Partnership, this has been both an enormous and exciting undertaking.
Joining the Dots has been signed off by the ChangeUp Consortium, Brighton & Hove Strategic Partnership and was approved by Cabinet in July. The City has never had such a Strategy before, indeed we are one of only a handful of Cities which do, and therefore developing the Strategy in itself has had the significant effect of drawing together different organisations and colleagues from across the sectors. This work has provided a platform for dialogue. We need to build upon this both within and across the sectors.
The Action Plan is designed to sit alongside the Strategy and has been signed off by the Volunteering Strategy Steering Group, subject to the addition of the outcomes of an Equality Impact Assessment (currently in progress). Whilst some activities within the plan are currently resourced, others will require new/continuing resources and yet others will rely upon co-ordinating our activities to best effect and utilising our resources to their maximum.
A key priority is also to spread the message. In resourcing the plan a key Year 1 priority is to raise understanding of volunteering, its role and value in tackling the issues the City faces, amongst key City key decision-makers. A Strategic Development Worker has been appointed to the end of March 2011 to spread the word to Commissioners.
It has also been a learning opportunity for those of us within the Volunteering sector. We have revisited our principles (hotly debating the increasingly ‘mandated’ volunteering environment, volunteering in the private sector, and job substitution), learned that volunteering and/or community activity can take many different forms (are volunteering and work placements truly interchangeable?) and built our appreciation of how volunteering fits with other City agendas. We didn’t always reach firm conclusions but the debate is being had.
Downloads (PDF files):
Joining The Dots - A triple impact volunteering strategy for Brighton & Hove 2010-2015 Please be aware that this file is 5mb and may take a few minutes to download.
Joining The Dots - Action Plan
What happens next…
The Volunteering Strategy Steering Group will be continuing to meet and oversee the implementation of the action plan over the next five years. We look forward to moving on with areas of activity that have already been started, such as the Volunteer Co-ordinators’ Forum, as we well as bringing the rest of the action plan in to reality.
Join us on i-volunteer, Facebook and Twitter!
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Visit our Brighton & Hove group on i-volunteer, for information and discussions about volunteering in Brighton & Hove. i-volunteer is a new UK social network for people who love volunteering. Join the Volunteer Co-Ordinators' Forum and help volunteer managers & co-ordinators in the city benefit from shared learning and experience. |
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Become a fan of our Facebook page for Volunteers at www.facebook.com/volunteeringBH to find out about new volunteering opportunities in Brighton & Hove and connect with other volunteers, projects and organisations. |
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Follow us at www.twitter.com/volunteeringBH to get quick, regular updates on new volunteering opportunities in Brighton and Hove and find out what the Volunteer Centre is doing. |
Please note that we operate a moderation policy on our Facebook page.
Alison Marino
Project Leader
Martin Trigg-Knight
First Steps Co-ordinator
01273 737888
info@volunteercentre.bh-impetus.org
Drop-In Opening Times:
Tuesday 10am-4pm
Wednesday 10am-4pm
Where to find us:
1st Floor, Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove, BN3 2JQ
Intergen House is located on Palmeira Square, Hove, on level ground 50m from the Palmeira Square bus stop, where all buses from Brighton City Centre stop.
Please press the buzzer marked 'Volunteer Centre' and you will be admitted to the building.
Impetus are located on the 1st floor via stairs or lift. Our office has a wheelchair accessible toilet.
If you have any issues regarding obtaining access to our office, please telephone and we will be happy to assist.
Download our free Social Networking Toolkit!
We have written a Social Networking Toolkit which can be downloaded as a high res PDF (4Mb) or low res PDF (2Mb).
It is designed to help Volunteer Centres and charities who are interested in using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter & i-volunteer to support their work.
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Brighton & Hove i-Volunteer group |
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Volunteer Co-ordinators' Forum |
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Facebook Page for volunteers |
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Follow the VC on Twitter |