CSV and Volunteering England are the two main organisations working with the Home Office to deliver the Year of the Volunteer 2005. Volunteering England are working in a consortium with other national volunteering organisations on their contribution to the Year.
CSV (Community Service Volunteers) is the UK's largest volunteering charity.
It creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their community through volunteering, training and community action. Last year 164,000 people gave 4.1 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV.
Volunteers can give as much or as little time as they can. Many accept the challenge to volunteer with drug and alcohol users, young offenders and children with special needs.
CSV is focused on the impact of volunteering on: crime reduction, active citizenship, health, refugees and social inclusion and is helping to coordinate the newly formed National Network of Volunteer Involving Agencies (NNVIA) to strengthen the achievements of volunteers. During the Year of the Volunteer, CSV will be working with national agencies that include Barnardo's, MENCAP, BTCV, Sport England and the RSPCA on 12 themed months.
CSV Make a Difference Day in October is the single biggest day of direct volunteering action while CSV's Action Earth campaign empowers people to improve the environment in their local community. CSV Media has 30 years' experience of delivering media skills training opportunities to disadvantaged groups across the country. CSV's Retired and Senior Volunteers Programme engages 10,000 older people in projects for improving health and learning and CSV works daily with schools and businesses to maximise the benefits of volunteering.
CSV's 39 Action Desks work within BBC & independent local radio and TV stations to turn passive listeners and viewers into active citizens. We work closely with charities and community groups to produce on air appeals and features to inspire people to volunteer or take up a life long learning opportunity. Last year over 24,000 people volunteered for local charities after hearing a CSV Action Desk appeal.
Volunteering England is the national volunteer development agency for England, promoting volunteering as a powerful force for change and speaking with a single voice for volunteering in all its diversity.
The organisation works across the voluntary, community, public and private sectors offering a range of services designed to assist anyone involved with volunteers.
It supports the local volunteering infrastructure, Volunteer Centres, who act as a brokerage service for local volunteering opportunities.
The organisation also runs the highly successful Volunteers' Week 1-7 June that rewards, recognises and recruits volunteers.
As the leading expert on volunteering in England, Volunteering England actively develops policy and campaigns to promote volunteering to all sectors of society.
Volunteering England is working with a consortium of national volunteer organisations on the Year of the Volunteer campaign, as listed below.
TimeBank is a national charity, working in partnership with voluntary organisations to recruit volunteers. Specialising in developing and executing campaigns, TimeBank uses marketing, media and web technology to inspire people to connect and to share and give time.
TimeBank will be leading on the media relations and marketing of the Year of the Volunteer 2005.
The Community Channel is the UK's only national digital television channel devoted to inspiring people to do more with their lives.
The Channel is the dedicated television station for the Year of the Volunteer 2005 - available 24 hours a day on Sky 585 and Telewest 233. It's also on ntl 14 and from 6-9am on Freeview 46. The Channel's programming aims to inspire viewers to volunteer using their red button to connect to do-it.org.uk's volunteering database (from end January on Sky) or by calling the audience phoneline.
A Media Trust initiative, the Community Channel is funded by the Home Office Active Communities Unit. For information about training events, online matching, the Community Newswire and video production visit: www.mediatrust.org.
YouthNet launched as the internet was just taking off. The first exclusively online charity, our purpose is to be a trusted source of information for all young adults.
YouthNet guides and supports young people, enabling
them to make educated life choices, participate in society and achieve their
ambitions and dreams.
Our volunteering project www.do-it.org.uk
provides a central place on the internet for finding out about volunteering
and the opportunities available. The site is underpinned by the National Volunteering
Database which we created and run. The database holds over 650,000 opportunities
to volunteer. Visitors can access these opportunities through a simple postcode
search.
The database exists due to the partnerships do-it.org.uk
has with over 360 Volunteer Centres in England and over 250 national charities
do-it.org.uk is the national volunteering database specifically designed to make finding a volunteering opportunity as easy as booking a cinema ticket online.
Users can either type in their post code or search by category. These categories range from animal welfare, working with children, the environment and help with disabilities. The volunteer opportunity finder on this site is powered using the do-it.org.uk database.
do-it.org.uk acts as a recruitment tool for all charities and continually strives to attract new volunteers as well as motivating existing ones. The do-it.org.uk philosophy is that volunteering is not just good for the soul. It can also put an individual on track to improve their career - and their bank balance. do-it.org.uk is there to help the nation find the opportunities that are stepping-stones to self-fulfilment, confidence and new directions.
Business in the Community is a unique movement in the UK of over 750 member companies. Its purpose is to inspire, challenge and support business in continually improving its impact in the community, environment, marketplace and workplace.
It is the largest and longest-established organisation of its kind - an independent business-led charity with over 20 years experience. 1600 businesses take part in Business in the Community's many campaigns and programmes - one of which is Cares, the UK's largest employee volunteering programme.
Youth Action Network is a national membership organisation supporting around 150 youth action agencies across England. Youth Action Network's contribution will be to involve key practitioners of the youth action approach from our membership, young volunteers themselves as well as to employ a key worker who will co-ordinate our following activities.
Youth Action Network's expertise is in enabling young people to both create their own volunteering opportunities as well as improve existing opportunities - with the specific aim of involving more of their peers in voluntary community activity.
