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Welcome to Volunteer Centre

Swindon’s Annual Review for 2011 / 2012

Contents Page

View by John Fowler, Chair of the Trustees

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Review of the Year 5-8

Projects:

Involve Swindon 9

Gateway Project 10

Step Up Project 11

Supported Volunteers 12

Statement of Financial Activities for the year

ended 31 March 2012

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Thank You / Acknowledgments 14-15

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An update on the past year from the Chair

Hard to believe that it has been a year since the last AGM. Time in the Charity sector seems to fly by in an instant. This year has seen a lot of focus upon financial stringency and belt tightening. Budgets have shrunk and funds have dried up although we are more than pleased to have received an extension to our contract with Swindon Borough Council. However it was with deep regret that we have to let a key member of staff go as funding slowed. Sue Fuller had been with us for many years and played a significant role with the supported volunteers group and being our administrator. We will miss her but wish her every success in her future endeavours. Despite all the financial doom and gloom we have some very healthy growth in certain sectors of the Volunteer Centre. Of particular note we have passed our Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation from Volunteering England. A major milestone that recognises our totally professional approach. We have continued to influence in the Corporate sector through out work on the Involve programme. This Programme has been running for at least 10 plus years and is recognised by the local businesses as the primary contact into the volunteering world. We were pleased to have the support of local MP Robert Buckland who got involved with local projects. We have also made great inroads through the Step Up and Gateway projects working in partnership with other organisations. We were also appointed a Regional Sporting Champion Volunteer Centre which gave us fantastic links with local sports clubs. Not bad for an organisation under such financial pressure. In terms of Trustees the last two years have been something of regeneration. Since the last AGM Kathy Liston has stepped down as our treasurer after many years in the role. It is always a blow to any organisation when your finance person moves on. However we have found a very capable individual to take over the running of our finances. Peter Morgan has thrown himself into the job with enthusiasm and we welcome him aboard. Also stepping down after many years as a Trustee is Fiona Sherman and we wish her every success for the future.

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I think it is also worthy of note that we have begun to work much more collaboratively with Voluntary Action Swindon. There are many joint projects and funding bids where we have joined ourselves at the hip and we seem a much more 'one stop' shop approach these days. The Swindon Charity partnership is a prime example. Together with VAS we have been working hard to understand how we can make the local community and charity sector can work together much more effectively. We have brought together the vast majority of charity organisations under one umbrella which has paid dividends. Our meeting with top councillors and management from Swindon Borough Council got us some good kudos and is providing us with good leads for future strategy and direction. We have a much closer working relationship with SBC than previously. All in all we are cooking on all burners so come on in and take a look! There has never been a better time to volunteer.

Best of luck to all

John Fowler

Chair

Volunteer Centre Swindon

An update on the past year from the Chair

continued

2011 AGM

Kathy Liston, John Fowler and Sue

Kathy Liston retiring as Treasurer at 2011 AGM

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Volunteer Centre Swindon has six core

functions as a Volunteer Development

Agency:

brokerage of volunteering

opportunities

marketing volunteering

good practice development

developing volunteering

opportunities

campaigning

strategic development of

volunteering.

This review looks at what we have done

within those functions and how the

activities have achieved our planned

objectives for the year. Much of this work

is delivered through the contract to deliver

volunteering with Swindon Borough

Council.

We were delighted to pass Volunteering

England’s Volunteer Centre Quality

Accreditation Wave 3.

Brokerage

Volunteer Centre Swindon’s primary

function is to match individuals and groups

interested in volunteering with appropriate

opportunities in the local community.

Potential volunteers can meet with us

face-to-face during our drop-in sessions,

by telephone, or through the internet,

either through our own site or the national

volunteering website www.do-it.org.uk

The total number of enquiries over the

year saw 3215 potential volunteers using

our services.

Key Achievements

4327 the number of requests for

information about Volunteering

including

2,189 via the internet 368 face to face interviews 131 telephone interviews 527 informal enquiries

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Marketing

Volunteer Centre Swindon is committed

to raising awareness about volunteering

in general, along with marketing specific

opportunities. We promote and market

volunteering through local, regional and

national events. We have further

developed our Social Media sites to

actively promote volunteering.

We also work with the local media to

advertise any events that are taking

place. We use our contacts with local

businesses to raise awareness and to

encourage employee volunteering.

We attended over thirty events organised

by other organisations such as New

College, SEQUOL, Swindon Job Centre,

Intel, Zurich, Nationwide , Swindon Mela

and Swindon Borough Council to promote

volunteering.

Through support from the Midcounties Co

-operative we promoted volunteering to

their members in Swindon.

Volunteering has been promoted through

articles in the Swindon Advertiser, and

Swindon Link and radio interviews have

been conducted on Swindon 105.5 and

BBC Radio Swindon .

Volunteer Centre Swindon participated in

Volunteers’ Week through a Coffee

Morning for prospective volunteers. We

have continued producing our Latest

Opportunities leaflet which is distributed

to 76 contacts including libraries, job

centre, employment advisors, support

workers and colleges.

Cake to celebrate Volunteers Week 2011

Key Achievements

Over 20 events attended to promote volunteering

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Good Practice Development

Volunteer Centre Swindon promotes good

practice in working with volunteers to all

volunteer-involving organisations.

We facilitate a volunteer organisers’ forum

and training events for those responsible

for the recruitment and management of

volunteers on a quarterly basis, publish a

newsletter four times a year and promote

training courses on relevant topics.

Events have included working with dhi

(Developing Health and Independence) to

inform organisations about substance

abusers and to encourage them to take

them on as volunteers.

Developing Volunteer Opportunities

A key area of our work involves

developing new opportunities for

volunteers to help meet the range of

interests and abilities they wish to offer to

the voluntary sector, as well as helping

organisations to identify innovative ways

to get more volunteers involved. We were

successful in helping to identify and

promote more than 219 new roles and

encouraged 53 new organisations to

advertise their volunteering vacancies

with us.

Campaigning

Volunteer Centre Swindon has been

involved in local and area networks of

Volunteer Centres which work with

national bodies such as Volunteering

England to campaign on behalf of

the sector regionally and nationally. We

actively participated in Cutting the Red

Tape Campaign

Key Achievements

Worked with

53

new organisations

Volunteer Managers at

Organisers’ Forum to

celebrate International

Volunteer Manager’s Day

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Key

We lobbied local councilors and officers

to ensure support for volunteering was

maintained when funding decisions were

made. We also welcomed Jon Trickett

MP, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet

Office to the Centre to find out more

about our work and the issues facing the

sector in general.

Strategic Development of Volunteering

Volunteer Centre Swindon attended

Swindon Strategic Partnership

Conference at Steam in November 2011.

We hosted two tables one on ‘How can

we engage with organisations to get more

opportunities for volunteering

involvement” , the other on “How can the

V&C Sector get involved and help

businesses deliver outcomes for

Swindon?”

Our involvement as a delivery partner

continued with the Pride of Swindon

Awards that recognise the work of

individuals within Swindon.

We have participated in work carried out

by the England Volunteering

Development Council to influence the

strategic development of volunteering.

We have also contributed to work

undertaken by Volunteering England on

the Work Together initiative and the Work

Program.

Publicity for Pride of Swindon 2012

Visit by John Trickett MP, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office with Anne

Snelgrove and Sue Dunmore

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Key Achievements

Employee Volunteers give over 2500 hours to

support local charities

Involve Swindon Key highlights include:

Supporting Robert Buckland MP with his

2 days of volunteering .

Day 1 – visited 5 organisations to

undertake a variety of volunteering

opportunities

Day 2 – team challenge at Scrapstore in

partnership with employees from Intel,

Midcounties Co-op and Motorola

Business Planning workshop hosted

by Nationwide Building Society and

attended by 21 different

organisations.

New employers, Network Rail,

RCUK SSC & EPSRC have joined

the network with reps from Network

Rail and RCUK SSC attending the

steering group.

41 team challenges completed

during the year involving over 450

individual volunteers .

Zurich, Intel & Nationwide have

committed to funding the network for

3 years with annual donations

totalling £21k to be split between

Volunteer Centre and CIB.

The successful networking days in

May and November were attended

by more the 70 representatives from

the corporate, statutory and

voluntary sectors.

Involve Swindon hosted a table at

the Swindon Strategic Partnership

conference which focused on

volunteering.

Key Achievements

Sourced

92 volunteering opportunities

suitable for employee volunteers

Over

52 turning into

completed opportunities

Staff From Network Rail complete a challenge at Wizard Education

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Gate

The Gateway Project

This is in its final year and is funded by the

Big Lottery to provide specialist advice to

newly emerging groups in Swindon, with a

particular emphasis on the neighbourhood

renewal areas, northern expansion and

rural areas of the borough. This project is

being delivered in partnership with

Voluntary Action Swindon, Community

First and the Charities Information Bureau

South and West.

This year we have registered 32 new

organisations. We attended many local

events to promote the project and to

network with individuals in the community

including the Sports Forum and Swindon

Strategic Partnership.

The project succeeded in having articles

printed in the Advertiser and Link and

parish magazines. We also developed a

page for the project on Facebook.

Much work this year has focused on

developing closer links with the sports

sector in Swindon. This was helped with

additional funding from Volunteering

England via Sport England for us to

become a Regional Sporting Champion

Volunteer Centre . During the project 20

new volunteering opportunities with sports

clubs were promoted.

Key Achievement

31 Organisations

provided with good practice advice

Key Achievement

37 New Organisations

supported

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Step Up Project

The Step Up project, funded by Big

Lottery is now in its final year. Working

together with colleagues from Charities

Information Bureau and Learning Curve to

provide support to voluntary and

community groups throughout Wiltshire.

Closer links with Grow, the support service

for the voluntary sector in Wiltshire have

been formed along with a strong

relationship with Volunteer Centre

Wiltshire, referring organisations looking

for volunteers to them and attended

Volunteer Manager Network meetings.

We were invited to join a multi agency

group for re-integration of offenders

(SWITCH – Swindon and Wiltshire

Integrated Targets for Change). The aim

was to make closer links with the

voluntary sector in Swindon and Wiltshire

and encourage and support organisations

to take on offenders as volunteers.

Work was also undertaken with the

Voluntary Strategy Group to contribute to

a draft volunteering strategy and action

plan for Wiltshire. A volunteer promise for

organisations is also being developed.

Our website was launched in October

2011at the Wiltshire Voluntary Sector

Assembly and is now attracting between

45 – 60 visitors per week.

Key Achievements

Supported

55

organisations

with their volunteer

management issues

Key Achievements

Step Up Website

receives

over 45

hits a week

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Key Achievements

Supported Volunteer Project

Over the year 12 individuals, all clients of

the Richmond Fellowship, have attended

either the Tuesday or Thursday group.

A variety of routine clerical and

administration tasks have been

undertaken for a wide range of voluntary,

community and statutory organisations,

including Voluntary Action Swindon,

Swindon Link, Willows, various

Children’s Centres and Swindon Carers.

We have also carried out support for

one off events such as the Swindon Mela

and the Big Arts Day.

Group members are offered

opportunities to progress into other

volunteering roles, paid employment or

further training where appropriate.

Informal activities such as card making

and jewellery making have been offered.

The groups also produced Christmas

cards for Volunteer Centre Swindon.

Informal computer and internet training

has also been offered during the year.

“Thank you for all your help over the year. The work carried out by your volunteers in sending out our newsletters has been a real help .

Thanks!”

Quote

“It has given me a real confidence boost

attending the group. I enjoy coming and

meeting everyone each week and feeling useful

again”

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Volunteers progressed into other volunteering, training or employment

opportunities

Supported Volunteers’ Group undertaking tasks

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Statement of Financial Activities

for the year ended March 2012

Unre-stricted

funds

Re-stricted

funds

Total

this year

Total

last year

£ £ £ £

Incoming resources

Grants and Donations 59,446 42323 101769 171061

Investment income 242 242 534

Income from activities in furtherance

of charitable objects 563 563 8873

Total incoming resources 60251 42323 102574 180468

Resources expended

Cost of generating funds 2093 1202 3295 5420

Charitable expenditure

* Costs of activities for charitable activities 55130 31661 86791 144965

* Management/administration 12561 7214 19775 34328

Total resources expended 69784 40077 109861 184713

Net movement in funds -9533 2246 -7287 -4245

Fund balances brought forward

as at 1 April 2011 71950 0 74689 78934

Fund balances carried forward

as at 31 March 2012 67398 0 67398 74689

THE FULL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE VOLUNTEER CENTRE SWINDON

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Volunteers

Carol Bourton

Louise Farmer

Kenneth Fertnig

Delia Greenwood

Debbie Holbrook

Liz Gucci

Sayed Naqvi

Rebecca Osafo

Sandra Skinner

Chris Titchener

Paul Walker

Gemma Webb

Mina Bhogul

Staff

Sue Dunmore (Manager)

Jo Banks

Sue Fuller

Louise Hallett

Carol Harrison

Mel Bond

Zena Bowsher

Des Pike

Jo Temby

Funders and Donors

Allen Lane Foundation

De Vere Village

Intel

Lloyds TSB Foundation for England

and Wales

The Midcounties Co-operative

Nationwide

Swindon Borough Council

The Coventry

Volunteering England

Zurich

Thank You

Trustees

John Fowler (Chair)

Steven Sexton (Vice Chair)

Fiona Sherman

Annabel Elrick

Kaye Franklin (MBE)

Vicki Brook

Sandip Rana resigned March 2012

John Reeves

Peter Morgan (Co-opted)

Thank you to all organisations and individuals we have worked with during the year.

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FUNDERS AND DONORS

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1 John Street, Swindon,

SN1 1RT

Tel 01793 420557

Email: info@swindonvolunteers.org.uk

www.swindonvolunteers.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1078012

Accredited Member