The Wave of Friendship offers grants of up to £500 for London-based volunteers to volunteer in Scotland; or for Scottish volunteers to volunteer in London.

The volunteers were ‘blown away by the generosity of the people they met’ and hope to be able to host volunteers from London in the future.

Interested in bring funded to participate in the Wave of Friendship? Apply here.

Volunteer Centre Southwark are looking for someone to lead on improving marketing and communications within their Active Citizens Hub. The Hub aims to get people involved in the local community in Southwark whether through volunteering, giving views to a local consultation, becoming a councillor or even being a good neighbour.

They seek a creative and driven individual to improve what they do, and in particular improve use of the web, including use of social networking sites such as Twitter, creation of podcasts and the increased use and effectiveness of email bulletins and viral marketing.

Applicants need to be able to work across a team to improve marketing and communication and be able to inspire people to get engaged in the community.

Deadline for applications: 10am Thursday 13 May 2010

Interviews: Friday 21 May 2010

Job pack available to download from www.volunteercentres.org.uk or www.charityjob.co.uk

The National Network of Volunteer Involving Agencies is hosting a conference entitled ‘Changing the profile of Volunteering’.  Speakers include Dame Elisabeth Hoodless DBE, Executive Director, CSV and Chair of NNVIA and Dr. Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive, Volunteering England.

For more information, see the website: www.csv.org.uk/nnviaconference2010

Salary £25,000 per annum pro rata

21 hours per week

Closing date: 19 April 2010

Application packs with full information can be downloaded from www.richmondcvs.org.uk or email jobs@richmondcvs.org.uk or telephone 020 8255 8500.

Salary: £25,000 per annum pro rata

17.5 hours per week

Closing date: 19 April 2010

Application packs with full information can be downloaded from www.richmondcvs.org.uk or email jobs@richmondcvs.org.uk or telephone 020 8255 8500.

But if proposals in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Modernisation Review of Public Libraries are taken up, volunteers will become an increasingly important part of delivering the UK’s library services.

The review, launched by Culture Minister Margaret Hodge after two months of consultation, includes the proposal that  “All libraries should consider how best to attract, nurture and utilise volunteers, to complement their workforce.”  It notes how volunteers can help libraries deliver the longer opening hours to attract more users, and praises a scheme in Leicester which encourages refugees and asylum seekers to volunteer in their public library, helping them gain the skills needed for employment.

It is particularly welcome that the review explicitly states that volunteers can offer skills “which complement (but don’t replace) staff expertise.” The need to ensure that volunteers provide an enhanced service, rather than substituting paid jobs, has been set out before in GLV’s Principles of Volunteering, and the Charter for Strengthening Relations Between Paid Staff and Volunteers, agreed by the Trade Unions Council [TUC] and Volunteering England), and it’s encouraging that Government and local authorities recognise that volunteers should supplement the work of paid staff, never to displace them.

Many London libraries are already managing volunteers responsibly and sensitively – Bromley and Bexley libraries deserve particular mention here for their Volunteer Policies. But as more volunteers get involved in everything from summer reading schemes for kids to Books on Wheels projects, there will be a growing need to support outstanding volunteer management in libraries.

- Have you worked succesfully with library volunteer? Think Hodge has got it right? Post a comment and have your say!

*Based on data from the 2008 – 2009 CIPFA review – with thanks to Libraries for Life for London

Volunteering is universally lauded by politicians as A Good Thing: ’supporting volunteering’ is a motherhood-and-apple-pie election promise. But how many local MPs will pledge to support the measures we, as the volunteering sector, know we need to ensure a vibrant volunteering sector?

Things like making a clear distinction between volunteering and work experience schemes. Or ensuring that organisations are properly funded to include the costs of training and recruiting volunteers. Measures like committing every government department to develop a volunteering strategy by 2011.

Volunteering England have published a manifesto, setting out the crucial measures that the new government should take to ensure a strong volunteering sector. Alongside is a pledge parliamentary candidates and MPs can take to show their support.

VE and GLV are calling on members to contact their MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates to sign the pledge. VE’s website has information on how to contact them, as well as template letters. Why not use this as an opportunity to raise the profile of your own organisation, perhaps even inviting local media along?

Please let us at GLV know if you’ve engaged in any lobbying, and we’ll feature it on our website or newsletter.

More than 100 people gathered in Westminster, central London, for Volunteering England’s first ever hustings meeting on the 2nd March.

To celebrate the launch of Volunteering England’s manifesto, calling the Government to recognise the value of volunteers and sustain government programmes and funding to support volunteering.

The event was chaired by eminent political commentator and Guardian Assistant Editor, Michael White, with Third Sector Minister, Angela Smith and Shadow Ministers Nick Hurd and Jenny Willott making up the panel.

Nick Hurd was the first on the panel to speak and voicing his concern about the amount of money given to v and the Experience Corps and reiterating his worries, voiced previously, about his frustration at government departments trying ‘to reinvent the wheel’.

“We have to look at what we can do to support local, community and voluntary action and get more resources into the third sector. Volunteering totally enriches the lives of people who give their time. There is too much focus on ‘initiatives’.”

Hurd also said that the Conservatives would: “give government employees the right to volunteer for eight hours a year” and highlighted the need to remove barriers to volunteering, such as those relating to regulation and cost which he believes currently get in the way.

Jenny Willott, Liberal Democrat, told delegates:

“It will be really tough financially after the election and we have to be realistic about what can be done.

“The Government needs to do more to generate a culture of volunteering in the UK, and look at the role of schools and employers.”

Minister Angela Smith, was very positive about achievements in the sector:

“An indication of how far the sector has come can be seen in the agreement here with the speakers tonight. The third sector has come through these difficult times and helped the hard to reach.”

The Minister spoke of the benefits of volunteering but also about the challenges ahead.

“We need to find the right kind of volunteering opportunities and work with the capacity of the sector. By increasing the number of volunteers we can do more to support cohesion and bring more people in and also spread good practice.”

Smith, Hurd and Willott were united when asked if they would continue to support funding for volunteering infrastructure although they stressed the need to be realistic about what can actually be done in the tough economic climate.

Full coverage of the Volunteering England Hustings and other latest volunteering news can be found in Volunteering Magazine http://www.volunteering.org.uk/Magazine
<http://www.volunteering.org.uk/Magazine>

Volunteering England are collecting statistics from Volunteer Centres, and you are urged to complete their survey if you haven’t done so already.  Email matthew.hill@volunteeringengland.org if you haven’t yet, or to agree to share your information with GLV.

GLV needs to be able to articulate what’s going on now in terms of London’s volunteering. We need to be able to tell funders and decision makers exactly how the recession has affected the volunteer sector in London.

So if you have any reports or facts and figures which will tell us the numbers of volunteers coming forward, where volunteers are coming from and their background or abilities and interests, get in touch!

The Wave of Friendship scheme is an exchange scheme which funds volunteers from London up to £500 to volunteer in Scotland…and funds Scottish volunteers to come and volunteer down here in London too. It’s open to anybody over the age of 18.

The beauty of the scheme is its flexibility. To qualify for the bursary, you must demonstrate that your volunteering demonstrates one of the  ‘Olympic Values:  Friendship, Respect, Courage, Determination, Equality or Inspiration.

Aside from that, it’s up to you! Whether your volunteer placement is for three months or three hours; in a charity’s offices or in a school; hacking down brambles or collecting petition signatures; gardening or litterpicking or designing a website, Wave of Friendship can fund the accomodation, travel and tools you need to make it happen.

200 volunteers will benefit from this scheme over the next four years. If you’d like to be one of them, visit the Wave of Friendship website and download the simple three page application form.

Good luck!