Volunteer Management Spotlight
Good Things' Digital Inclusion Delivery team highlight key resources and training sessions for Network members to recruit, manage and retain volunteers to support the digital inclusion work you do.
The importance of volunteers
We know that for many digital inclusion hubs, your brilliant volunteers are absolutely essential to supporting people to get online. Many volunteers will take on a digital champion role, helping people to gain digital skills and confidence in drop ins or group sessions, and others are key to helping people get set up with their free mobile data from the National Databank.
However, we’ve heard from hubs that you’ve been facing challenges getting started with your approach to digital champions, finding the right volunteers, and navigating safeguarding issues when they are supporting people.
That’s why we wanted to spotlight our upcoming training that has been designed and delivered with our ambassador hubs along with some great resources on the new network members area that you might find useful.
Volunteer Management Training Series
Over the next few weeks, our volunteer manager Hilary leads these three sessions alongside our experienced and supportive ambassador hubs from Learn for Life, Lincs Digital and Starting Point covering:
- Running a digital champions programme
- Recruiting and retaining volunteers
- Safeguarding for digital support skills programmes
Volunteer platforms
There are some great platforms you can use to find volunteers for your hub, we really like:
- Neighbourly: our strategic partners at VMO2, and many others, use this platform for their corporate volunteering, they have 5 days a year to use!
- Reach: can help you to find volunteers with the skills your organisation needs.
Resources available for you
Could you be a digital champion?
Here is some guidance you can use with any potential volunteers to help explain what the role is all about and what makes a great digital champion.
Digital Inclusion Activity Cards
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to get started with someone who is completely new to digital. The cards in this collection provide quick, creative and inclusive ideas for activities to introduce people to the online world, and are fantastic for new digital champion volunteers to use in drop-in sessions.
Creating a volunteer handbook
Handbooks are a great way to get key information to new volunteers and help your onboarding process to run smoothly. The short but comprehensive guide in this collection will help you to design your own handbook.
Involving Volunteers - free resources from NCVO
NCVO has a great open access webpage with information on all aspects of volunteer management, from recruitment to policies and safeguarding.
Related news
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14/12/2022Amer's story: settling into life in the UK with free data and devices
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16/08/2023England’s libraries play a vital role in wider digital inclusion networks
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