The Volunteer Friendly Award is a simple, user-friendly quality standard to support, recognise and reward groups who are good at involving volunteers. Many essential services in Scotland’s communities are enhanced by volunteers. Volunteering also has a significant social value as it is increasingly being used to give excluded individuals the chance to build their confidence and skills through helping others.
It has never been more important for groups to be able to show how good they are at involving and managing their volunteers. Volunteer Friendly helps you to take a systematic look at what you do and how you do it. It offers a flexible approach which allows your group to work at its own pace, with full support from a dedicated advisor from VANL.
There are five strands to the Volunteer Friendly Award:
1. Commitment to Involving Volunteers
Understanding why your group involves volunteers
2. Making Volunteering Happen
Allocation of adequate resources, i.e. money, management, staff time and materials
3. Fair & Equal Volunteering
Volunteer diversity, equal opportunities, fair recruitment and reference checks
4. Volunteering Tasks and Getting Them Done
Developing task descriptions, training and the support needs of individuals
5. Celebrating Volunteers’ Contributions
Organisations working towards the Volunteer Friendly Award are required to submit a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate that they meet all of the indicators within the 5 strands detailed above. The portfolios are peer assessed and once successfully approved by the panel, the organisation can start to use the Volunteer Friendly Award logo on their stationery and online presence, together with being presented with a plaque and certificate at an awards ceremony.
For more information on the award itself, please following this link to the Volunteer Friendly Awards website: http://www.volunteerfriendly.org.uk/
For more information about working towards the Saltire Award, please contact: us on 01236 748 011.