Best practice in volunteering
Organisations across Kent have signed up to six principles of age-friendly and inclusive volunteering at a Kent Coast Volunteering training course.
- Beyond the Page brings women from many different backgrounds together to break down barriers of language and cultural differences
- East Kent Mencap provides opportunities for adults and children with a learning disability in East Kent
- Social Enterprise Kent offers education and training, social enterprise support, community support and employment support
- Kent Arts and Wellbeing promotes, designs and develops creative activities that deliver improved wellbeing for individuals and communities
- Oasis Domestic Abuse Service provides domestic abuse services in East Kent
- Age UK Thanetprovides Community Hubs and independent-living services to reduce loneliness and isolation
- Home Start Thanet offers early intervention support to parents with young children throughout Thanet
The six principles outlined by the Centre for Ageing Better aim to boost the number of over 50s engaged in volunteering by appealing to people who don’t normally volunteer.
It is recommended volunteer opportunities are:
- Enabled and supported
- Flexible and responsive
- Sociable and connected
- Valued and appreciated
- Meaningful and purposeful
- Makes good use of my strengths
The six principles aim to address some of the barriers to volunteering to enable more people to take part.
Participants at the How to attract and engage older volunteers training in March 2020 (organisations listed above) shared examples of what they were already doing.
Feedback showed the training was useful for “sharing ideas and experiences.”
“I came away with a few ideas I hadn’t previously thought about” Louise, Age UK Thanet.
The training by Kent Coast Volunteering was part of a year-long project with The Centre for Ageing Better, which included creating a charity toolkit to break down barriers to volunteering through social get-togethers with nearly 30 handy downloadable resources
This toolkit and downloadable resources are for volunteer-involving organisations to consider utilising once Government advice suggests it is safe and appropriate for people to socialise. In the meantime, please only use for planning and research purposes.