Children North East, the region’s very own children’s charity, have recently been re-awarded the Investing in Volunteers Quality Standard, recognising the excellent work they do with volunteers.
Jeremy Cripps, Chief Executive of Children North East, said: “We are delighted to have been re-awarded Investors in Volunteers status. Every part of our work involves volunteers – youth mentors, family support volunteers, fundraising helpers and trustees. Volunteers have always been central to Children North East, they increase capacity and add huge value.
Opportunities to volunteer can enable people to progress into work. We offer volunteers accredited training which can help them to access vocational training and their voluntary work with us is good experience on their CV. Some of our staff were once beneficiaries who became volunteers and have since trained and are now paid members of staff.”
Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for all organisations involving volunteers. Investing in Volunteers aims to improve the quality of the volunteering experience for all volunteers and for organisations to acknowledge the enormous contribution made by volunteers. Investing in Volunteers is managed by the UK Volunteering Forum and delivered by NCVO, Volunteer Scotland, Volunteer Now in Northern Ireland and Wales Council for Voluntary Action.
Children North East was assessed against a range of best practice standards and proved to excel in all aspects of working with its volunteers.
One current volunteer within Children North East, said: “What we as volunteers bring to the organisation is really different, but we all want to give something back. We’ve all had different experiences. Personally, I have a mild learning disability and have been to University, learnt to drive – I think it’s good for the people I support to see such positive actions.”
Investing in Volunteers is unique in that it is the only standard that focuses on volunteers. It is based on four areas of volunteer management; planning for volunteer involvement, recruiting volunteers, selecting and matching volunteers and supporting and retaining volunteers.
Children North East’s vision is for all north east children to grow up happy and healthy and to promote the rights of children and young people. It does this through a range of services throughout the north east for families, children and young people.