ManchesterVolunteer Centre News Update
Volunteer Centre Manchester is in development phase but is open for business.
What Will Volunteer Centre Manchester Do?
The vision for the Volunteer Centre will be to champion volunteering in Manchester and promote good practice to volunteer involving organisations.  The Centre is based in the MACC offices on Swan Street and aims to become accredited through Volunteering England (VE) by completing Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation alongside other centres in Greater Manchester. The VE standard covers the six following Volunteer Centre functions: Brokerage, Developing Volunteering Opportunities, Marketing Volunteering, Good Practice Development, Strategic Development of Volunteering, Policy Response and Campaigning
How Can Volunteer Centre Manchester Help My Organisation?
We will be happy to visit your organisation to gain a better understanding of your need for volunteers and how your organisation operates.  We can also offer support and advice to look at developing new roles, introducing or updating policies and procedures, training needs analysis alongside a health check of volunteer roles which remain unfilled or which have poor retention rates.
In the near future we will be:
· Offering a selection of local opportunities and Introduction to Volunteering sessions to Manchester residents who are considering volunteering.
· Redeveloping our existing volunteering website within Manchester Community Central and volunteering opportunities will be advertised widely across social media, Do-it.org and face to face.
· Providing outreach and drop-in events will be held at local community venues, allowing potential volunteers to make informal enquiries and arrange one to one appointments.  These sessions will allow us to put together individual volunteer plans and find the most suitable volunteer vacancies.
If you have a community venue which could host a development worker please let us know or, if you know a person or organisation who could benefit from receiving our services, please forward this mail to them.
How Can I Register My Interest?
If your organisation works in Manchester and involves volunteers, we encourage you to get in touch with us to register with us.  This will allow us to create a mailing database to inform you of opportunities which will be relevant to your organisation.  The registration process is straight forward and can be done online at www.manchestercommunitycentral.org.uk/volunteering.  You can register your organisation and / or upload your volunteer opportunities.  We want to make the registration process as simple as possible so, if you have any feedback on the process and how to make it better, we would like to hear your thoughts.
What Is The Volunteer Coordinators Forum?
In order to promote and develop good practice, we will be working with the Volunteering Network to set up a Volunteer Coordinators Forum early in 2012. This will bring together coordinators, both paid and unpaid from a variety of organisations. This Forum will be a chance to share good practice, dispel myths and offer peer support.  If you are interested in getting involved in the first forum meeting please contact Jen Halfpenny on jen@macc.org.uk or call 0161 834 9823.
We Need Your Help!
We need your help to spread the word that Volunteer Centre, Manchester is open for business.  The team would be very grateful if you could forward this e-mail to your existing e-mail networks, upload it to your website, tweet about us or add the link www.manchestercommunitycentral.org.uk/volunteering to your website.
How Do I Get In Contact To Find Out More?
Should you wish to advertise your services, refer potential volunteers or give us feedback on what services you would like Volunteer Centre Manchester to offer please e-mail us atjen@macc.org.uk / mark@macc.org.uk or call 0161 834 9823.
Remember:  You can find the organisation and opportunity registration form at www.manchestercommunitycentral.org.uk/volunteering.  If you need any help completing these forms, have feedback on the registration process or have any questions please get in touch.