Care and Repair Edinburgh Ltd

Care and Repair Edinburgh Limited

Why did you decide to go for Investing in Volunteers?

We decided to go for the Investing in Volunteers award to enable us to assess all aspects of volunteering, to ensure that we had all the correct policies and procedures in place and to provide the volunteers with the best possible volunteering experience.

What benefits have you found from working towards Investing in Volunteers?

Working towards the Investing in Volunteers award has given us the opportunity to highlight areas where we were doing well and to improve the areas that needed additional work. A new volunteer handbook has been created, policies have been updated and a structured induction process is now in place.

Tell us about your experience of the assessment process in your organisation.

The process to achieving the Investing in Volunteers award is quite straight forward, as long as you complete each stage fully. The initial self assessment form is crucial to all the stages that follow and the time and effort we spent on the self assessment ensured that the following stages ran smoothly.

5 Practical tips you would give another organisation working towards Investing in Volunteers

·Support and encouragement from the board and management is crucial.

·Liaise closely with your allocated advisor at the Volunteer Centre.

·Ensure that you have the time available to carry out the work that’s involved.

·Include your volunteers in the process.

·Work as a team as it helps to keep the momentum of the process going and spreads out the tasks required.