Rainbow Services - 2009 Renewal
| Name of Organisation |
| Rainbow Services |
| Why did you decide to go for Investing in Volunteers? |
| We had been through the IIV process in 2005 and found it a really useful experience and therefore felt it would be a beneficial use of time and financial resources to be re-assessed. |
| What benefits have you found from working towards Investing in Volunteers? |
| The self assessment process enables you to spend some time specifically thinking about what works well and what could be improved with regard to volunteer related practices. We felt that it was reassuring to know that we had plenty of evidence in some areas, however we also learnt which areas of practice could be improved. |
| Tell us about your experience of the assessment process in your organisation. |
| As we had been through the process in 2005, this gave us a starting point from which to work from. We began by looking at what evidence we’d used before and adding new documents or evidence in that had been created or amended during the past 3 years. Once this had been completed, our key documents had become evident due to their repeated use as evidence and we sent these to Anne-Marie. |
| 5 Practical tips you would give another organisation working towards Investing in Volunteers Start early – leave yourself enough time so you’re not rushed Keep staff and volunteers updated of the process i.e. we use monthly Volunteer News Updates as a method of communication. As volunteers knew that we’d been working towards IIV they were happy to spend time with the assessor on the Visit Day Contact other organisations who have been through the process to learn from their ideas if there are areas that need development Block out the Visit Day in your diary to ensure that all goes smoothly i.e. introducing interviewees to the assessor, making sure enough cups of coffee are offered! Take on board the comments and recommendations from the assessor’s visit – having an external pair of eyes and ears visit your project and offer constructive comments is valuable to improving your services |
