121 Youth Befriending

Name of Organisation

121 Youth Befriending

Why did you decide to go for Investing in Volunteers?

We wanted to know we are doing our best for our Volunteers, which would only help us further in recruiting Volunteers and retaining them.

We also wanted to open ourselves up to further funding streams by achieving Investing in Volunteers.

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

IIV was an excellent process to go through to see what we were doing right but also where we could improve.

I think our Volunteers by going through the process with us realised how dedicated we are to them as well as the Young people we serve.

We were only recently awarded, so we are yet to experience its benefits with regard to funding.

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

I like to be thorough so I created our own checklist with evidence to every single point, which really gave me an understanding of how we worked, and where we needed to be clearer on procedures.

It was nerve-wracking when we were asked to leave the Volunteers during their support evenings taken by the Assessor, but really we had nothing to worry about.

In general I feel we are quite capable to expand and grow in the knowledge we are heading in the right direction.

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

• Make sure you can back up your points with evidence.
• Don’t be afraid to say you need time to get information together, you are not expected to have everything too hand.
• Let your Volunteers know what your doing, and keep them up to date and involved along the main steps of the process.
• Let everyone know what you’re doing! It’s a good networking topic of conversation.
• It is a big task for one staff member so get people to group in at least two or three, and keep the whole staff team updated with anything new your implementing or changing. This proves useful when it comes to your interviews, but I’m sure you all know your organisation well enough anyway!!