Agenda item

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment

The Committee received a report and a presentation on a project being undertaken in partnership with Open Lab (Newcastle University) and PaCT Lab (Northumbria University).

Gateshead Council’s Volunteers Plan has been in existence since 2013 and in that time the numbers of residents participating in volunteering has steadily increased.

The system for the management of volunteering projects has remained unchanged and now requires updating.  Initial research into volunteering was conducted by Northumbria University on behalf of the Council which concluded in September 2017 that the system for administering volunteering was too bureaucratic and a “digital platform will have profound benefits for the organisation”.

The Gateshead Volunteering Project 2018 is a one year collaboration between Gateshead Council, Open Lab and PaCT Lab.

The Project Aims to:

·         Understand the experiences and processes of being and supporting a volunteer in Gateshead;

·         Design new activities and digital tools to better support volunteering;

·         Build, deploy and evaluate working versions of digital tools;

·         Do all of the above in collaboration with volunteers and volunteer coordinators, and other relevant stakeholders within and external to Gateshead Council.

The participants include, volunteers, the Council, the Voluntary and Community Sector, and other stakeholders include, the Community Centre Network, Emergency Resilience Planning, environment and friends of groups, school volunteers and governors, volunteer operated library services, community links, community safety, children’s centres, The Gateshead Housing Company and Northumbria Police.

The project structure is designed over four phases - Discover, Design, Develop and Deliver.  The team will be running some focus groups and workshops and will be speaking to those who volunteer currently.

It is hoped that by April a design brief will be in place and by June a potential working version of something.

The OSC were asked to consider the following questions.

•       Have we got the aims of the project right?

•       What would make the biggest difference to volunteering in Gateshead?

•       What else may help?

•       Who else should we involve?

•       What else should we consider?

•       Where else should we investigate?

•       Your experiences of volunteering, ‘helping out’?

It was suggested that we learn from our partners and from what other organisations, for example Beamish do in terms of recruitment of volunteers.

It was noted that a lot of people may not be on a digital/social media platform – this is something to think about when developing a system.

It was suggested that both a bottom up and a top down approach is something which may be needed.

It was suggested, that perhaps what is needed is to speak to people who aren’t currently volunteering.  It was noted that this might be difficult.

It was suggested that removing barriers is a big thing to encourage volunteers as people are put off by the legislation involved, for example, DBS checks, grant applications, health and safety regulations.  It was also suggested that barriers for some people who are not using social media.

It was suggested that the project team speak to those involved in the Our Gateshead website.  It was noted that a meeting is already in place.

It was suggested that volunteering could also be used as a means of people gaining competencies and skills which may lead them into paid employment.

It was also noted that there is an issue where some groups have been set up for a particular reason and start to flounder due to lack of funding but also because they may not be needed for the same project as they were set up for but they could be re-constituted to help in some other area or on some other project.

RESOLVED -That the comments of the Committee be noted in taking the project forward.