Organisation Support Ebulletin – February 2023
Welcome to our Monthly E-bulletin for February – keeping you informed with the latest news, updates and information from Volunteer Glasgow’s Organisation Support team! If you have something relevant to Volunteer Managers that you want us to include in the next e-bulletin please let us know.
Upcoming Events
We will be running workshops and events for volunteer managers and coordinators throughout March.
Our Volunteer Managers’ Networking Events will take place on Thursday 9th March (online) and Tuesday 14th March (in-person). These are a great opportunity to meet other volunteer managers and share advice, skills and experience!
We also have our Volunteer Advertising Workshop on Tuesday 21st March. In this free two-hour session, you can learn how to improve the effectiveness of your volunteering advertising, make your volunteer recruitment adverts more engaging and inclusive, and meet other volunteer managers and get to know Volunteer Glasgow’s Organisation Support team.
Book your free place on our workshops and events by clicking this link.
Free Volunteer Advertising Service
As we head into spring it’s a great time to advertise for volunteering roles! Add your roles to the site through your Volunteer Glasgow provider account and our team will review, offer support and guidance, publish to the site and advertise on social media.
Kinetic (the system that powers Volunteer Glasgow’s online volunteer advertising service) has recently launched a number of new features and updates. While we hope these features will improve your experience, we understand that there is always a learning curve when changes take place!
We have created guidance documents to help you get the most out of your experience using the system. To see our full Digital Advertising Services guide, click this link.
To learn more about using Kinetic and your Volunteer Glasgow account as a Volunteer Management System, you can view our guidance document by clicking here.
Local Funding Opportunity with Tesco Community Grants (Glasgow Central/East)
Charities, social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations in Glasgow Central/East are encouraged to apply to their local Tesco store Community Grants programme through an online application process. This is also a great opportunity for groups to promote the good work that they do locally.
Three successful groups are awarded quarterly after each 3-month instore customer voting period. Groups are awarded 1st £1,500; 2nd £1,000 and 3rd £500 after the vote results are counted.
If you would like to apply on behalf of your organisation, please get in touch with Tamara Hedderwick – tamara.hedderwick@greenspacescotland.org.uk
Callout for Organisations Recruiting Board Members
We will provide all the attendees with a directory of organisations looking for board members so that they can get in touch. If you’d like your organisation to be included, please reply to this email with the following details by Friday 17th February:
- Your organisation name
- A brief summary of the organisation
- Roles you are seeking to fill
- Organisation location
- Online or in-person?
- Contact name
- Contact email
Volunteer Managers’ Network – Join In!
Our Slack forum for Volunteer Managers continues to grow – there are now over 120 volunteer coordinators and managers networking and sharing resources on the forum!
There is a general channel for discussion and networking as well as a training channel specifically for sharing helpful training ideas for yourselves as volunteer managers, or your volunteers. We are eager for the forum to develop over time as it grows and changes to suit member’s needs, so please do get involved and help shape the network to best support volunteer managers across Glasgow.
Click here to sign up and join the Volunteer Managers’ Network!
Click on the the following link to read our blog about Slack.
Provider of the Month
To celebrate all the amazing work that YOU are doing as volunteering providers, we are proud to announce a new monthly recognition award – Provider of the Month! If you have done something exciting, launched a new activity, had a great event or just want to show off how amazing and meaningful your work is – give us a heads-up, and we may highlight you in our next e-bulletin!
Our Provider of the Month for February is Volunteer Tutor Organisation! 
Volunteer Tutors Organisation (VTO) is a charity based in the West end of Glasgow which provides one-to-one tutor support to children and young people, mainly in Glasgow, who would otherwise not be able to afford a tutor. All of the Children and Young people referred to VTO are experiencing a barrier to their learning, which varies from pupil to pupil but many of their pupils are care experienced or are experiencing an additional support need such as dyslexia or ADHD.
The events of recent years such as the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis mean that there is an increased need for the service provided by VTO and more children and young people than ever needing the support of volunteer tutors.
Since early 2022, VTO have been relaunching their after school learning hubs which halted during the pandemic. VTO now has 16 of learning hubs back up and running supporting around 160 primary aged children across Glasgow and Edinburgh. This will expand further as we move into the 2023-24 academic year.
VTO are always looking for new tutors. Volunteers do not need previous tutoring/education experience and full training is provided. VTO have face to face opportunities all over Glasgow and the option to volunteer online, whatever suits the volunteer best. All opportunities are for 1 hour per week.
You can find out more about the impact of VTO’s tutors by watching any of these short clips https://www.vtoscotland.org/news/
Thank you for reading and if you have any questions about the Organisation Support offered at Volunteer Glasgow, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at findvolunteers@volunteerglasgow.org.
