Third Sector Support Wales (TSSW) partners have delivered three events in Ceredigion, Gwent and Wrexham to introduce a new digital platform enabling organisations to advertise for, recruit and manage volunteers, and for volunteers to find suitable roles.
The new bi-lingual platform will be launched in April and will be available at the same address as the pre-existing all-Wales volunteering database, www.volunteering-wales.net.
The system is free to use and provides improved functionality for organisations and volunteers.
Volunteers will be able to find opportunities by searching for keywords or according to distance from their home location. They will also be able to log the hours and skills they gain through volunteering and will receive digital badges for volunteering 50, 100, 200 hours or more. They will be able to easily share news about their volunteering activity on social media
Registration is straightforward, and the website will remind you of your forthcoming commitments as well as being a record of what you have achieved
For organisations, the system will help you to recruit and manage volunteers, log volunteer hours, plan rotas and events, record training and experience and produce reports.
A wealth of online management tools are available through the system to make administrative tasks quicker and easier and to allow you more time to spend supporting volunteers, improving volunteer experiences and celebrating the difference that they make to your organisation.
Organisations that currently have volunteering opportunities on the ‘old’ version of the volunteering-wales.net website are asked to register afresh on the new system, and to start posting their volunteering opportunities. Some guidance on how to get started can be found here (attached).
’It is a great idea having one central site for all volunteering opportunities, organisations and volunteers, it should be easier to manage and provide a bigger volunteer pool for organisations”’ Marina, Run4Wales.
’We are pleased to be able to offer a user friendly and efficient platform to encourage and support volunteering in Wales’ said Fiona Liddell, WCVA Volunteering Development Manager. ‘At the same time we recognise that not everyone wants, or is comfortable with digital systems. That is why we will continue to offer a parallel face to face service through local volunteer centres’.
If you are an organisation that recruits and manages volunteers and you’d like to try out the new system, please register as soon as possible on the temporary web address volunteerwales.teamkinetic.co.uk and start posting details of your volunteering opportunities now. If you need any assistance, please contact Gavin Wilson: [email protected].
Volunteers searching for opportunities can continue to use the site as normal, but you will notice a change to the appearance and function of the website during April.
You can read a blog about the experiences of some new users of the digital platform. For general queries about how the changes ahead might affect you, please contact Fiona Liddell: [email protected] or your local volunteer centre.
You can find the above information in Welsh here.
You can also find further information on how to use the new system here.