Spotlight on: Volunteering
Introduction
“Without volunteers, most sport and activity simply wouldn’t happen”.
Our Spotlight On: Volunteering showcases the fantastic work that is going on across the county by local volunteers, highlights the benefits of volunteering and signposts you to the support available to help local organisations recruit and retain more volunteers. We hope you find the following resources and information of interest.
Recognising Local Volunteers
In 2023, Active Kent & Medway ran a social media campaign to recognise and celebrate local volunteers who help to make sport and physical activity happen around the county. Thank you to everyone who nominated a volunteer and helped us celebrate their achievements throughout the month of June.
In total we received 55 nominations, representing 25 different sports and activities.
You can find out who was nominated and read all about the fantastic work they do, via the link below:
Submit a Volunteer Nomination
If you’d like to celebrate and recognise a local volunteer(s), nominations remain open throughout the year.
Submit your nominations so that we can continue to shine a spotlight on local volunteers and share their achievements on the Active Kent & Medway social media channels and website.
Resources and Insight Guides
A number of national organisations have carried out research and created insight guides to share the benefits of volunteering and guidance to help organisations reflect on their approach.
Volunteering Q&A
Covering volunteering and the law, health and safety and safeguarding, Sport England have compiled a series of questions and answers designed to help your organisation or project achieve its goals while creating a more enjoyable, meaningful volunteering experience for all.
Follow this link to view Sport England’s Volunteering Q&A
Insight Guide to Volunteering
Sport England’s guide to volunteering covers the dual benefits to individuals and the organisation. It aims to equip organisations with research allowing them to think strategically about their approach to developing volunteering in this sector.
Follow this link to download the Sport England Volunteering insight guide (PDF)
Sport and Recreation Alliance Research
Hidden Diamonds is the ground-breaking research into the hidden value of sport volunteers, going beyond cost to measure the true value they create – through participation, wellbeing, trust and community.
Recruiting and Developing Volunteers
Buddle Resources
Sport England have developed Buddle, free learning and support resources, to inspire and strengthen clubs and community organisations offering sport and physical activity, and the professionals that work with them. Buddle offers several resources to help support you with recruiting volunteers and developing volunteers within your club or organisation.
Developing your volunteers not only enables you to demonstrate how much you value and appreciate them, but it will help ensure their experience is positive, help keep them motivated and committed, and will also give them the skills they need to run your organisation effectively.
Follow this link to view the Buddle resources
Local Resources
For clubs wanting to promote their volunteering opportunities and for those of you looking to volunteer within the sport and physical activity sector, we recommend using the following websites to upload and search for opportunities:
Contact Us
If you’d like to discuss any of the above articles or would like any more information, please get in touch by emailing activekent@kent.gov.uk and one of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.