Volunteering for us

Freedom to volunteer or not.  Volunteering must be a choice freely made by everyone. People have the freedom to volunteer and the freedom not to become involved.

Open to all.  Volunteering should be open to all, no matter what their background, race, colour, nationality, religion or belief, ethnic or national origins, age, gender, marital status, sexual orientation or disability.

Both the volunteer and the organisation should benefit.  Volunteers offer their contribution and skills without pay but should benefit in other ways. Giving time to volunteering must be recognised as establishing a two-way relationship in which the volunteer also benefits and feels that his or her contribution is personally fulfilling.

There should be clear recognition of the value of volunteers.  There must be clear recognition that valuing the contribution of volunteers is fundamental to a fair relationship between volunteers, voluntary and community organisations and the government. This includes recognising the contribution to the organisation, the community, the social economy, and wider social objectives.

We have identified the need to increase the range and diversity of opportunities and the levels of support into volunteering for certain groups.

The opportunity to volunteer should be made available to the widest range of individuals and communities, led by a widespread recognition of the wealth of skills and experience that the people of Empower Consultants can bring and gain from volunteering.

We recognise that volunteering empowers people to take an active part in their communities, in improving their communities and neighbourhoods, their own skills and prospects, and their health and wider wellbeing.

We have Good Practice and Quality Standards. We make sure our volunteers have opportunities that are safe, rewarding and help them to contribute and make progress in a variety of ways.

We accept that formal and informal recognition of volunteers improves their motivation, helps them keep volunteering, and improves the overall quality of their volunteer experience and the organisation’s services. This understanding must be adopted by all partners and there must be identifiable formal recognition schemes to which volunteer-involving organisations can nominate volunteers.