Community Initiative Volunteer

Flexible

Community Initiative Volunteer

*  Do you want to make a difference in your neighbourhood or community?

*  Are you looking for something meaningful to get involved with locally?

*  Do you have an idea but don’t know how to start? 

Derbyshire Voluntary Action can help you get a community initiative off the ground. Our Feeling Connected Team can offer the following…

*  Advice and mentoring from our staff.

*  Micro-grants that are simple to apply for, starting at £75 to get you going.

*  Training and information on the ‘Best Practice’ of Community Development.

*  Printing – we can print your flyers and posters to advertise your initiative

*  Invitations to Feeling Connected Social events, to meet others who are organising initiatives in their neighbourhoods. 

What is a Community Initiative? There are many ways to describe something run by volunteers. (We have a list of 50 on our website) Here are a few:

*  Groups: Like a walking group, a craft group or whenever people share their hobbies. This is a great way to get to know people. Some of the members need to be the organisers, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.

*  Projects: These often focus on making improvements for the greater good. Like a community garden or allotment. Or conservation of a local area. These are good for creating lots of work for many hands, and lots of people can feel useful and proud to be involved. It can take a lot of organising, so it’s best to have a small team of ‘core’ volunteers to share the work.

*  Events: Coffee mornings, jumble sales, Family fun days, community picnics, trips to the seaside. One-off events like these are good ways to include lots of people. Events can be easier for volunteers to manage as, however much work they create, after the event there is time to re-charge. 

What is a Community Volunteer?

This is not a traditional volunteer role inside an established charity. This kind of volunteering is self-created. Starting something from scratch would best suit someone who has a surplus of time, enthusiasm, energy and is looking for a challenge. However none of the ideas above can be organised by one volunteer alone. If you are interested in doing something similar where you live, we’d start by helping you find someone else to buddy-up with. Perhaps forming a small team is the best way to start. It can still be very challenging. That’s why we bring volunteers together to share experiences and to learn from and encourage each other.

Do I have to form a Charity?

No. We find that many volunteers want to do the hands-on stuff, and don’t have ambitions to create a large organisation like a Charity. That’s okay, we want to help people do as much as they can, in the best way for them. You don’t have to form a charity to do things in your community. But if you do, we can point you in the right direction. 

What about money? And Health and Safety? And Privacy?

We offer small amounts of money to get things started, we call them Micro-grants. It’s very simple to apply and you don’t need a special bank account. Our network of other Community Volunteers are a great source of knowledge, particularly in raising funds locally. We can provide simple guidelines for new initiatives to make sure people are safe and privacy is protected.

What is Feeling Connected?

All the ideas above have different aims, but they all bring people together in positive ways. Fostering a sense of community and strengthening connections between people reduces loneliness and isolation, which in turn can have great impacts on someone’s health. That’s why Derbyshire Voluntary Action’s  Feeling Connected Team want to support new initiatives. We are funded to do this in Chesterfield borough and North East Derbyshire district.

Please have a look at our website, find some inspiration and get in touch for a chat with one of the team.  www.feelingconnected.org.uk

You can upload your CV or any relevant file. Max. file size: 100 MB.