Volunteering

Volunteering is integral to voluntary action.

It gives people a sense of belonging and well-being and offers the opportunity to contribute to the community.

Volunteering can help to tackle labour market exclusion by offering people a route into employment - building social capital and helping those that feel socially excluded to engage with their community. However, levels of volunteering are lowest in the most deprived areas, and much more support is needed to make sure those most at risk of exclusion are able to benefit from volunteering.

Role of NAVCA members

Our members actively support volunteering, promoting it across all three sectors, with many running volunteer centres. They have a strong commitment to encouraging more people to volunteer or become involved in community action. Those that do not run a volunteer centre work with volunteers as part of their general organisational development and training work, supporting the many small organisations that are entirely volunteer-led.

NAVCA - influencing volunteering policy

NAVCA seeks to ensure that the importance of volunteering is recognised at local and national level, and that volunteering is appropriatley supported and developed. We work closely with Volunteering England, particularly on issues relating to volunteer centres and local support and development organisations. More information:

• NAVCA's partnership agreement with Volunteering England
• Supplementary agreement on volunteer centres

Working with Job Centre Plus

NAVCA produced a briefing on working with Job Centre Plus in June 2011. This includes an explanation of the Work Together initative and the co-location project. We are keen to hear from NAVCA members working with Job Centre Plus - please contact Peter Horner to share your experiences.