WOMEN’S NEIGHBOURHOOD VOLUNTEERING PROJECT

Women’s Neighbourhood Volunteering Project (WNVP) was a three year project funded by the Home Office Active Community Unit (July 2002 - March 2005). The overall aim of the project was to improve volunteering opportunities in partnership with women living in the three London boroughs the project worked in: Tower Hamlets, Newham and Haringey.

The key objectives of the project were:

To increase women’s volunteering in London’s deprived neighbourhoods through creative and innovative approaches in partnership with women and organisations
To enable women to volunteer, especially those who would not normally volunteer such as refugees, disabled women and older women from diverse communities
To enable organisations in voluntary and statutory sectors to support and develop women’s volunteering
To increase local women’s awareness and understanding of regeneration programmes including Local Stategic Partnership (LSPs).

The main activities of the project were:

Recruiting, training and placing women volunteers

Over 20 volunteers were recruited, trained and placed either working on the project or in another organisations. Two volunteer fairs were also held in 2003, one in Tower Hamlets and one in Newham, to promote volunteering and to recruit volunteers.

Running networks for women involved in volunteering or regeneration

Several networks have been set up during the project including:

Tower Hamlets Sub Group: a forum for support, discussion, sharing information and networking for women working with women and volunteers.
Newham Sub Group: this group worked via and alongside Newham Volunteer Co-ordinators group and looked at issues of volunteering good practice.
Tower Hamlets Volunteer Network: a network for women to find out about volunteering and regeneration and receive training.
Smart Group: a yahoo group for professionals and women to receive regular information about WNVP and keep up to date with volunteering good practice and regeneration information.

Providing support and expertise on women’s volunteering

The project has provided support and good practice for organisations wanting to involve women volunteers in their organisation. Several seminars / workshops on volunteering have also been delivered including:

Volunteering and Social Inclusion, Women’s Resource Centre, Valuing Women’s Voluntary and Community Action Conference, March 2003 (facilitated with GLAD)
Women and Volunteering, London Civic Forum and London Development Agency Seminar, May 2000.
Women Volunteering and Social Inclusion, National Centre for Volunteering Convention, September 2003
Volunteering workshop, MINET and 3rd Sector Alliance consultation, November 2003

A good practice CD and booklet called Involving women volunteers in your organisation has also been produced. This is full of information, ideas and materials to help you set up volunteering opportunities for women in your organisation.

Raising awareness about supporting women’s involvement in regeneration

The project has provided information and raised awareness about regeneration. This has included:

Seminar on Local Strategic Partnerships, Women’s Resource Centre, July 2003
Women and Regeneration Event, January 2005: a day of stalls, information and workshopsall about regeneration held at the Women’s Library in Tower Hamlets.

Providing training for women and organisations

During the project several training courses were delivered. These included:

Introduction to Business Planning
Recruiting Volunteers
Introduction to Regeneration
Build your confidence in meetings