Do you have volunteer vacancies you want to fill?
We can register your vacancies on our database, promote them locally and through the national volunteering website, and refer prospective volunteers to you.
Complete and return this Volunteer Opportunities Form to give us details of your vacancies. Let us know if you need help or would like to meet to discuss volunteering issues.

If you are not already registered with us – please see Contact Us.



Would you like help to develop new roles for volunteers within your organisation?
We can help you to explore possible new opportunities and how to shape them into roles that you can advertise and fill.

Have you thought about issues such as:

• Paying volunteer expenses?


• What training your volunteers might need and how to provide it?


• How to protect your volunteers eg through health and safety?

Do you have a volunteer policy?
We can help you with specific issues and also with developing a volunteer policy that will enable you to follow good practice when involving volunteers.

A WELL LOOKED AFTER VOLUNTEER IS MORE LIKELY TO BE MOTIVATED, KEEN TO STAY WITH YOUR ORGANISATION AND MAKE A HUGE CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR ORGANISATION’S SUCCESS.

Whether your organisation has been around for a long time or is new on the block, with the constantly changing face of the world, new legal requirements, new initiatives, new ways of working, you may like a bit of help keeping your organisation in the best shape possible to achieve it’s objectives.

We give help to organisations on a whole range of issues:

• Finding and keeping volunteers


• Making your management committee more effective


• Current initiatives and how they affect you


• Models of good practice, sample policies and procedures


• Trouble shooting on a whole range of issues

Training - Invest in Your Volunteers

Aimed at helping anyone who recruits, supervises or coordinates volunteers, there are two modules.

Module 1 - The Basics - is aimed at getting started and covers such issues at recruitment, advertising, selection/interviewing and recognition.

Module 2 - Going Further - covers legal issues, protecting volunteers, diversity, quality standards.

We present these three times a year and aim for a relaxed atmosphere with a mixture of presentations and participative exercises. Participants can attend either or both modules in one day or in separate sessions. If you are interested in attending, contact us for the next dates.

Whatever it is you would like help and advice with then do get in touch. We’ll talk it over, suggest useful resources and give you a hand.

Contact joy@voluntaryaction.org

How can local organisations get their voice heard by the policy and decision makers?

How can we ensure that the values of the voluntary and community sector are taken into account in relation to local issues?

One way is by ensuring that representatives of our sector are present and raising the issues at the appropriate forums.

Sometimes organisations that feel strongly about an issue can do this for themselves – but too often there are just too many meetings, and too many issues.

Voluntary Action has a role in gathering views of a large number of its member organisations and representing voluntary and community sector issue and values on their behalf.

If you wish us to represent your interests in a particular issue then get in touch and we will talk over with you how best we can do that.

Contact joy@voluntaryaction.org


Health & Social Care

We have a partnership volunteer who is in the process of talking to organisations and gathering their views on issues and how partnerships work. The role of this volunteer is to help organisations working in the area of health and social care to communicate with each other and to attend partnership meetings and events where these issues can be raised. He will feed back to organisations through newssheets and reports to disseminate the information that is gathered and help organisations use it to lobby for better services.

If you have any issues that you would like to feed into this piece of work, or if you would like to arrange to meet with our partnership volunteer to discuss your organisation’s involvement, please email:diane@voluntaryaction.org

Will local policy makers take your views into account?

Across the country, local government agencies, such as health and local authorities are increasingly looking to include the voluntary and community sector as a strategic partner in the planning and delivery of services.

Voluntary Action here in Chiltern and S Bucks takes on this role of a strategic partner and puts forward the values and the interests of voluntary and community groups at a wide range of local planning and delivery groups.

For example we are on the steering groups and programme boards of:

• Chiltern Partnership
• South Bucks Local Strategic Partnership
• Local Area Agreement
• Local Area Agreement Economy and Environment Thematic Group
• ChangeUp Consortium (We co-ordinate this)
• Bucks Infrastructure Group (We convene this)
• Compact Steering Group
• Voluntary Impact Bucks
• South Bucks Community Spirit Task Group (We chair this)
• Economy & Learning Group for Chiltern & South Bucks Community
• Cohesion Forum Chiltern
• Cohesion & Equalities
• SE Regional Cross Sector Strategic Partnership

And many others

Does your organisation have views or issues you would like to be included in local strategic planning?

If so then contact us and we will be happy to put them forward. Or click on the links to get more info directly from each site.

There is a world of new and ever changing initiatives and jargon out there. Much of which affects the voluntary sector – or does it? Do all the different acronyms and forums make sense to you? Which ones are most applicable to your organisation? Which ones would be best for you to get involved with?

See our Jargon Buster for help.

If it would help you to talk over how current changes will affect your organisation, where you could best get involved yourself, or simply to clarify the mist that surrounds many of the acronyms, then get in touch with us.

Is your organisation facing challenges due to the current economic situation?
In our June 2009 workshop we explored how the recession is impacting on voluntary organisations and how best to respond to this. See full report

See our surviving the recession resources sheet for some ideas to help you now.

Justin Davis-Smith, Chief Executive of Volunteering England, describes the economic downturn in the following summary:

Tough times for the sector – reduced resources, more demand

Stresses and strains within the sector – impact on staff morale etc

But paradoxically, huge opportunities – to come in from the margins and stake claim as central to the economic and social well-being of communities;

Key role for volunteering – but capacity issues

Opportunities to build new partnerships with local government, to strengthen what we have; also to strengthen links between sector organisations.

Take risks and experiment.

My hope is that coming out of the recession we have a sector that has proved its worth, that has survived the ravages of the recession, has built new alliances within the sector and with public bodies – and is primed to play an even larger role in community life in the next decade.