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I recently read an article that had drawn parallels with planning, executing and managing a new project as something similar to having a baby and the last few weeks have certainly made me agree. As part of a team who are working towards bringing our idea of making volunteering inclusive, easy and accessible to all through our new ‘baby’ Volunteering Academy, I can certainly relate to my experiences of bringing new lives into this world.
Initially it was the waiting of hearing from the National Lottery to hear whether it was a positive yes or a negative no. Of course, with the yes, there was a great sense of relief and happiness. Then came the part where we wanted to share our news with all our friends, partners and well-wishers. The launch event was a day of celebration and joy, attended by representatives from nearly 50 voluntary organisations. It was a ‘Reveal’ event with some cake as well! The event was such a success that I even got to talk about our Volunteering Academy on BBC Radio.
Photo from the launch event at Tees Valley Chinese Community Centre
To find out more about our plans read this news article: https://mvda.info/news/middlesbrough-benefit-new-volunteering-academy.
The sense of euphoria has settled now.. and we are now in the planning phase with a lot of team meetings, coming up with questions, and trying to find suitable answers that will best fit what we are setting out to achieve as we want our baby to have the best chance of being a success and making a difference to our local communities. As part of this, we are also planning a lot of stakeholder engagement as we go with the ethos that ‘It takes a village to raise a child’!
Some of the things that we are looking at are:
- Training requirements in the area of volunteering and mapping out how we can deliver against them in a timely and effective way.
- Building on the Tees Valley Volunteer Charter and ways in which we can support organisations to follow good practice.
- Exploring the dreaded but at the same time exciting ’choosing IT platform stage’, to help deliver a simple, seamless and safe experience for volunteers and volunteer involving organisations. We have been speaking with a few providers and doing a bit of testing to see what will make volunteering simpler and more effective. A bit like testing baby pushchairs!
As we strive to lay a solid foundation for the Volunteering Academy, we thank everyone who has been part of the journey so far and those who have expressed an interest in helping us out in various ways going forward. Over the next days and weeks, we will be approaching you to share information, consult and take your valuable opinion and feedback.