Author: Rolf Herbert Page 9 of 18

Rugby World Cup JAPAN 2019

The Rugby World Cup is quickly approaching us, and I’m sure fans can’t wait for the contest to begin. The enjoyment of supporting your country before they go into battle against the opposition. I’m sure laughs, tears, and questionable language will be fuelled by countless pints down at many of your local pubs.

Small history lesson

The upcoming World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the very toughest of international teams. The first-ever Rugby World Cup was contested in 1987, it was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand with sixteen nations taking part. New Zealand became the first champions defeating France 29-9.

The warriors who succeed in their battles are awarded the Webb Ellis Cup at the end of the tournament. Legend has it that Webb Ellis was the inventor of rugby. Stumbling across the game by deciding to pick up the ball during a football match. Webb Ellis probably didn’t comprehend at the time of picking up the ball, that rugby would go onto generate revenue of approximately 228million pounds. This being the figure derived from the last Rugby World Cup hosted by England in 2015.

Rugby World Cup volunteers

The Japan 2019 organising committee has launched ‘Team No Side’ the official volunteers for the Rugby World Cup. Which is made up of over 10,000 volunteers across the twelve host cities of Japan. Around 38,000 volunteers applied for the position, these volunteers aim to connect and interact with fans to create a memorable experience. The recruitment process began in 2018 with successful applicants being given complete training in preparation for the big event.

The training for Team No Side started in February and March earlier this year. Their first training session covered learning about the history of the World Cup. I’m sure volunteering in the Rugby World cup will be a memorable experience. However, the volunteers involved are not allocated pre-paid travel cards to travel between each venue, neither will they receive any discount from accommodation providers. Which is hard to digest, as this is a globally televised event.

The Rugby World Cup previously hosted by England had more than 20,000 application forms submitted, with only 6,000 of the keenest people being granted success. The successful applicants joined the group named ‘Join The Pack,’ 4,000 of the volunteers were from Rugby clubs and the remaining 2,000 were from outside of clubs. Committee leader Debbie Jevans felt this was just the right balance of passionate rugby enthusiasts.

Rugby clubs near you

Many volunteers that are a part of their local clubs volunteer because they want to give something back. The volunteers may be ex-players themselves or have younger children who are passionate about the sport. Most clubs across the UK are very busy, grass pitches are the UK’s most popular space of physical exercise so it’s not surprising there is a demand for volunteers.

Throughout an average week, rugby clubs can receive a wide spectrum of players wanting to take part in various training sessions, juniors, men’s, women’s and touch. As you could imagine that’s a lot of muddy people to manage at one time. That’s during the weekdays alone, without considering match days on weekends, which could include tournaments and away games. Without volunteers, these opportunities for people to stay active and enjoy the sport would just not be possible. Rain or shine local coaches are there on the sideline giving constructive guidance or perhaps just hailing light-hearted abuse in your direction. But it’s all good fun!

If you think rugby is something you would like to be apart of then you should consider contacting your local clubs secretary. They will then be able to inform you what volunteering opportunities they have available, and the training you may need in order to start volunteering.

My dad was a volunteer coach. Without that type of involvement things just don’t happen and aren’t quite as good as they could be without volunteers. This is especially true in light of the Rugby World Cup.

Jonny Wilkinson

A volunteering inspiration

Jeremy Wares, 36 was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Following his diagnosis, Jeremy was understandably shaken by the news. He had always wanted to coach his son in rugby but he wasn’t sure of the near future of his health at the time of his diagnoses.

In the previous 15years, Jeremy had made a living for himself being a chef in Paris. Catering in very well established restaurants which were fit for President Mitterrand. Jeremy had then gone on to establish his own restaurants in Scotland, 63 Tay Street and The Anglers Inn.

Despite the news, Jeremy was able to use his previous skillset of being a Caterer to organise events for Perthshire Rugby Club. These events have included the Perthshire Beer Festival which attracts around 20,000 people each year. Jeremy remains very hands-on with these events cooking a lot of the food himself. Alongside busy event planning, Jeremy has also been able to coach his son in the rugby team, which he was doubtful about at the start.

Inlight of his illness Jeremy felt he had to give something back and he’s done a fantastic job. Jeremy says “the secret is to remain active and keep going” only when he stops for too long does his condition seem to become more visible. Jeremy’s efforts were rewarded as Scottish volunteer of the season.

Grow your organisation with TeamKinetic

Grow your volunteering community with TeamKinetic volunteer management

TeamKinetic invites all organisations who feel they would be able to benefit from our software to get in touch. Remember we don’t limit the number of volunteers or the number of opportunities you can have available. We want your organisation and the communities you work with to grow and prosper.

The Volunteers Behind Liverpool FC Foundation

The LFC foundation has 315 volunteers and 22 volunteering opportunities. According to our system, volunteers at LFC have recorded more than 1,200 hours of volunteering. The LFC foundation aims to create life-changing opportunities for children and young people. Currently, LFC works with up to 3,000 children and young people a week improving their health, education and overall chances in life.

Recently I was lucky enough to volunteer as part of the Respect 4 All project at LFC. Originally this project began in 2009 and helps approximately 400 participants every year. LFC works with local and national organisations in developing sport and physical activity opportunities for young children with complex needs.

I have to say that this was a spectacular day! During my time at LFC, I was able to witness the work LFC Foundation does. I can tell you now that LFC truly makes a difference to every young person’s life. LFC provides a space and an opportunity for these children to learn, get active and most importantly have fun! I would like to commend all the volunteers who were there as well, giving their own free time up to help benefit and make a change to someone else’s life for one day. Luckily for me, I had the chance to speak to some of the volunteers and get there say on why they volunteer.

I previously volunteered for ‘Everton In The Community’ for 15 years maybe more (said under his breath quietly). I started at Everton because my grandad was an Everton fan and he first introduced me to the club. But it is my first time volunteering at Liverpool today and hopefully one of many. I like helping out where ever I can, volunteering makes me feel happy and useful it’s something I don’t plan on stopping, I love doing what I do. Alongside volunteering, I play for the LFC Foundation disability football team who I train with every Monday. As much as I love volunteering in football – I also love playing it too.

Paul aged 39 (LFC Volunteer and football player)
Milo and Micheal

I’ve been volunteering for the last year at LFC because of my educational pathways. At college, I am currently studying in sports and my future career goals are to be a football coach. So to pursue my career goals I have been helping out at LFC Foundation to gain some experience. But as well as seeking a job in coaching, I enjoy meeting new people and most of all it can be a really good laugh. Also, I am quite an active person and I don’t like sitting around the house. LFC provides a chance for me to get out and do something physical. The secret for me is enjoying what I do, then it doesn’t seem like work.

Micheal Murray Aged 17 (Student)
Milo and Anas

Today is my first day volunteering at The LFC Foundation but I am enjoying it thoroughly. Previously I have volunteered at the Netball World Cup in Liverpool. But I am volunteering here today because I am a Liverpool football fan who just wanted to help out in my local community. I feel it is something everyone should try to get involved with at least once in their lives. Originally I am from India but I am spending my time in Liverpool to pursue my master’s degree in cardiovascular health. During the time I have left before my degree is over I want to get involved in as many volunteering opportunities as possible.

I was able to find the Respect 4 All opportunity through using The LFC Foundations webpage. Which uses TeamKinetic volunteering management system. The system was very easy to manoeuvre around and made finding and signing up to opportunities easy, I had no issues at all.

Anas usman aged 28 (physiotherapist)

Be happy and love what you do

What was great about listening to the volunteers was that I could tell that each volunteer I spoke to was passionate and happy to be volunteering at LFC. All the volunteers that I spoke to were happy and smiling, be it there first time or one of many. This reflects so positively on LFC and also the volunteering community.

Volunteering attracts a wide spectrum of people who volunteer for many different reasons. Education, helping the community, the love of helping others or being associated with local clubs. Each volunteer has a purpose of why they want to volunteer and what they want to get out of it.

The question is: What’s your purpose and what do you want to achieve from volunteering? Only you can know that.

Teamkinetic

Overcoming Volunteering Barriers

This blog has been inspired by Rob Preston, a senior reporter at Charity Finance Magazine and the author of a recent article highlighting that fewer people are volunteering.

The article (Fewer people volunteering, says DCMS survey), highlights that only 36 per cent of people volunteered at least once in the year to March 2019. The lowest level recorded by the survey, which was run by The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. However, here at TeamKinetic we are committed to knocking down those barriers!

Childcare issues

Milo and his son intensely playing with Lego!

I know from being a parent myself looking after your child can be, to say the least, a tiring task. However, it is highly enjoyable, especially if you love playing with Lego as much as they do!

Childcare constraints do not need to stop you from volunteering, many volunteering opportunities can be done with your children.

MCRVIP has many child-friendly opportunities around the city like the cleaner city opportunity and the park maintenance opportunity, these are just two examples of where you and your children could volunteer and bond together. Not only is this something to do instead of being housebound but, it teaches the children the importance of volunteering and giving back to your community.

Having an illness or disability

Never let a disability hold you back, is the advice from Nicola Taylor, who didn’t let her disability get in the way of what she wanted to achieve in volunteering.

“I have cerebral palsy and am a wheelchair user. I felt very isolated as I had no social outlet. Previously I was invited to a presentation evening with Volunteering Matters and started talking to Mandy, from the SAFE project. About doing some volunteering for the project with her as I wanted to do something for myself and help others.

I have a particular interest in working with those with autism spectrum disorder as I have a nephew who is on the spectrum. When Mandy told me she would be starting a group with girls from the integrated autism service, I was very keen but felt there  might  be a financial impact as I would have to get an accessible taxi from my home. However, Mandy assured me that Volunteering Matters would cover the travel expenses – and that the venue would have disability access.

I am now co-facilitating the group and love it! I am helping others receive important messages and  love seeing them gaining confidence week by week. Volunteering has helped me a lot; I feel pretty good about myself and I have also learned a lot from the workshops. I am keen to learn more and help out at further workshops in the future.”

Nicola Taylor

I hope Nicola’s story can inspire people to give volunteering a go. Volunteering has made a life-changing impact on Nicola’s life and It might just be able to do the same to yours.

Study commitments

Being a student myself I know the workload can be high, especially around deadline dates. So I understand finding spare time can be difficult. However, I recently got to chat with the successful student and volunteer El Afzal. El has been volunteering for quite some time now, some would say she’s a bit of a volunteering athlete!

How did you get into volunteering whilst at university? 

“Through my tutors on my course (Event Management), and also through the MMU Sports TeamKinetic portal. I had very little experience in Events and really wanted to give myself the best start to my university time and career. My tutor guided me to a matchday volunteering with Manchester Futsal, running the reception and ticketing on matchdays. And I found my own volunteering through TeamKinetic where I volunteered at BUTL (British University Taekwondo League) UK Regional Taekwondo championships.”

How do you manage Studying and Volunteering at the same time? 

“Despite most of it being linked to my degree and my career goals, I find the volunteering I’m doing to be my downtime. I have such a variety of volunteering under my belt that now I know what I’ll enjoy, and what will help me relax. So the first week of every month I go to Desert Island Discs with Manchester Cares in Ancoats, and have a brew with older neighbours and laugh and dance to some music. Or having post-match wings and drinks with Manchester Futsal team is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I do make sure that with my studying I have at least one evening off working and revision to do something I enjoy and that makes me feel happy, it helps keep a balance and stop me from getting too bogged down.”

Do you feel volunteering whilst being at university has helped you, and if so why?

“Yes, definitely! Volunteering has opened a lot of doors for me. It’s led me onto new roles in organisations I already volunteered at which has led to further job offers.

Volunteering genuinely has helped me develop some vital skills and industry knowledge which I needed. Also, it’s a fantastic way of naturally networking with others; I’ve had fellow volunteers wanting to help and offer introductions and work experience/internships with people they know.”

What would you say to any student who is studying at university but is apprehensive about volunteering? 

“I’d say to do some research and find a role you actually want. Don’t volunteer somewhere if it doesn’t interest you because you won’t get as much out of it. Try looking at something that could fit your current skill set, or is with a company/charity you actually want to work with. But volunteering is more rewarding the more you put in, so you have to go in and be willing to get out of your comfort zone. So research, apply, enjoy and get stuck in!”

Never considered it or not aware of groups that need help

Many people don’t really know how they can get involved in volunteering, it can be on your doorstep, or abroad. Many just have never given it a second thought. But I hope I can enlighten a few people to give volunteering a go, all you need is your laptop, mobile or tablet to get started on your first opportunity near you. Here are a handful of sites which could kick start your volunteering opportunities.

Your local city or town council is the perfect place to start. Your council website will additionally assist you in being able to volunteer locally. For first time volunteers, I would highly recommend trying your council’s website as your first call to action.

Volunteer centre


You may not have realised it yet but local accredited volunteer centres are everywhere. They’re an excellent way for first-time volunteers to get involved, by understanding your interests they can match you with suitable volunteering opportunities.

Try volunteering

TryVolunteering.com ran by us here at TeamKinetic, encourages all people from all walks of life to get involved in volunteering. TryVolunteering.com also allows people to set up accounts as opportunity providers, providers can then advertise volunteering opportunities – but don’t worry its all FREE!

Do-it.org

Don’t just do it for yourself, do it for someone else. That’s the true motivation behind volunteering. Do-it.org connecting volunteers to volunteering opportunities from all around the country.

Charity Job

Charity Job is the UK’s largest site for charity jobs and volunteering. Thousands of positions can be found up and down the UK, no matter your location there will be something near you.

A final note from TeamKinetic

Life can throw up many barriers, some of which are hard to get over and may challenge us along our paths. But it’s the journey of how we get over these barriers and what we can learn from climbing over them. The secret is passion. Martin Luther King said, “A man who has not found something he is willing to die for, is not fit to live.” Perhaps an extreme sentiment, however, the point is very clear. We all must find a passion in life which we care about more than ourselves; this will give you the motivation, and inspiration to do more in life. Your passion may be volunteering and helping to improve other peoples lives; whatever it maybe it doesn’t matter, as long as your passionate – then you can overcome anything.

Top 5 Tips For Volunteering Abroad

Thailand
Thailand

The top 3 countries volunteers travel to are; The Philippines, India and Thailand, with 1.6 million people volunteering abroad every year. 84% of millennials said they would travel abroad to participate in volunteering activities and 39.52% said they would volunteer for their own professional development. So if you are one of those 84% then read on for our tips for volunteering abroad.

1. Make sure you know how to get there

“Getting lost, a good way to find yourself, unless you’re actually lost. Then you’ve got a problem”

A wise man once said

As obvious as it may sound, it’s essential you know exactly where in the world you’re going to be travelling to. Most people use websites such as GVI and International Volunteer HQ when wanting to volunteer abroad. However, you must read the small print! Most volunteering opportunities do not include flights, and few have transfers organised to and from the airport. So always be sure of the best way to go about your journey. Plan ahead and always make contact with your provider in advance, they’ll be able to point you in the right direction.

2. Be proactive

Volunteering programmes
Volunteering programmes. Picture credit: Projects Abroad.

Engage with the local communities in which you plan to volunteer in, don’t just treat it as a photo opportunity. This can be done by listening and understanding what the local communities want and need. Be aware of your own prejudices and bias and listen; the community knows better than you. As a volunteer, you should consider learning about the political, social, economic and cultural histories of the places you visit. Which in better terms, will help stop you putting your foot in it!

3. Develop relationships

Building relationships
Building relationships

When volunteering abroad you want to ensure you develop relationships with the local community and stakeholders. Finding a real interest in someone will gain their trust over the course of your volunteering experience, by letting them know that you’re there to help. By communicating and developing relationships it will allow you to get the ball rolling between yourself and the local community and lubricate the path to what can be a rough road to the end goal. Remember your in someone else’s house, although it may be different from what you’re used to, they will be proud of their home – so always be respectful.

4. Manage your time wisely

Amazing places
Amazing places

Time is of the essence, you will be home before you know it. Try to make an action plan of what you want to achieve in your time volunteering – there is nothing worse than leaving a job half-finished. Assert maximum effort in all you do, hard work never goes unnoticed; it could lead to further volunteering in the future. But plan for free time! Get out and see the country you’ve travelled to, enjoy the culture and fully indulge in the experience.

5. Get something out of it

Take it all in
Take it all in

Your volunteering experience should help develop your skills. These could be employability skills for a future career, or they could be personal skills which you want to develop. But being out of your comfort zone and learning to adapt is a broad skill which can be utilized in many areas of your life. We all have to adapt, volunteering abroad will definitely take you out of your comfort zone.

Maintain your connections once you have finished, take down all the contact details and social media accounts of all the people you have met throughout your experience, they could be the sofa stop you need on a future magical experience.

TeamKinetic respects all areas of volunteering, locally or internationally. At the heart of it all, volunteers sacrifice their free time to help someone else, making the world a better place. By uniting communities and people together, mankind can truly do great things – Some of us just need a chance to show we can.

The Volunteer Opportunity Guide

Volunteers

Volunteering contributed 17.1bn to the economy in 2016/ 2017 representing 0.85% GDP. The voluntary sector had 870,000 workers in 2018 with an estimated value of voluntary activity being 23.9bn. Opportunities created by providers and organisations are allowing these figures grow even more everyday!

A Small Thanks From TeamKinetic

TeamKinetic is proud of the organisations we works with. So we thought it was only right to give a little shout out to some of these organisations and the opportunities they have on offer.

Many of these organisations vary in size, but the one thing they have in common is that they are all dedicated to helping people find volunteering opportunities that interest and challenge the volunteer.

What these organisations provide that many lack is the freedom for the volunteer to register and find opportunities in seconds. Whether its skill based, long term, one off, or more micro volunteering oriented opportunities for those people wanting to help but unable to commit to anything long term due to work and other life commitments.

So let’s find out more about these organisations and what they do around the community!

Humanity Road

HR

Humanity Road was founded in 2010 by Chris Thompson and Cat Graham. Both twin sisters who created the organisation to connect people, animals and emergency officials with help resources when disaster strikes.

Every year, Humanity Road volunteers help thousands of people around the world impacted by disaster. In 2016, the disaster desk was active for 3,878 hours. Volunteers responded to 105 events in 45 countries, and total volunteer hours of service topped 11,000 hours.

What makes humanity road different is that almost all their opportunities are flexible and can be done from the comfort of your home. Opportunities like this are great for people wanting to help but are time poor.

Liverpool FC Foundation

LFC

The LFC Foundation is the official charity of Liverpool Football Club. Their mission is to bring together the LFC family to create life changing opportunities for children and young people. The charity was formed in 2010 as a financially independent organisation to harness the power and passion their fans and supporters have to improve the lives of others.

The Liverpool foundation run a number of amazing events and days that volunteers can really get stuck into. Some of these opportunities include Respect4All Programme. Which is the LFC Foundation’s disability and inclusion project. Moreover the LFC Foundation make all the volunteers feel part of their community, something I experienced first hand!

University of East London

UEL

UEL connects students to professional, career-led volunteering opportunities with charities, public sector organisations and other non-for-profit organisations across London. They Focus on volunteering that align with students career aspirations, interests and availability. They define volunteering as “time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain. It is enriching and contributes to personal development and/ or career aspirations

The university offers opportunities all across the city which vary in skill, commitment and type. The opportunities provided by the university have allowed students to feel part of the community and gain experience they might have not had the opportunity to do so in the past. Volunteering at university allows students to develop new skills that benefit them once they leave.

Glasgow Life Events

GlasgowLife

Glasgow Life is part of the city wide partnership which aims to develop volunteering opportunities and to grow volunteering skills. Additionally each year Glasgow Life provides numerous rewarding, safe, and supported opportunities for volunteers. Some being one-off major events, to more regular activities in libraries, museums, and community facilities throughout the city with around 1500 people currently involved as volunteers in Glasgow Life activities.

Glasgow Life have hosted a number of world class events including the Athletics Indoor European Championships. Events like this bring the city together and offer a number of opportunities for people to get stuck in. The great thing about Glasgow Life is that, there is no shortage of fun and rewarding opportunities.

Volunteering Wales

Volunteering Wales

Volunteering Wales provides an integrated programme of volunteering support that aims to help more people get involved in volunteering. Benefiting their community and for their own personal development, and to help volunteering organisations to recruit and support their volunteers.

Volunteering Wales offer thousands of opportunities across Wales, working with various providers. Enabling potential volunteers to be able to select from a wide variety of activities, that they may wish to be apart of. In addition previous events have included fund raising events in support of the Samaritans and other charities.

Volunteering Wales enables younger people to get involved with volunteering. Providing a platform which connects younger people to opportunities they may have never thought about doing before, leading to the development of their social skills and creating new friends in volunteering along the way.

YHA

YHA believe that everyone should have the opportunity to discover, explore and experience something new – and what better way than through volunteering. Youth hostels offer a place to stay, a warm and safe welcome, accessible and flexible accommodation, activities and education packages and best of all they are open to everyone, whatever age or where they are from.

YHA have an extensive list of opportunities available from caretaking opportunities to hostel placement opportunities. Together with placement opportunities available in the city, country or in coastal areas across Britain. Hostel and student placements are perfect if you would like to gain hospitality experience, complete a work placement as part of your course of study, or to simply get away from home and lend a hand.

YHA opportunities provide unbelievable experience’s for those who may have came from harder upbringings and poorer family backgrounds. YHA is a unique organisation because they allow the opportunity to stay somewhere quite amazing. I stayed at the Snowdon Bryn Gwnant hostel, which is amazing and in a truly beautiful location!

Manchester VIP

MCRVIP

Manchester VIP identifies, trains, and deploys volunteers to support sport and physical activity across Manchester. Recruiting people from all backgrounds and developing their skills signposting them to opportunities within sports events, sports clubs, local communities and schools.

MCRVIP unites people together in a common cause; museum workers, park maintenance, city cleaning, library workers, or even athletics coaching. Their platform is bringing everyone together, showcasing masses of opportunities for people to get involved with across Manchester. Manchester volunteers feel part of something larger and their retention rate is phenomenal.

TK

TeamKinetic is massively thankful to be able to supply these wonderful organisations with our volunteering management software. We recognise and understand the value of volunteers, and so we support the opportunities, providers and volunteers that are contributing to the voluntary sector.

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Why Volunteer Locally?

Local Town Hall

Across the UK 20.1 million people volunteered via a group, club, or organisation between 2017 and 2018, and over one in five people volunteer at least once a month. A small amount of compassion will improve someones day or even their week, but this is not just a one way experience. Volunteering can help improve your own health and develop your skills – no one said it had to be boring! You don’t just need to stack shelves in a library.

Leo Buscaglia
– L.B. American Author

“Don’t spend your precious time asking “Why isn’t the world a better place?” It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is “How can I make it better?” To that there is an answer.”

Leo buscaglia

Why volunteer locally?

Volunteering locally can help expand communities by uniting people in a common cause. But most people have no idea of how and where to begin. Don’t worry! Here is some inspiration and practical help on how you can start to make a small difference go along way.

Be apart of your local Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers

74th Silverdale scout group
74th Silverdale Scout group

Scouting first began in the early 20th century founded by Robert Baden Powell. Attracting boys and girls from all age ranges to participate in a variety of educational, and fun activities focused on the outdoors. Scouting groups heavily rely on volunteers to run weekly club meetings and trips. Could you help in your community?

I was a part of The Silverdale 74th scout group located in the ex-mining village in Stoke on Trent. Personally I have witnessed the true good scouting can have on the local community. Scouting encouraged me to give back to the local community, and help out with local community events and fund raisers. Silverdale scout group also provided me with a second home after I had finished a school day, keeping me occupied and off the streets. I would add that scouting equipped me with many skills and qualities, that are essential for a developing young person.

Today The Silverdale scout group continues to grow within the local community. Equipping the younger generation with life skills and valuable behavioral qualities. Over the years Silverdale’s scouting group has matured, but the scouting code remains firmly in place. To help other people at all times.

Volunteer at your local sport club

Swimming Club
Swimming Club

Sports clubs provide a real benefit to the surrounding communities. My son is a part of the local swimming club in Manchester. Swimming is a hobby he is highly enthusiastic and passionate about – which I am very pleased about as a parent. The club does not only provide him with lessons so he can learn how to swim. Better yet, it is also a place where he can chat and giggle with many of his friends from school, and make new ones along the way.

However many community clubs suffer from being over crowded and under resourced. Long waiting lists are a result of this overcrowding, in consequence clubs are in desperate need of an extra pair of hands to help out.

The sports club survey of 2013 by the Sport and Recreation Alliance, reckoned there were 151,000 sports clubs in existence across the UK. An average club has over 100 members and 24 volunteers. Which is somewhere in the region of 3.6 million volunteers helping out local sports clubs!

With participation growing at a greater rate than volunteer recruitment, now is a perfect time to find a local sports club you want to help out.

Volunteer to help the homeless

Manchester preventing homelessness
Manchester preventing homelessness

TeamKinetic is homegrown in Manchester and we see first hand the increase in homelessness on our cities streets. Deaths in relation to homelessness increased from 7 people in 2010, to 123 in Manchester by 2018. It is estimated that 2,627 people have died from rough sleeping since 2014 across the UK.

However there are opportunities that can help tackle this rising social issue. There are a number of group support networks which aim to help the homeless across many of the big cities within the UK (London, Birmingham, Liverpool). The Street Support network, or NightStop in Manchester are two examples of many that provide a gateway where prospective volunteers can help the homeless locally.

Across the local community of Manchester volunteers from networks such as NightStop can be found to be, allowing homeless people into their own homes for a night. Providing them access to: a hot shower, comfy bed, hot meal, and a friendly ear to console with. These are just some of the basic essentials volunteers are providing that we all take for granted. But can mean the world of difference to someone sleeping rough.

Act Now Not Later

Find resources below on how you can volunteer today.

Volunteer centre

Local accredited volunteer centers are everywhere but you may not have even realised it yet. There an excellent way for first time volunteers to get involved, by understanding your interests they can match you with suitable volunteering positions.

Try volunteering

TryVolunteering.com ran by TeamKinetic, encourages all people from all walks of life to get involved by volunteering. TryVolunteering.com also allows people to set up accounts as providers, providers can then advertise volunteering opportunities – but don’t worry its all FREE! The simple selfless act of kindness is only one click away, benefiting individuals and communities.

Do-it.org

Don’t just do it for yourself, do it for someone else. That’s the true motivation behind volunteering. Do-it.org connects potential volunteers to volunteering opportunities from all around the country. From 1 mile to 50 miles away from you, try Doit.org and find the opportunity that best suits you.

Charity Job

Charity Job is the UK’s largest site for charity jobs and volunteering. Thousands of positions can be found up and down the UK, no matter your location there will be something near you.

How TeamKinetic is supporting volunteers

TeamKinetic encourages communities to expand and be brought together through volunteering. Supporting any organisation which aims to allow volunteers to help make a difference. Helping organisations connect with volunteers in the simplest way possible is a problem our volunteering management software solves.

Find out more about our volunteer management software or contact one of our team members on – 0161 914 5757

milo volunteering

Introducing TeamKinetic: Milo James – The gloves are off!

Milo Boxing (left)

For the last 7 years I’ve been surrounded by volunteers, but I have only now realised their true value in my life.

Boxing is a massive part of my life which over the last 7 years has transformed me to the man I am today.  If it wasn’t for the volunteers behind the clubs I’ve been a part of and represented, I would not be writing this blog.  I’ve learnt volunteers can be a part of many different walks of life and each unique to its own.  My personal experiences have shown me that volunteers can provide a family, a friendship, and create a sense belonging.

Education has equipped me with many skills, however I have developed further attributes from volunteers in boxing which have aided my own professional development at university these include: physical, social, team working and mental skills.  Also, I have developed key traits to my behaviour.  I am focused, hardworking and determined in learning new concepts and ideas to the best of my ability. 

entrance to the boxing club
Entrance to boxing club

Currently I am boxing from a gym in Manchester called Team Northside Boxing Club, I’ve been at this club for 2 years now.  When I reflect on my time at this club, I am overwhelmed by how much I have developed physically and mentally as a person; because of the volunteers which are behind Team Northside.  They consistently push me to reach new heights in my boxing career, and are opening a vast amount of potential for my future pathways, be that behind the pads or behind the gloves.

Education

Setting aside the boxing gloves, my educational pathway has always gravitated towards business.  I chose Public Relations and Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University as the course opened up opportunities to engage my creative side.  Many modules I’ve completed are real-life working situations professionally developing me for a working career ahead; these have included creating PR and marketing campaigns.  I believe this will help me during my placement with TeamKinetic, as I have an idea of what will be expected from me.  Furthermore, I have developed a true self confidence from working in teams at university when completing real life scenarios. 

In addition to the boost in my confidence was gaining a placement opportunity at TeamKinetic.

“Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.”

A saying not only applicable to the boxing gym but real life, opportunities do not always necessarily come easy but with consistency and a lot of heart anything can be made possible.  It all depends on the determination behind the person, I will ensure I apply this philosophy during my time with TeamKinetic. 

Pass times

In my pass times I am always on a constant mission to further challenge myself by finding new interests and hobbies. Recently I’ve embarked on a new challenge to learn to play the guitar.  I’ve always had a passion for music and various music genres, it was only when I found an artist called The White Buffalo, that sparked an incentive in me to learn guitar.  Ten days in and so far so good, not sure I’ll ever be Jimmy Hendrix… but a man can dream.

On a final note

I have always had high aspirations of where I see myself in life.  I understand that my time at TeamKinetic is a crucial element to my own professional development of not only the existing skills, but the ones I am going to uncover along the way from the support of an exceedingly motivated and professional team behind me.

Milo James
Marketing Coordinator
info@teamkinetic.co.uk

Contact number: 0161 9145757

Why Do You Need Volunteer Management Software?

Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail!

Strategy and planning is one of the most important parts in being successful regardless of you’re doing. The right software can help ensure that you stay on top of all your volunteering opportunities far more efficiently than a spreadsheet. With TeamKinetic you can have your own customised volunteering portal where you can monitor everything that is going on within your organisation and start to plan.

TeamKinetic has a whole host of features aimed at enabling your volunteer programme; reminder notifications for volunteers via text and email, automated weekly newsletters that include the volunteer’s sessions, new events and opportunities, great searching so volunteers can find the best opportunities for them, and comprehensive reports to guide your strategy.

We have organisations from many industries who all have had great success using our volunteer management software and you can find out all about how TeamKinetic works for them.

Reward To Retain

Although many volunteers do great work without expecting anything back, it would be naive to assume that giving them something in return for their efforts would not be a factor in improving retention. These incentives do not have to be large or valuable, just tokens of your appreciation which go a long way in showing that you care for the people who volunteer for you.

Retention is a running theme in a lot of successful volunteers programmes so this should be a high priority. Teamkinetic volunteer management software uses a badge reward system. There are automated badges awarded for reaching volunteer hour goals and fully customisable OpenBadges that can be awarded for any reason. This is a great way to motivate your volunteers as it will give them a sense of achievement when they reach the next badge and level.

Make Your Time More Productive

If you are solely responsible for managing the volunteers in your organisation this will take up a large chunk of your time. With TeamKinetic we aim to make the managing of volunteers as easy and as quick as possible.

TeamKinetic will give you more time for high priority tasks rather than worrying about where people are and if they’re doing the correct thing at the right time, giving you more time to plan and effect your volunteer strategy.

Video Tutorials

Our YouTube channel is packed with videos that show you the different ways we can help you and your volunteer programme.

How Can TeamKinetic Help You?

For the last 10 years TeamKinetic have been making market leading volunteer management software for hundreds of organisations in numerous industries. If you are in need of recruiting, managing and retaining both new and existing volunteers please do not hesitate to get in contact. Our expert help lines are open 9-5 Monday-Friday (0161 9145757) where any questions you have about to system can get answered. Alternatively you can send any email inquiries to info@teamkinetic.co.uk.

Reporting and Insight with TeamKinetic

We have some pretty extensive reporting and filtering tools in TeamKinetic so we thought it was time we talked about them a little. We have also published a full list of the reports that we will endeavour to keep updated as new ones are added.

Most of our reporting and insight tools still live in the reporting tab but there are little nuggets of useful information you can use to gain insight sprinkled throughout the application.

First lets go through the major reports available from the Reporting > Reports & Analysis menu.

This area is split into themed sections. Each section is limited by the entered dates, although there are some all time stats at the top of the page.

The all time totals give a very clear overview of your volunteer program and can be used to identify possible issues for volunteers being able to join opportunities. The figures from left to right follow the flow of volunteers through the system, from registering, joining opps, attending and logging hours to repeat volunteers that have joined multiple opportunities. The closer these numbers are to each other the better your programme is performing and the higher your retention and engagement rates.

Quick Stats gives you the number of registrations, active volunteers that have been on at least one opportunity session, number of logged hours, number of opportunities that have an available session, total sessions and the average age of volunteers. All these figures are restricted by the date range selected and give you a smaller window on the all time figures.

The analytics data lets you see how many people are visiting your application, you can drag across the graph to zoom in on any period and roll your mouse over any point to get more information. Watching your traffic ebb and flow can help you gauge the effectiveness of any promotions or engagement activities you have been running.

The volunteer section breaks down your volunteers; you can view them by ethnicity, age, location, group membership and others. In all cases you can roll over the charts to get more information and also download each report individually for offline analysis.

The quarterly report is a handy tool that summarises volunteers, hours, and sessions into the regular yearly quarters, starting each year in April. For many charities and organisations these are the key figures they need to report each quarter or year. These figures are not affected by the selected date range instead they also show the current and previous year totals.

The opportunity reports give you all the information you need about your opportunities, their distribution, performance etc.

The website search chart tells you what your volunteers are searching for which can help focus and drive your provider and opportunity recruitment. The tag count table shows you which opportunity tags are proving the most popular, both in terms of how often they are used and how many hours are logged against opportunities with that tag. The fulfilment table gives you the insight you need to discover which opportunities are under performing and which are flying. This can help drive your advice and procedures for creating opportunities and enable you to identify the possible reasons that some opportunities fail to excite or attract volunteers.

You’ll find lots of charts and graphs with all the

You can find out quickly which sessions are under-subscribed, how many TeamLeaders are signed up for a session, and which volunteers are due where. The view is ordered by session date by default but you can re-order by opportunity or number of empty slots. If you need to know whats going on at any one time, this is the report you need.

The mapping reports are great fun but also impart some important qualitative data. You can map out all your volunteers and opportunities and get a good feel for the reach of your programme and where it is having the most impact. You can quickly identify the hubs of volunteering activity.

Finally for the main reporting area, if you want to interrogate your data offline you can use the download data area to grab all your volunteer, provider and opportunity data as CSVs. If you want to extract particular information our enterprise version also includes API access so you can export data to your chosen CRM or in house systems.

As well as the reports found here the administrator dashboard contains some useful insight and tools for guiding your actions.

The summary tab shows the most important daily tasks you’ll need to keep on top of, such as authorising new volunteers and opportunities, but it also provides a scrollable aggregated list of whats happened since you last logged on. This includes registrations, new opportunities, logged hours and many other events.

The activity tab separates out the events that have happened in the last 30 days to help you keep on top of your programme.

The tasks tab tries to identify potential issues before they become real issues; hours that have not been verified and providers and opportunities that are under performing or not engaged.

Administrators will also find reports that are scoped just to the volunteer or opportunity being managed. So when viewing an opportunity you’ll see how many times it has been viewed by a volunteer, or you can see how many hours a volunteer has logged in different groups or categories when viewing their profile.

We have also added some great filtering and searching tools for volunteers and opportunities which you can save and use again and again to build your own custom report. You can layer different filters on top of one another and use an AND/OR clause to really drill down on your volunteers or opportunities.

If you’ve got this far, well done and thanks for staying with me! If you find you cant get what you need from our reporting, or you have very specific questions that need an answer, we can also build custom reports that you can access anytime from your reporting menu. Please get in touch.

TeamKinetic, Information Governance

Date last updated – 20th June 2019

This post provides a summary of TeamKinetic’s information governance policy. Full copies of all documents that make up our security policy are available on request. We utilise the Information Governance Toolkit to continually assess our adherence to governance standards and requirements.

Scope

The Information Governance framework covers all staff that create, store, share and dispose of information. It sets out the procedures for sharing information with stakeholders, partners and suppliers. It concerns the management of all paper and electronic information and its associated systems within the organisation, as well as information held outside the organisation that affects its regulatory and legal obligations.

Steven Hall – Information Governance Manager

Rolf Herbert – Information Asset Manager

Roles and Responsibilities

Directors

  • Coordination and operational management of Information Governance projects
  • Review of Information Governance compliance and ensure alignment with related policies and procedures
  • The monitoring and enforcement of records management, retention and disposal policies
  • Enforcement of information security policies and management of security breach incidents
  • Establishing and understanding of risk for each part of the business operations

Chief Technical Officer

  • Define all information assets
  • Establish an information asset register
  • Define the executive information asset manager
  • Define information asset owners
  • Define policies and procedures for handling information assets
  • Define security strategy and policies for information assets

Managers

  • Implementing and enforcing Information Governance practices and policies
  • Mitigating information risk
  • Implementing the security and authorisation of information
  • Ensuring that all employees understand and are equipped to comply with Information Governance processes and procedures

Employees

  • Implementing Information Governance practices and policies
  • Implementing the security and authorisation of information
  • Determining the Employee’s training requirement

All members of staff must understand the need to properly manage the information they create and access.

All members of staff must be made aware of the information governance framework and must ensure they are familiar with its contents.

Training and information will be provided to all new staff members and all staff during regular re-training.

Information Policies

  • Information security policy
  • Records management policy
  • Retention and disposal schedules
  • Archiving policy
  • Data privacy policy
  • Information and communication technology (ICT) policy
  • Information sharing policy
  • Remote working policy

Information Procedures

  • Legal and regulatory compliance
  • Creating and receiving information
  • Acceptable content types
  • Managing the volume of information
  • Managing personal information
  • Storing and archiving information
  • Collaboration and sharing information
  • Disposing of information

Working with Third Parties

  • Policies for sharing information information with third parties
  • Managing how third parties handle personal and confidential information
  • How Information Governance fits within supplier relationships and contractual obligations
  • Measurement and metrics for third parties meeting the organisation’s Information Governance goals

Disaster Recovery, Contingency and Business Continuity

  • Reporting information losses
  • Reporting information security breaches
  • Incident management and escalation
  • Back up and disaster recovery
  • Business continuity management

Auditing, Measurement and Review

  • Monitoring information access and use
  • Monitoring effectiveness of regulatory compliance
  • Monitoring the effectiveness of information security policy and procedure
  • Monitoring of ICT and storage infrastructure performance
  • Risk assessment and auditing
  • Information Governance review

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