Annual ReviewApril 2007 - March 2008

It has been a good insight to all the different aspects

of volunteering in Tameside

The entertainment was excellent, and the banter

around the eventThis was my best night so far as Mayor – it was great

Hearing about all the different volunteering going

on around Tameside

The Buffet was lovely, Good family entertainment,

cracking balloons. The look on volunteers faces

when they get certificates.The celebration of real

people who make a real difference to all our lives

The award ceremony, the entertainment was

absolutely brilliant, can’t wait for next year.

Volunteer Centre Tameside holds a vision of active communities in Tameside, supported through the development of a volunteering activity to enhance local organisations and communities. Working in partnership with the public and corporate sectors to facilitate maximum opportunities for involvement of individuals, organisations and communities in improving the quality of life for all Tameside residents.

Mission StatementTo build a strong, vibrant base for volunteering and voluntary activity through developing volunteering opportunities, recruiting and placing volunteers, and supporting volunteer recruiting agencies in Tameside.

Values StatementVolunteer Centre Tameside:

• Values the contribution which volunteers make to society

• Embraces and celebrates the diversity of the individuals, groups and communities in Tameside that it serves

• Believes that equality of opportunity is a fundamental right and will work pro-actively to put this into practice

• Believes in the equality of all the sectors (public, corporate and third sector)

• Believes that preference should be given to working collaboratively and inpartnershipwithagenciesinallsectorstomaximisethebenefitstothe groups and individuals that it supports

• Will seek to avoid competing for scarce resources with the groups that it supports, but recognises that it will need to access resources in order to develop and sustain its activities.

Vision StatementVolunteer Centre Tameside is a member organisation of Volunteering England and as such works to six core functions which are detailed over the next few pages. The functions are explained below and the report will come under these headings to describe our day to day work:

Brokerage — Volunteer Centre Tameside’s primary function is to match both individuals and groups interested in volunteering with appropriate opportunities in the local community. We hold information on a comprehensive range of opportunities and offer potential volunteers support and advice, matching their motivation to volunteer with appropriate volunteering opportunities.

Marketing Volunteering — stimulate and encourage local interest in volunteering and community activity through promoting and marketing volunteering through local, regional and national events and campaigns

Good Practice Development — promote good practice in working with volunteers to all volunteer involving organisations. We deliver training for potential volunteers, volunteers, volunteer managers and the volunteering infrastructure.

Develop Volunteering Opportunities — work in close partnership with statutory, voluntary and private sector agencies as well as community and faith groups to develop local volunteering opportunities. We understand the potential offered by local communities and work with them to realise this potential, targetingspecificgroupswhichfacebarrierstovolunteering,andworkingcreatively to develop imaginative, non-traditional opportunities for potential volunteers.

Policy Response and Campaigning — identify proposals or legislation that may impact on volunteering. Lead and/or participate in campaigns on issues that affect volunteers or volunteering and campaign pro-actively for a more volunteer-literate and volunteer-friendly climate.

Strategic Development of Volunteering — as the local expert on volunteering, Volunteer Centre Tameside informs strategic thinking and planning at a local, regional and national level.

What We Do

Chair’s Report

Chair’s Report Page 1

Brokerage Page 2

Marketing Volunteering Page 3

Developing Volunteering Opportunities Page 4

Good Practice Development Page 4

Strategic Development of Volunteering Page 5

Policy Response and Campaigning Page 5

Volunteer Coordinators Forum Page 6

Training Page 6

Building Bridges Page 7

Goldstar Page 7

Miles of Smiles Page 8

Community Action Team Page 8

Payroll, Design & Media and Building Development Page 9

Volunteers, Staff and Trustees Page 10

Finance Page 11

ContentsThis year has been an even better year not just for VCT but for all the volunteers that come though our doors, its with this in mind that it gives me great pleasure and a sense of achievement on behalf of all the members and staff of VCT to write this report.

This report outlines the quality and effectiveness of our Trustees, and the ability, energy, sensitivity and determination of staff to make sure that any individual that comes through our doors is welcomed and looked after in the most dignifiedway,whichhasbeenthehallmarkoftheworkwedoatVolunteerCentre Tameside.

The underlying thread running through our work this year is partnership work. Working with different partners strengthens our organisations in many ways, it means we are involved in the development of new and exciting projects that we are able to undertake because of our credibility amongst the Statutory, Voluntary and Community Sector. Partnerships are constantly changing and helping us to maintain a strong and vibrant presence in the community of Tameside.

We said goodbye and good luck to 2 people who played a major role in the developmentofVCTandinourpartnershipswithotherorganisations.Thefirstof these is Sandra Ainsworth, who was the volunteer co-ordinate at Tameside General Hospital for many years and was a member of our management committee throughout all our name changes and organisational restructures.

The second is Moira Cunningham who “lodged” here at VCT before Tameside ThirdSectorCoalitionsetupofficeinSt.Michael’scourt.MoirawasinstrumentalinhelpingVCTtoformulateit’sfirstlongtermstrategyplanandhelpeduswriteourfirstsuccessfulbidtoamajorfunder.Wehavesincegonefrom strength to strength and are now an organisation with a credible reputation for excellent work in Tameside. So, our thanks go to both Moira and Sandra, without whom, we wouldn’t be where we are now.

Many thanks to all who support our work, including fellow Trustees, volunteers and paid staff. We couldn’t do our work without you!

Page 1

BrokerageOur centre continues to offer a “drop-in” facility for people to make a confidential,informalappointmentwithoneofouradvisorsortocallinforgeneralinformation.Thefiguresshowtheriseinnumbersofpotentialvolunteers.

06/07 07/08

Number of organisations registered 132 154

Number of voluntary opportunities registered

281 342

Total number of potential volunteers seen 1,298 1,731

Droylsden

Dukinfield

Stalybridge

Audenshaw

Denton

Hyde & Hattersley

Ashton-under-Lyne

06-0734%

07-0834.9%

06-078%

07-083.6%

06-0712%

07-0813.8%

06-0710%

07-088.5%

06-0710%

07-088.5%

06-078%

07-0815.4%

06-077%

07-0814.6%

06-078%

07-084%

Mossley

BlankOther BMEAsianBlackWhite

Due to our intensive targeted marketing within areas of Tameside, we have successfully increased the numbers of people actively volunteering within the community.Themapindicatestheincreaseinnumberswithinspecificareaswhere project work was delivered: Denton South (Haughton Green & Yew Tree), Ashton-under-Lyne (Smallshaw & Hurst) and Hattersley.

60+

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

26-29

19-25

15-18

Page 2

Marketing VolunteeringThe marketing and out-reach programme has sustained its growth within 2007/2008 and continues to provide a strong foundation forraisingVCT’sprofileandreachingareasthatareoftenseento be hard to reach, in both social and economic terms.

New demands have led to an increase in the different activities and events that VCT has involvement with and distribution of publicity materials for new projects has proven key to their success. Through ongoing marketing and publicity there has been an increase with the number of people engaging in voluntary work and accessing VCT’s services.

VCT continues to work in close partnership with other agencies and organisations within Tameside and through the success of the “Changing Lives” project is actively involved with promoting volunteering in several of Tameside’s regeneration neighbourhoods. Ongoing out-reach work has provided an accessible service for people within Tameside and through working on a one-to-one basis continues to be effective in providing positive outcomes.

06-07 07-08Pieces of information distributed (includingleaflets,bookmarks,posters, postcards etc.)

3,009 4,286

Information/talks given to groups (total number of individuals)

226 364

Website visits 8,386 8,713

Page 3

Developing Volunteering OpportunitiesAs part of our strategy for sharing best practice we now offer 1-2-1 visits to volunteer recruiting organisations to provide support, guidance and information on promoting diversity and inclusivity and offer a free organisational health check. We continue to ensure that volunteering experiences are positive and sustainable by working with organisations to:

• raise awareness of the barriers facing disabled people• remove these barriers• challenge stereotyping and promote diversity

We do this through:

• identificationoftrainingneeds• providing written and verbal information• being a liaison point between the volunteer and the organisation• any other support and information organisations require to support disabled

volunteers appropriately• 1-2-1 organisational visits/health check

As volunteering opportunities have increased due to successful out-reach work and media marketing campaigns, we ensure a wider variety of opportunities available to all volunteers.

We work in close partnership with statutory, voluntary and private sector agencies as well as community and faith groups to develop local volunteering opportunities.

The highlight of our year is the Annual Volunteer Award Celebration and this year’s event surpassed all our expectations. People were queuing up at the door!

We are encouraging all organisations registered with us, to join up to the volunteer award scheme as a way of recognising the contributions made by volunteersinTameside.Ascanbeseenfromthefigurestheschemeisdeveloping rapidly with new organisations signing up all the time.

06/07 07/08

Volunteers registered on the award scheme

109 397

Total number of hours volunteered by those receiving awards

43,193 95,436

At the end of 2007 we increased the number of pre-volunteer courses to be delivered due to increased demand from people who would like to learn more about volunteering. Courses were delivered on a rolling programme at different community venues throughout Tameside.

Eighty three people attended the courses with the majority of participants becoming active volunteers.

Pre-volunteer courses have provided a measure of our success. We have repeat requests from organisations to deliver sessions within their established training courses. These sessions are now widely recognised by both organisations and individuals as a positive step into volunteering, training and employment. Examples of courses are: Groundwork - Successful Transitions and Tameside College - My Community, My Health.

Selected comments from pre-volunteer courses:

• Well organised and properly run and a warm welcome

• Discovering all the different types of voluntary work

• Ben gave me lots of ideas and made me feel at ease.

• I came away with a clear knowledge of what volunteering is

Good Practice Development

Page 4

During the year we produced the Volunteering Compact Code for Tameside on behalf of Tameside’s Cross Sector policy group (formerly the Compact Group). A draft was written and widely consulted on throughout the Voluntary, CommunityandStatutorysectorsinTameside.Afinaldocumenthasbeenproduced and will be launched during Volunteers’ Week in June 2008.

We strengthened our partnership working agreements with Tameside 3rd Sector Coalition and consolidated our relationships with a number of organisations such as :

• St. Peters Partnership

• Tameside MBC

• Changing Lives - Denton South, Broadoak and Smallshaw/Hurst

• Hattersley Development Trust

• V-Involved

• Partnerships of Older People – CORA

• Primary Care Trust

• Greater Manchester Change-up Consortium

• Greater Manchester Volunteering Consortium

We were involved in the development of sub-regional, regional and national plans to strengthen volunteering infrastructure and promote volunteering at all levels.

Strategic Development of Volunteering

Policy Response & Campaigning

Locally we played a major role in the development and monitoring of volunteering targets for Tameside MBC’s Local Area Agreements and represented the voluntary sector on behalf of VOICE at Tameside Strategic Partnership.

We contributed to several National campaigns and policy documents throughout the year which included:

• Volunteering England’s Building on Success in the North West.

• Volunteering England’s campaign to “Keep volunteering at the heart of ChangeUp”

Page 5

We continued to offer Volunteer Coordinators the opportunity to get together on a quarterly basis throughout the year. The primary function of the forum has been to offer support to coordinators who work with organisations in Tameside. However, many central Manchester based organisations have asked to attend the forum due to lack of similar support in their own area. We are now pleased to be able to include coordinators from all organisations who have volunteering opportunities registered with VCT. The inclusion of so many different organisations has added a new dimension to the forum and the topics and discussions are more varied than ever before.

Selected comments from Volunteer Coordinators’ Forums:

• Always welcoming and friendly

• A great chance to share problems

• Its always nice to meet up with people who are doing similar work to me

• I got some really good ideas from the coordinator of a homeless scheme

• I like the fact that all the work is done and I just turn up and take part and also feel supported.

• It’s a shame there is nothing like this for us who work in the city

• Lunch was great

• Interesting thought about sharing training throughout the region

Volunteer Coordinators’ Forum TrainingAs we continue to promote best practice amongst members and partner organisations we have been pleased to offer training courses that help promote best practice. The courses offered have covered volunteer management issues, personal development opportunities and awareness training, thanks to the Big Lottery Fund we have been able to offer these courses free to all voluntary and community groups.

In response to delegate’s requests we have used venues throughout Tameside and whilst these have not been the most popular locations we hope that this is evidence that we listen and respond to organisations.

Selected comments from training events:

• Learning Disability training was really useful, I learnt lots of useful things

• The training was excellent I now understand more than I did when I came in.

• Enjoyable, interesting and informative

• Very good day the trainers were excellent

• Really good lively sessions

• Thoroughly enjoyable day, well presented, good content and handouts

Page 6

Building BridgesWe are committed to sharing best practice and have implemented a strategy for spreading good practice. As part of our commitment to this we: provided individual consultations with 39 Volunteer co-ordinators; have undertaken 36 organisational visits; promoted Goldstar via the Volunteer Coordinators Forum; provided Volunteer Management Toolkits.

Tameside Community Radio We work closely with Tameside Community Radio to support their recruitment, selection and induction of volunteers. We also utilise the community radio to publicise our services and to assist local voluntary and community groups to advertiseandrecruitvolunteersforspecificroles.Thisisachievedviathecommunity notice board and advertisements on “Tameside Today”.

We have advertised and broadcast 14 volunteer roles on behalf of 11 Volunteer Recruiting Organisations.

The Building Bridges project encourages and supports disabled volunteers to explore volunteering opportunities by providing individually tailored support.

Since April 2007 to March 2008, 105 potential volunteers have been interviewed and 73 disabled people have been supported to volunteer with 30 organisations in Tameside. Seven of these volunteers have completed a pre-volunteer course.

Volunteers are involved in a variety of roles including retail, restoration of furniture,administration,communitytransport,gardening,undertakingfireriskassessments, befriending, supporting youth projects, book clubs and lots more!

Gary was referred by Tameside Link, a charitable organisation who support people with a learning disability to live independently. Gary needed some initial support with transport and to help him settle into his volunteering role and he now volunteers at Community Transport Manchester, once a week.

Goldstar

Page 7

Miles of Smiles“Miles of Smiles” has proven to be a popular and successful facilityforTamesideresidentswhofinditdifficulttoaccesspublictransport and are not eligible for the ambulance service.

Our passengers include people with a wide range of physical, sensory and learning disabilities and people with mental ill health. A large percentage ofthepassengersareoldermembersofthecommunitywhoareinfirmand need some support to attend appointments. Many are isolated within their own communities and do not have family/friends to provide transport. Passengers have told us how valuable it is to be accompanied from their own home and guided to the area of the appointment.

All drivers take part in the MIDAS training scheme this covers issues such as safe and defensive driving and how to treat passengers courteously, followingcompletiontheyreceiveanationallyrecognisedcertificate.

A selection of Miles of Smiles statistics follows:

Registered passengers 516

Number of journeys 3,245

Volunteer drivers 22

Volunteer hours 4,284

Volunteer miles 23,956

Selected quotes from passengers and drivers:

“It was wonderful to have such care, and I thank you and all your staff and volunteers who made it possible”

“I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying the ‘work’ and have, without exception thus far, only met with cheery, lovely and grateful passengers”

“We have only just become aware of your service and all I personally can say is that it is certainly a Service (with a capital S).”

We were thrilled to be awarded the bid to pilot a project in Tameside to provide Home Fire Risk Assessments on behalf of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.

The project became operational mid January 08 and is establishing itself as a valuable safety project amongst the Tameside community.

Current funding runs until the end of October with an expectation that further funding will become available. With an initial complement of 5 volunteers it is hoped that this could rise to 20 by the end of the current funding period.

Community Action Team

Page 8

PayrollVCT’s Payroll Service which offers support to employers in receipt of Direct Payments, local voluntary and community organisations said goodbye to two members of staff, Irene Steele (responsible for Tameside Direct Payments’ Customers) whose job was made redundant in May, and Margaret Appleton who left in September to develop her own business. We wish them both well in the future. Suzanne Cocks is now responsible for Bolton Direct Payment Customers along with support from other VCT Administrative Staff and in March we welcomed Fatuma Cross as payroll support worker to the team.

Design & MediaOur reputation for producing high quality publicity material has resulted in an increase in the number of requests from local organisations to help them to present a professional image to the general public, funders and statutory agencies. Additionally we have been awarded grants towards to the cost of publicising several initiatives such as Changing Lives, our Volunteer Car Scheme and the Community Action Team who undertake Fire Safety checks in people’s own homes.

Building DevelopmentThe Volunteer Shop and Training Room were decorated during our quieter summer period, ensuring that we presented a fresh and welcoming environment for our visitors.

Office Accommodation

ThisyearwesaidgoodbyetoAshtonMencapwhohadrentedgroundfloorofficeaccommodationforseveralyearsandwelookforwardtowelcomingV-involve a volunteering brokerage agency for young volunteers in 2008.

Meeting Room HirersCommunity and Voluntary organisations hire our meeting room on a sessional basis. This year the room was used 151 times by 19 organisations which included: Ashton CLP, Women’s CLP, Citizens Advice Bureau, Patient and Public Involvement forum, Tameside Women’s Prime Time Group, Home Start, RSPCA, T3SC, Better Government for Older People, Teenage Pregnancy Group, North West Network, Ashton Gateway Club and Ashton Mencap.

Other ResourcesCommunity and Voluntary organisations have access to: V-Base: the National Volunteering Opportunities database, Internet access, display screens, OHP, collecting boxes, laptops, binding machines, laminators, photocopiers, digital cameras and much more. We invested in a new full colour digital copier with folding and stapling capabilities, which offers VCT itself and other organisations an important tool for the production of high quality and eye catching publicity materialsattheflickofaswitch.

Payroll, Design & Media and Building Development

Page 9

Volunteers, Trustees and Staff

VolunteersCommunity Action Team Volunteers

Miles of Smiles Volunteers

Alan Evans Graham Warburton

Brian Phillips Brian Mattison

Colin Hirst Ron Birchall

Gerry Atkinson Wilf Budd

Howard Mallard Joe Blinco

Luba Kochan Joe Horricks

Nicola James Kishor Mistry

Peter Lee Mohammed Masud

Roger Durrans Ted Thorpe

Ron Speakman John Hollingworth

Peter Harrison

Paul Taylor

Barrie Norton

Jacqueline Hogg

Volunteer Centre Tameside VolunteersChristine Richardson Gerard Boyd

Hazel Bradshaw Linda Marrow

Shelly Wright Gwenyth Evans

Doreen Lowe John Park

Fatuma Cross Christine Hurd

Janice Dawson

Page 10

TrusteesStuart Eyres Honorary Chairperson

Tim Baines Honorary Treasurer

Cherie Leadley Honorary Secretary

Hilda Fielding Ashton Mencap

Les Hankinson Tameside Blind Association

Hanif Malik Individual Member

Jules Mambu Tameside African Refugee Association

Sawar Ibrahim Khush Amdid

Amrit Mistry Individual Member

William Ormsby Individual Member

TMBC Nominated Representatives (non-voting)

Yvonne Cartey TMBC Economic Development Unit

Margaret Sidebottom Tameside MBC Councillor

StaffSue Vickers Paul Smith

Irene Platt Riona Doidge

David Sharples Michael Withington

Ben Stoddard Fatuma Cross

Vashti Moss Suzanne Cocks

Julliette Atkinson Janet Kenyon

FinanceOur detailed Trustees’ Report and Accounts for the year ending 31st March 2007 is available on request

Incoming Resources £Voluntary Income 762

Activities for Generating Funds 85,104

Investment Income 468

Resources from Charitable Activities 232,982

Total Incoming Resources 319,316

Resources Expended

Charitable Activities 313,259

Governance Costs 1,500

Total Resources Expended 314,759

Net Movement in Funds 4,557

Balance as at 1st April 2007 166,817

Balance as at 31st March 2008 171,374

Depreciation

Payroll service costs

Partnership for older people project

Building Maintenance

Heat, light and water

Sundry

Insurance & accountancy

Goldstar

Other overheads

Advertising, publicity & information

Telephone, postage and stationery

Volunteers expenses

Training and travel

Administrative staff costs

Support staff costs

Training provision

Fire Service

VFA Skills

Tameside Older People

Transport Scheme

Grant - BLF

Grant - Goldstar

Grant - TMBC

Management and investments

Cleaning recharge

Payroll service

Room hire

Changing Lives

Photocopying & Donations

Contributions to overheads

Income

Expenditure

Page 11

Volunteer Centre Tameside95-97 Penny MeadowAshton-under-LyneOL6 6EP

Tel: 0161 339 2345

www.tamesidevb.org.uk

Registered Charity no: 514804