SVO Newsletter May 2012

May 2012

This issue News from Queen’s Campus

Getting involved with SVO

Team challenge round-up

A little bit of giving

Welcome Well, it has certainly been a busy few months.

Staff volunteer numbers have continued to climb steadily, team challenges have soared in popularity, new opportunities to work with student volunteers have arisen, and the Staff Volunteering and Outreach (SVO) team have gained national recognition!

In amongst all of this activity the SVO team moved into the brand-new sparkling Maiden Castle, a much more pleasant home after Portakabins for the previous 12-months.

We were even rewarded with our own office!

A new member of staff, Vicky Ridley, joined the team in late 2011, but we now say goodbye (we think, as this has been said before!) to Sharon Gollan, who has supported the work of the Staff Volunteering and Outreach team from its earliest days.

Finally, a big thank you must be said to all of our volunteers for their continued support and we hope to work with many more staff members and community partners over the coming months.

Andy, Vicky and Miranda.

Community groups get online

SVO activities: in numbers

Experience Durham

Celebrating the golden age of soccer

Staff Volunteering and Outreach gains national award

Get involved: upcoming events

News from Queen’s Campus The Riverbank Conservation Project on the River Tees at Queen’s Campus is a partnership between British Waterways, staff from Queen’s Campus and Durham University Student Community Action (SCA). It is part of a longer-term plan to manage riverbank vegetation along the River Tees, and the first joint staff-student event was held in January.

The event involved seven students and five staff from the Queen’s Campus site services team, who worked together to help prune willow trees, clear overgrown vegetation and pick up litter from the river bank outside of the Wolfson Research Institute.

Claire Turner, SCA Queen’s Campus Volunteer Coordinator said:

Durham Staff Volunteering durhamsvo. blogspot.com

“It was great to see staff and students working together on a joint project, and it was nice to get to know staff who help to keep campus running every day. Thanks to David Fionda for helping to organise the event from the staff side.”

“We made a definite impact on the regenerating willow trees, and I had requests from many of the students involved for more events like this, so hopefully our partnership with British Waterways can grow and we can get more staff and students involved.”

For more information please contact queens.sca@durham.ac.uk

Getting involved with SVO Volunteer The Staff Volunteering and Outreach team is here to support any Durham University staff member who would like to engage in volunteering and outreach work. The University offers employees the opportunity to apply to volunteer for up to 5-days per year, subject to line-manager approval, and these can be full days, half days or a few hours here and there, depending upon the needs of the both the community organisation and your University work commitments.

Volunteering comes in all different shapes and forms and with over 100 different community partners the SVO team can help you find an organisation that suits your interests. Some placements are individual and ongoing with a few hours commitment required on a fortnightly basis; other organisations seek individuals to support specific projects for a pre-determined set of time, perhaps an afternoon a week for a month, or even on a one-off basis.

Team challenges offer one-off opportunities to do a half-day or full-day challenge activity,

from gardening and decorating, to toy cleaning, making craft packs, supporting fundraising activities and so much more! University teams may be made up from a single department or mixed departments staff and students.

To find out more about how the SVO team can help you and to read about the latest opportunities please visit www.durham.ac.uk/ volunteer

Be an advocate!

Across the University the SVO team is developing a network of Engagement Advocates to help to promote the work that we do and the wider opportunities within Experience Durham.

Advocates help disseminate information, act as a point of contact and can be the first point of call if a department is interested in exploring team challenge opportunities. To find out who your advocate is, or if you would like to become an advocate (we’re very happy to have more than one per department and college!) please visit www.durham.ac.uk/volunteer or contact community.engagement@durham.ac.uk

Community Partners We work with a large number of voluntary and third sector organisations across the North East but we are always seeking new partnerships and are very willing to discuss further opportunities. The University can offer community organisations a wide variety of support: from willing volunteers to provide man power for a day, to specialist skills, knowledge and professional expertise and resources.

Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about how we can help and the services that we can offer.

It’s not all about staff...

Durham University has one of the most successful and ambitious student volunteering programmes in the country. Hundreds of Durham students are engaged in a wide variety of volunteering projects and more information can be found at www.durham.ac.uk/ experiencedurham/volunteering

Team challenge round-up Team Challenges are becoming ever more popular with growing numbers of staff participating in a diverse range of activities.

No challenge is ever the same and such one-off events offer a simple and easy introduction to volunteering. Several University departments have recognised the benefit of volunteer challenges as team building opportunities, while participating in a mixed team challenge offers staff the opportunity to get to know other members of the University.

We’re always on the look-out for new team challenge volunteers and potential projects so get in touch if you’d like to get involved!

A day in a warehouse As 2011 drew to a close, a lively team from Durham Business School returned to help Lanchester based Willow Burn Hospice, to prepare for their fundraising winter fair. A day spent in a warehouse sorting through donations of books, clothes and small gifts may not be the most glamorous of activities but what a difference the teams work made.

Sorting, cleaning, organising and pricing all of the donations, raffle and tombola prizes to be sold at the fair would have taken hospice staff over a week of one person’s time.

Instead, our Business School team had everything done and dusted in a single day and best of all, the fair along with the summer equivalent raised over £11,500, which provides one week’s services to terminally ill hospice users.

Saws and Fire Venturing out of Durham, the Pity Me Carrs Nature Reserve is a small and tranquil haven with wetland, heathland and grassland habitats. Volunteers assist County Durham Countryside Services with the on-going conservation of the area and our volunteers joined the team to give a helping hand.

Equipped and trained in the use of hand saws, volunteers set to work removing overgrown areas of gorse before setting a controlled fire to dispose of the debris.

Park Life The Friends of Brandon Park community group has supported the regeneration and on-going maintenance of Brandon Welfare Park over the past 18 months. A team of volunteers spent an autumnal day helping with general work within the park, weeding footpaths and borders and planting bulbs. This was a mixed team challenge and volunteers all enjoyed meeting one another and getting to know new people, or putting a face to a telephone voice!

Footpaths, wood chippers and a lot soil!

The Cyrenians, which supports vulnerable, disadvantaged and homeless people to make lasting, positive changes to their lives, is becoming a favourite organisation for a number of volunteers from Queen’s Campus.

In November the dedicated group returned to spend a day at the Cyrenians site near Chester-le-Street.

Tasked with clearing shrub and grassland to make way for new gardens, laying a footpath, and with the skills and expertise from volunteers from the University Botanic Gardens, a lot of wood chipping to be done, the group had their work cut-out.

Speaking with some of the residents, volunteer Avril Brown was struck by how service users feared Christmas as in their current situation they were unable to buy gifts for loved ones.

Back in Queen’s Campus, Avril rallied staff and local businesses and made two return trips to the Cyrenians before Christmas, delivering festive decorations and over one hundred wrapped parcels and gifts. Cyrenians staff and service users were overwhelmed by the generosity and support shown by Avril and her team.

A chilly afternoon in the garden This winter may have been much warmer than the last two years, but there was a brief chilly week and a spot of snow in early February – perfectly timed to coincide with our first staff-student team challenge.

Old Durham Gardens are just a stone’s throw away from Maiden Castle and date from the 17th century. Once a popular site for recreation and weekend dances, the gardens fell into disrepair but a community group are now implementing a restoration programme to bring the area back to life.

Volunteers went along to give the group a hand and one participant said: “Despite the cold weather, we all worked hard to clear trees to prevent them causing damage to the old walls.

The trustees of Old Durham Gardens that were there were really helpful and informative;

we learnt about the history of the gardens, they showed us how to use the tools, and even gave us coffee and flapjack at the break! Hopefully we can have more staff-student challenges there as it’s a beautiful location to volunteer in”. We will be back!

Supporting the Calvert Trust For small organisations, tasks such as preparing mailings for fundraising efforts can be costly and time consuming, but many hands make light work. A dedicated team of hardworking volunteers from the University HR team spent a day at the Calvert Trust, stuffing envelopes and helping out with admin tasks.

This is a great way to get to know colleagues more and support our community partners.

A little bit of giving The Staff Volunteering and Outreach (SVO) programme aims to provide flexible opportunities for University staff to engage with and support local community organisations. As well as Team Challenge days, many staff members are involved with community groups on an individual basis, often utilising their professional skills and experience to support the organisations work and development.

Anne Woodhead is a Lecturer in Accounting at Durham Business School. She has a longstanding connection with the University, having been an undergraduate at Trevelyan College, where she studied in the first cohort of the Maths and Economics degree.

After Durham, Anne joined a national firm of accountants in their Newcastle office, becoming a chartered accountant in the late 1970s.

She later returned to her old Department of Economics at Durham University, where she began to help out with tutorials in Accounting.

Since that moment, there has been no escape and Anne has undertaken a variety of roles at Durham Business School, including acting as the Academic Director of the Executive MBA Programme.

Anne is no stranger to utilising her professional skills to support third-sector organisations, and she says that perhaps one of her more unusual roles is auditing a Conservation Foundation on the Uganda-Congo border – a connection made through a Durham Business School alumnus.

As part of the Staff Volunteering and Outreach scheme, Anne supports on an ad-hoc basis a small community group, slightly closer to home, here in Durham city. Although time is a constraint, Anne can be called upon to advise and provide guidance in the financial matters of this organisation, a resource that requires expert skills, but cost often prohibits small organisations from buying in this support. Over the past year, Anne has given over 30 hours of support to this community group, as part of the SVO scheme.

Across the North East there are many organisations that need support from skilled individuals: from financial planning and accounting, to event management, communications, marketing, project management and so much more. If you are interested in volunteering to support a community organisation, please do get in touch with community.engagement@durham. ac.uk and, as Anne’s story shows, volunteering can fit with work and other commitments.

Community groups get online Groups of second year Software Engineering students from Durham University have been utilising their specialist knowledge and developing their professional skills as part of a unique learning experience.

With technology constantly changing it is challenging for small community partners to always know what is possible and one of the challenges and surprises for students is working out what the client actually wants and needs!

Now in its third year, teams of students have worked with community partners to tackle and deliver a solution to an IT-related problem.

The aim of the project is to give students the opportunity to develop consultancy and professional skills, learning how to work and liaise with clients to tackle real-world problems.

Many teams find that the technical aspect of the project is the easy part!

As the project comes to a close, all that waits to be seen is the final product and students presentations and reflections on their experiences, which will take place early in the summer term.

This year groups have worked with seven community partners based in County Durham and Teesside and have developed new websites and provided recommendations and best practice for the development of an intranet site.

Students consult with the partners and develop a solution suited to their needs.

For community partners, this project offers the opportunity to tap into technical know-how and resource, with students this year developing easy to maintain websites for clients.

The Staff Volunteering and Outreach team works with a number of academic departments to support learning opportunities for students involving community partners. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss opportunities within your department.

If you are part of, or know a community group that would be interested in being a part in next year’s Computer Science project please contact us at community.engagement@durham.ac.uk

SVO activities: in numbers The number of and activity amongst staff volunteers has continued to increase since the beginning of this academic year. To date, 442 Durham University staff members have registered as volunteers, and many are taking the opportunity to spend a few hours a year volunteering during work time.

The Top 6 Colleges 7 6 5 4 3

Since October 2011 staff volunteers have provided 501 hours of support to community projects.

This figure only includes time spent volunteering during work time and we are aware that many staff contribute vast amounts of time during their evenings and weekends to support community organisations.

2 1 0 STEPHENSON

HATFIELD

ST. CHAD’S

GREY

ST. MARY’S

VAN MILDERT

The Top 10 Support Departments 35 30 25 20 15

Team Challenges are amongst the most popular opportunities this year, with 14 projects already completed - we’re well on target to beat last year’s total of 22 challenges in 12 months. 76 staff members have taken part in a team challenge since October 2011 and together that have contributed 289 hours of time.

Many departments and colleges are embracing volunteering, so check out our charts to see which department and college has the most registered volunteers!

10 5 0 CEM

EXP DURHAM

LIBRARIES

CIS

QUEEN’S ADMIN

EVENT DURHAM

COMMS

ACADEMIC SUPP

FINANCE

HR

The Top 7 Academic Departments 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 BUSINESS SCHOOL

BIO SCIENCES

SCHOOL MOD LANG & CULTURE

APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF MED & HEALTH

SCHOOL OF ENG & COMP SCI

MATH SCIENCES

Experience Durham encompasses a number of university staff teams and student-led organisations, which together deliver and promotes an ever-increasing number of opportunities for Durham University staff, students and the local community.

The Staff Volunteering and Outreach team is an integral part of Experience Durham as we currently work with over 400 staff volunteers and 100 community partners. Our aim is to enhance the staff experience by providing a high-calibre and professional programme of volunteering and engagement opportunities to enrich, and build on, academic and professional excellence through shared learning within the University and the wider community.

Durham University staff can request to volunteer during work time, subject to approval from their line manager, and we offer individual and team challenge placements.

Experience Durham aims to enhance both the staff and student experience and bring benefit to our local community. Increasingly, the SVO team is working with academic departments to deliver community-based learning opportunities to students as part of their degree programme.

Providing students with real-life experience enhances their employability, aides their professional skills and gives community partners access to new resource, skills and knowledge.

Through Experience Durham, the Staff Volunteering and Outreach team is able to work in partnership with other teams, creating new opportunities including joint staff-student volunteering challenges.

The engagement of Durham Student Theatre within Experience Durham has resulted in new opportunities for students, and using the Team Durham Community model, which supports sports-based volunteering with hard to reach community group, students are now involved delivering drama projects in community settings. As Experience Durham develops there will be more new opportunities for staff, students and community partners.

Throughout term-time Experience Durham sends a weekly bulletin with the latest news of student theatre and music productions which all staff, student and local members of the community can attend, community-based sports events, volunteering and outreach activities and news from Team Durham.

If you’d like to receive this bulletin please contact experience.durham@durham.ac.uk For more information about Experience Durham visit www.durham.ac.uk/ experiencedurham

Celebrating the golden age of soccer County Durham is a special place for Amateur Football. Bishop Auckland won the FA Amateur Cup a record ten times whilst close rivals Crook Town won on five occasions. Willington had their moment of glory, beating local rivals, Bishop Auckland to win the Cup final in 1950.

Amateur football brought communities together and was of huge social importance. Teams from the North East filled Wembley Stadium; 80,000 people attended the local derby final in 1950, no mean feat when you consider that far fewer families had access to cars and that the East Coast mainline wasn’t quite a fast as it is today!

The Durham Amateur Football Trust (DAFT) was founded in 2006 to record and promote the sporting and social history of Amateur Football in County Durham. DAFT has successfully secured two heritage lottery grants which has enabled the Trust to employ a part-time project officer, and today delivers series of exhibitions throughout the county, showcasing the memorabilia and archives that they have collected.

Through their educational outreach work, members of DAFT visit schools to talk to young people, delivering history lessons with football as the focus. Their work keeps on growing, last year

teams of young people played in a tournament, dressed in replica strips at Beamish Museum.

DAFT is one of the many community partners that work with the Staff Volunteering and Outreach scheme. Through the programme the organisation has benefited from the work of two teams of Computer Science students.

The first group designed and developed a website for DAFT and the most recent team have established a system to digitise the large collection of ‘Sporting Pinks’ (a weekly Saturday publication that listed football scores) that have been donated to DAFT.

Staff Volunteering and Outreach gains national award After several months of assessment, the Staff Volunteering and Outreach (SVO) team were presented with the Investing in Volunteers for Employers (IiVE) award in January by the United Kingdom Volunteering Forum (UKVF).

Volunteers are always sought-after to help with the digitisation of the ‘Sporting Pinks’ and to copy and prepare photos and scrap books for DAFT archives and exhibitions. There is research to be done too; amateur football was of significant social importance and DAFT has a collection of small trophies known as ‘Nursing Cups’. Funds raised through each of these supported pre-NHS health services, but little is known about the history of each of the cups.

DAFT would be delighted to hear from anyone willing to spend time finding out more about their history.

If you are interested about volunteering with Durham Amateur Football Trust please get in touch with the Staff Volunteering Team. For more information about DAFT please visit their website www.thedaft.org.uk

This is a fantastic achievement and recognises the commitment of all of our staff volunteers and the development of the SVO programme over the past three years.

The IiVE mark is the UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer management and to achieve the award the SVO team was assessed across a number of criteria.

Dane Gould from Volunteering England said: “Durham’s work on supporting their staff to volunteer in work time is remarkable and an example of the really positive impacts that large employers can make by working with their communities.”

Get involved Many of our community partners have opportunities for half-day or full-day team challenges over the coming months For more information about any of the activities listed please contact the Staff Volunteering and Outreach team at community.engagement@ durham.ac.uk or 0191 334 2199.

All Saints Church in Newton Hall is looking for volunteers to help paint their church both inside and out.

Allison House in Stockton provides residential care and support for the elderly. They are looking for volunteers to assist with gardening at the site.

Kirkdale Nursing Home would like volunteers to help with decorating areas inside the building, including painting a shop front.

Trimdon Community Gardens are looking for volunteers to assist with gardening. They grow fruit, vegetables and flowers and practice all forms of propagation. The produce is used in fetes or shared amongst the community.

Neville’s Cross Scout Group would like volunteers to help with installing their new bike racks, and also a spring clean hut inside and outside of their Scout Hut. Heel and Toe is a children’s charity based in Durham. They are looking for volunteers to assist with painting their parents room and new physiotherapy suites.

Alington House Community Association is based in the centre of Durham City. They are looking for volunteers to assist with painting the walls of Ritson Hall.

The Goals Project works with adults with learning disabilities. Based in Gilesgate in Durham, they would like a team of volunteers to assist with turning a piece of overgrown land into an area to grow vegetables to use in their community café at Ferryhill.

Old Durham Gardens is a historical garden situated in Durham city centre. It is maintained by a group of local volunteers who would like teams of people to assist with weeding, clearing, pruning and general maintenance.

Experience Durham events As summer gets underway come and join Experience Durham at one of our many upcoming events.

Sport Saturday 2 June Twenty20 Charity Cricket Match Racecourse, Durham City Come along and support Durham University in their annual Twenty20 Cricket Match. All proceeds will go to Sport in Action Zambia.

Saturday 9 – Sunday 10 June Durham Regatta Racecourse, Durham City

Theatre The summer term promises to bring many fantastic productions to venues around Durham.

Find out more at www.durham.ac.uk/theatre

Volunteering

The annual Durham Regatta returns to the Wear so come along and support our University and college crews.

Staff Volunteering and Outreach Experience Durham Durham University Maiden Castle DURHAM DH1 3SE

Monday 11 June Durham University College Festival of Sport Maiden Castle, Durham Over 3000 students will compete in 16 different sports throughout the day.

Come down, watch and support!

Thursday 7 June Volunteering Team Challenge Old Durham Gardens To mark national Volunteer’s Week, join University staff, students their families

Tel: 0191 334 2199 Email: community.engagement@durham.ac.uk Website: www.durham.ac.uk/volunteer

and friends with an afternoon of helping out at Old Durham Gardens. Afterwards, come and enjoy refreshments at Maiden Castle.

Contact community.engagement@durham.ac.uk for more information.

Saturday 9th June oSCArs Awards Evening St Mary’s College, Durham Join Student Community Action for an evening of glitz and glamour as Hollywood comes to Durham, to celebrate the achievements of student volunteers. For more information contact community.action@durham.ac.uk For more information about events taking place across the University visit www.durham.ac.uk/ whatson

Durham Staff Volunteering durhamsvo. blogspot.com