SUBU G N I R E E T N U L O V PROJECT LEADER HANDBOOK
G IN R E E T N U L O V U B U S PROJECT LEADER HANDBOOK Contents Your role & responsibilities Time commitment Project Structure
Before You Get Started Take some time to plan What do you want to get out of the project? Evaluation Recruiting Volunteers Ways to recruit students Registering Students Selection of volunteers Induction & Training Managing Your project Organising activities Risk assessmentw Motivating/managing volunteers Data protection Contact & conduct with organisations Meeting with project team Meeting with SUBU Data Protection On Your Activity Volunteer Registration Trip Registration Volunteer Briefing Accidents What to do in an Emergency
Funding From SUBU External funding Resources Finances Claiming Expenses Booking rooms Booking minibus T-shirts Stationary & Printing Access to BU / External Training Craft & Activity Equipment Handover Recruitment of new leaders Evaluation of the project Handover to new leaders Forms Risk Assessment Accident Report Health Form/Next Of Kin Trip registration Evaluation Form
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’VE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR APPLICATION TO BECOME A PROJECT LEADER FOR ONE OF OUR SUBU VOLUNTEERING PROJECTS. BY LEADING A VOLUNTEER PROJECT YOU’LL TAKE ON RESPONSIBILITY FOR A SPECIFIC SET OF OBJECTIVES RELATING TO YOUR PROJECT AS WELL AS A GROUP OF SUBU VOLUNTEERS. THIS GUIDE WILL HELP YOU TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT AND TO GET THE MOST EXPERIENCE THAT YOU CAN OUT OF IT. ABOVE ALL WE HOPE THAT YOU’LL LEARN A LOT AND HAVE FUN WHILE DOING IT!
Your Role & Responsibilities Being a Project Leader is a position of responsibility. We will provide you with support but the success of your particular project will be down to you and your project team. Your responsibilities include: • • • • • • • • • • •
Organising activities for the project Recruiting, motivating, managing & retaining volunteers Acting as a positive role model to other students Behaving responsibly and as a positive representative of BU & SUBU Organising induction/training for volunteers as required Arranging socials outside of the volunteering activity Reporting regularly to SUBU Volunteering on the project Attending regular project team meetings Ensuring the safety & welfare of BU Volunteers while on the project Writing updates and providing photos for the SUBU Volunteering website To make sure that everyone has fun!
Don’t worry if this sounds quite daunting. We are here to give you training and support all the way through. We want to help you succeed – and imagine how great it is going to look on your CV when you’ve managed to do all this!
Time Commitment Fulfilling the role of Project Leader involves more time than just attending the volunteering activity. There will be other tasks – such as meetings, recruiting students, completing paperwork - that will also take up some time and are just as important.
Arrivals Period
c. 10 hours per week
To contact the organisation, plan activities, preparing promotional material etc
Beginning of the project
c. 5 hours per week
Preparation, communication, meetings, training etc.
Continuous
c. 2-3 hours per week
Ongoing communication, preparation, evaluation
Continuous
Up to you!
Involvement with leading /attending the volunteering activity
Occasional
as required
Fundraising, additional events, socials, 5 minute volunteering
Project Structure Your project will only be successful if you recruit volunteers to it and ensure that those volunteers are motivated and happy during the project. Plus, you want to have fun doing your project as well don’t you? As a Project Leader you have leadership responsibility for the project but you don’t have to do everything yourself. Recruiting other volunteers with specific skills who may be able to undertake certain tasks will make the whole project more successful. You do not have to attend every volunteering activity yourself but there needs to be a named contact in charge when you are not there – an Activity Co-ordinator. Your job is to ensure that the Activity Co-ordinator is fully aware of everything they need to do for the activity, and is capable of doing it. The Activity Co-ordinator takes responsibility for the activity and acts as a point of contact for the organisation and supervises volunteers for that activity. So for every activity there will be the following involvement:
Project Leader
Plans & organises the project, prepares Activity Co-ordinators
Activity Co-ordinators Lead and plan specific activities & look after students on that activity Volunteers
Sign up and take part in specific activities
Before You Get Started Take some time to plan It’s very easy to just launch into the activities of your project without spending any time planning how you want the project to run throughout the year. Make sure that you take a step back at the beginning to think about your project, what you aim to achieve, how you will go about doing that and what you will gain as a result.
What do You Want to Get Out of the Project? The organisation that you are working with will get a committed group of volunteers regularly turning up to do some good work, but have you thought about what you want to get from your time as Project Leader? It might be that you are looking to gain some practical experience, learn new skills, add to your CV, make new contacts or just to do something good. Whatever your motivation, it is important to us that you gain from the experience. So think about your own objectives and how you would like to develop through the process. A big part of being a leader is also helping others achieve what they want to out of their involvement. Helping this happen can also be an achievement for you, so just take some time to reflect on how you might want to help others achieve their goals. You will meet regularly with SUBU Volunteering and part of this meeting will reflect on whether you are meeting your personal objectives from the project. Our aim is to support you achieve your objectives.
Evaluation Evaluation isn’t just something that you do at the end of the project, it is essential to evaluate the project throughout. So you need to spend some time now to set some aims & objectives, some of these will already have been written into the project brief. Aims are the changes that you are trying to make (to increase…, to improve….etc.). Your objectives are the activities that you will be doing to achieve your aims. You can then evaluate the success & impact of your aims/objectives. Some of the methods you could think about using are: Handing out a questionnaire after each activity Taking photos/video before, during and after the activity Keeping track of numbers of volunteers, participants, physical changes made etc. Doing a more detailed survey at the end of the project via survey monkey Holding meetings or focus groups with students and organisations involved We can help you with these if you are struggling.
Funding It might seem too early to think about how you will fund specific activities, but some funding may require a lengthy application process. Remember the more money you have for your project, the more activities you will be able to run.
Recruiting Volunteers The most obvious place to start is amongst your friends, talk to people you know about the project and they might like to get involved. However, SUBU has an ambition to get more students involved from more diverse backgrounds in all our activities and volunteering can help with this. There will be an expectation from SUBU that you try to reach as many students as possible with information about your project – and that includes students at other sites/campuses, and even part time and evening students. We’ve got some tools that you can use to help you recruit your volunteers, so just ask for some help when planning this wider work. I’m sure that you can think of other far more innovative ways to promote your project, please just remember that you are representing SUBU Volunteering and BU and to behave in a responsible manner when promoting your project.
Ways to Recruit Students Set up your project on our SUBU Volunteering website o
This will enable you to advertise each volunteering activity to a dedicated group of over 1700 students who are already registered on the site.
Set up a Facebook page & Twitter feed for the project Nerve Media o o o
Write an article for Nerve Magazine Have the project featured on Nerve Radio Get Nerve to cover an event/activity that you are running
The Rock o o o
BU student newspaper Write an article for The Rock Ask The Rock to feature your activity/event/project
SUBU Volunteering Facebook Page o
We will post any opportunities or information about your project to gain more coverage
Freshers’ Fair o
You must attend the event to recruit new students to the project. You will need to meet with other project leaders to co-ordinate a stand and promotional material
Volunteer Fair o o
Held in October, this is an event at which we invite external organisations onto campus. Interested students can then come along and find out more. You will be given a stand at the fair at which to promote your project
Atrium & BOHO Lounge Space o o • o
You will be expected to undertake one 5 Minute volunteering activity on Talbot & Lansdowne Campus throughout terms 1 & 2. You can book space in the Atrium or BOHO Lounge at other times to promote the project Course & School Rep System Use the reps for your course or school to help you raise awareness of your project, particularly if it might be of relevance to their course.
Clubs & Societies o o
Are there any clubs or societies to whom your project might particularly appeal? Clubs & Socs get extra points towards their Star Grading if they volunteer so they might be a great source for potential volunteers. Also consider linking up with Clubs & Socs if you are running a particular activity for your project that they may be able to help with. Last year the Baking Society provided catering for a concert for the Alzheimer’s Society. And the Choir provided performers.
Word of Mouth o
Talk about the project whenever you can, you might be amazed at who would like to join it.
Posters o • o
Put up posters or other publicity where it might be relevant around the University. SUBU Volunteering Weekly Email This email goes out to all students registered on the database. You can include promotion for your project or for a specific activity.
Registering students All students who would like to apply for your project must register on the SUBU Volunteering website. All other social media & promotion must direct them to register here. This will enable SUBU to recognise the hard work of all volunteers and to include them in any awards or other recognition schemes.
Selection of students Where you have a lot of students sign up to volunteer you will need to think about how you will determine who will or won’t volunteer with you. Will you let anyone who applies volunteer? Or will you have a selection process, if so what will this entail – interview etc. In general, SUBU would not want anyone who declares an interest in volunteering to end up not having any opportunity, so try to make any unsuccessful students aware of other volunteering that they can get involved with – or just create some more volunteer opportunities!
Will you need to consider getting references from students? If so how will you go about this? It is really important to get in touch promptly with students who apply to volunteer with you. All volunteers like to feel valued and if you can do this right from the start your students are more likely to stay with the project. Even an email or message back to thank them for their interest and to say that you’ll be in touch with more information soon is better than just leaving them wondering what is happening.
Induction & Training for Volunteers Consider if you need to run an induction session or workshop for new volunteers, or can the volunteers start straight away with an activity out on the project. If you do run an induction session this could be a group activity or a one-to-one meeting, it depends on the needs of your project. New volunteers should always be given training on any specific tasks. It might be possible to do this while on the activity but if not then this should be done before hand.
Managing Your Project
KEEP IT FUN!
Sometimes we ca n forget that volunteering is su pposed to be fun! Make sure that vo lunteers are enjo ying themselves and the activity that they are engaged in. Fost er friendships am ongst your group and don’t forget to or ga nise a social here and there. Go to the pu b or out for a coffee after an activity or arra nge a different evenin g to meet up.
ORGANISING ACTIVITIES
anise ibility to org s n o p s re r u nction It is yo ject in conju ro p e th r fo ing activities you are work n o ti a is n a se have with the org or two of the e n o t rs fi e for with. Th n arranged e e b y d a e lr e probably a liaise with th to d e e n l il w pecified in you, but you n more as s la p to n o ti a organis your project. the brief for
LIAISING WITH THE ORGANISATIO
N
You will be a representative of SUBU Volunteering and BU and w il l be expected to behave in an appropria te manner. You must con tact the organ isation and reply to any re quests promp tly. You will need to keep in regular com munication with them an d ensure that their expectations are being met .
RISK ASSESSMENTS Every activity will require a risk assessment. It may be possible to use a generic one where the same activity is repeated at the same venue regu larly. SUBU will support you with this and provide training where needed. Risk assessments must be sent to SUBU Volunteering at least one week prior to the activity date. A risk assessment looks at what would cause harm to people so that you can weigh up whether you have taken adequate precautions to prev ent harm. It will help you to plan, deliver and review your activities and protect you and your volunteers. You are not expected to eliminate all risk, but to protect people as far as its ‘reasonably practicable’.
MOTIVATING AND RETAINING VOLUNTEERS As Project leader, an important part of your role is to motivate your volunteers. Show some enthusiasm and lead from the front, find out why different students got involved in the first place and think about how you can sustain these motivations.
Provide development opportunities for your volunteers. They may like to see the progress that they have made through the year or to work their way up through the project to take on more responsibility.
As we said, this should be fun! Keep the activity enjoyable and make it engaging and your volunteers should want to keep coming back.
Delegate responsibilities that other volunteers can take on. This gives the volunteer a chance to learn & develop new skills but also lessens your workload.
All volunteers like to be recognised and even a simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way. Email all volunteers to say thanks at the end of each activity and keep them up to date with progress of the project overall. Send regular updates & pictures and keep volunteers informed.
Meetings & socials will help to provide an opportunity for students to get to know each other and you better and to give feedback and contribute ideas to the project.
Ensure that you communicate regularly with volunteers and reply to enquiries within a day or two. Request feedback from volunteers. This could be informal feedback in the form of a chat on the day or a more detailed survey at the end of the project. It is important to gain feedback so that you can assess the project, respond to suggestions and keep your volunteers happy.
One-to-one sessions with your Activity Co-ordinators will ensure that they feel valued and have the opportunity to address any training needs that they have. Remember, the more engaged the volunteer and the happier they are, the more likely they are to return.
Meeting with the Project Team Project meetings should be held regularly between the Project Leaders and anyone else relevant to discuss the project. It is up to you to delegate tasks between you and to other volunteers as appropriate. Keeping in Touch with SUBU Volunteering You will be expected to meet with SUBU Volunteering once per month during the year. This will provide feedback on the project and an opportunity for SUBU to support your development. We’re always looking for good new stories so please let us know if you’ve got anything to shout about.
Data Protection Project Leaders will be entrusted with personal information about BU students, members of the public and other organisations. You must follow good practice with their data. It might sound dull but data protection is a legal obligation. Data includes email, text, paper records, picture, video, voicemail, answerphone messages and social media. All written data should be brought to SUBU Volunteering where it will be stored securely, any information that you need, such as health forms can be taken out for your activity and then brought back afterwards. Personal information about individuals must remain confidential and should not be passed on to any third party. Remember to keep your own details confidential, you can use a SUBU phone to contact volunteers and retain your own privacy. If you’re in doubt about any information speak to SUBU Volunteering. For a full data protection policy see I/Student Union/Public/SUBU Guideline Policies & Procedures/Formatted Policies (pdf)/SUBU Data Protection Policy -adj Managing Your Project
Keep it Fun! Sometimes we can forget that volunteering is supposed to be fun! Make sure that volunteers are enjoying themselves and the activity that they are engaged in. Foster friendships amongst your group and don’t forget to organise a social here and there. Go to the pub or out for a coffee after an activity or arrange a different evening to meet up.
Organising Activities It is your responsibility to organise activities for the project in conjunction with the organisation you are working with. The first one or two of these have probably already been arranged for you, but you will need to liaise with the organisation to plan more as specified in the brief for your project.
Liaising with the Organisation You will be a representative of SUBU Volunteering and BU and will be expected to behave in an appropriate manner. You must contact the organisation and reply to any requests promptly. You will need to keep in regular communication with them and ensure that their expectations are being met.
Risk Assessments Every activity will require a risk assessment. It may be possible to use a generic one where the same activity is repeated at the same venue regularly. SUBU will support you with this and provide training where needed. Risk assessments must be sent to SUBU Volunteering at least one week prior to the activity date. A risk assessment looks at what would cause harm to people so that you can weigh up whether you have taken adequate precautions to prevent harm. It will help you to plan, deliver and review your activities and protect you and your volunteers. You are not expected to eliminate all risk, but to protect people as far as its ‘reasonably practicable’.
Motivating and Retaining Volunteers As Project leader, an important part of your role is to motivate your volunteers. Show some enthusiasm and lead from the front, find out why different students got involved in the first place and think about how you can sustain these motivations. As we said, this should be fun! Keep the activity enjoyable and make it engaging and your volunteers should want to keep coming back. All volunteers like to be recognised and even a simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way. Email all volunteers to say thanks at the end of each activity and keep them up to date with progress of the project overall. Send regular updates & pictures and keep volunteers informed. Ensure that you communicate regularly with volunteers and reply to enquiries within a day or two. Request feedback from volunteers. This could be informal feedback in the form of a chat on the day or a more detailed survey at the end of the project. It is important to gain feedback so that you can assess the project, respond to suggestions and keep your volunteers happy. Provide development opportunities for your volunteers. They may like to see the progress that they have made through the year or to work their way up through the project to take on more responsibility.
Delegate responsibilities that other volunteers can take on. This gives the volunteer a chance to learn & develop new skills but also lessens your workload. Meetings & socials will help to provide an opportunity for students to get to know each other and you better and to give feedback and contribute ideas to the project. One-to-one sessions with your Activity Co-ordinators will ensure that they feel valued and have the opportunity to address any training needs that they have. Remember, the more engaged the volunteer and the happier they are, the more likely they are to return.
Meeting with the Project Team Project meetings should be held regularly between the Project Leaders and anyone else relevant to discuss the project. It is up to you to delegate tasks between you and to other volunteers as appropriate.
Keeping in Touch with SUBU Volunteering You will be expected to meet with SUBU Volunteering once per month during the year. This will provide feedback on the project and an opportunity for SUBU to support your development. We’re always looking for good new stories so please let us know if you’ve got anything to shout about.
Data Protection Project Leaders will be entrusted with personal information about BU students, members of the public and other organisations. You must follow good practice with their data. It might sound dull but data protection is a legal obligation. Data includes email, text, paper records, picture, video, voicemail, answerphone messages and social media. All written data should be brought to SUBU Volunteering where it will be stored securely, any information that you need, such as health forms can be taken out for your activity and then brought back afterwards. Personal information about individuals must remain confidential and should not be passed on to any third party. Remember to keep your own details confidential, you can use a SUBU phone to contact volunteers and retain your own privacy. If you’re in doubt about any information speak to SUBU Volunteering. For a full data protection policy see I/Student Union/Public/SUBU Guideline Policies & Procedures/Formatted Policies (pdf)/SUBU Data Protection Policy -adj
On Your Activity Appointed Person in Charge On the day you must have a nominated person in charge; this might be you or one of your appointed Activity Co-ordinators. Volunteers need to know who will brief them and who to go to if they have any problems.
Registering Volunteers On the day you should have a list of all students taking part in the activity along with their contact details if they fail to turn up. You should also ensure that volunteers have filled in a health questionnaire with their emergency contact details on.
Trip registration If using the SUBU minibus you should fill in a trip registration form, available at SUBU reception. A copy of this must be left with the main reception in Poole House on departure.
Team Briefing At the venue you will need to give a briefing to all volunteers on the activity to be undertaken along with any specific health & safety advice. It may be that the organisation does this particularly if you are working with the council.
Accidents Sometimes things go wrong and an accident occurs. You will need to have a first aider (or one from the organisation) present at every activity. Once first aid has been given fill in an accident form and hand a copy to SUBU Volunteering the next day. Near misses must also be reported so that we can review the risk assessment accordingly.
What to do in an Emergency Where an accident is severe we need to get the volunteer to hospital immediately. When on University premises call 222 if a serious accident has occurred, they will call an ambulance for you. If you are off site, call 999 for an ambulance or other emergency service as needed. Then call 01202 595448 for the BU Duty Callout Officer. Give the medical form to the paramedics so that they can be aware of any medical conditions. In case of the minibus breaking down, call the breakdown assistance number in the pack (01202 965765) and quote the registrations number. If you are not sure what to do about any emergency call 01202 595448 for the BU Duty Callout Officer.
Make Sure Volunteers are enjoying it! Talk to volunteers throughout the activity and ensure that they’re having fun.
Resources Mobile Phones You will be given a mobile phone from SUBU for your activity. It is your responsibility to ensure that it is charged and to take it with you for the activity. Book your phone from SUBU and sign it in & out with us. It is your responsibility to return the phone or to inform us if it is lost/ broken.
Budget & Finance Your project will have access to a small amount of funding to cover transport costs from SUBU. Any additional expenditure will need to be agreed by SUBU. You should also look for external funding or do some fundraising yourself.
Project Account You will have a SUBU account allocated to your project. You can pay any additional funds into this account and draw money from it for expenses.
Expenses We will cover travel costs for your project on public transport or through the use of the SUBU minibus. If you need to use a taxi, this must be agreed by SUBU Volunteering in advance. To claim expenses you must present a valid ticket or receipt and fill in a Payment Requisition form.
Room Bookings We can book rooms on either campus for you to hold any activity related to your project. This includes space in the Atrium or BOHO Lounge.
Minibus Bookings You can book the SUBU minibus to take student groups on your project. Your booking should be made as far in advance as possible. We cannot guarantee booking at busy times. Your minibus driver must be over 21 and to have held a driving licence for three years or more. They must pass the SUBU minibus test, for which we will fund one test per year per project. Other tests must be paid for from the project budget.
Access to SUBU & BU Training We will fund BU or SUBU training as required for your project. You must have a first aider (or one from the organisation) available on every activity, we will fund this for you as well as any other training needed.
Volunteer T-shirts We have a supply of blue SUBU Volunteering t-shirts that your volunteers can wear while out on your project. These must be signed in and out when borrowed.as they are for all projects.
Stationary, Printing & Postage We can supply stationary, print (within reason) and post anything needed. Email to subuvolunteering@bournemouth.ac.uk or come up to SUBU to speak to us.
Craft & Activity Equipment We have various resources that you may be able to use for your project. These range from litter pickers to sewing machines. Let us know what your activity requires and we may be able to help supply it.
Funding You will be able to apply for funding from SUBU Volunteering. The budget mainly allows for transport but if there are other things such as equipment you need to purchase then you can submit a request to SUBU for consideration.
Alumni Fund The Alumni Fund has granted a total of £1,000 to student volunteering projects. You will need to submit a request to SUBU Volunteering for consideration.
External Funding There are many businesses and organisations that will consider an application for a grant towards a charity project. You may find that approaching business direct works well but here are a few other ideas to consider.
Helping Hands – Wilkinson Wilkinson’s stores have a ‘Helping Hands’ budget to help local communities do great things, so whether you’re looking for a pot of paint, a raffle prize or something more, it’s worth approaching them. Give as much notice as possible as the staff meet once per month to review successful applications. You can download an application form & get more information here:
http://corporate.wilkinsonplus.com/story.asp?id=32
CO-OP COMMUNITY FUND COMMUNITY FUND GRANTS OF BETWEEN £100 - £2,000 CAN BE APPLIED FOR FROM THE CO-OP TO FUND SPECIFIC PROJECTS. THEY MUST CARRY OUT POSITIVE WORK IN THE COMMUNITY AS WELL AS • ADDRESS A COMMUNITY ISSUE • PROVIDE A GOOD LONG-TERM BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY • SUPPORT CO-OPERATIVE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES • information IDEALLYhere: BE INNOVATIVE IN ITS APPROACH More
http://www.co-operative.coop/membership/local-communities/community-fund/ onlineapplicationprocess/ O2 Think Big A grant of up to £300 for 13 – 25 year olds to help improve their communities. For more information and to apply see:
http://www.o2thinkbig.co.uk/ V-inspired - Cashpoint Up to £500 for 14 – 25 year olds to help run a volunteering project. For more information go to:
http://vinspired.com/organisations/8034-vinspired-cashpoint
Recognition & Awards We want to recognise the contribution of every one of our student volunteers, whether they’ve just volunteered that one time or been a regular on the project. You need to update the status of all your volunteers on our SUBU Volunteering website so that we can do this.
Volunteer Certificates All volunteers are given a certificate each term to record their achievements.
Activities Awards Celebration We hold an Activities Awards Night in March at which the success of all our volunteer project and individual volunteers are recognised. There is a prize for the Project of the Year which we hope that your project will be nominated for.
BU Development Award Your commitment as a Project Leader will earn you extra points on the BU Student Development Award.
External Awards There are several other external awards that we’d love to enter you or your volunteers for wherever we can. These range from local ones like the Bourne Brilliant Awards in June to the
NUS national awards. So to make sure that we can recognise your hard work and to award it let us know all the great things that you are doing with your project during the year.
Handover As your project draws to an end it will be time to evaluate its success, to recruit new project leaders and to celebrate!
PROJECT LEADER RECRUITMENT You will be involved in the process to recruit your new project leaders. This may mean shortlisting from application forms or assisting with interviews. However we recruit we’d like you to be a part of it as you know your project best. If you’re intending to remain in post please let us know by the end of February. If not you may want to try to encourage suitable students to apply for the roles during your time volunteering with them.
EVALUATION It is time to do a final evaluation of the project. You’ll need to collate any data gathered during the year and to do a final survey to all volunteers involved. It’s really important that you evaluate the project, if you don’t you won’t know whether you’ve made a difference.
HANDOVER Your handover should be as detailed as possible, include information about what went well, what could have been done better, key contacts, recommendations etc. Include any statistical information that you have gathered. SUBU Volunteering should be present at this meeting.
CELEBRATE! You may want to organise a social event, or something bigger to celebrate the success of the project. This is a great way to say a final thank you to your volunteers and to get some final publicity for it. It might be a good opportunity for a final team photo too!