Narrative Report of volunteering activity from 1st May 2013 – 31st July 2013
Introduction
KUSU Volunteering registered 28 new volunteers this quarter. This is comparable to the same period last academic year when 24 students were registered. This quarter is traditionally a time when students are finishing off their volunteering before completing assignments, the revision period, examinations and assessments and before they break up for the summer.
This quarter saw 118 volunteer places filled across 55 opportunities, in 52 organisations which produced 910 hours of time being given in the Royal Borough of Kingston and surrounding areas. (This does not include Volunteers’ Week i.e. VW statistics. VW took place 1/06/2013 – 7/06/2013. KUSU Volunteering organised several volunteer taster sessions for this – all of which are documented in the latter part of this report.)
The same period last academic year saw 84 students actively volunteering across 35 opportunities in 34 organisations which produced 971.5 hours of time being given. Interestingly the number of places we have filled, the number of opportunities we have promoted and the number of organisations we have worked with have therefore all increased compared to the same period last academic year, but the number of hours being given has slightly decreased.
This is surprising as there has been an 8% decrease in student numbers at KU compared to last academic year, so theoretically we would have expected both the volunteer numbers and volunteer hours to decrease by 8%. Presumably the volunteer numbers have increased because we are offering a greater number of volunteer opportunities in a wider variety of organisations and have improved how we market these. Perhaps the number of hours being given has decreased because the impact of the greater financial burdens placed on students (higher fees etc) has resulted in students being able to give less time to volunteering because of their need to take on paid work etc.
This quarter has been a busy one for the KUSU Volunteering office in terms of development work and organising events. In May 2013 we celebrated our exceptional students’ volunteering achievements at the KUSU Volunteering Awards Ceremony, as well as celebrating and thanking all of our students for volunteering this academic year at our ‘End of Year Social’, which this year took the form of a Balsam Bash volunteering activity and end of year picnic.
Also in May 2013 KUSU Volunteering organised and facilitated a strategic day where we invited students to give feedback on the services we offer and what additional things they would like us to develop and offer in the future. Many of the ideas given to us we have started work on and begun implementing this academic year. We have offered KUSU Volunteers the following free training: First Aid, Child Protection, and Team-building training. At the strategic day KUSU volunteers gave feedback that the training program was really valuable but that they’d like it to be more comprehensive with additional training workshops, such as how to evidence their volunteering on their CV. As a result of this KUSU Volunteering therefore delivered a ‘Linking Volunteering to Your Career’ workshop in June 2013. Four accredited training sessions with the service provider ‘Tutor Care’ have been booked for the following academic year, and further training opportunities for volunteers is being researched with the aim of providing a comprehensive training calendar for the 2013-14 student intake.
KUSU Volunteering has also worked on redesigning the volunteer leaflet and handbook to make them up to date and visually more interesting and inspirational. A lot of consideration is going into how the service is advertised with the aim to hopefully increase student volunteer numbers in the next academic year.
After researching for a new database provider we have signed a contract with Stripe Solutions and are in the middle of transferring our student and organisation profiles and records onto the new XVS online database. This database will reduce time spent on administrative tasks as it is a system specially designed for managing volunteers from sign-up to time-recording, and will go live for the start of next academic year. As well as it being a more administratively efficient system for staff to keep track of volunteering hours, it’s a more user-friendly system for volunteers wishing to sign up to opportunities, and as such should result in more hours being volunteered.
KUSU Volunteering has also created the framework and role description to recruit eight Volunteer Ambassadors, (two from each campus) to form part of a volunteer working group to raise the profile of volunteering at the university, encourage more students to try it out, as well as seek feedback from regular volunteers about our service. This will be implemented at the start of next academic year and will be spear-headed by the Vice President of Activities in the Students’ Union and supported by the two KUSU Volunteer Co-ordinators.
KUSU Volunteering continues to carry out group registrations and 1-2-1 registrations as required at Penrhyn Road. As a result of feedback from the Strategic Day in May 2013, KUSU Volunteering is planning a way to establish a strong presence on each of the 4 campuses next academic year.
Whilst the department has continued to offer voluntary opportunities in four distinct categories this quarter - Community Volunteering and Schools Volunteering, (which is managed by one Volunteer Co-ordinator) and One-Off Volunteering and Student-Led Volunteering Projects, (which is managed by another Volunteer Co-ordinator), this will be changing next quarter and in time for the new academic year. The reason being that the Volunteer Co-ordinator in charge of One-Off Volunteering and Student-Led Volunteering gave in their resignation in June 2013. This resulted in KUSU reviewing how volunteering is managed operationally and implementing a new system. The current Volunteer Co-ordinator in charge of Community Volunteering and Schools Volunteering will also take over managing one-off opportunities (which is possible due to the introduction of the online database as it is anticipated that this will reduce time spent on administrative tasks) and the new Volunteer Coordinator position will continue to support students to run projects, but will also create volunteering projects which they as a staff-member will take the lead on. KUSU has made this change as it was felt that by a staff-member creating projects and recruiting and managing volunteers on these projects, it would help to increase volunteering numbers and hours. The newly recruited Volunteer Co-ordinator will start 12th August 2013 and will have a two and a half week handover with the former Volunteer Co-ordinator.
Community Volunteering
58 volunteer places filled across 27 different opportunities in 27 organisations, resulting in 535 hours being given.
Organisation / Opportunity / Hours / No of Vols / Total HoursAge Concern / IT Tutoring / 6 / 1 / 6
KUBAG / Action Team / 6 / 8 / 48
British Red Cross / Next Steps Volunteer / 16 / 2 / 32
Buddy Scheme / 8 / 1 / 8
RAK / Translator (korean - English) / 12 / 1 / 12
Fusion Dance and Drama / Dance volunteer / 12 / 1 / 12
Guiding / 7.5 / 1 / 7.5
Scouting / 12 / 3 / 36
Alzheimers Society / Singing for the brain Volunteer / 6 / 2 / 12
Oxfam Shop / Shop Volunteer / 16 / 3 / 48
Richmond Mencap / 6 / 1 / 6
KCIL / Newsletter/Media Content Help / 10 / 1 / 10
RISE / Group Assistant / 5 / 1 / 5
Momentum / Open Day Help / 3 / 2 / 6
Missing People / Search Volunteer Team Leader / 10 / 2 / 20
Richmond Environment Trust / Trust Volunteer / 0 / 1 / 0
Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare / Volunteer to Walk and Socialise Dogs / 3 / 5 / 15
VIPS / 0 / 1 / 0
YMCA / Cycle Leader / 4 / 1 / 4
Eel Trapping / Eel Monitor Volunteer / 4 / 3 / 12
Creative Youth / Summer Festival / 2 / 1 / 2
Cancer Research Shop KingstonShop Volunteer / Shop Volunteer / 16 / 1 / 16
CAB / Administrator / 16 / 4 / 64
Green Impact Project / 2 / 1 / 2
Kingston Hospital / A&E Ward Volunteer / 16 / 9 / 144
Scope / Support Volunteer / 8 / 1 / 8
Total : / 58 / 535.5
The quarter saw a lot of students coming to the end of their volunteering placements. As the academic year closed we had 58 volunteers volunteering in 27 different opportunities.
We have a further 28 volunteers in the process of being placed, i.e. awaiting the completion of interviews or security checks.
Whilst the majority of these volunteers had finished their placements by the end of this reporting quarter, this area of volunteering has seen an increase in final year students and postgraduates applying to volunteer. Supporting graduate volunteering in an area that the service – depending on staff capacity and funding – might want to seriously consider in the further
The service is receiving a steady stream of local organisations wishing to sign up with us and recruit volunteers, and as such we are always in the position of having more opportunities than student volunteers – which is ideal as we look to increase volunteer numbers next year.
Schools Volunteering
9 volunteer places filled across 3 different opportunities in 2 schools, resulting in 168 hours being given.
School / Opportunity / Hours / No of Vols / Total HoursSouthborough High / Classroom Assistant / 25 / 4 / 100
Tolworth Junior / Tutor / 20 / 1 / 20
Tolworth Junior / Lunchtime and Classroom Assistant / 12 / 4 / 48
Total Community Hours: / 168
#]8oolsthe shortage of placements that we had throughout this year.to our books over the last 2 quaters, which means that come t
Schools volunteering also saw the student volunteers come to the end of their placements, receiving some really remarkable feedback from the school partners as they did.
Placements in schools have really suffered this academic year from both the change of staff and also the lack of opportunities available to students. Moving into the next academic year we have 4 new school partners who are all eager to open their doors to student volunteers, and so we should see a real increase in placements.
Furthermore Schools Volunteering and Community Volunteering area will be amalgamated into one ‘regular volunteering’ area for the next year. Students will be able to apply directly online for opportunities and also be given tools to allow them to easily search for opportunities in specific areas. We anticipate that this will make these areas of the service a lot more accessible to KU students, and we hope to see an increase in placements as a result.
One-Off Volunteering
44 volunteer places filled across 22 different opportunities in 20 organisations, resulting in 155 hours being given.
No / Event / Organisation / Date / Attended / Hours1 / Back to Skool Fundraiser / Momentum / 3-6/05/2013 / 2 / 6
2 / May Merrie / Community Brain / 6/05/2013 / 2 / 10
3 / Balsam Bash (end of year Social) / KUSU Volunteering and Kingston University Biodiversity Action Group / 8/05/2013 / 8 / 15.5
4 / Piper Hall / Refugee Action Kingston / 9/05/2013 / 4 / 12.5
5 / Stroke Association Thames Bridges Bike Ride / Stroke Association / 12/05/2013 / 1 / 4.75
6 / Momentum at St. George’s Hospital - Tooting / Momentum / 14/05/2013 / 1 / 3
7 / RISE event / Richmond upon Thames Inclusive Sport and Exercise / 18/05/2013 / 0 / 0
8 / Missing People Search Day / Missing People / 21/05/2013 / 2 / 11
9 / London 2 Brighton Challenge / Action Challenge / 25/05/2013 / Cancelled / Cancelled
10 / Shelterbox TFL Collections / Shelterbox / 3-7/06/2013 / 0 / 0
11 / The Big If Installation / Save The Children / 6-8/06/2013 / 2 / 12
12 / Cancer Research Wimbledon Village Shop Launch / Cancer Research / 6-12/06/2013 / 5 / 18
13 / St. John’s Hospice Summer Fayre / St. John’s Hospice / 8/06/2013 / 3 / 7
14 / YMCA Hawker Fun Day / YMCA / 23/6/2013 / 2 / 8
15 / Loomba 5k run / The Loomba Foundation / 23/06/2013 / 0 / 0
16 / Kingston Hospital NHS Staff Party / Kingston Hospital NHS / 27/06/2013 / 0 / 0
17 / London Pride / London Pride / 29/06/2013 / 2 / 10.5
18 / LA Fitness Capital to Coast Cycle Challenge London - Brighton / LA Fitness / 30/06/2013 / 0 / 0
19 / The SunWalk London / Walk The Walk / 30/06/2013 / 2 / 10
20 / Portman Village Street Party / St. John’s Hospice / 3/07/2013 / 1 / 3
21 / School Mural / Malden Manor Primary and Nursery School / 4-12/07/2013 / 3 / 11
22 / Manor Gardens Street Fair / Manor Gardens Health and Community Services / 27/07/2013 / 4 / 12.75
TOTAL / 44 / 155
One-offs are flexible volunteering opportunities across varied interest areas that last from an hour to a full day. The same quarter from last academic year had 52 volunteer places filled across 18 different opportunities in 15 organisations, resulting in 197 hours being given. Although it seems as if the numbers have gone down this quarter compared to the same period last academic year, it’s worth noting that we are reporting our statistics slightly different. For example all of the students who took part in one-offs and student-led projects last year were counted in the one-off statistics. However this year we are reporting on these two areas separately (see below) so that we can see a better break down of these numbers.
The one-off event which had the most volunteers taking part this quarter was the staff-led Balsam Bash which highlights how popular staff-led events are and why KUSU Volunteering will be creating and managing their own volunteering projects in the community next academic year, as we’ve found these opportunities tend to attract more KU student numbers than basic brokerage opportunities.