Vicky's volunteer co-ordinator experience

OK, Vicky. So thank you very much for agreeing to do this video. Um, you're working at a G Knots as a volunteer coordinator. So it would just be great if you could share some of your experiences about how you found the role and how you find volunteering

OK, thank you. So I've been, um, working in the volunteering team for about 6.5 years now, um, I started off as an administrator

So, um, I've been involved in the recruitment, um, for a long time. So that means that I have, um, been involved since pre-covid and also, um, post covid and through covid. Um, firstly, um, I suppose what I should say is, prior to working in the volunteering team, I didn't really have any experience of, um, uh, volunteers or volunteering

And, um, when I joined the charity, it was to work in the HR department. So I got my experience there and then moved on to volunteering. Um, but what I found quite quickly was how much I enjoyed being part of the volunteering set up

And I think most importantly, I suppose, where I think it's sort of the HR transfers over into volunteering is that it's really, really important to see that to ensure that we have. We recruit the right volunteers for the charity. And I think I'm quite passionate about ensuring that the right people do join the charity

And I suppose as time has gone on and with my experience, I'm able to see, um, from quite an early from quite an early on from point of interest who who might go through to actually being an approved volunteer? Um, going back to what I was mentioning about pre-covid to to to post covid things have hugely changed. Um, when I first started, um, in within the team, we we used to be quite un indicated with queries. Um, but that didn't necessarily mean that they would go through to being approved volunteers

It's just that maybe there was more of an appetite for volunteering sort of back in 2018, 2017, 1819. Um, but then since, um, covid hit, um, and there was a big influx of volunteers due to um, people, um, going on furlough and what have you and then like post post covid and people's priorities, I think, have changed, and we're now in a sort of an environment where, um people, As I said, their priorities have changed. But we've now also come through to a cost of living crisis

So it means that people aren't maybe able to volunteer. And I think across the sector, that's what we're finding that we've almost in a bit of a shortage of volunteers. Um, so that's a bit That's probably one of the the challenges at the moment is that, um we've got a charity where, um, we're volunteer led

Um, but, um, when we don't have the the volunteer numbers that that we once did And, um, it's really important to make sure, um that we we try and exhaust as many avenues, um, to get those those volunteers on board. Um, one of our biggest challenges as well is because we look after elderly people. We have to make sure our recruitment process is a thorough and I think as well in this this climate, people would like to dip in and out of volunteering, and we don't have that that option as such

And I suppose that's another thing that we need to think about in the future is having those opportunities available where people can dip in and out of volunteering. Um, but where we're at the moment is that they're more regular commitments, and not everybody again has the flexibility. Um, they they might not be able to afford to do that

Um, so So, yeah, so that that's, um that's where we're at. Um a As I mentioned, I'm, uh since day one, I've always enjoyed it, like being part of volunteer, and I continue to enjoy it. See it through the through the years

And, um, I'm in, you know, um and also S. See how? See what the future future holds.