A really positive Community Cohesion Event today at Sneinton Hermitage: People from a number of centres and projects across the area come together to discuss volunteering needs, barriers and a potential in the area.  SEND's Supporting Sneinton project brought together TRACs Neighbourhood Centre, Sneinton Hermitage Community Centre, The Greenway Centre along with Sneinton Alchemy, Sneinton Neighbourhood Forum, Sneinton Bikers, St Christopher's Church, NOOR group, Colwick Woods and others.  A particular highlight was hearing volunteering experiences from Charlotte and Svetlana, both quite recent arrivals in Sneinton who had very valuable experiences to share, some positive and some negative, of 'getting stuck in' to community volunteering work. With funding for communities declining and needs increasing at the same time, all recognised that volunteers will become increasingly vital locally - but volunteers deserve proper support and development in exchange for their input and loyalty. |  This volunteer support is difficult to provide for organisations whose resources are already stretched in delivering services to the community... The Supporting Sneinton project, despite focussing on just 3 local centres, has shown that collaboration can raise recruitment of volunteers and the quality of their experience.  Volunteering needs, barriers and ideas for the future... The ambition is to develop a Sneinton Community Volunteering Hub which will be open to a wide range of centres and groups in the area. This has to potential to recruit and retain more volunteers, to find them opportunities appropriate to their skills and commitment levels, and to ensure good volunteer management processes. A Volunteer Management Workshop will be held by Supporting Sneinton on Tuesday 26th April from 10am – 1pm at The Greenway Centre. For more information on this workshop or the Volunteering Hub plans, please contact Stacey (see details below). |