Woohoo, we actually got a new website design up and running with more microvolunteer actions, new video, improved actions tracker and more info on the microvolunteering arena. Anyway, have a browse around and see if it gets your juices flowing.
As part of the roll out of the new website, we introduced a new project as well. It’s called Help From Holiday and is an attempt to encourage people to think about benefitting the countries they visit Before, During and After their holiday. You can now microvolunteer in your swimwear, and no excuses will be accepted.
Vinspired, UK’s national youth volunteering network, is piloting an employee volunteering project called Volunteering Works. As part of the scheme, they’re going to be incorporating microvolunteering into this project. This is a new direction for them, as the type of microvolunteering that Help From Home promotes has never been tried out in an employee volunteering environment before. Fingers crossed, it get the thumbs up, so to speak.
Help From Home got a whole article to itself on The Crowdsourcing Gazette UK during November. Thanks to Ramon from the Crowdsourcing Gazette who composed a splendiferous piece on us, who explained to us that he’s using the article to segue his way into creating more pieces about the microvolunteering arena.
Susan J Ellis of Energize, and who is very respected person on the global volunteering arena gave a seminar a few weeks ago. She was talking about the trends in volunteering and went on to say that “...the trend towards short-term volunteering, from the weekend or one day warrior to the microvolunteer, is no longer a trend, but a fact.” Couldn’t agree more!
Til next time
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
October 2011 Update
We were due to launch our new look website back in October, but we now envisage a launch sometime in November, maybe even December. No definite date is planned so, watch this space is all we can say!
It was spotted during the month of October that Surrey County Council became the first (as far as we are aware) UK government Council to start promoting microvolunteering and more specifically HFH, as part of their volunteering strategy. We hope to build on this and take microvolunteering to other UK Councils.
Yet another UK Volunteer Centre came on board to promote microvolunteering. This time it's Voluntary Action South West Surrey, which now brings the total upto 57 Volunteer Centres that jumped on the microvolunteering bandwagon. We're slowly getting there with our project of encouraging UK volunteer centres to promote the concept.
Til next time.
It was spotted during the month of October that Surrey County Council became the first (as far as we are aware) UK government Council to start promoting microvolunteering and more specifically HFH, as part of their volunteering strategy. We hope to build on this and take microvolunteering to other UK Councils.
Yet another UK Volunteer Centre came on board to promote microvolunteering. This time it's Voluntary Action South West Surrey, which now brings the total upto 57 Volunteer Centres that jumped on the microvolunteering bandwagon. We're slowly getting there with our project of encouraging UK volunteer centres to promote the concept.
Til next time.
Friday, October 7, 2011
New website almost there!
Been a bit absent from blog posts of late. That's because we've been working on the completely new look website that will have more functions, more actions, and more information about everything microvolunteering. We're also going to be simultaneously launching a brand new project called 'Help From Holiday'. Watch this space over the next 2 weeks and get ready for a bit of revamped pyjama action!! Ooh err, missus!!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
July 2011 Update
The UK government’s official website, Number 10, included Help From Home within its volunteering sections. There are only four other organisations featured on the web page and they are all the ‘main players’ of the UK volunteering world, so we’re quite chuffed to be included amongst them. The UK government in its Big Society vision wants to promote more flexible volunteering and we’re quite honoured that it seems that they’ve chosen Help From Home to represent part of that vision.
We’re in the middle of transferring our current website over to a new fresher design that also provides a facility to record a person’s participation in an action within a profile they can set up. We envisage a launch date of the 1st October 2011 or there abouts for this new look, which is being hosted on the ubiquitous Wordpress platform. Watch this space!
Oasis Academy Shirley Park, an educational establishment in London, UK approached Help From Home with a view to including microvolunteering as part of the school’s activities next school term in September. If all goes well, this might spread to the other educational establishments dotted around the UK under the Oasis Academy umbrella. Fingers crossed
Till next time.
We’re in the middle of transferring our current website over to a new fresher design that also provides a facility to record a person’s participation in an action within a profile they can set up. We envisage a launch date of the 1st October 2011 or there abouts for this new look, which is being hosted on the ubiquitous Wordpress platform. Watch this space!
Oasis Academy Shirley Park, an educational establishment in London, UK approached Help From Home with a view to including microvolunteering as part of the school’s activities next school term in September. If all goes well, this might spread to the other educational establishments dotted around the UK under the Oasis Academy umbrella. Fingers crossed
Till next time.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
June 2011 update
Had a bit of a volunteer recruitment drive last month, which resulted in one person offering to volunteer for Help From Home. Many roles were put up on offer and the one this volunteer went for was to form partnerships with like minded organisations, who have the vision to integrate microvolunteering opportunities within the portfolio of services they offer.
The UK Government published it’s Giving White Paper in May. Help From Home compiled a response, which is available here to read. Basically the UK Government wants to promote a more flexible approach to volunteering that fits in with people’s lifestyles. Mircovolunteering certainly appears to have this flexible approach covered and our response highlights those areas in the White Paper where we are either already delivering or proposing to deliver on its aims.
Hot on the tails of last month’s research into the evidence of impact within the microvolunteering area. Help From Home is now conducting a survey about actual microvolunteers themselves. This will run for quite a few months and goes into the who, what, why, where and when of microvolunteers activities. As far as we know, the voluntary sector is starved of research into the microvolunteering arena, and we hope this survey will serve as a springboard for further research. Indeed, the UK based Institute of Volunteering Research has approached Help From Home with a view to being involved in a much larger research project whose aims have yet to be thrashed out. All that side, we would be grateful of your responses to our survey.
Til next time.
The UK Government published it’s Giving White Paper in May. Help From Home compiled a response, which is available here to read. Basically the UK Government wants to promote a more flexible approach to volunteering that fits in with people’s lifestyles. Mircovolunteering certainly appears to have this flexible approach covered and our response highlights those areas in the White Paper where we are either already delivering or proposing to deliver on its aims.
Hot on the tails of last month’s research into the evidence of impact within the microvolunteering area. Help From Home is now conducting a survey about actual microvolunteers themselves. This will run for quite a few months and goes into the who, what, why, where and when of microvolunteers activities. As far as we know, the voluntary sector is starved of research into the microvolunteering arena, and we hope this survey will serve as a springboard for further research. Indeed, the UK based Institute of Volunteering Research has approached Help From Home with a view to being involved in a much larger research project whose aims have yet to be thrashed out. All that side, we would be grateful of your responses to our survey.
Til next time.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
May 2011 Update
- Had a meeting with Cardiff County Council to discuss my idea of them becoming the first ;Microvolunteer Capital of the World'. This idea has been scaled down a bit, as a pilot project needs to be run first to see how it all goes. So, the scaled down project is now designed to provide microvolunteer opportunities to all 18,000 Cardiff CC's employees. Being a local authority, there are still a few red tape issues to be overcome, like health and safety/insurance, but hopefully these are minor issues and can be resolved.
- There has been some concern recently about whether the microvolunteering arena in producing any impact at all. Can such seemingly small actions achieve anything? In answer to this, I compiled an article that collated all the impact stats from as many microvolunteering initiatives I could find – 150 ish in all. Whilst it can clearly be derived that impact is being made, there have been further calls that the impact figures I provided should be broken down yet further. Although this is beyond my time and resources, I have had a request from a major UK volunteering involved organisation namely Red Foundation to collaborate with me on the more detailed research. Once some funding is in place, it’ll be all systems go for the next tranche of research. Watch this space!
- Over the past month or so, a few enquires/opportunities have arisen whereby Help From Home has provided some tailor made caused aligned action lists to fit in with an organisation’s mission/ethos. This has inspired me to promote a new free service along those lines and already five such lists have been produced – these being for African Mothers Foundation International, It starts With Us, The Laptop Project, Cardiff County Council and a project down in London which has yet to get off the ground. This is an exciting direction to be going be going in and one which I don’t know where it will lead to.
Til next time.
- There has been some concern recently about whether the microvolunteering arena in producing any impact at all. Can such seemingly small actions achieve anything? In answer to this, I compiled an article that collated all the impact stats from as many microvolunteering initiatives I could find – 150 ish in all. Whilst it can clearly be derived that impact is being made, there have been further calls that the impact figures I provided should be broken down yet further. Although this is beyond my time and resources, I have had a request from a major UK volunteering involved organisation namely Red Foundation to collaborate with me on the more detailed research. Once some funding is in place, it’ll be all systems go for the next tranche of research. Watch this space!
- Over the past month or so, a few enquires/opportunities have arisen whereby Help From Home has provided some tailor made caused aligned action lists to fit in with an organisation’s mission/ethos. This has inspired me to promote a new free service along those lines and already five such lists have been produced – these being for African Mothers Foundation International, It starts With Us, The Laptop Project, Cardiff County Council and a project down in London which has yet to get off the ground. This is an exciting direction to be going be going in and one which I don’t know where it will lead to.
Til next time.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
April 2011 Update
- We're looking for partner collaborations for HFH's 'Volunteer Anywhere' project to take microvolunteering into schools, employee volunteering schemes and civic engagement projects via a Facebook-esque social media interaction format where it is envisaged an income stream will be produced from quantifiable social impact reports
- We also launched our 'Change the world from just your classroom' project, which provides a free downloadable Teachers Education Pack that introduces the concept of microvolunteering to students, whilst enabling them to put into practice what they've learnt and actually volunteer within class time
- We felt the microvolunteering actions for care homes residents were lacking something, so we enhanced them with 'beneficial stimuli' tags that should allow carers to match the needs of residents with greater ease
Til next time
- We also launched our 'Change the world from just your classroom' project, which provides a free downloadable Teachers Education Pack that introduces the concept of microvolunteering to students, whilst enabling them to put into practice what they've learnt and actually volunteer within class time
- We felt the microvolunteering actions for care homes residents were lacking something, so we enhanced them with 'beneficial stimuli' tags that should allow carers to match the needs of residents with greater ease
Til next time
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