A few things have happened this month which have steered me off the route I was originally taking with Help From Home, but which I thought were worth spending the time exploring.
1.There have been a few queries raised in some forums about the effectiveness of micro volunteering initiatives. These amongst others, have come from Rob Jackson, Director of Development and Innovation of Volunteering England and Jamie Thomas, Founder and Chief Executive of Red Foundation and i-volunteer. In response to this, I have decided to conduct a snap shot general overview survey of all the micro volunteer initiatives I’m aware of. This survey is now fully supported by the organisations listed above and is, I believe, the first ever survey to be undertaken of the Micro Volunteering arena. I’m aware that the results are keenly awaited by certain key people in the voluntary sector, as it is hoped the results will ignite a debate with these key decision makers as to whether micro volunteering becomes an integral part of the volunteer opportunities that Volunteer Centres can offer.
2.I’ve noticed over the past month that a few organisations that are involved in the rehabilitation of housebound people, have taken an interest in Help From Home. This is an interesting development and one that I think needs looking into as I believe it has huge potential to help housebound people gain more self worth. To this effect, I've created a Helping The Housebound and a Cheat Sheet to help this process along.
Was contacted by Charity Champs last month with a view to forming a partnership with them. Charity Champs in building a web community that acts like a loyalty program to develop socially responsible attitudes in youth through micro philanthropy. They want to integrate the micro action featured on Help From Home into their web communities. They were recent winners of the huge Aviva Community Fund competition and with that boost of credibility behind them are now full steaming ahead on their vision.
Urbantastic.com, a Canadian website that featured local micro volunteering opportunities in Canadian cities in closing down. Who cares? I do as they were kind enough to offer to redirect their traffic to Help From Home. This means more people in their pyjamas doing wonderful things. Ooh err, missus!
Til next time.
