This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone wishing to further their career in the voluntary or HE/FE sector. 

Are you passionate about student volunteering? Would you like to raise the profile of student volunteering in HE and FE institutions on a national basis? Would you like to see better support for the staff practitioners of student volunteering?  

New and old members are encouraged to apply; we would like to see a mix of experience, passion and enthusiasm on the committee to help make it the best year yet. 

HOW TO APPLY 
Please email jennie.mann@uwl.ac.uk for an application form 

POSITIONS AVAILABLE: 
Chair 
Vice Chair – Membership and Partnership Officer
Policy, Governance and Democracy Officer 
Communications and Social Media Officer 
Student Volunteering Week Officer
Network Development Officers (Two Positions available)
FE Development officer

 
DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: 
Deadline for nominations:                    Monday 14th July  2014
Voting starts:                                    Monday 21st July 2014
Voting closes:                                   Friday, 1st August 2014
New committee announced:          Friday 8th August 
Handover:                                          Week commencing 18th August  


Thank you 
Jennie Mann 
Chair 
Student Volunteering Network 

The first National Volunteering Staff Awards were introduced at this years National Student Volunteering Conference 2014. It's aim; to recognise the outstanding achievements and commitments of staff who champion student volunteering within HE and FE institutions across the UK. 

Check out the winners of the awards for 2014. 

Celebrating the positive impact you’ve had on the causes you care about

Introduction: Following on from the extremely successful Gold Awards run by Volunteering England, members of Student Volunteering Network championed the re-introduction of a national student volunteering award scheme.

For more information about the award and how to apply please go here

Please note, only members who have purchased their National Student Volunteering Conference ticket through here will be able to book on the workshops below. Any problems please email jennie.mann@uwl.ac.uk

                                                                                   SESSION 1 WORKSHOPS

The OFFA (Office for Fair Access) agreement; what is it and why should we engage?
Andy Coppins, Volunteer Manager, Nottingham Trent University.
Chris Scrace  OFFA

Nottingham Trent University’s volunteering department has, since 2002, sat within the Widening Participation (WP) department of the University. This has brought its challenges and opportunities over the years, but has placed it in a valuable space to be able to make use of the increased funding that has been brought into the University through OFFA funding. The way the work has developed has more closely aligned volunteering activity to outreach activity, the interaction of students with local schools, and in the opportunities volunteering gives students from WP backgrounds, throughout the student lifecycle. This presentation will talk through some of these aspects of the work and offer advice on how to engage with the WP agenda in your institution.



New Perspectives on Student Volunteering – what can we learn from North America?
Vicky Ridley, Vice Principal Collingwood College, Durham University  

Vicky Ridley has managed staff and student volunteering programmes at Durham University for several years. Last year she was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship and she spent seven weeks in the USA and Canada visiting universities to explore how they engaged with local communities, particularly through extra-curricular volunteering programmes and ‘service-learning’. In this workshop, Vicky will share some of her findings from the trip, identifying different ideas and opportunities that universities in the UK may wish to consider. She’ll cover both extra-curricular volunteering opportunities, the importance that the US universities place on student ‘reflection’ and delve into the world of ‘community-engaged teaching and learning’. 


Student  Leadership: How to facilitate leadership amongst your students 
Ruth Taylor, Community Action Manager for Student Hubs

Students now have more opportunity than ever before to make real, systematic change when it comes to social and environmental issues. This session will explore how to best support students to become leaders for social change, equipping them with the skills they need to turn vision into reality and lead innovation and change. Instead of exploring ways to recruit or support new volunteers, this session will look at ways to support students who are already very engaged, helping them progress even further in their involvement.

This session will be delivered by Ruth Taylor, Community Action Manager for Student Hubs, and will give a brief introduction to a wider programme developed and delivered by the Student Hubs Team on student social leadership.


Social Media Marketing: How to attract and engage volunteers
Anya Visegorodceva, Volunteering Coordinator, University of Essex Students’ Union

Come and find out how the vTeam at University of Essex Students’ Union uses social media to interact with volunteers and engage more people. vTeam run over 60  one-off projects a year and use mainly social media to advertise and promote them to students. If you are new to social media, or want to share your own experience or ask some questions, come along to this workshop

 

Student Volunteering Week review and planning for the future. 
Ruth Taylor, Community Action Manager & Rachel Tait, Projects Officer

This session, delivered by members of the SVW Team, will see the announcement of plans for SVW 2015, notably information regarding the national activities being planned (including the 2015 National Stunt), timeframes for the Student Volunteer of the Year Award and a new staff support programme for 2015.

Time will also be dedicated to local planning amongst ‘Student Volunteering Network’ regions, intended to give staff across neighboring institutions the opportunity to discuss possible areas of collaboration.


Problem Solving
Tony Payne, Activities Manager, Canterbury College

This structured networking session will allow you to discuss common issues with colleagues and arrive at practical solutions. We'd like you to think about areas of work you are both proud of and maybe some issues you would like to discuss.

By the end of the session you will have a clear idea of some of the key issues within student volunteering and some creative solutions to solve some of these.

 

Student Led Volunteering: Practical Implementation
Natalie Tiu, Volunteering & RAG Coordinator, Kent Union

Do you want to know how to best encourage your students to set up their own volunteering initiatives? This session will cover; structures and systems to help support your volunteers, common pitfalls and barriers to project development, and some top tips in empowering & maintaining the motivation of your volunteers.


Volunteer Brokerage: Maximising opportunities: utilising relationships with external organisations.
Fay Harris, Student Experience Manager, Keele Student Union

The session explains how KeeleSU Volunteering became the first University based Volunteer Centre branch and the benefits we derive from it. 

KeeleSU has a history of supporting students to volunteer.  Encountering problems and limitations from a range of databases and a realisation that time spent seeking volunteering opportunities for students was unsustainable, led us to re-think how we support students and deliver a brokerage service to Keele students. 

Volunteering is now embedded into the student experience at Keele, this session will also include a short overview of volunteering and the co-curriculum and the Distinctive Keele Curriculum.  

This session describes our working relationship with the University and how we have integrated volunteering into the academic programme.  


Working with the HEAR – the experience of an institution and top tips for making it work for you and your students
Chris Hoyle; Higher Education Academy (HEA),  Rosie Hunna; National Union of Students (NUS), Kate Cater;  University of Leeds, Greg Miller; University of Leeds

This session will give an introduction to the HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Report) and discuss how it can act as a tool to not only reward volunteering but also to encourage student participation and champion causes that are central to the aims of the institution. The HEAR provides a platform for recording and recognising the skills and experiences gained through volunteering and extra-curricular activities alongside academic achievements and degree classifications.

The University of Leeds will then give an example of a specific implementation within an institution. The University of Leeds has a cross-institutional process for the identification of opportunities and activities that are eligible for the HEAR. This has been an experimental and evolutionary approach which seeks to broaden the range of activity that is included whilst maintaining a consistent approach to validation. The workshop will cover the benefits and challenges of our HEAR approach specifically considering the notion of significant achievement.

There will be an opportunity to discuss specific aspects of the implementation at The University of Leeds and ask questions about alternative methods in the wider sector.

 

International Volunteering Panel Event 
A hot topic amongst our members; this panel event aims to share best practice, advice and guidance around the complexities of International Volunteering. The panel will be exploring both institutional led and the promotion of third party International Volunteering opportunities.

Student Hubs
Ruth Taylor, International Development Manager, Student Hubs
Ruth Taylor, will discuss the complexities around supporting student volunteering overseas, briefly exploring the benefits and risks of placements abroad. She will give an overview about the key ways to ensure students partake in sustainable, effective and collaborative international volunteer placements, before discussing ways to support returning volunteers to ensure continued engagement.

Ruth heads up the UK-wide Student Hubs programme Impact International, which aims to inspire students to engage critically with sustainable and impactful international volunteering. A serial International Volunteer herself, she also acts as the Volunteer Recruitment and Support Coordinator for KickStart Ghana, a small NGO that aims to support education and sport development alongside local partners based in Eastern Ghana. She has experience of developing programmes abroad, as well as supporting student volunteers pre-, during and post trip.

 Nottingham Trent University
Andy Coppins, Volunteer Manager, Nottingham Trent University.
Nottingham Trent Volunteering (NTV) works with a range of organisations and projects abroad in order to offer students some fantastic, ethically sound overseas volunteering opportunities. NTV works within the University’s Schools, Colleges and Community Outreach Team, and much emphasis is placed on enabling students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their goals, regardless of their background. We are therefore particularly interested in students applying for these International opportunities who are in receipt of the full maintenance grant, and could be put off from taking part on the basis of cost. There is some financial assistance available to support students in taking up these opportunities.

University of Leeds
Greg Miller, Student Opportunities Manager 
The University of Leeds set up its first international volunteering programme in Cambodia in 2013. Whilst relatively small scale the project was created from scratch and is managed entirely by the team. The students all receive a grant towards the costs but work as a team to fundraise for the Cambodian school they support.


Developing best practice in your management of volunteers, can IiV* help you ?
Steph Hughes, Volunteering Manager, Kent Union

We all manage and support many different groups of volunteers and the majority of us will do this in different ways. This session will introduce you to the best practice standards in volunteer management as outlined by the Investing in Volunteers standard, and how you can apply this to your organisation. We will also cover the process of going through Investing in Volunteers accreditation with tops tips to see you through the process. This session will focus on your own volunteers so will apply less so to those running a brokerage service, although it will still be beneficial in terms of best practice in volunteer management. 

*IiV is the UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer management. 


Growing Your Volunteering Department

Helen Munro, Student Volunteering Manager, Bangor University

During this workshop, we will be exploring several different approaches to expanding, and building upon existing volunteering departments within a higher education setting. We will start by recognising the varying ways in which departments fit into their institutions and the different services they offer. In what is hoped will be an active and engaging session, we will focus on several key areas:

·         Gaining recognition for your existing work

·         Using volunteers to promote the department within the university and wider community

·         Working effectively with your institution to expand your department

·         How to develop student led community volunteering projects on small budgets

Helen will share her experience of managing Student Volunteering Bangor which has grown from running 9 community projects in 2008 to 33 today. The organisation has expanded particularly greatly in the last 2 years and has tripled the number of students engaging in volunteering since October 2012.


Life after Student Volunteering with the RSPB and the Scouts

Richard Budden, RSPB and Liam Burns, The Scouting Association

Hear the experiences of two incredibly successful ex-student volunteers who have gone on to have careers in the third Sector. Richard Budden and Liam Burns both started as volunteers in Student Unions and through election to high ranking positions in the NUS, have now moved onto bigger things. Richard is now People Engagement Manager at RSPB and Liam is Head of Public Affairs at the Scouting Association. The will also talk about how you can engage with these organisations and what they are able to offer student volunteers. 

 

About: The National Student Volunteering Conference is an opportunity for staff from Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) institutions to get together, learn, network and collaborate.

It is a chance for you to feel inspired and celebrate all that you have achieved this year, at our very own debut Staff Awards.


Conference Programme
9:15       Registration and Refreshments
10:00     Welcome
10:15     Key note Speaker: Charlotte Hill, Chief Executive of Step up to Serve
10:30     Choice of workshops
11:30     Marketplace
12:00     Buffet Lunch provided, networking and marketplace
12:30     Student Volunteering Week Review and Planning
1:30       Plenary Speaker:Pat Green Volunteer Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton.
2:00       Choice of workshops
3:00       Break
3:15       Choice of workshops
4:30       Review of the year (AGM)
5:00       Staff Awards
6:00       Finish



Workshops:

*Developing best practice in your management of volunteers; can Investing in Volunteers help you?
*New Perspectives on Student Volunteering; what can we learn from North America?
*The OFFA (Office for Fair Access) agreement; what is it and why should we engage?
*International volunteering panel event. 
*Student Volunteering Week review and planning for the future. 
*Database Skill Share: A facilitated discussion for staff using internal and external volunteer management systems; to share ideas, best practice and troubleshooting
*How to grow your volunteering service  
*Leadership: How to facilitate leadership amongst your students
*Student Led Volunteering: Practical Implementation
* Volunteer Brokerage: Maximising opportunities: utilising relationships with external organisations.

More workshops to be confirmed.
Please note the free booking of workshops will be made live before the conference. 


Marketplace:
FE and HE institutions from around the UK and student volunteering partners will be showcasing a variety of innovative and successful volunteer projects, volunteer best practice, marketing and promotional ideas and other elements of volunteer sector success.

* Student Hubs
* NUS
* University of Nottingham Students' Union Volunteering
* Essex Students' Union Volunteering (VTeam)
* Royal Holloway, Community Action Volunteering 
* University of York Students' Union Volunteering
* Leeds Met Students' Union Volunteering

WiSCV Review of the year (AGM)
An opportunity for the Committee and members of WiSCV to discuss the past year and the year ahead. We ask that all motions for discussion should be submitted to the Chair jennie.mann@uwl.ac.uk at least ten days prior to the AGM. 

Staff Awards: Closing date 23rd May
Raechel Mattey of NUS, and Sara Fernandez of Student Hubs will be presenting at the debut Staff Awards 2014;which aim to encourage, reward and share good practice amongst HE and FE volunteer workers,  promoting high-quality, creative, innovative and collaborative projects and high professional standards across the HE and FE student volunteering sector.

To nominate for an award, please follow the links below 

Volunteer Staff Award 
Outstanding Newcomer Award 
Life time Achievement Award 
Regional Representative Award 
Student Union Executive Award 
Volunteer Service Award
Volunteer Brokerage Award
Volunteer Project Award
Volunteer Awards of Excellence
Partnership Award 
Student Volunteering Week Award
Student Volunteering Website Award

Student volunteering week 2013 is the 11-17 of February.

General guidance and inspiration:

See below for a brief introduction of some of the things being planned, while the document above offers a comprehensive run down of the week and offers advice and inspiration.

What's on...

Thunderclap – We’ll be hosting a thunderclap (a mass tweeting activity) on Monday 11th to launch #SVW2013. We want you to be involved. Head to the Thunderclap site to sign up with your Twitter and Facebook details. Make sure you spread the details about the thunderclap to colleagues, student officers and students so that we can raise the profile of student volunteering

Celebration event – We’re delighted to confirm that Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society will be at the celebration event in Parliament on the 13thFebruary to help us present the Student Volunteering Award winner with their certificate. We’ll release details of the winner after the event but each of the 5 students shortlisted will have a blog on the Huffington Post throughout the week.

Photo competition – The entries have been flooding in thick and fast. Make sure that you’re represented so that we can showcase the great work that your volunteering team have been doing. We’ll be tweeting the pictures during the week so watch out for your image. You can see the photo stream on flikrand find out how to submit on the SVW site. 

Social media – Make sure you’re following @SVW2013 and directing your students to the SVW facebook pages to get all the latest details about the week and activity that’s happening as well as great opportunities they can get involved in.

What can you be doing:

Coverage – Ensure the press team in your University and Students’ Union will be talking about the activities during the week. Whether it be external press coverage or internal memos to students. Ensure you’ve covered all the angles to maximise your exposure. Our media guide is a great source of information.

MP involvement – It’s not too late to get your MP involved. Use our guide to engaging with your local MP to think about how you can get them involved – if they can’t attend an event perhaps use this opportunity to start a conversation with them about your work

Recognition – A big part of SVW 2013 is about celebrating the impact and the difference that student volunteering makes to our society. Ensure you’re utilising the opportunity now and in the future to celebrate your contribution. Our short guide should help with some tips.

A bit more detail....

1) Photo competition- Deadline: 19 February 

• NUS and Student Hubs are aiming to gather 365 photographs - one for every day of the year - of students giving their time and energy to making a positive difference in the world around them. We want these photos to demonstrate as many different volunteering activities as possible, accumulating in a brilliant visual display showcasing the huge impact that student volunteers have in their local community and further afield. 

• These photographs will be available online and we’ll be creating an e-book which can be accessed to all organisations partaking in SVW 2013.

• A team from Student Hubs, NUS and Barclays will choose a photo that they think best depicts student volunteering and the impact it has to be crowned the winner of the SVW 2013 competition. The winner of the competition will receive a day with a photographer to help them create professional images showcasing their volunteering or charity work in the UK. Please note that if your image is of volunteering overseas we will ask you to nominate a charity of your choice to receive the prize in the UK. 

To find out more about the criteria for submission and how to enter your photographs, please see the document below. The deadline for submission is the 19th of February.

You can see the photo stream and more information on the SVW13 website here.

If you have any further questions regarding the SVW Photo Competition or any other area relating to SVW 2013 please don’t hesitate to contact either Ruth at Student Hubs or Fiona at NUS.

2) Student Volunteering Awards- Deadline: 15 January
This campaign will showcase five student volunteers working across a wide range of areas of community need, and based across the UK – finding the very best student volunteering talent. Taking inspiration from the Matt Spencer award we want to highlight the very best student volunteers with the winners receiving £1,000 to go towards their volunteering projects or to a charity of their choice. We’re aiming to utilise a media partner to increase the exposure of the award shortlist to increase our ability to tell their, no doubt, incredible stories. You can find more details and the application form below.

Hello WiSCV,

Thanks to everyone who attended the workers' gathering last week, and thank you as well for all your positive comments in the evaluation forms. If there's any additional feedback you'd like to pass on, do not hesitate to get in touch.

For those of you who didn't have the chance to join us, I have attached two very useful documents:

- The first one is a presentation about what the National Committee has achieved during the year

- The second one is a PDF document which explains the support available from national organisations for the WiSCV membership. This includes information from Volunteering England, Student Hubs and Impact, NUS and NCCPE.

We will be having elections online during the month of July, and we'd love to have some of you join the committee. In particular we are looking for someone to work on the website (absolutely no technical skill required, it's very easy to use) and someone to lead on FE outreach.

Best,

Sara

The WISCV national committee are now pleased to release the details of the WISCV national workers' gathering, to be held on Thursday 14th June at UCL. You can find all the details of the day, as well as instructions about buying tickets on our groupspaces event page.

Please do let me know if you have any problems navigating the page or with the online ticketing system. As you'll see from the schedule, it's shaping up to be a great event - a fantastic chance for learning and networking.  If you have any queries at all about the event, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We look forward to seeing you there!

All the best,

Amy (WISCV Communications Officer)
projects@oxfordhub.org
+44 (0) 1865 264161