Doing WHAT for free?!

I am so excited about this years National Volunteers' Week as it is such a great opportunity to shout about how brilliant volunteers are and highlight what a varied and often quite challenging roles they do.

I am pleased that for once, I've been organised - often (I have to confess), that the lead up to National Volunteers' Week has passed me by, and like some other events, the fact that nationally and locally publicity about different events starts to step up just before it, its often only then I notice that its coming up. This isn't because I don't think its important, its often about competing priorities and all too often, constantly working away on what ever presents itself in my in tray! BUT note to self, I have now made sure its firmly fixed in the annual events diary to ensure we give it the attention it deserves!

SAFE@LAST has approximately 170+ volunteers on its database! WOW!
This includes dedicated volunteers that do a range of very different things: from volunteers who bake cakes and gorgeous food for occasional events (maybe a couple of times every few months), to people who volunteer on our childrens helpline on a weekly basis, listening to children at risk through running away and hearing their stories about abuse and neglect etc.

Whilst we have a great staff team for example, who lead on prevention work (Runaway Education Officers in Rotherham and Sheffield), MISPER (Missing Persons Team Project Workers) etc SAFE@LAST would not be able to offer all the vital services that they do to vulnerable young runaways, or indeed raise as much money as we do, without the support of volunteers. Check out our volunteering web pages to get an idea about what our volunteers get up to http://www.safeatlast.org.uk/volunteering.1.htm

So...???
For Volunteers' Week we have organised a wide range of activities from street collecting (in fancy dress as superheros...because thats what our volunteers are!) through to a pamper evening thanks to The Body Shop At Home and a great 'because we're worth it: picnic in the park' for volunteers which will see us play rounders, twister and other such fun things, as well as present the volunteer of the year award. http://www.safeatlast.org.uk/Volunteersweek2010.htm

As well as all this, we also are campaigning for our volunteers to SPREAD THE WORD! and tell at least one new person EVERY DAY during Volunteers' Week about SAFE@LAST and what we do...170+ number of volunteers doing this each day for a week = a lots of new people finding out about support for runaways! Go on, spread the word!

Happy volunteering!

REFUGE@LAST

With just a week to go, all at SAFE@LAST are looking forward to showcasing our fantastic work at our national conference 'REFUGE@LAST' on Wed 5 May 2010 at Sheffield City Hall.

We will be proud to invite guest speakers and workshop presenters on a wide range of issues relating to the work we do with vulnerable young runaways who have been thrown out, abused, bullied or for other distrubing reasons.

The conference will also focus on our unique practice relating to emergency accommodation for the most vulnerable and at risk children through our refuge provision. We are now the ONLY provider of a childrens refuge for young runaways in the UK - we have the ONLY 2 BED SPACES! Our SAFEPLACE refuge that was launched in April 2007 has undergone an independent evaluation and through this conference, we hope to disseminate our good practice. We have lost count the number of times we have been asked by all sorts of organisations about our work and in particular our refuge service, so we thought what better way to give people an insight and to hopefully inspire them and share with them our learning in getting a better deal for young runaways.

2010 marks SAFE@LAST's 10th year anniversary, another good reason to share our learning.

Please consider booking on to this conference or at the very least tell others who work or volunteer in the childrens sector about it - definately NOT TO BE MISSED!

http://www.refugeatlast.org.uk

Promotion in Doncaster

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the 'Unity in the community' event, held at Doncaster Racecourse and organised by Doncaster Federation of Tenants & Residents Association.

Whilst getting up for such things (7:30am on a Saturday morning) seems a challenge, I'm really glad I went along as it was a fantastic, well organised and attended event. I didn't know what to expect as we had never been before. The hall was massive and there were dozens and dozens of organisations and agencies.

SAFE@LAST still isn't particularly well known in Doncaster, especially in comparison to our profile say in Rotherham or even Sheffield so it seemed an ideal opportunity to spread the word about our important services (helpline, MISPER project, prevention services and refuge) as well as gaining new supporters and volunteers. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of a response from our volunteers to help out - those that may have come along already had plans and to be fair, Doncaster is quite a way from many of our volunteers who live in Sheffield and Rotherham...all the more reason for recruiting a new team from Doncaster, I kept telling myself whilst getting out of bed on a saturday morning!!

It was definately worth it. Several people actually took volunteer application packs and others signed up to be on our mailing list or to receive more information about how they can get involved. I think I have finally perfected my 'pitch', even if I do say so myself, by drawing on my friends - "if you are the sort of person who would cry if you volunteered on the helpline, then perhaps helping out in the office or at our events, may be a better role for you" I tell them. It seemed to work and seemed to be at the right level and I've got lots of leads to follow up.

I've also been inspired by the work of Claire Walsh at Voluntary Action Sheffield who is currently recruiting for 'volunteer ambassadors', roles which I think would work for SAFE@LAST and help to address the difficulties of covering local stalls say in Barnsley or Doncaster, by recruiting and training local members of the community to take on these roles in their area.

Watch this space! If you would be interested in this, please let me know.

Partnership working in Sheffield

Yesterday I attended the Sheffield Integrated Domestic Abuse Service stakeholder meeting with both my SAFE@LAST and my sector representative hat on. It was interesting to hear about the developments of the service which is due to go live in April and launch in May aimed to provide an inclusive service for all who are affected by domestic abuse. The service will include a wide range of 'wrap around services' including a new 0800 helpline, a city-wide community outreach service, joint working teams involving the police, social care services and others and an education/prevention approach etc.

Whilst I've heard some of the facts and stats quoted about prevalence of domestic abuse before, the figures are still shocking and of great concern relating to just the Sheffield picture.

With the Government now having a national 'violence against women and girls' strategy and the associated TV advert campaign, domestic abuse should be on everyone's agenda and awareness more than ever before http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/violence-against-women1/ of course the challenge will be to maintain that momentum especially in times of inpending public sector spending cuts and indeed a potential change in administration with the general election.

We know that domestic abuse issues can be those that feature in a young runaways situation as they can be the victim of emotional, financial, sexual or physical abuse. It is therefore important that we continue to keep abreast of the developments that are happening and to ensure that we are valued partner in helping to shape the work and service provision.

The co-location of a social work team with other key services as part of the Integrated Domestic Abuse Service will be a significant asset. The response to the hundreds of domestic abuse incidents referred to social care services every single day where a child has been witness to or present abuse, can only be improved by this closer joint working.

Of course the challenge will be making it work and also as we look more and more to move to a 'one stop shop' approach to key issues and areas, is there a danger that what we are actually doing is developing several 'one stop shops' which are therefore not the one port of call, by definition? Whilst access should improve as the long list of numbers is reduced to one or two, as more one stop shops are created, the list of numbers increases and can still be confusing.

What is important is, at the end of the day, we must not loose sight about why go down such a road - its not about being precious about who provides the support or where that service is located, although not to recognise there are some tricky issues to iron out here is not being realistic, its about getting a better deal for people affected by these issues and making Sheffield a better place for people to live, work and play.

Volunteer Recruitment

Another busy week! Like the last few weeks, I've had just a couple of days actually in the office but have caught up on replying to most of the volunteering enquiries. We've just updated the volunteering pages on our website www.safeatlast.org.uk where a volunteer application form can be downloaded.

My focus over the next couple of weeks will be to recruit to the last few places on the next training for helpline volunteers. This will take place towards the end of April. Recruiting more volunteers to this team will help ensure we keep staffing our helpline aimed at vulernable children at risk through running away. You don't need to have any experience - you might be the person you're friends always come to when they need to offload.

Helpline volunteers tell us they really value being there for children. "Even if its a quiet duty, which can happen, I'm always happy to have given up just a few hours and take comfort in knowing we weren't needed tonight" said one helpline volunteer. Her duty partner added, "we know of course that not all kids know that we are here if they need to call, so we were really happy helping to put a mailout together for the marketing campaign whilst the phone was quiet tonight, sending posters to schools, youth groups, leisures centres etc, so they know we are here".

Children can call the helpline on 0800 335 SAFE, text SAFE+message to 60777 or webchat www.safeatlast.co.uk/chat

If you are interested in volunteering with SAFE@LAST, contact me in the office on 01909 566977, email m.smith@safeatlast.org.uk or see http://www.safeatlast.org.uk/volunteering.1.htm

Just starting out...!

Please bare with me whilst I get use to this! Any tips?