Equal Opportunities and Diversity

Overview

• Diversity: From Barriers To Bridges - VE article
  This introductory article features the following sections:
  Why don't more people volunteer?
  What kinds of barriers might stop people from volunteering?
  Why involve a broader range of volunteers?
  Where to promote volunteering
  Who to reach or target in your recruitment
  Tips for keeping your volunteers
  Ideas for adapting roles for your volunteers
  

Articles

• Making A Decision On Involving Ex-offenders - VE Information Sheet
• Making Everyone Feel At Home: part 1 - Volunteering magazine
• Making Everyone Feel At Home: part 2 - Volunteering magaine
• Diverse Appeal - Volunteering magazine
• A Recipe For Diverse Success - Volunteering magazine
• We Don't Discriminate, Do We? Welcoming Lesbian And Gay Volunteers - Volunteering magazine
• "I'm The Only Gay In The Village!": In Defence of Monitoring - Volunteering magazine
• Evaluation of the Wildlife Trusts “Unlocking the Potential” Programme - IVR bulletin
• Guidance on working with deaf or hard of hearing volunteers - The Royal National Institute for the Deaf (external link)
• How Do I Create An Equal Opportunities Policy? - Voluntary Arts Network

Examples

• Example Monitoring Form - Cambridge and District CAB (PDF)
• Example Equal Opportunities Policy - Mind in Croydon (PDF)
• Template translated letter and forms - Volunteer Centre Sheffield (MS Word and PDF)

Case Studies

• Case studies about deaf volunteers
  These case studies were researched as part of Volunteering England's project to create a website video in sign language. Eight volunteers and volunteer co-ordinators share their experiences.

Links

• Scope's Inclusive Volunteering Programme
  Scope is creating an "Inclusive Volunteering" training course for anyone working with volunteers. It will help to make volunteer-involving organisations more aware of the needs of disabled volunteers and the benefits of working with them.
  http://www.scope.org.uk/support/volunteer/
• Goldstar Exemplar Programme
  A national programme aiming to highlight good practice in working with volunteers from socially excluded groups. The website contains profiles of exemplar volunteering projects and case studies about good practice.
  http://www.goldstar.org.uk/
• Disability Rights Commission (DRC)
  An independent body established to stop discrimination and promote equality of opportunity for disabled people.
  www.drc.gov.uk
• Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)
  An independent body working to eliminate sex discrimination in Britain.
  www.eoc.org.uk
• Commission for Racial Equality (CRE)
  An independent body working towards the elimination of racial discrimination and promotes equality of opportunity
  www.cre.gov.uk
• Age Positive website
  The Age Positive campaign promotes the benefits of working with a broad range of age groups, including older and younger people.
  www.agepositive.gov.uk/
• Commission for Equality and Human Rights
  The new Commission will be a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) aiming to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people and protect human rights. The CEHR will bring together the work of the three existing Commissions, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in this new body. It launches in October 2007.
  http://www.cehr.org.uk/
  

Publications

Free publications

• Volunteering for Everyone: A guide for organisations who want to include and recruit volunteers who have a learning disability - Volunteering England and Mencap
• Involving Ex-offenders in Volunteering - Volunteering England and Nacro
• Working with Volunteers: A management guide for refugee community organisations - Volunteering England and The Evelyn Oldfield Unit
• Can Do Volunteering: a guide to involving young disabled people as volunteers - Scope and Leonard Cheshire (external link)
• Executive summary of Time To Get Equal in Volunteering: tackling disablism - Scope (external link)
• Recruiting, Retaining and Developing Disabled Volunteers - Disability Rights Commission (PDF)
• Guidance on providing British Sign Language/English interpreters: a quick reference guide - Disability Rights Commission and RNID (PDF)

Priced publications

• Route to Opportunity guides - Volunteering England
• You Cannot Be Serious! A guide to involving volunteers with mental health problems - Volunteering England
• Making Your Organisation Accessible: a mini guide - Volunteering England
• The A-Z of Volunteering and Asylum - Volunteering England
• A Part Of Society: refugees and asylum seekers volunteering in the UK - Tandem (external link)
• Time To Get Equal in Volunteering: tackling disablism - Scope (external link)
  

Share your experiences!

The Good Practice Bank is growing steadily as more information is added to it. An important feature of the Bank is allowing users to share their documents with other volunteering organisations. We are particularly interested in receiving example policies or documents that you are happy to share with others. If we use your contribution, you could win a book on volunteering from our regular prize draw.

• If your organisation has an example to contribute, please use our simple form to submit it.

• Or, please send us an email or telephone 0800 028 3304 (phone and textphone)