Involving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender volunteers

We would particularly like to thank the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Voluntary and Community Organisations for their support and for sharing their resources here in the Good Practice Bank.

You may also like to browse the general resources in the Good Practice Bank's Core Theme on 'Equal Opportunities and Diversity'.

Articles

• 20 steps to involving LGBT volunteers - the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Voluntary and Community Organisations
• ‘Coming out as an LGBT-friendly organisation’ - Volunteering Magazine (external link)
• '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
• ‘Making organisations more accessible for young LGBT volunteers' - Youth Action Network's Activate magazine (external link)

Example, Sample and Template Documents

Do you have any examples or experiences to share with the Good Practice Bank? Click here to find out how.

• A sample equalities monitoring form covering all the equalities strands

Case Studies

The Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Voluntary and Community Organisations have compiled case studies on how a number of LBGT and non-LGBT focused organisations have successfully involved volunteers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

• Find out about how a number of LGBT organisations work with their volunteers. Includes insights from Allsorts Youth Project, Antidote, The Forum for Lesbians and Gays (Flag), The Lesbian and Gay Foundation (LGF), Derbyshire Friend and GMFA (the gay men's health charity)
• Read these tips and find out what difference LGBT volunteers make to four non-LGBT organisations. Includes insights from Age Concern Norwich, Citizens Advice, Freshwinds and Samaritans.

Links

• The Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Voluntary and Community Organisations
  Specialist Brokerage Support
  The Consortium offers a brokerage service for LGBT volunteering, advertising volunteering opportunities in LGBT organisations to hundreds of LGBT people wanting to volunteer. It is looking to expand this to non-LGBT audiences in the future.
  Good Practice Resources
  The Consortium offers a number of good practice resources for two different audiences: firstly, resources on volunteer involvement for LGBT organisations; and secondly, resources on working with LGBT volunteers in non-LGBT organisations. You can also sign up for their regular 'LGBT volunteering email newsletter'.
• Equality and Human Rights Commission
  http://www.equalityhumanrights.com
  This national Commission aims to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people and protect human rights in the UK. It covers all the equalities strands; gender, race, age, faith/religion, disability and sexual orientation.
  (The website also contains information published by the pre-existing Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) which have all closed to create the new Equality and Human Rights Commission.)
  

Toolkits and Publications

The following free guides are aimed at different types of organisation or volunteer manager and all of them will help you to put an LGBT-friendly focus on volunteer involvement.

Tips and support on involving LBGT volunteers in all volunteer-involving organisations

• InVolving LGBT volunteers (PDF)
  Includes a glossary of LGBT-related terms, frequently asked questions and advice on monitoring your numbers of LGBT volunteers.

Tips and support for working with volunteers in an LGBT organisation

• Volunteering on a Shoestring (not another toolkit!) (PDF)
  A short step-by-step toolkit for LGBT organisations wanting to involve volunteers. Includes a 'myth buster' feature about working with volunteers, top tips from LGBT organisations, a 10 step guide to involving volunteers as well as ideas for saving time and money

Ideas for developing partnership or support work with LGBT organisations

• 10 steps to involving LGBT organisations (PDF)
  A quick practical guide for volunteering infrastructure organisations on working with LGBT groups in your local area

Guidance on collecting and using monitoring data about volunteers

• Monitoring Volunteers: A guide to collecting and using data - Institute for Volunteering Research

More publications and toolkits?

• Visit the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Voluntary and Community Organisations' website for a wider range of resources aimed at LGBT organisations and non-LGBT organisations
• Visit the Equal Opportunities and Diversity theme of the Good Practice Bank for more support with creating an inclusive volunteering programme

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 (Monday-Friday, 10.30am-12.30pm and 2.00pm-4.00pm)
• We welcome calls through Typetalk/TextDirect. Please dial 18001 followed by 0800 028 3304 (opening hours as above).