15. Have you any suggestions for volunteers who would like to volunteer from their own home?

Sadly, as yet, there are not that many opportunities for volunteering from home. This is a great pity as there are many elderly and housebound people, as well as carers and others who are attracted to volunteering at home. The most common opportunities are telephone befriending, and letter writing to campaign or fundraise. Other possibilities are administrative work, pet sitting, knitting for premature baby units, cooking and teaching. There are more ideas, case studies and good practice guidance in 'Volunteering from home', available online from www.vds.org.uk .

Another idea is virtual volunteering. At present the best website is the Virtual Volunteering Project site at www.serviceleader.org/vv which has links to hundreds of other organisations. Also www.netaid.org.uk .