EYV 2011 in England

The Office for Civil Society developed a national work programme for England in collaboration with representatives of the voluntary and community sector.

The programme focused on four national priorities and five themes that ran consecutively throughout 2011.

Four key national priorities

1. Encourage and enable individuals to make a contribution within their communities and help solve social issues by volunteering.
2. Promote good practice across all sectors in developing of effective employer supported volunteering (ESV) programmes.
3. Identify and share good practice and resources relating to effective volunteer management.
4. Promote good practice in opening doors to volunteering opportunities to those traditionally less likely to volunteer (e.g. disabled people, those from minority ethnic backgrounds, the unemployed etc.).

The five themes

1. Young People and Children - March and April
2. Environment - May and June
3. Sport - July and August
4. Culture and the Arts - September and October
5. Health and Social Care - November and December

The Office for Civil Society funded five organisations to take the lead in encouraging the development of volunteering in relation to the themes, and three other organisations to lead on year-long themes. 

1. Children and Young People - v in collaboration with Catch22
2. Environment - Groundwork West Midlands
3. Sport - Sports Coach UK / runningsports
4. Culture and the Arts - Arts and Business
5. Health and Social Care - Age UK

Three themes from priorities 2, 3 and 4

1. Employer Supported Volunteering - led by Volunteering England
2. Volunteer Management - led by Volunteer Centre Warrington
3. Opening the Door to Volunteering - led by Attend

Sharing learning

In addition to the eight themes, Volunteering England was funded to support the lead organisations in sharing the learning from their themes. This involved helping the lead organisations to:

• identify key learning points;
• share key learning points between lead organisations; and
• disseminate key learning points across the public, private and voluntary sectors.