Task Group – Volunteering – One Haverhill Partnership

Volunteering

ONE Haverhill Partnership and specifically Haverhill Community Trust, Community Action Suffolk (CAS) and West Suffolk Council have recognised the need for a volunteer centre to provide a focus for promotion and co-ordination of volunteering opportunities and good practice in Haverhill.

This will enable Haverhill to fulfil the four core objectives of the Countywide Strategy adopted by CAS, namely:

To raise the profile of volunteering
To enable people to volunteer and be more engaged in their community
To engage employers and business leaders in providing and promoting volunteering
opportunities
To deliver enhanced services and opportunities which build social capital and local capacity

A volunteer centre acts as a focal point in the town by providing not just a transactional brokerage service for organisations looking for volunteers, but also actively promoting local volunteering opportunities to the community.

Importantly, it would also be providing a conduit to training, services and knowledge for groups as well as a communication channel for strategic bodies to reach out to the local voluntary sector.

With the help and support of partners, we are actively searching for a prominent premises in the town centre – a place where people invest their time in the community, where community groups seek out people to build social capital and where we can add value by building the capacity of the
voluntary and community sector locally.

A Business Plan has been developed and a management team, to facilitate good governance, will also be established along with the appointment of a Volunteer Centre Manager, supported by a team of volunteers to provide hands-on staffing.

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The ONE Haverhill Partnership Task Groups are set up to focus on key priorities within designated themes. Members of each task group work closely to achieve positive outcomes for the town.