Our annual Connecting Communities conference is back. As always, we bring speakers, ideas and opportunities to think outside the box. This year’s theme is Motivate and Engage, reflecting on how we motivate our volunteers and use techniques to engage new audiences. Throughout the three events, we have speakers who bring you the theory and those who are putting it into practice.

This three-day event aims to bring ideas, thoughts and better practices to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, giving those working with volunteers the confidence to face the challenges following the pandemic. We are excited for you to join us.

Following this week, Support Cambridgeshire partners CCVS will be offering a Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers workshop, which will be run online on the 6th of July. The workshop is free to attend to any Cambridgeshire organisation, and we welcome those working with volunteers and trustees to participate. To read more about the training, CLICK HERE.

The Speakers

We are so lucky to be joined by various amazing speakers for this year’s conference.

Scroll through to read their biographies by clicking the arrows >>>

 

The Events 

We have three very different events for you to take place in. Some are more interactive than others, and they all will allow you to ask questions about the topic to the speakers. Click the link below to book the events which catch your eye.

Recruiting volunteers can be tricky. However, motivating and engaging them once they agree to help can sometimes be just as difficult. At this event, we get to hear from various organisations about their techniques for motivating and engaging current volunteers.

We started by hearing from Alan Bennett, from The Scouts, about their approach when setting up their new Squirrels, which allows boys and girls from 4 to 6 years old to engage with the Scouting movement. Alan covered what The Scouts did differently to ensure this volunteer-led initiative in this climate was successful across the UK.

Alan’s slides can be seen HERE

Alan’s talk will be followed by local community groups discussing their techniques and challenges. We will also hear the volunteers’ voices and get their perspectives.

Ramsey Neighbourhoods Trust spoke about how they go about recruitment but also retainment of their different volunteers; we also heard from Alison, one of their long-standing volunteers, on why she continues to come back.  Read their slides HERE

This session was not be recorded.

Volunteer involvement is ubiquitous, complex, and constantly changes with the societies in which it takes place, its characteristics determined by the communities undertaking it. Volunteer involvement relies on the choices of individuals, their power to act on them and the relationships arising when acting with others, sharing purposes and determination.

In this session, Dr Jurgen Grotz explored what this can mean in day-to-day volunteer involvement and, together, talked through a few exercises for reflective practice.

Jurgens slides and references to research can be found HERE

This session was not be recorded.

Have you ever wondered how volunteering works across the world? How do other countries volunteer differently, and can we learn anything from their techniques, views and trends?

We where very excited to welcome back Rob Jackson to our Connecting Communities Conference. Rob has spoken several times at the conference about volunteer recruitment and retainment in the UK. This year we are drawing on his wider understanding of the sector globally. In this session, he will be joined by Martin Cowling, a volunteer expert with expertise globally but most notably in Australia.

Between the two, they covered what the data shows us about volunteering in the UK and, further afield, looked at the challenges and possible solutions while also challenging the assumptions around volunteering.

Rob and Martin’s slides can be found HERE

This session was not be recorded.