Capital Mass



94996080645 St Luke’s Older People Project00 St Luke’s Older People Project231457514859000 How to run an Older People’s Project at your churchDocument Control Information Document titleHow to run St Luke’s Older People’s ProjectProject titleSt Luke's Older People’s ProjectDocument AuthorCatherine TalvazProject Owner St Luke'sProject CoordinatorCatherine TalvazProject SupervisorJon MarchDocument version1SensitivitymediumDate31/08/2016Document Approver(s) and Reviewer(s): Name PositionRoleDate approved/reviewedJon March VicarApprover31/08/2016Church CouncilReviewerDocument history: The Document Author is authorized to make the following types of changes to the document without requiring that the document be re-approved: * Editorial, formatting, and spelling * Clarification Changes to this document are summarized in the following table. Revision referenceDateCreated byShort description of changes1Original versionC. TalvazOriginal versionTABLE OF CONTENTS Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.Introduction PAGEREF _Toc460408759 \h 42.Project Summary PAGEREF _Toc460408760 \h 43.Budget (2015) PAGEREF _Toc460408761 \h 74.How we do it from the practical side PAGEREF _Toc460408762 \h 91)How to find members PAGEREF _Toc460408763 \h 92)Who are the members? PAGEREF _Toc460408764 \h 93)Planning PAGEREF _Toc460408765 \h 114)How to choose venues and activities for events PAGEREF _Toc460408766 \h 125)Invitations PAGEREF _Toc460408767 \h 136)Telephone follow-up on invitations PAGEREF _Toc460408768 \h 147)Travelling on the minibus PAGEREF _Toc460408769 \h 158)Types of events PAGEREF _Toc460408770 \h 159)Tea-parties PAGEREF _Toc460408771 \h 1510)Lunch Club for 30 people PAGEREF _Toc460408772 \h 2211)Outings PAGEREF _Toc460408773 \h 2312)Safeguarding PAGEREF _Toc460408774 \h 2313)Risk assessment of outing venues PAGEREF _Toc460408775 \h 2414)How to find volunteers PAGEREF _Toc460408776 \h 2415)Insurance PAGEREF _Toc460408777 \h 2516)Newsletter PAGEREF _Toc460408778 \h 2517)Yearbook PAGEREF _Toc460408779 \h 3318)Funding PAGEREF _Toc460408780 \h 3519)Annex 1: risk-assessment form (Google survey) PAGEREF _Toc460408781 \h 3720)Annex 2: Volunteer Application form PAGEREF _Toc460408782 \h 4421)Annex 3: Volunteer Signed Agreement. PAGEREF _Toc460408783 \h 49IntroductionThis document presents St Luke’s Older People’s Project. It gives detailed explanations on how to run a similar project.Project SummarySLKTOPP began early 2012. At that time it consisted only of tea-parties and befriending and had about 20 members. Two years later the number of members had doubled. The decision was then taken to increase activities to offer lunches and outings as well as tea-parties, but to discontinue the befriending. In April 2014, the programme as it is known today started.SLKTOPP is open to people of all backgrounds and physical ability… we fit everyone in. Our oldest member is 98 years old. 78% of our members are over 75. 40% are disabled or cognitively impaired.The minibus is a crucial part of what we do. For many of our members, our events are the only time when they get to experience social and cultural events that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend due to their mobility challenges and limited means. By providing escorted door-to-door transport, we enable them to safely continue going out.2962275000 What we doSLKTOPP’s main objective is to reduce isolation and loneliness of the “fourth age” members of our local community and the surrounding area, by helping them to get out and make new acquaintances and friends in their age group as well as intergenerational relationships within the local community. Our events serve as a means to reach this aim, so that although we strive to make the events enjoyable and entertaining, we are always deliberately creating space for new friendships to blossom. We maximize our time by organizing events where people can talk and make friends, like lunches, tea-parties and outings (e.g. picnics, pub lunches or music recitals). At our events, walking is restricted to the absolute minimum. We also include our members as much as we can in the organization of the project, so that they get the pleasure of feeling useful. It is the members who decide where we go on outings, who recommend new members, and one of our youngest members (Doris, 73 years old) edited the yearbook.During our events the ratio of volunteers to members is 1 to 4, which is enough to cater for our cognitively-impaired members Crucially, members become less dependent on us as they form bonds with others in the community. We concentrate on creating a fun, relaxed and loving atmosphere favourable to developing new friendships. We connect people by introducing them to each other, leading them into conversations with other members, encouraging them to meet or make contact outside of our activities. To keep in touch and keep interest going between events, we send out 4 quarterly newsletters that contain a brief summary of each event with several pictures of members at each event (we are very careful to include pictures of everyone). A key aspect of the project is the yearbook of all members containing pictures and interesting facts about each of them which we handed out to everyone. It was based on more than 40 hours of individual interviews. This yearbook contains pictures, birthdays, funny anecdotes and many facts about each of our members. We produced it keeping in mind the memory difficulties that some of our members experience so we mainly asked questions about their childhood and first jobs. Thanks to this book, our volunteers can get to know our members quite well in a short period of time and the members can get to know one another by reading at their own pace in the comfort of their own home. There are no barriers to membership through religion, belief, mental ability or lifestyle – all are welcome and treated equally. There is also no expectation that anyone would join in the wider life of St Luke’s if they don’t wish to. The same applies to our volunteers. We interviewed our volunteers and 100% of them feel more integrated in the community thanks to their work with SLKTOPP. We always make a point of chatting to everyone including new volunteers. We introduce them to everyone and we see to their needs as well as to the needs of our older members.Budget (2015)ItemAnnual Cost (?)Events and activities11 lunches11 outings6 tea-parties50 Christmas hampers15 gardening projects1 yearbook4 quarterly newsletters10690Staff costs 1 part-time employee (including Employer national Insurance and pay-roll fees) or a devoted volunteer 3 full days a week. We have a part-time employee. variableOperating costs covered by St Luke’s, Free full-time use of office and equipment all year round and church building 30 days a year.0Time donated by St Luke’s volunteers (711 hours)0Total 10690 + cost of staff if anyHow our costs are calculatedTea-Party for 45 people (average number of attendees)per eventnumber of instances per yearcost per yearfood and supplies80transport (minibus)165TOTAL COST245112695??Lunch for 35 people (average number of attendees)?food and supplies210transport (minibus)165TOTAL COST375114125??Outing for 14 people (average number of attendees)?food and supplies40transport (minibus)165TOTAL COST20561230??Outing for 28 people (average number of attendees)?food and supplies40transport (minibus)400TOTAL COST44041760Christmas presents?Nice tin of biscuits at approx ? 7 each350wrapping costs25TOTAL COST375375Gardening and practical help (annual costs)?Window cleaning equipment and products30Gardening costs (soil, a few plants for disadvantaged members)200TOTAL COST230230Newsletter and Yearbook (annual costs)?Paper (5000 pages)25colour copies on our own printer250TOTAL COST275275TOTAL annual COST and supplies and services??10690How we do it from the practical sideHow to find membersWe recommend the following possible ways, don’t hesitate to be creative and find new ones!Ask around: a lot of people you know probably have an elderly neighbour or friend who might like to come. Ask the person you know to ask the older person whether they would welcome a home visit by you to present your activities (e.g. free monthly tea-party). Experience shows that this is the best way – if you just send written information people never come – they need to feel reassured by meeting the organiser first, so they know that on the day they will know someone present. Even if they don’t come they usually enjoy the visit!Make use of who/what’s near you – ask your local social workers if they can recommend anyone, ask neighbouring churches who don’t run anything for older people if they have any congregation members who might like to join the club, ask local sheltered housing wardens if they have people to recommend.Your local authority has a department for supporting older people – find out who could recommend potential members there.Ask other charities running activities for the elderly – if they run activities on a Monday, e.g., they might recommend people to you for your tea-parties on Saturday (and vice-versa). Put flyers on the counter at the chemists and ask the chemist to recommend the project to elderly isolated people.Ask your local GP surgery if they would agree to let you host an event at their surgery where they would invite isolated elderly patients and you would present your activities to them while e.g. serving free coffee and biscuits. Place an ad in the local newspaper (or even better get an article written presenting what you do and how to get in touch), …Get in contact with your local branch of Age UK ( follow this link to a page that helps you find your local branch )Who are the members?It is impossible to run a project like this without having good up-to-date details for each of your members, in an easy-to-update database. At St Luke’s we use ChurchApp, which enables us to keep details like name, address, phone, date of birth, but also to make notes (for example on particular dietary restrictions or illnesses/disabilities we should be aware of). Most importantly, we can record dates of events and keep track of who is coming to future events as well as which past events people have attended, both for Members and for Volunteers.Membership fees: At the beginning of each year we ask for an annual membership fee of ?10 per member (we can cover membership fees in case of financial difficulties, and we have done so in a couple of cases). This creates the feeling of belonging for the members who feel that they are members of a club. When new potential members are contacted we let them try out 2 activities before they decide to become members.PlanningPlanning needs to be done a year at a time, for example covering the period from January to January. Excel is a great tool for creating a calendar easy to modify and easy to use for invitations. For a planning running from January to January, the planning should be complete by the end of August at the latest. This is extremely important as you will need to reserve the building and the minibuses several months in advance. The Project Coordinator should take into consideration his/her annual leave and foresee periods where it is possible to leave for 2-3 weeks. As long as outing dates are fixed, locations can be decided later (as long as they are decided before the invitations are sent out). We don’t hold activities in August as it becomes almost impossible to find volunteers.Examples?outing?lunch?tea-partyHow to choose venues and activities for eventsVenues: Once a year, we ask our members if there are any venues they would like to go to. They have a lot of experience and often come up with good ideas. If there is an outing they particularly like, it’s not a problem to go back every year. A particular favourite for our members is the River Cruise on the Lady of the Lee Valley in Broxbourne. We also find ideas of our own, by asking around and researching on the internet.Here are some favourites: annual outing to a shopping centre, preferably one month before Christmas, picnic outing to a park in summer (choose a park that has a covered café in case of rain), outing to a church giving free lunchtime concerts, outing to visit a garden or garden centre (in this case there needs to be a nice café so the less able members can sit and chat while the others walk around), annual traditional Christmas lunch in a pub.After a list of ideas has been compiled, it’s important to check out the venues by phone to see if they are accessible to disabled people, if the bus can park close to the entrance, if there is a disabled toilet, how much walking there is in total on the outing (for example, if we are going to a pub, how far from the car park to the table where we will be sitting). If the venue seems to fit the requirements, we then do a first risk-assessment visit to confirm its suitability. Then it is good practise to call on the day before to make sure the venue is all right (for example no works in the car park that would make it difficult for the members to walk). See risk-assessment form – Annex 1.Activities:When choosing activities, it’s always a good idea to see if members have any ideas. For example we have a member whose hobby is to make greeting cards, and she has helped to run an activity, advising us on what supplies to buy and showing us how to do it. This activity was very successful at Easter and by popular demand we will be doing it again before Christmas. It has many advantages: members feel proud of themselves for making something, it encourages contact as people help each other, and then the cards can be sent to friends and family, thus enabling more contact.Other examples of popular activities: Musical and general knowledge quiz (music covering from the 30s to the 70s included). We make the questions fun and easy as the objective is to have fun. The answer forms should have the questions printed out in large print so that members who are a bit deaf can still participate to the general knowledge round.Sing-song: particularly enjoyed by our members who are suffering from dementia, creates a great congenial atmosphere. Booklets should be prepared beforehand with the words printed in large characters (16) so that everyone can participate. A musician volunteer from church leads the music.Show by local childrenShow by local amateur theatre groupGood to know : don’t bore people or they might not come back ! Talks (e.g. presentation by a local Health Worker or MP …) should not last more than 20 minutes so that there is still time for the members to talk about it between themselves afterwards. It’s important never to forget that the main goal of the socials is to get people to chat and make friends. The activity is only the means to the end, it serves as a conversation point and motivation for people to come out. Fun activities like sing-songs, quizzes or making cards can last longer.InvitationsInvitations are sent out 4 times a year, for events coming in the next three months. Our members receive an A4 size list of all events, in an easy to read (Arial size 12 characters, everything on the same page) and easy to reply format. A stamped self-addressed envelope is included (experience shows that the easier we make it, the more replies are received). A calendar designed to keep at home is also included to help people remember the dates (a big issue for our members). To make sure people don’t miss our invitations, we print our logo on the envelopes. We always indicate if the event is free or not, and, if not, what the cost will be. We also indicate the amount of walking if it is further than the usual 100 yards.Invitations should be sent out at least 1 month before the first event, to allow people time to reply and the Coordinator time to process the answers (all recorded in ChurchApp) A self-addressed envelopeTelephone follow-up on invitationsBecause of the specificities of our members, sending out invitations with SAEs is not sufficient. Our experience shows that we get 30% extra members at events if we phone them all up the week before to remind them and to encourage them to come. For example, for an event coming on Tuesday, we call them all on Thursday morning. This enables us to produce a precise list of who needs to be picked up by the minibus. We send this list by email to both the transport company and the bus driver, so that the information does not get lost. Phoning is also important as it enables us to check up on our members. We make sure we spend a few minutes on the phone with each of them, asking how they are and engaging them in chitchat. Because we phone on the weeks where there are no events, this means that our members hear from us each week, either because they are coming to an event or on the phone.Example of bus pick-up list.Travelling on the minibusThe minibus is a very important part of the events. From informal talks with our members we know they consider the trip as part of the activity. Because our members cannot get out and about easily, they really enjoy going round the local area in the bus to pick up other members. During the trip they chat to each other and notice things going on locally such as roadworks being done or shops changing hands. We use a minibus that has a lift at the back (for people who cannot manage steps) and enough room to store several walkers and folded wheelchairs (something to check before you rent or buy a minibus). Our members can mostly manage the steps into the minibus, but for a few of them it is too much. We pick everyone up from their house. A volunteer escorts the driver from start to finish, to help to open the minibus door and to lend an arm to help the member get in. Five minutes before getting to a person’s house, we ring them up from the bus so that they can get their coat on and come downstairs (if they can). For those with mobility difficulties the escort goes into their flat and helps them all the way to the bus. For this reason the volunteer who does the bus escort needs a DBS check. Our driver has a DBS too (look for companies that evidence-check their drivers).We traditionally have a collection on the way home. Members usually give ?2 each to help towards covering the costs (which are actually of between 6 and 12 ? each, depending on the number of people attending an event). That way the members feel that they are helping and that makes them feel good about themselves. Types of eventsWe run three types of events:Tea-partiesSocial Club (lunch + activity)OutingsFor all these events, it is important to check that the building has a disabled lavatory in working order, that there are no steps and that the walking distance between the minibus and the event is minimal.Tea-partiesTea-parties are the most cost-efficient activities. Tea-Party for 45 people (average number of attendees)per eventfood and supplies80transport (minibus)165TOTAL COST245Two weeks before: find volunteers Contact potential volunteers by mail and/or phone. To run a successful tea-party, you need an absolute minimum of 6 people, but it is much better if you can get 8-15 volunteers. You need to get a firm commitment from your volunteers, so don’t hesitate to explain to them how last-minute cancellations wreaks havoc in the organization (and can be dangerous as a minimum number of people must be present to ensure safety). At the latest 1 week before you must have a definite list of who will be coming to help out. If the tea-party is from 2-4pm, you will need volunteers to come at 1pm to help set up and to stay until 5pm to clear away. If you have 8-10 volunteers, you could ask 4 of them to come at 1 and they could leave at 4, and then the others to come at 2 and leave at 5. It’s easier to find volunteers when the hours are not too long.The most important volunteer is the one who does the bus escort. As this is a hard job (you miss most of the fun), we cannot always find a volunteer to do it. On those occasions we resort to paying someone we know and trust to do it.Description of the volunteer role (could be used to advertise on a volunteering site all year round (eg see ) – this is a good way to find people who are not members of the congregation and to start getting them involved in church life). OpportunityWe are looking for people to help out with tea-parties that we hold once a month on a Saturday for the elderly. We need people to help with;setting up tables and chairsserving tea and food to about 40 membersclearing up afterwardshelping people to get to/from the bus.Most importantly we chat to our members during the two hours where they are present and make sure the atmosphere is relaxed and joyful.??What benefits will the volunteer get from this opportunity?Our members are quite elderly (the average age is 81 and our oldest member is 98), quite isolated, and often ill or disabled. As a result this project is a life-line for most of them, they are very grateful... and they show it! The volunteers will get thanked and complimented often and as a result will feel useful and happy. It feels like having many loving parents/grandparents. Moreover they will get to know many people in Kentish Town as all the members are all local. This is why we are preferably looking for local volunteers.????What training will you provide?No training is necessary but the tasks will be shared out at the beginning of the day so that everyone knows what they are doing. It is a good opportunity to learn how to work with older people. What skills or qualifications does this opportunity require?Just a good pair of arms and legs (for moving chairs, helping people off the bus into the church and serving food). Also lots of patience and a good listening ear.?Volunteers also have to be able to maintain a conversation in English. Two weeks before: checklist of non-perishable supplies and equipmentCheck that’s it’s all there and in working orderList of needed equipment?6 Tables (seating 8 people each)?60 Chairs?Tablecloths (we used to buy paper ones but now we re-use oilcloths, they are more ecological and cheaper in the long run and they look nicer)?60 Mugs (in case a lot of volunteers come)?3 knives?60 tea-spoons?6 good size milk jugs (so as not to have to keep filling them up)?6 sugar bowls?60 paper cups in case people want to drink water ?80 paper plates (one each for members and volunteers plus plates for serving food)?60 paper napkins?Tea-urn (minimum 20 L capacity)?Coffee percolator (if possible professional model to be able to quickly make 2 L of coffee when needed)?6 large tea-pots (metal is the best option to avoid breakage, and they are easier to put away)?2 thermos flasks of 2 L each (for the coffee which is prepared before the event)?Coffee filters?1 roll of kitchen paper (for spillages)?2 dustbin bags? One week before: Phone members and send the bus pick-up listOne week before you already have a pre-list of who is attending or not thanks to the members who sent their answer forms back (see REF _Ref454359403 \r \h 5) REF _Ref454359414 \h Invitations ). However, you still need to call up the members who didn’t send the forms back at all to see if they want to come (some of our members can no longer write or become very forgetful – so they must be called up before each event to see if they want to come or not). Now you have a list you can use a few days before the event.Then, 3 days before the event (on Wednesday if the party is on Saturday), you call everyone who is on the list to make sure that they are still coming. If they are being picked-up you remind them around what time the transport is coming. You can then prepare the bus pick-up list and email it to the bus company (try to get the driver’s email too and put him in copy).The day before : checklist of perishable suppliesBelow is an example of what to buy and prepare for a tea-party. Remember that older people don’t eat very much as a general rule. Buy everything the day before and store it in the fridge. On top of the food described in the table below you will also need the following 4 items:100 tea-bags?3 bags of coffee (enough to make at least 8L)?2 kg of sugar (cubes or sachets)?1.5 gallon of milk (12 pints)?On the day : day plan 11.00 - 12.00??? Supermarket ‘home delivery’ arrives with Food delivery. Someone must be at church.12.00??? Bus driver meets Escort at Church to begin pick-ups12.00 – 14.00??? Pick-ups proceed - furthest from church are collected first. Escort phones up members 5 minutes before getting to their place so they can get ready (put on their coats, take their bags, come to the door) 12.30- 13.00??? Volunteers arrive and are briefed on what to do. Subsidiary roles are shared out – everyone primarily serves and chats but they each get an extra responsibility (e.g. someone is responsible for checking that there always is enough hot water, someone is responsible for checking that there is sugar and milk on the tables, someone is responsible for making sure the outside door is set ajar and not wide open so the church doesn’t get too cold, someone takes pictures of the event …). Volunteers are also briefed about members with special needs (Alzheimer’s, disability, diabetes…).13.00-14.00 Set up church, set out food, chairs and tables, lay the tables with paper plates and napkins, mugs, tea-spoons, milk jug and sugar. Also decorations, set-up music/entertainment, lights, make coffee and put into thermos flasks, turn water urn on and get the tea-pots out.13.45 - 14.15??? Members arrive at church (either by minibus or by their own means when they can) and are welcomed, escorted inside (helped to walk if necessary) greeted and seated by volunteers. A presence list of all volunteers and members is drawn up. We call everyone by their first names and make sure we mention their name when we greet them. This makes them feel much more welcome.14.00 – 15.45??? Food is served and eaten; volunteers circulate to serve and chat to guests making sure all are included and made to feel welcome, special and valued. If there are any new members they are introduced to other members with whom they have things in common. 15.00 – 16.00??? Quiet and discreet clean-up during activity - clearing away used crockery, rubbish etc and moving things to vestry area to be washed, dried and stored.15.45 - 16.00 ????Tea-party ends - participants escorted to transport, thanked for attending and ensure all participants have their bags, coats, hats, gloves, walking aids etc.16.00 - 16.45??? Volunteers complete cleaning and clearing of church, storing crockery away safely and returning chairs/tables to correct locations, vacuum cleaning and putting back the chairs ready for the Sunday morning service. Ensure any reusable table cloths are wiped, dried and carefully folded before storing. The church is checked for cleanliness, safety and security and locked-up - keys are returned if necessary.16.00 – 18.00??? Drop-offs occur - participants are escorted into their homes if needed. The driver takes the escort home if local or drops him/her at a bus or underground station.The day after : keeping statisticsOn the following day, you need to record administrative data and pictures and file receipts, indicating for what event they were. Also, if possible write the article for the newsletter as it is much easier to do when it’s fresh in your mind.Administrative data:In ChurchApp you have the previously recorded list of members and volunteers who had said they were coming. Now you must update this list so that it reflects the exact names and numbers of people who actually showed up. This is important in the long run as it enables you to make statistics on how the project is progressing (are more/less people coming? Who are the volunteers who come most often? How much is an event costing on average?...). It is also crucial if you decide to apply for funding as potential funders require this kind of information (and they require it from before the time when you decide to apply!).Pictures: Always keep several photos of each event. They can be used for the newsletter, but also for funding (as proof that you really do what you say).Newsletter: (example)Our Christmas tea-party was on Saturday 5th December. Many members had embraced the Christmas spirit by adorning themselves with various seasonal earrings, brooches and jumpers. Gina’s daughters S. and W. treated us to a Christmas song. Then Lawrence tried his hand at stand-up comedy—luckily he only told one joke! 476253746500?Receipts: We use a simple Excel Table to encode our costs each month (and we also keep the receipts in a file). Indicating for which type of event the cost is only takes a second and it makes you gain a lot of time at the end of the year when budgeting for the following year, as you have a precise cost per type of event, and you can see at a glance how much donations amounted to, etc). SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1Expenses and income for the month of JuneLunch Club for 30 peopleThe set-up and general organization is the same as for tea-parties, except for the food. We use a local caterer who prepares good stews, as well as vegetables and potatoes/rice in a separate dish, for ?6 per person. Make sure that the meat is cut up (so stews, mince and meatballs are ideal) and easy to eat. Ask the caterer not to use dairy products so you don’t have to worry about lactose intolerances. Avoid pork to encourage Jewish or Muslim members. Make sure you know who the vegetarian members are, and buy ready-made vegetarian dishes for them (except if they are satisfied with rice and vegetables). Older people find eating difficult for various reasons (arthritis, lack of strength, difficulty chewing…) so don’t put anything on the menu that isn’t easy to eat. Ask for vegetables to be well cooked. Some of the members often also have problems digesting so ban all spicy food. Also don’t add sugar to anything because of the members who have diabetes. You need to have enough cutlery for 40 people: 30 guests, 6 volunteers and 4 extra for members who just show up without having registered (this happens often at lunches so we make sure we are prepared).Never underestimate the quality of the food. It’s better not to run a lunch club than to run one where the food being served is not nice. The better the food, the more people will talk about it to their neighbours and friends and this will be permanent free advertising for your project. If the food is adequate or even awful you will get the opposite effect… So if you don’t feel able to supply hot well-cooked meals, stick to tea-parties.OutingsMake sure you do the risk assessment a few weeks beforehand and then phone the venue the day before to make sure that nothing you noted has changed since then (eg: works in the parking lot stopping you from parking near the door, disabled toilets broken, lift out-of-service, café exceptionally shut…). If you are having a picnic (this is an extremely popular type of outing), order the sandwiches in advance. It’s not much more expensive to order the sandwiches than to make them yourself, if you get a good deal. Our local Gregg’s gives us a good price because we are a charity and the sandwiches come packaged and easy to transport. We usually get sliced bread sandwiches, with a selection of ham, cheese and egg.Always have a plan B. In case of a picnic in a park for example, find out beforehand if there is a good café nearby (accessible to disabled people) where you can all retreat to if it starts raining. SafeguardingSafeguarding for volunteersA DBS check is not necessary for volunteers who do not go into people’s homes alone. So by law you only have to get one for the volunteers who do the bus escort (contact your Diocese’s Safety Officer to know how to get A DBS check).For the rest, you still need to follow the Church of England’s guidelines for safeguarding volunteers. We have created a Google Forms survey (very easy to do, if you don’t know how just ask around you, someone - usually a young person! - will show you) that comprises all the necessary information requested by the Church of England for safeguarding volunteers who work with vulnerable people. Once people have expressed an interest in volunteering for the project, we send them the following link by email, asking them to fill out the survey (it takes maximum 5 minutes and can be done on a tablet or phone).Click here to see the volunteer application form NOT FILL IN THE FORM ABOVE – because THE INFORMATION from this particular link WILL GO STRAIGHT TO ST LUKE you need to create your own Google Form (with its own link) if you want your volunteers’ data to come to you. Creating Google Forms is very easy – if you don’t know how ask around and someone will know.Once potential volunteers have completed the form (before they come to volunteer the first time), we check their references. When their references have come back, we post them a written statement to sign and send back, with an SAE (see hereunder).Volunteer signed agreementSafeguarding for staffIt is important that the person running the event undergoes a DBS check, as that person might have to go and see people in their homes, for various reasons, and this is a lawful requirement. Call the safeguarding officer in your Diocese to know how to do this.The person running events should also have 1st Aid knowledge, both to be able to act in case of an accident but also so that the church is covered from an insurance point of view. The Red Cross organises very good 1 day training courses (we recommend the 1st Aid at Work one).Risk assessment of outing venuesWe have created a Google Form survey that we fill in when we go and visit venues beforehand. Each venue needs to be visited 2-3 weeks before an event and risk-assessed, even if you are told over the phone that it is completely safe and accessible to disabled people. On the morning on an event, you should call up the venue to find out if everything is working (for example is the disabled toilet open, is the lift working, is the disabled parking space still there etc…).Click here to see the risk-assessment form NOT FILL IN THE FORM ABOVE – because THE INFORMATION from this particular link WILL GO STRAIGHT TO ST LUKE you need to create your own Google Form (with its own link) if you want your volunteers’ data to come to you. Creating Google Forms is very easy – if you don’t know how ask around and someone will know.How to find volunteersVolunteering websites, such as do-, enable potential volunteers to find volunteering opportunities using their postcode. Find out how to post ads on these sites and you will soon be getting results. Be careful though: since the volunteers that you will find will be people you don’t know at all, you should first invite them for an interview to find out more about them and their motivations for helping and to see if they are suitable candidates. It also enables you to explain exactly what the volunteering job consists in.There are also local volunteering websites, so look for one in your area. In Camden we have .uk. They were very helpful as they helped us to write and post our ads and then explained to us how to interview volunteers and what procedures to have in place.Don’t hesitate to advertise in church using posters and also when notices are being read out. Put a permanent ad for volunteers on the church website…Insurance Do contact your insurers before starting the project to make sure you have the appropriate cover. At least one person present should be a first-aider.NewsletterRather than long explanations, here is an example that works well. When we send it out we include an SAE for sending back the invitation form (it makes a difference to the number of replies we get). The “keep at home” calendar is very important and many members keep it - it helps them to remember the dates. Make sure you take pictures at each event and file them so they are easy to find when you need them. Be careful to include photos of everyone in the newsletter. Experience has shown that hardly anyone reads the text, so don’t spend too much time on it. However the pictures are very much appreciated and a great talking point.YearbookIf you can, try to interview your members individually. This is very helpful as it creates a rapport and the members then feels more at ease coming out to events. If you can type out the interviews and make a yearbook out of them, it will be very much appreciated by all members. It’s hard for people to get to know each other so we distribute the yearbook to everyone and that provides them with conversation points for chatting to other members. Thanks to the book there is the feeling that people belong to a club. It’s also useful for the staff and volunteers who can remind themselves of who’s who before events.Here is an example:FundingIf you cannot fund the project yourself, you can look for funding. Keep in mind that funders prefer projects that have already been running for a while. It could be a good idea to start with something that you can afford such as tea-parties. Once you have collected the necessary statistics and pictures proving your project is a success and showing the need for more of this type of work in your area, then you can start asking for additional funding for a lunch-club.Try your local authority, they might have funding available for your type of project. Alternatively they usually have a list of funders that they can provide.There are websites that list available funding for charities, just search the internet for “funding for charities” and you will find some of these websites. You can also “google” funding for your local area and the mention “elderly” or “older people” to find charities that provide themed funding locally.Annex 1: risk-assessment form (Google survey) This looks long but only takes 10 minutes to complete on a mobile phone.Annex 2: Volunteer Application form Annex 3: Volunteer Signed Agreement. Volunteers are given this in a paper version, to sign once they have completed the Volunteer Application form online. All forms, electronic and paper, are carefully filed together with the collected references. ................
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