02 April 2004

London: England-based volunteer-involving organizations, the National Centre for Volunteering, Volunteering Development and the Consortium on Opportunities for Volunteering have recently merged under one agency, Volunteering England.

Volunteering England will "enable volunteering to be represented by one strong, coherent voice and creating a volunteering brand for the country". It aims to make it easier for the public to understand what is volunteering and make volunteer opportunities more accessible.

"The new, integrated national volunteer development agency will be well placed to support the voluntary and community sector at national, regional and local levels to maximize the contribution of volunteers and to increase both the numbers and diversity of those involved," says its new Chief Executive, Chirstopher Spence MBE.

Volunteering England targets to "secure and support an England-wide network of quality volunteer development agencies" by promoting and enabling volunteering and community involvement; providing grants and support to sustain and develop volunteering and provide authoritative, up-to-date research on volunteering issues, among others.

The merger is in line with Chancellor Gordon Brown’s recent comments on volunteering in his budget annoucements. As part of his commitment to strengthen volunteering amongst young people, Chancellor Brown announced recently that he is creating a commission to draw up budget plans for a national youth volunteering strategy.

This was preceded by his announcement encouraging young people to volunteer during their gap year, modeled after United States’ AmeriCorps, in his speech to the National Council for Voluntary Organizations' annual conference in March.

Read more

From: Volunteering England