On the 2nd June 2021, for Volunteers Week, we held a Big Workshop Day.
We organised the event by working together with people from VOICES of Stoke, Expert Citizens and All the Small Things CiC.
The programme for the day included 11 workshops.
| 10.05 | Welcome and introductions |
| 10.30 | Working Together workshop |
| 11.00 | First set of workshops – 6 choices |
| 11.30 | Break |
| 11:45 | Second workshops – 4 choices |
| 12.15 | Information and resources sharing |
| 12:45 | Evaluation |
| 12.55 | Thank yous |
| 13.00 | Goodbye |
Working Together workshop
At this workshop, we shared how we have worked together using a Co-Production approach. We encouraged people to think about why they would want to work with people with lived experience and other organisations. We asked people to think about what they have to offer.
Here is the powerpoint presentation from our workshop for you to download.
Here is the padlet where you can see the Purpose Cards.
We did a Got It Want It activity and added to it during the day.
Here are the notes of the day which include the Got It Want It offers and requests.
There were 6 choices in the first set of workshops.
| 1. Mindful Making LA textile wrapping workshop showed how we can use materials so often thrown away through repurposing – to create a better understanding of how mindful creativity can be used as a tool to tackle the current throw-away problem. This workshop was run by Amy Louise Davies or alou. Her presentation is lower down this page. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook “alouartist” Facebook community group Mindfulness in Sustainability with alou ideas for make, do and mend and sustainability. |
| 2. Creative Communities Creative Lives (was Voluntary Arts) promote participation in creative cultural activities and support community groups and individuals to run creative activities. Nicola Winstanley talked about the Get Creative At Home Festival and we shared our ideas and talked about what support we need. Nic’s presentation is lower down this page. https://www.creative-lives.org/get-creative |
| 3. Mindfulness – a mental holiday Helen Dos Santos guided us through half an hour of mindfulness to help us feel calm and relaxed. |
| 4. Social Security Benefits and Volunteering Sarah Honeysett from Citizens Advice Bureau talked about how benefit entitlement can be affected by volunteering, when volunteering can help meet a jobseeker’s ‘claimant commitment’ and what to think about if you claim sickness or disability benefits. The main leaflet about this is lower down this page. http://www.snscab.org.uk/about-us/potteries-gold https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=potteries%20gold |
| 5. Independent Visitors – Volunteers An independent visitor supports young people that Change Grow Live assist within Stoke on Trent & Staffordshire. Independent Visitors are adults who offer support to children and young people who are living with a foster family or in residential care. Faria Rahim talked about Change Grow Live and her presentation is lower down this page. |
| 6. Potters Pathway to Employment Employment support from Stoke City Community Trust. A range of 16+ training and education and help with 19+ employment searches and qualifications, Traineeships, apprenticeships, Entry 3 qualifications, Level 1 awards…. plus match day job opportunities. |
Resources shared by workshop leaders are here.
There were 4 choices of workshops in the second set.
| 1. Community Helpers Peer Support Support session for community helpers to share experiences, information and ideas for looking after ourselves and others. Sarah Watson from All the Small Things shared our learning from doing this during the COVID Pandemic and ran a short peer support session. Here is the All the Small Things peer mentoring for coronavirus community support webpage. |
| 2. Supporting Volunteers VAST has years of expertise in volunteer management. Their popular training equips you for all aspects of working with volunteers. Jo Coulson shared information, ideas, and activities to help you think about how to support Volunteers. Her presentation is lower down this page. |
| 3. What is Community Organising? Community Organising is a way of listening to and connecting people together over common concerns, to build power, plan and take collection action to overcome social injustice. Using the Community Organising Framework and examples Penny Vincent shared this approach and we talked about how it can help us support people to take social action together. Her presentation is lower down this page. |
| 4. Wellbeing Workshop – looking after yourself Shiya is a busy volunteer. She shared her top tips for avoiding burnout, and developing your resilience to help you see where you might end up doing too much and think about how to look after yourself. Her handouts are lower down this page. |
1000 Lives 