Everton in the Community is proud to have been awarded the prestigious ‘Investors in Volunteers IiV’ accreditation for the second time and remains the only Club Community Organisation in the country to receive the quality mark in recognition of its effective involvement of volunteers throughout the charity.
Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard for all organisations which involve volunteers in their work and ensures that the charity’s volunteer management structure is adhering to best practice. The IiV accreditation will help Everton in the Community demonstrate the effectiveness of its work with its loyal and committed team of volunteers, and helps the charity show them how much they are valued, as well as giving them confidence in Everton in the Community’s ability to provide an outstanding volunteer experience.
The official charity of Everton Football Club was assessed against six quality areas and proved to excel in all aspects of working with its volunteers. These quality areas assess how the programme manages the entire volunteer programme from initial volunteer recruitment to volunteer processes and policies as well as volunteer retention, support, and recognition. The two-day assessment involved 29 volunteers as well as assessors meeting with senior charity staff including EitC Sue Gregory and Chair of the Board of Trustees Sir John Jones.
Assessors identified a number of strengths during the two-day process including the impact that the charity’s volunteers have on their local community and further afield, the work undertaken by Everton in the Community to welcome and accommodate the needs of individual volunteers and ensuring they are carefully matched to opportunities, and they recognised how volunteering is at the heart of the charity with the programme underpinned by excellent organisation and communications.
Everton in the Community currently has almost 200 active volunteers who fulfill a number of diverse and essential roles for the charity across more than half of its programmes on a weekly basis, collectively donating more than 6,000 hours of volunteer time annually giving back to their local community. The charity’s volunteers also support external organisations on a regular basis and have played an integral role in supporting new developments within Everton in the Community’s purpose-built mental health facility, The People’s Place, and its Digital Skills Lab.
Everton in the Community Volunteer Manager Katie Bramhall said:
“Volunteers are a huge part of our charity and without their selfless efforts, we wouldn’t be able to have the impact that we do. We are delighted to receive this prestigious award for a second time which recognises our ongoing commitment to volunteer improvement.
“We received some suggestions some development from our initial assessment in 2019 and we have incorporated all of these into our work and further enhanced our volunteer programme over the last four years including improving our policies and processes and introducing more regular communications and social activities.
“I’d like to thank everyone who played a part in the process for their time and also thank our volunteers for the unwavering dedication and loyalty that they give to Everton in the Community every week, helping to create the solid foundations that we currently have in place.”
The Chair of the awarding body, UK Volunteering Forum, said
“UKVF is delighted to announce Everton in the Community’s successful achievement of this Award for a second time. They have demonstrated a real commitment to volunteering and proved that their volunteering management policies and procedures meet nationally recognised standards.”
For more information on volunteering with Everton in the Community visit: https://www.evertoninthecommunity.org/about-us/volunteering/.