Volunteer Welcome Email

You should send all of your volunteers a welcome email, formally introducing them to your Student-Led Project and giving some more information about your aim, outcomes and activities as well as outlining any important dates.

You may also want to include some of the information included in the induction, but note that an email is no substitute for a proper meeting with your volunteers.

Induction

Before the volunteers start, you’ll need to run some form of induction. Again, what form this takes will depend upon your project. You can do inductions with a group of volunteers, or on a one-to-one basis. It should include:

  • An icebreaker to get everyone talking to each other
  • Who you are
  • What the aim, outcomes and activities of your project are
  • What the volunteer role involves
  • What you expect from them in terms of commitment, behaviour etc.
  • What they should do if they can’t make a session
  • What they should do if they’ve any questions or are unsure of anything
  • What to do in an emergency
  • Run through the risks you’ve identified in your risk assessments and the steps you’ll take to minimise them.
  • An explanation about confidentiality and how they can maintain this
  • Information about important dates
  • Information about whether they need to complete a DBS check and information about how they can complete this through the Volunteering Service
  • Information about how they can get their travel expenses reimbursed – the Volunteering Service will repay travel expenses by public transport within TFL zones 1-6, though conditions apply.

Also:

You’ll need to decide on the best way of ensuring that your volunteers receive this information and understand it. So for each of the points above, think about how to communicate it – for example by:

  • Presentation
  • Handout
  • Email
  • Training
  • One-to-one meeting with each volunteer
  • Visit

Training

You will probably be required to organise some form of training for your volunteers:

  • This might be a simple briefing that you deliver about their tasks as part of their induction.
  • It could be a longer piece of training that is led by your Partner Organisation or your Project Leader team.
  • Or you might need funds to buy in an external trainer – in which case, you’ll need to include this in your budget.

The Volunteering Service can advise you on how to organise your training.

All volunteers on projects volunteering with children or young people must complete the Volunteering Service’s online Volunteering with Children course. You should also ensure that your volunteers are aware of our CHILD SAFEGUARDING POLICY.

If you’ll be working with vulnerable adults – such as older people or people with disabilities, you should ensure that your volunteers are aware of our VULNERABLE ADULTS SAFEGUARDING POLICY. You’ll also need to arrange some suitable training for your volunteers. You could ask your Partner Organisation whether they can provide this training. You can also book a meeting with one of our advisors if you need further guidance on how to organise training.

Last updated 2 weeks ago Read time 2 mins