Volunteering - A year in the life of CVA

CVA's Volunteer Centre

Providing a matching service, we are the link between people who want to volunteer and organisations looking for volunteers. People volunteer for all sorts of reasons, and many organisations wouldn’t be able to do what they do without volunteers. CVA's volunteer Centre places over 1,000 people into volunteering in Croydon every Year.

No one size fits all when it comes to volunteering, which is why we encourage the organisations we work with to offer volunteering roles in all shapes and sizes. We offer a number of ways for people to find their perfect match, from one-to-one appointments to searching online. And we offer 1-2-1 support to organisation looking recruit volunteers. For more information click here.

CVA's Volunteer Team

An amazing 1,181 people registered to become part of the CVA Volunteer team over the past couple of years and supported food distribution and the vaccine roll out. Although many have gone on to support other organisations, we still have 465 active volunteers supporting a range of projects as outlined below.

Lear more about our current roles here.

"Volunteering with CVA has given me a sense of purpose at a particularly difficult time in my life" (A CVA Volunteer)

Photo of a group of people wearing masks with thumbs up

Stepping Up Stepping Out

This project grew from befriending support during the lock down where volunteer befrienders provide emotional support for those who are feeling isolated. Since the end of the lock downs the volunteers have been encouraging the residents they were supporting to get out by providing face-to-face support, meeting in a public space, sign posting to activities. Over the year 80 volunteers have been supporting 130 residents.

"It is great joy to be able to talk with such a kind person ... and at the same time, I feel so good in my mood because I have little contact with people who speak Spanish" (Befriendee since 2021)

Mentoring

In partnership with Croydon Adult and Single Homelessness project, CVA has trained 29 people to become mentors with 26 young people receiving weekly support as they take their place in the world of work and deal with new challenges and responsibilities.

Mencap buddies

In partnership with Croydon Mencap, we trained 20 volunteer buddies to work with 25 people with learning disabilities, enabling them to take on meaningful volunteering roles, this could be weekly engagement to supporting the beginning of their own volunteer journey.

Team Croydon

Following the success of the vaccination volunteers, CVA has been building a team of volunteers that can support events and activities throughout Croydon. To date they have supported 7 events and will be supporting the Vaccine Booster rollout.

CVA Volunteer Centre Associate

There's many organisations wanting volunteers to support their activities and not a lot of money around for volunteer managers. At CVA's Volunteer Centre we have been exploring ways in which we can help and free up project staff to work on delivery, while ensuring the safety of their clients and volunteers. We have developed a 'paid for service' where the Volunteer Centre will do all the recruitment processes, from advertising, reference checks etc to volunteer induction, with ongoing support included. If you would like more information, contact karen.chillman@cvalive.org.uk