Join us for a free online workshop in partnership with Reach Volunteering, exploring skills-based volunteering for older people in arts and wellbeing services.
Flourishing Lives, the Flourishing Lives Advisory Group (FLAG) and Reach Volunteering invite you to our free online workshop providing practical support for services for older people.
This workshop will focus on creating successful partnerships with older volunteers, and developing skills-based volunteering for older people in arts and wellbeing services.
Older people bring a wealth of skills, experience and expertise to the arts and wellbeing organisations that they engage with – we want to ensure that their skills are being valued and amplified.
Skills-based volunteering can bring huge benefits to arts and well being organisations: increased capacity, access to specialist expertise, the opportunity to experiment and innovate with new projects, fresh perspectives, lived experience and more.
Done well, it enriches the organisation whilst providing positive, rewarding opportunities to people to volunteer their experience. Done poorly, it can be a negative experience for both parties.
This workshop is being led by Janet Thorne (CEO of Reach Volunteering) and Dr Jacqueline Richards (Freelance networker, advisor, volunteer and older dancer), with many thanks again to them both for all their help and support in bringing the session together.
In this workshop we will explore:
- What can skills-based volunteers do for you? The range of roles they can play
- Volunteers and staff: how do they fit together? What ethical questions does it raise?
- Common pitfalls and how to avoid them: tips on de-risking volunteering
- Setting the relationship up for success: creating a partnership
- The power of values-led volunteering
Reach Volunteering
Reach Volunteering is the leading skills-based volunteering charity and the UK’s single biggest source of trustees for the voluntary sector. Our vision is to create a world where people come together to create a thriving, fair and sustainable society. We inspire, support and connect civil society organisations and volunteers to work together, sharing skills and expertise to create a better society.
Jackie Richards
Jackie Richards left her fulltime career in 2008 wanting to return to dancing and community activities and to see what life brings. She had been a busy senior manager at City & Guilds, the awarding organisation, leading teams of colleagues and working with subject experts to develop and promote Health & Social Care, Community Development and Creative Arts qualifications. She was also a coach-mentor within the organisation and beyond. Prior to this career she had been a teacher. The last fourteen years have been beyond all expectations and she has enjoyed getting involved in a range of paid and voluntary activities, including creating and encouraging new arts opportunities, advising some national and London based organisations, and championing the breakdown of ageist stereotypes and encouraging inclusion. She is now an older dancer and has performed in several older dance festivals and films.
She is involved with several organisations exploring new ways to meet many challenges during these uncertain changing times. As well as her varied work, she also gained a work-based doctorate “Active Older People participating in Creative Dance – Challenging Perceptions” and has presented findings at some national and international conferences, and recently worked on a project about academia, community groups and artists collaborating together. She has volunteered in a wide variety of community and arts activities throughout her life, and is looking forward to sharing some of her experiences and insights during the Flourishing Lives workshop, where she will share ideas about the main features of volunteering from the perspective of an older adult, as well as ways organisations could benefit from volunteers in positive ways.
Join us to share ideas, refine your working practices, and meet other progressive people who are striving to innovate and excel in services for older people.
Date:
Wednesday 2nd November 2022, 1pm – 2.30pm GMT