In the lead up to Volunteers Week, Voscur had the opportunity last week to visit Lifeskills about how their volunteers are vital to their organisation.

Lifeskills is a charity based at the Create Centre in Bristol, opened in January 2000, with over 200,000 people to date having received safety education and training through their programmes.

Lifeskills offers lifesaving skills to Year 6 students, adults with learning difficulties and children with special needs. Their programmes include participants taking part in activities in a realistic setting whether that be around fire, drug, road, water, or electrical safety, amongst other hazards.

When we visited, a selection of volunteers were making adaptations and preparing their physical ‘sets’ by making crucial updates to keep up with the realistic nature of their training and ensuring they look the best for the next set of students.

So how do volunteers contribute to their organisation?
Lifeskills offer a variety of roles such as 'Guide and Host' volunteers who lead small groups of children on a tour of ‘safety themed’ scenarios. These volunteers encourage children to get involved in spotting hazards, in a variety of day-to-day situations. At Lifeskills they also have other roles such as volunteer reps, and Lifeskills ambassadors who have more responsibility and help develop the ‘behind the scenes’ of running their programmes. A key factor at Lifeskills, which contributes to their volunteer retention being so high, is that their staff go above and beyond to be welcoming, as well as taking a pro-active approach to volunteer wellbeing.

Alongside a variety of different awards for service length and sessions completed, they also have an annual volunteer bi annual parties to celebrate all their hard work for the year. Some of their current volunteers have been with them for 24 years, a fact that they are understandably proud of.

Having the ability to be flexible with volunteers is crucial for the activities at Lifeskills, with no minimum commitment and the option for involvement multiple times a week. With 82 volunteers they make sure to have regular volunteer rep meetings to ensure the volunteers have a voice about what they’re doing and what might need changing. Listening and adapting to volunteer needs is clearly a large part of their success in running such a large programme.

Advice to other organisations
Lifeskills have a highly structured system for getting volunteers onboard and they believe that a thorough approach is crucial for both recruitment as well as retention. Making sure to utilise word-of-mouth among their existing team, in addition to all of the usual tools is essential to be successful when recruiting. When thinking about retention, Lifeskills believe in creating an environment where volunteers can comfortably talk to anyone in the staff team, which then makes volunteers listened to and valued.

Demand for Lifeskill's services are high, and as a result they are actively looking for more volunteers.

To find out more about Lifeskills, or to express an interest in volunteering, you can visit their website here: https://lifeskills-bristol.org.uk/

Also, did you know that you can advertise volunteer roles for free through Voscur? Click here to submit a volunteer role to be advertised.