GROUPS — JOIN US!

Volunteer groups based on local enthusiasm to meet a local need often work in semi-isolation. Though this firmly links them to the communities in which they operate, it can create difficulties for them — they often lack the specialist skills needed to promote themselves, find new volunteers and raise essential funds.

By becoming associated with RSVP West, local groups can gain access to many services, such as sources of authoritative information and practical assistance. They gain benefits from working with and becoming friends and colleagues of other groups doing similar work for their own communities. Best of all, by being linked to a particularly active region of a national organisation, groups can network with other organisations working in the volunteer field and also increase their ability to work with and influence local statutory bodies. Of course, member groups retain their existing management structures and ways of working.

Groups often struggle to pay for the essential insurance needed to cover the work of their volunteers. The problem has got much worse in recent years as premiums have risen sharply. To take just one case, there are a number of local car schemes in North Somerset which help to transport patients and relatives to hospitals, surgeries, and the like. They pay the cost of doing so through local financial sponsorship. The rapidly rising cost of personal insurance is a major worry for them.

They have solved the problem by affiliating themselves and their volunteers with RSVP West, which costs nothing. By doing so, they automatically become covered by the free personal and public liability insurance policy provided to all RSVP volunteers (see a summary of the cover). So far a dozen groups have affiliated in this way and others are likely to follow.

We encourage voluntary groups throughout our region to join us. In the first instance, please contact the Regional Coordinator, Bob Maggs, who will put you in touch with your area organiser.

© 2003–08 RSVP West. Page last updated on 7 February 2007.