West Norfolk Befriending are excited to be holding their first Volunteer Forum this month.

Our aim for this event is to review how we support and deliver training to our volunteers, to make sure that we are continuing to evolve the charity and our services to keep meeting the needs of our volunteers and in turn our older, isolated communities.

This event will be an opportunity for our team of volunteers to come together to give their views and opinions on how our services work. They are the heart of our charity and the ones that make so much difference to the lives of our clients and therefore it is essential that we hear directly from them whether our support and training programmes are meeting their expectations.

We have invited guest speakers from key local organisations.  The Samaritans and  Rebekah from LILY who we work in conjunction with. Annette Lavendar from Elements At The Manor will be coming to discuss the importance of maintaining volunteer wellbeing.

After these sessions there will be a chance to discuss  how our volunteers feel about volunteering for West Norfolk Befriending and whether we meet their requirements. As a charity we are very aware that requirements and expectations change over time. It is important that our volunteers continue to feel satisfied and confident while carrying out our services and give them the opportunity to say where we may need improvement but also what works well. The volunteers can also share experiences with each other – which can be an important learning opportunity and a space to share knowledge.

Then to finish we will have lunch, refreshments and a chance to have a catch up with our team in person. We welcome feedback from the event and any information received will be used to review our procedures if necessary.

We are looking forward to having as many of our team together under one roof and hopefully this will become a regular yearly event on our calendar.