Charity Launches 'Volunteer Passport'

22nd December 09 at 11:01

A Sussex charity has launched a new qualification called the
Volunteer Passport, to recognise the skills and reward the
achivements of its volunteers.

Furniture Now!, a re-use, recycling and training charity, has
set up the Volunteer Passport to help volunteers in the area
gain a nationally recognised qualification.

It hopes the Volunteer Passport, which leads to the
NVQ-equivalent Community Volunteering Qualification (CVQ), will
particular benefit those who are unemployed, helping them to
develop their skills and improve their job prospects.

It will be officially launched in January, with a YouTube video
in which all three levels of the Volunteer Passport will be
featured. The video will show how those who wish to be
accredited for their volunteering achievements can go about it.

Leanne Cleaveley, Furniture Now!'s assessor and head of the
Volunteer Passport project, said: "I am aiming to make the
qualification interesting, fun and focused. Volunteers will gain
so much from meeting like-minded individuals who are also
volunteering within similar environments.

"My role is to help them achieve a recognised qualification with
as much guidance and help as they need."

Leanne said one of the most exciting aspects of the Volunteer
Passport was that volunteers could learn and develop skills they
didn't know they even had.

She added: "We can show them how they can build up a whole new
world of learning and education through the simplicity of just
being a volunteer."

The Volunteer Passport is being launched in conjunction with
Eastbourne Association for Voluntary Services and Sussex Downs
College in Eastbourne, Lewes and surrounding districts.