Salford Volunteer Charter

Salford Volunteer Charter

What is the Salford Volunteer Charter?
The Salford Volunteer Charter is a formal document that sets out the rights and responsibilities of volunteers and volunteer involving organizations. The Charter outlines the key principles underpinning the ethos of volunteering.
This Charter is supported and endorsed by the Salford Volunteering Steering group, a body made up of representatives from different public bodies that involve volunteers including: Salford City Council, Salford University, Greater Manchester Police, Job Centre Plus, NHS, Salford University, Salford Foundation, and Salford CVS. The Volunteer Steering Group meets regularly to look at the strategic development of volunteering in the city of Salford.
 

Who is the Charter for?
The Charter is for anyone involved in volunteering in the city of Salford, for example Volunteers, or those people considering volunteering, and Volunteer involving organisations.
Why was the Charter written?
The Salford Volunteer Steering Group launched the Salford Volunteer Strategy in June 2010, which looked at the state of volunteering in Salford. One of the outcomes of this strategy was the decision to develop a Charter that captured the rights and responsibilities of all those involved in volunteering and set them down in one easily accessible document.
As this Charter is primarily for and about volunteers, Volunteer Centre Salford thought it was important that volunteers were involved in the design of the Charter and have some sense of ownership of the document.
The Volunteer Centre put together a focus group of volunteers who contributed to the development process of the Charter. The group attended several meetings alongside staff at the Volunteer Centre Salford and identified what they thought should be included in their Charter.

What are the benefits of signing up to the Charter?
• Organisations’ can demonstrate their commitment to their volunteers by agreeing to abide by the principles of volunteering and the rights and responsibilities chosen by volunteers in Salford.
• The Charter provides reassurance for volunteers that a minimum set of standards will be met by those organisations that have signed up to the Charter
• Raises the standard and quality of volunteering in Salford
• The Charter provides volunteers with a term of reference which can be used to challenge any treatment that they feel is unfair.
• The Charter is a term of reference for those responsible for managing volunteers in ensuring full support of and commitment to volunteering in the organisation

How does an Organisation sign up to the Charter?
If your Organisation would like to sign up to the Charter, please contact Elizabeth O’Connor at Volunteer Centre Salford.
You will be sent a Charter Registration Form to complete and once this has been processed your logo and Organisation name will be added to the Charter Roll Call on the Volunteer Centre Salford Website.
You will also be able to display the Volunteer Charter and its logo on your own Website and promote the fact that you have signed up to it to your key stakeholders. 
 

To view and sign up to the Charter please click on the downloads below.

To view a list of organisations who have already signed up to the Charter, please click here for the Charter Roll Call.