A VAST Volunteering Case Study
CareLink Achieves Gold!
Millions of people volunteer in some way every single year, and for many organisations, volunteers are the backbone of their operations. Without them, the number of people organisations support would fall significantly.
That’s why it’s important to support volunteers effectively from the very beginning, and to get volunteering policies, procedures, and processes right.
The VAST Volunteering Quality Standards has been split into three levels: gold, silver, and bronze. It doesn’t just award good practices either. It’s a proactive, achievable, target-driven action plan based on where organisations are now and working together towards where they want to be – an effective action plan based on achievable targets and clear priorities.
One recent organisation that have achieved Gold is CareLink, which is part of Saltbox. Saltbox has provided a much-loved and valued service for communities across Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire since 1987. Their CareLink service is aimed at over 65s to offer understanding, friendship, welfare checks and “monitoring for those who might otherwise be invisible.”
People’s horizons can often grow more limited as health issues, losing friends, and lack of confidence since retirement, see them socialising less and less often. But CareLink firmly believe that later life shouldn’t be a lonely life. They build a relationship of trust and care through regular telephone befriending calls – made by CareLink volunteers – and provide practical support for them to stay as healthy and independent in their own home as possible.
Here’s how they do it:
- Regular telephone befriending calls in a routine pattern each week.
- A point of contact when people don’t know where to turn for help.
- Direct practical support and referral to other services when care and health issues are identified.
- Check that people are taking medication, keeping appointments, staying warm, and staying fed and hydrated with regular reminders.
- Help to identify local social activities, and offer initial support to attend.
CareLink couldn’t operate without their amazing team of volunteers, so they jumped at the chance to complete VAST’s Volunteer Quality Standards. Christine, CareLink Health & Wellbeing Co-Ordinator, is a regular attendee of our Volunteer Manager’s Network and heard from other organisations about the scheme and how achievable it is. Christine invited Sian, Senior Project Officer, across to their Hanley offices to discuss the scheme and what evidence they’d need to collate.
Christine, and her colleagues, wasted no time in collating their evidence and were delighted when it was confirmed that they had achieved the Gold Award. It was great for VAST to learn more about their approach to volunteering, and how we can better work with CareLink in the future with prospective volunteers.
Our Senior Project Officer for Volunteering, Sian, was kindly invited to their recent Volunteer Get Together where CareLink volunteers had the chance to enjoy a lovely buffet, attend some training, and network with each other.
“I’ve been stuck inside for the last year due to my mobility so volunteering as a telephone befriender is great. The people I call look forward to my calls and I look forward to calling them.”
“I’ve been volunteering with CareLink for over 15 years as a way to help my mental health and it definitely has. It feels good to give back.”
“Volunteering has opened my eyes to how loneliness is such a huge problem and how it can be a killer. If we can do anything to improve someone’s life, it’s just amazing. You make wonderful connections with your clients, so you benefit from it as well. It’s just fantastic. To think there’s so many people that need supporting, playing my own to help is a privilege.”
At the Volunteer Get Together, Sian was able to present their Gold Certificate to Linda Smith, who is the Operations Manager for CareLink and Money Matters.
“In my role as Operations Manager at Saltbox I oversee the amazing CareLink team. They are all so committed and passionate about the work of CareLink, supporting many older people who are struggling with issues related to loneliness and isolation. Alongside the core team, we have a wonderful group of volunteers without whom it's fair to say there would be no service. The volunteers are the backbone of the service as they make calls to our client’s week in and week out and support the running of our Chatty cafes each week. As volunteers are vital to the service, we make sure we look after them well and support them in what can be a fairly demanding role. We are so pleased to have been granted this award as it acknowledges the hard work of the team to support the volunteers, and ensure we run a service in which our volunteers feel valued and appreciated.”
