4.3 Take action and be ready to make a difference

In this section you have considered two key areas related to making a difference: ‘How am I supported?’ and ‘What have I achieved?’ The next step, having reflected on what is proportionate for your context, is to develop an action plan to help you make positive changes.

Actions you might want to take could include:

  • defining how volunteers will be supported in the day-to-day delivery of their role to ensure they feel valued
  • identifying how you will support volunteers, both in terms of health and safety and their wider wellbeing
  • deciding what support you can provide formally and what you can promote informally
  • deciding what you want to find out about the impact of volunteering
  • planning how you will find out what difference has been made by volunteers
  • preparing how you will communicate this information to volunteers.

Activity 9

In your learning journal, note three actions that you want to take from the learning in this section. Prioritise these and write the most important one into your final action plan at the end of the journal.

You might have thought of something that wasn’t significant enough to write in your action plan, which you could do easily and would improve the experience for volunteers. Just do it now.

‘What have I achieved?’ activity

4.4 Further resources