Changes at Volunteer Cornwall

Dear Friend,

As you will be aware, these are difficult times for all within the voluntary sector and beyond. Volunteer Cornwall, like many other organisations, has had to review its activities in the light of diminishing funding and look at new ways of delivering its services.

The most significant changes are that we can no longer continue to base our Volunteer Centres around the old district council structures. Instead, from 1^st April, we will move to the east, mid and west Cornwall split used by our public sector partners. The practical implications are set out below:

East Cornwall

Our Bodmin office will close and business will be transferred to our Liskeard Office to form a new East Cornwall Volunteer Centre. This will still provide a service across the east of the county through regular outreach at selected venues. East Cornwall Volunteer Centre will be based at 6 Church Street, Liskeard, PL14 3AG   email east@volunteercornwall.org.uk or tel 01579 344818

Mid Cornwall

Our Truro office will close and business will be transferred to our St Austell Office to form a new Mid Cornwall Volunteer Centre. Again, this will provide a service across mid Cornwall through regular outreach. Mid Cornwall Volunteer Centre is based at 17 Duke Street, St Austell, PL 25 5PQ email mid@volunteercornwall.org.uk or tel 01726 71087

West Cornwall

Our Redruth office will continue to provide a service but this will now extend across all of west Cornwall via outreach for selected opportunities. (Please note that Penwith Volunteer Bureau is not affected by these changes). West Cornwall Volunteer Centre is based at 64 West End, Redruth, TR15 2SQ email west@volunteercornwall.org.uk or tel 01209 217614

Each of our new offices will have two Volunteer Centre Managers so the actual coverage of the county is not diminished, we have simply had to reduce our overheads. It is for this same reason that we will be moving from two Truro premises (Old Bridge Street and Heron House) to one new combined office (Acorn House off Lighterage Hill) later this year.

Volunteer Cornwall will continue to offer a wide range of volunteering opportunities through the do-it website (www.do-it.org) and support host organisations in developing their volunteer base.

There will be some changes to our youth volunteering support due to the closure of the national youth volunteering programme ‘vinvolved’ but we will continue to offer a service, through our Volunteer Centres, to people of all ages.

Our other programmes and services remain unchanged but of course the situation is under constant review.

Many volunteers and organisations took advantage of free training available through the ESF Convergence Programme and many have asked if there will be any more coming up. We are awaiting details of the next phase of Convergence (due to start in the summer) and we very much hope to be part of it and to be able to offer more training and development opportunities for volunteers. We will announce details on our website as they become available.

If you don’t already receive it, we produce an e-newsletter every two months and this is the easiest way of keeping up to date with changes taking place. It is easy to sign up to, just go to www.volunteercornwall.org.uk and click on ‘Subscribe’. Alternatively, you can find us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/volunteercornwall

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, our Management Team will be happy to discuss them with you. In the first instance, contact Andy Brelsford on 01872 265308 or email andyb@volunteercornwall.org.uk.

 Best wishes

 Ian Jones, Chief Executive