Funding support attracts volunteers to advice service

Grant money given to a local advice service has gone to support a vital campaign to recruit volunteers.

The money was handed to Citizen's Advice Corby and Kettering's to help them overhaul their volunteer recruitment post-covid.

Lockdown had meant the service was forced to do everything remotely but this proved challenging for many new volunteer recruits, who felt isolated during the extensive training programme

The Volunteer Recruitment and Training Project set up a formal recruitment process, structured inductions, formalised training with one-to-one supervision ensuring volunteers achieved advice quality standards as quickly as possible.

Kettering Town Council provided a grant of £1,500 towards the project, which has so far generated £3,700 in advice provision.

Since the average volunteer length of service is six years, this investment has the potential to deliver £22,200 of advice provision.

Mark Rowley, Chair of Kettering Town Council's Finance and Governance Committee, which approved the grant, said: "We are very pleased to be able to support the service in this way. Recruiting and training volunteers is a key part of enabling the service to reach as many people as quickly possible with the best advice."

Phil Arkell, Citizens Advice Corby & Kettering's Chief Officer said: "We would like to thank the Town Council for its support with this project. Overall, including all project income, the project has the potential to generate 20,400 hours of volunteer advice delivery over this six-year period, the equivalent of 12,240 appointments, making a saving of £266,236 in salary costs.

We have exceeded our full year target for volunteer recruitment and are extremely happy with the quality and commitment of our new team members."

Kettering Town Council gives out thousands of pounds in grant funding each year.