Furniture Now! has launched a new qualification called the Volunteer Passport, to recognise the skills and reward the achievements of its volunteers.
Furniture Now!, a re-use, recycling and training charity, has set up the Volunteer Passport to help volunteers in the area gain a nationally recognised qualification. It hopes the Volunteer Passport, which leads to the NVQ-equivalent Community Volunteering Qualification (CVQ), will particular benefit those who are unemployed, helping them to develop their skills and improve their job prospects.
It will be officially launched in January, with a YouTube video in which all three levels of the Volunteer Passport will be featured. The video will show how those who wish to be accredited for their volunteering achievements can go about it.
Leanne Cleaveley, Furniture Now!'s NVQ Assessor and head of the Volunteer Passport project, said: "I am aiming to make the qualification interesting, fun and focused. Volunteers will gain so much from meeting like-minded individuals who are also volunteering within similar environments.
"My role is to help them achieve a recognised qualification with as much guidance and help as they need."
Leanne said one of the most exciting aspects of the Volunteer Passport was that volunteers could learn and develop skills they didn't know they even had. She added: "We can show them how they can build up a whole new world of learning and education through the simplicity of just being a volunteer."
The Volunteer Passport is being launched in conjunction with Eastbourne Association for Voluntary Services and Sussex Downs College in Eastbourne, Lewes and surrounding districts.
Furniture Now! is concerned with addressing the problems of poverty, waste, the environment and social exclusion in East and West Sussex. It collects donated furniture and household effects and makes them available at as low a cost as possible to people in need throughout Sussex. It also provides training for people who are socially excluded and provides recycling facilities. For more information go to www.furniturenow.org.uk.
The Volunteer Passport is for anyone over the age of 14 who chooses to give their time for the benefit of the community without payment. It will take between three and six months to complete.
For more information, or to sign up for the Volunteer Passport contact Leanne on:
01273 471101, or email vol.passport@furniturenow.org.uk.
