StreetDoctors is a national charity that puts young people at the centre of emergency first-aid provision and empowers them to become part of the solution to violence.
They exist to equip young people affected by violence with the skills and knowledge to save lives and increase their understanding of the medical and psychological consequences of violence.
Street Doctors training programme is delivered by their movement of young healthcare volunteers (nurses, paramedics and doctors) and youth workers, who work in partnership with criminal justice services, schools, pupil referral units, youth, sports and community groups. The majority of their work is coordinated remotely with 26 volunteer teams across the country delivering training and sessions to young people.
Challenges Faced
Before Volunteero, the Street Doctors team were grappling with multiple spreadsheets to manage their volunteers which caused difficulties for the remote and central team to:
- Recruit, train and engage volunteers
- Organise and track their volunteer activity.
- Measure the impact of their work
- Seamlessly report to funders and stakeholders
- Build relationships with their volunteer teams.
- Organise training sessions and workshops, leaving lots with spaces close to delivery days.
Martin Tilbury joined the organisation in May 2022 and quickly began developing a strategy to transform their volunteer management processes. High on Martin’s agenda was searching for a Volunteer Management System that could centralise processes and help the organisation track the reach of its work and the impact on the lives of young people across the country.
The results:
Joining Volunteero in august 2022 Street doctors has been able to take advantage of a fully centralised system which they have tailored to the organisation's requirements. By harnessing the advantages of Volunteero they have been able to rethink and then create a strategic blueprint which benefits the staff and volunteer workforce across all areas of the journey.
Enhanced Volunteer Engagement:
Volunteero's app-first approach has facilitated direct communication with volunteers, resulting in a 92% engagement rate. Shared visibility across the staff team means that they can actively engage with their volunteer base in a more meaningful way which in turn has increased volunteer activity with the organisation.
Martin told us “ Because the app is engaging, easy to use and relevant, it has enthused our volunteers to do more volunteering and we have an improvement volunteer management process which has supported our delivery of training sessions to grow.”
In 2023, 239 volunteers joined a StreetDoctors mission and delivered life-saving training to young people right across the country.
Volunteer training
Volunteero has enabled Street Doctors to reconsider and then completely transform their volunteer training pathway. Leveraging Volunteero alongside their proprietary training platform, Street Doctors has successfully structured the volunteer training process, thereby enhancing career development prospects for volunteers.
Working alongside the online education platform Moodle, Volunteero has simplified the volunteer journey, presenting ample avenues for career growth. This strategic integration has not only attracted a greater number of volunteers but also empowered Street Doctors to meticulously manage qualifications, monitor DBS checks, and streamline communication, thereby fostering stronger relationships with their volunteers.
“What we've done is we've increased training by developing an online education training site through Moodle. This is great for a volunteer journey because it supports the volunteers CPD and career progression, and because we’ve invested in Volunteero this training links in and we can have oversight of any mandatory training, renewals and activities all in the system”
Increase in productivity
The adoption of Volunteero resulted in substantial growth for Street Doctors. From delivering 400 sessions annually, they now conducted 1,049 sessions in the previous year, demonstrating a remarkable increase. Martin Tilbury emphasised the importance of ongoing innovation, integration, and a focus on learning and development to sustain and expand this growth.
By freeing up a significant amount of admin time for staff users, the Street Doctors team have been able to focus their efforts on expanding the reach of their work.
2023 saw the team train 9,811 young people, which compared to the charity total training numbers of 25,000 in the previous 10 years and a growth of 108% from 2022.
Thee 1049 sessions had been booked up in advance, leaving the team more time to engage with their volunteers to enhance their experience and retain them for longer.
Quality of work
As a by-product of investing in Volunteero, the team have seen an increase in the quality of their outcomes. They have a clear recruitment, training and engagement strategy which means they are retaining volunteers for longer who feel passionate about the organisation.
Volunteero allows for clear financial management by tracking the number of sessions and volunteer engagement. Martin and the team can clearly identify the upcoming planned training sessions and use the missions section to review the outcomes from each months missions.
Martin told us “ I know straight away how many missions we’ve got coming up, 101 in March and already over 500 for 2024”
Reporting and Insights
Volunteero facilitates thorough data analysis to gauge the organisation's impact and accomplishments through its tags, groups and insights features.
The platform's ability to generate reports and integrate with financial systems enabled Martin to make informed decisions and demonstrate accountability to trustees, stakeholders and funding partners.
They’re able to clearly project and communicate the return on investment, sharing with their stakeholders the true benefits of funding their life-saving workshops.
What Next
Martin plans on continuing to lead the organisation into bigger and better places, with plans to expand already he is confident that the ongoing developments within Volunteero will aid the organisation in going from strength to strength.
“ I think for us one of the key things that makes Volunteero a perfect fit for StreetDoctors is your integrity, and that open relationship we have with you, it’s really refreshing to have a software company which wants to work with you and focuses on finding the right solutions for your business. And we know that Innovation of the platform happens and will continue to happen which really excites us”
Here at Volunteero, we’re so excited to watch StreetDoctors growth continue into 2024, reaping the benefits of leveraging technology and embracing a long-term solution for managing their volunteers.
If you’d like to achieve the same results, why not get in touch and book a demo today!
