TSL Kirklees is engaging young volunteers through their innovative volunteer programme, "Future Creative." Designed to encourage individuals aged 16-24 to participate in creative event-based volunteering, TSL Kirklees has adopted Volunteero to better manage and engage their young volunteers.
TSL Kirklees is the Volunteer Centre for Kirklees in West Yorkshire, and they also run their own volunteer programmes. Future Creative is funded by Arts Council England and is a volunteer programme, aiming to inspire young people to become involved in creative event-based volunteering. This programme is innovative in its flexibility, allowing volunteers to choose the events that align with their schedules and interests. The programme offers a diverse range of volunteer activities, including stewarding at various performances at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, assisting in creative workshops like printmaking and textiles, and supporting outdoor music events and festivals. Additionally, TSL Kirklees organises "Volunteer Meets," where volunteers have the opportunity to engage in creative workshops and receive insights from industry professionals.
We spoke to Imogen Spencer, Future Creative Project Officer at TSL Kirklees about how she’s engaging her young volunteers. TSL Kirklees faced the challenges of managing and communicating with a large group of young volunteers and ensuring smooth communication, in a time where young people are moving away from email. In fact in research conducted by Reckless Agency, push notifications were 45 times more likely to be opened than email. The TSL team realised they needed a mobile-first / push notification-based approach to volunteer engagement. Volunteero came to the rescue offering a comprehensive solution to the challenges TSL Kirklees was facing.
Efficient Event Coordination
One of the key advantages of Volunteero is its ability to quickly organise volunteers for specific events. Imogen stated “Volunteero has been extremely useful for me as the coordinator to quickly see who we have signed up to each event and saves me a huge amount of time emailing out individual rotas etc for each event especially when most of our young people have said they don’t read their emails anyway!”
This is consistent with other clients who have expressed similar challenges when communicating with and managing volunteers with email.
Flexibility for Volunteers
The Volunteero app has proven to be a hit among young volunteers at TSL Kirklees. It allows them to check event details at their convenience, Imogen mentioned “Our volunteers have said they really enjoy using the app as they can check this whenever they get spare time and this could be late at night. They have also said that they feel less pressured to sign up to events as it isn’t just me directly messaging them with events and it is their choice to have a look and sign up to the events that they can make.”
Favourite Features
When asked about her favourite feature of Volunteero, Imogen highlighted the ability to merge all volunteer data into one profile. Imogen explained, “This allows me to click on a volunteer’s name and see all of the forms they have completed during their onboarding process, including parental consent and emergency contact details”.
Such insights are invaluable for an organisation working with young volunteers. She also really appreciates the expenses feature as it provides a convenient platform for volunteers to upload receipts, ensuring they are promptly reimbursed.
TSL Kirklees' Future Creative programme has successfully adopted Volunteero and they are actively listening to how young volunteers like to engage in volunteering. Both TSL Kirklees and their young volunteers have enjoyed a smoother, more enjoyable volunteering experience and are paving the way for the future generation of volunteers.
The types of volunteers are changing and your organisation will need to evolve to best cater to their needs, Volunteero can help with this. If you'd like to learn more about how Volunteero can help your organisation attract, engage and retain younger volunteers, book a demo and one of our friendly team will be in touch!
