Kent strides ahead despite the AWOL National 2012 Volunteering Plan!

The London 2012 Volunteering Strategy was originally expected in the summer of 2006, but has been pushed back on a number of occasions. It is now rumoured that a national Volunteering Action Plan will not surface until 2010, when London 2012 will start its actual recruitment of its 70, 000 required volunteers (the largest number required for any Games to date).

Whilst this is disappointing, voluntary and public sector partners within the Kent Campaign for the 2012 Games continue to press ahead with our legacy plans, first and foremost of which is an Event Volunteering Project (working title – suggestions on an email welcomed!). Intended to recruit, support and develop volunteers to support ‘one-off’ leisure, sport and cultural events, this project will build on a voluntary sector pilot ‘Time2Time’ led by Sevenoaks Volunteering Centre of Excellence, that in turn is premised on the fact many of us don’t have the time to commit to regular volunteering, but still want to ‘do our bit’ for the county. The London 2012 Games will be used as a catalyst to grow this project, through Kent County Council funding, to then embed it within a wider Kent volunteering strategy.

For more details on the initial pilot please contact info@sevenoaksvolunteers.org.uk or contact the Chair of Kent 2012’s Volunteering sectoral task group, Charlotte Osborn-Howard charlotte.oh@mvbhub.org.uk for more information on the longer-term Kent Campaign ambitions.