Fund volunteers recently joined MPs, senior civil servants, representatives from the Third Sector, and other guests at the Houses of Parliament to celebrate the start of the 125th anniversary of their in-house charity, and launch the European Year of Volunteering with Volunteering England.

While we were unable to invite all of our 1,100 volunteer community, we were delighted to be joined by a number of them who have made a special impact on delivering our services locally, and raising money and awareness, in the last 12 months.

For the Fund, it was a chance to launch its new Volunteering film, Making Lives Better, and our 125 Year Appeal, to approx. 100 committed Fund supporters, decision-makers within government, and key stakeholders in the voluntary sector.

The film features several of our volunteers, and people we’ve helped, demonstrating the very real link between them. It aims are to increase awareness of our volunteering activities, and encourage more people to get involved, supporting the purpose of the European Year of Volunteering.

Speakers at the event, including Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society and the Cabinet Secretary, and Fund President, Sir Gus O’Donnell, urged civil servants to get more involved in volunteering.

Nick Hurd MP said, “The Big Society is all about encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society, and events like the European Year of Volunteering are an important part of raising awareness of the benefits of getting involved.

“In government we will be supporting volunteering schemes throughout the Civil Service, as encouraging employers and organisations to make it easy for their staff to volunteer will play a key part in building the Big Society.”

Sir Gus made it clear that he expects volunteering to be a core part of the civil service. “Getting civil servants involved in volunteering is a two-way process. I have found by working with those groups that I have been able to do my day job much better, and given me insight into what is going on.”

“So while we’re pushing civil servants, they will do better because they’ve had this wide range of experiences and they will be learning from those.

“Volunteering is definitely reciprocal.”

Fund Chairman Sir Stephen Laws, who also spoke at the event, highlighted the central role of volunteers in the Fund’s history.

“Our volunteers give us over 50,000 hours of work every year and they play a key role in delivering £7 million of support that we offer to the civil service community each year.”

We are very grateful to the Civil Service Insurance Society for their generous sponsorship of this event.

Civil Service Benevolent Fund, Volunteering England, European Year of the Volunteer, volunteer

Last updated 470 days ago by Jamie Hill