After vinvolved: vinspired and the vinspired awards for voluntary organisations

Sadly, after lots of amazing work, the vinvolved teams programme is coming to a close, so we've been getting lots of emails asking if vinspired and the vinspired awards will still be available to voluntary organisations and their young volunteers. The good news is that organisations, charities, CICs and social enterprises (large and small, local or national) can continue to access these services completely free of charge. I thought it might be useful and more efficient to answer the most common queries about the vinspired service here...

Free advertising of vacancies for young volunteers

If you are looking to recruit young volunteers, you can advertise your volunteering opportunities totally free of charge on vinspired.com. You can use vinspired to promote any volunteering opportunity as long as it’s unpaid (expenses are OK) and helps other people, the environment or society. (We don't advertise jobs, work experience or training, sorry.)

You will get a page for your organisation and access to our easy-to-use content management system so that you can post ads for your opportunities. When someone applies, you'll get an email with their details, and can continue with the recruitment process as appropriate for your organisation (using your own application forms, conducting interviews if necessary).

You can sign up for a vinspired account for your organisation here. (It's quick and easy.)

vinspired awards for your volunteers

The vinspired awards are available for any young volunteer aged 16-25 in England. The recognition scheme is totally free for volunteers and organisations. There are two ways to get vinspired awards for your volunteers.

Through v's central validation team: Simply ask your volunteers to join vinspired, log their hours and apply for their award. Their award application will be validated by v's central team and they'll get a certificate through the post. If there are any issues with the application, the central team will contact them by email to request more information. You may be contacted to provide a reference for your volunteers.

Through your organisation: If you would like to be able to validate awards and give out certificates, you can apply to join the vinspired awards network. Once your application has been accepted, you'll be able to validate vinspired awards online and order certificates. You'll get user guides and support by phone and email, and your first five validations will be moderated by the central validation team to make sure you've got the hang of it. Download an application form here.

vinspired mobile

All opportunities you post on vinspired will automatically appear on the vinspired iPhone app, without any extra work for you. The app is totally free to download from iTunes and has had some great reviews in the press as well as great feedback from volunteers and organisations. We are currently working on free apps for other mobile operating systems, which we hope to release in May - again any opportunities you post on vinspired will then be available on these platforms. Click on the App store logo to download the app, or (if, like me, you haven't got an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) find out what it does here.

I think that covers the most common queries - shout if I've missed anything! We're working on lots of exciting digital projects at the moment so stay tuned for more news.