Volunteering Vision

As we begin a new year, many organisations are reviewing priorities and planning for the months ahead. This is an ideal time to consider how volunteering can strengthen your services, build resilience, and support community needs in 2026.

Our aim is to help organisations make volunteering a strategic part of their plans for the year. Together, we can ensure that volunteers remain at the heart of delivering impactful services.

Let’s make 2026 a year of collaboration, growth, and innovation in the voluntary sector. Together, we can turn good intentions into great outcomes!

Best wishes,

Kelly Wright
Voluntary Sector and Partnerships Manager

Corporate volunteering is changing fast. As we head toward 2026, it’s clear that the most successful programmes will look very different from those of even a few years ago.

Charities are under greater strain than ever, demand for services is rising while funding is falling. They need more support, more innovation, and more collaboration from business. At the same time, employees expect meaningful ways to give back that fit their lives and reflect their values. This article explores how micro-volunteering is becoming the norm and how corporate volunteers are helping charities navigate AI. 

Insights from Rosterfy’s State of UK Volunteer Management 2025 report show that growing optimism, strategic investment, and digital innovation are setting the stage for stronger volunteer programmes and greater impact in 2026.The report revealed that despite ongoing challenges, optimism is thriving.

Charities have a unique opportunity to build on the momentum of this year. With the right investment and focus, 2026 could be the year volunteering evolves at scale, transforming both experiences and impact across the sector.

Charities created more roles for skills-based volunteers last year and the number of people volunteering their skills increased again following a record rise in 2024, new figures show.

Data from Reach Volunteering, a charity that connects people who want to volunteer their skills with charities and groups, shows that charities posted 7,095 roles for skills-based volunteers in 2025, an increase of 13.4 per cent on 2024. Skills-based volunteers are those with professional experience who use their skills in fields such as finance, HR or tech to support charities with specialist projects.

Volunteering programmes tend to experience a boom over the festive period, with the season of good will encouraging more people to donate their time to support causes they care about. However, January tells a different story. According to a study commissioned by the Royal Voluntary Service, volunteer applications are likely to drop by 44% in the new year following a “festive spike”. Charity Digital share their most helpful resources to help charities boost their volunteering over the coming year.

You are invited to attend the next quarterly networking breakfast for existing, new and enquiring member organisations.

Come along and enjoy light refreshments while making connections with other voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations. 

Find out about all the membership benefits available, including:

• Funding advice and support
• Help with volunteer recruitment
• Training and workshops
• Share your initiatives and projects and discuss local priorities and current trends. 

Date: 9 February 2026
Time: 9:30am to 11:00am
Venue: Organ Hall Community Centre, Bairstow Close, Borehamwood, WD6 4TB

We look forward to welcoming you!

This training will be delivered online 

By the end of this session, you’ll gain a solid understanding of fundraising fundamentals, explore practical techniques, and learn how to navigate legal and ethical considerations. You’ll also learn how to develop donor relationships, create a tailored strategy, and boost your confidence through hands-on activities.

Member Fee £25.00
Non Member Fee £40.00
 

Date:  20 January 2026
Location: Online
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm

Potential volunteers wishing to take their first steps towards volunteering would benefit from attending this one hour Teams session. The session will cover an understanding of volunteering and its roles, volunteering with benefits, researching volunteering roles and identifying skills. 

Date: Tuesday 27 January 2026
Location: Online
Time: 10:30am to 11:30am

Two training sessions are available to managers and front line staff, working in any support setting, who need a basic awareness of emergency first aid.

The course will cover basic skills and knowledge to assess and respond to first aid emergencies and/or recognise the need to summon help. As a refresher course, it will provide existing first aid trained staff with the latest updates to emergency first aid protocols.

Where: Phillimore Community Centre, Phillimore Place, Radlett, WD7 8NN
When: 21 January 2026 and 18 February 2026
Time: 1pm to 4:30pm

Member fee £40

This training is not available to non-members.

This Designated Safeguarding Training course provides core knowledge for the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) or Officer (DSO), covering legal responsibilities, identifying abuse signs, reporting procedures, policy implementation, and managing allegations, ensuring staff support and a safe environment, often using real-life scenarios and referencing key guidance like Keeping Children Safe in Education.

Where: Communities 1st, Ver House
Park Industrial Estate, Frogmore, AL2 2DR
When: 26 February 2026
Time: 9:00am to 4:00pm

Member organisation £40.00
Non Members £70.00

This training is not available to non-members.

You are warmly invited to join an online event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2026 at 7:00pm on Monday, 26 January 2026.

Please use the link below to join the Teams meeting. 

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year. It is a time to remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

This year’s theme is Bridging Generations. The theme explores how sharing stories and experiences across generations helps keep memory alive and strengthens our resolve to build a safer future.

This event is open to all, so please feel free to share the invitation with your family and friends.

On behalf of the Chair of the Herts Interfaith Forum, we look forward to welcoming you.

Hours: Part-time (2 posts at 12 hours per week),
with additional casual hours available
Salary: £12.60 per hour
Main Place of work: Trestle Arts Base (primarily) and other
Communities 1st community centres

The Duty Supervisor is responsible for the smooth, safe and welcoming day-to-day operation of Trestle Arts Base during their shift. The role combines hands-on building care and cleaning, with oversight of spaces, support to hirers and visitors, and responsibility for opening, closing and securing the building.

The postholder acts as the visible point of contact on site, ensuring the building is ready for use, issues are dealt with promptly, and guests and hirers feel supported and confident while using the space. The post holder will need to be confident, flexible, organised and have good communication skills.

Hours: casual hours
Salary: £12.60 per hour

In this role as a Community Transport Minibus Driver for our Community Transport Scheme, you will provide a valuable service for our elderly and/or disabled clients who request transport from door-to-door. Many of our clients require assistance and therefore drivers need to be physically fit with a caring personality. If you like driving, have caring nature, and want to be part of a growing transport team this role could be for you!

The role is based primarily in Hertsmere, Three Rivers, Watford and Welwyn and Hatfield districts, although you may be required to work throughout the county of Hertfordshire.

Hours:8 hours per week
Salary: £12.60 per hour
Main places of work: Radlett

The Cleaner/Caretaker will provide a comprehensive cleaning service at the community centres managed by Communities 1st and occasional holiday cover for office cleaning at Ver House.

The successful applicant will be required to open and close the community centre for occasional hirers as required both during the week and at weekends. Regular hirers of the centres have their own keys and do not need this service.