Our Works

Volunteering

Published on: May 30th 2022
Last updated on May 26th 2026 #year-two-report

Our Active Kindness project is revolutionizing volunteering in our sector! And any of our members can be part of it!

This FREE programme supports our members to enhance their volunteer management capacity, improve delivery, increase volunteer numbers and the diversity of those involved. Active Kindness offers funding, training and bespoke support to enable locally led, high-quality delivery from Charitable Trusts and Social Enterprises. All made possible thanks to £651K funding from the National Lottery Community Fund.

Every year ten new members join the Active Kindness cohort for a year of training, support and development.

Whether you already have a Volunteering Programme or are just beginning your volunteer journey the Active Kindness programme can support your Trust to even greater heights.

Join the waiting list for 2027! Apply HERE.

Active Kindness Step-By-Step

Our expert volunteer development consultant, Katherine Perrin, delivers bespoke monthly learning workshops, specially designed to develop or strengthen your current volunteering offer. Modules include:

Developing New Roles
Inclusive Volunteering
Recruitment
Volunteer Management
Reward & Recognition.

Support is also available from our dedicated Active Kindness programme manager, Bryony Hudson, who will provide a safe space for peer-to-peer support where you can discuss challenges, opportunities and learning with people on the same wavelength. Register for Active Kindness

You don’t need to be part of the Active Kindness cohort to benefit from a brand-new Volunteer Management system. Ditch the spreadsheets, track volunteer progress digitally and ensure they’re happier than ever before with this FREE to use resource*

We’ve developed a bespoke software approach for volunteering in public leisure and culture with experts from Volunteero.

Each year we have 15 exclusive places available for trusts to sign up to use this system. Join the waiting list and we’ll let you know when it’s your turn. Register today here.

With Volunteero you can:

Advertise your volunteer opportunities using customer made forms.
Streamline the joining process so you can get your volunteers onboard faster.
Benefit from flexibility to allow you to manage any type of volunteering role.
Download a dedicated App where volunteers can find opportunities and allow you to communicate directly with them.
Track volunteer engagement and personalise your interaction with them.
Upskill your volunteers with digital e-learning resources using the App
Easily manage an unlimited amount of volunteers and their assignments
Track how your volunteers are feeling as well as the hours they support your Trust.
Monitor individual and overall volunteer performance.
Easy to use reporting and insight tools.
Inbuilt rewards and recognition platform.

Learn more by watching the video https://www.loom.com/share/26a6d3bd8e694d049d721227ebab4978

*standard software package free of charge for trusts (subject to a maximum number of logins and volunteers

Members of Active Kindness will have access to the latest information on volunteering, useful reports, best practice guides and the experience of our previous members to further your own thinking and development.

We’ve appointed Social Value specialists, State of Life, to head up a pioneering piece of work to demonstrate the impact and value of people volunteering in public leisure and culture.

In a sector-first, State of Life will work with Community Leisure UK to develop a Social Value Reporting Framework that:

Takes into account the plethora of volunteering happening in the public leisure and culture sectors including how volunteers support theatres, gyms, parks, libraries and swimming pools – not just physical activity.
Focuses on the unique social value of volunteering for individuals and organisations.
Demonstrate the greater social impact of volunteering for under-represented groups and demographics.
Evidence how Charities and Social Enterprises have inherent social value as community assets – a previously unexplored, and truly unique, territory for Social Value analysis.

Join Active Kindness and Reap the Rewards

A total of 34 Community Leisure UK members have been involved since it was launched. Your company could be the next – register with us. If you’d like to ask more questions before making your mind up please email [email protected]

Here’s some of the Trusts we’ve already supported and their amazing volunteers.