Volunteers are at the core of beYOU, without them we simply would not be able to offer our services. They staff the Helpline. They support people, face-to-face and at the beHERE drop-in sessions. They research information about groups, resources and web sites for our database. They help with promotion, recruitment and fund raising. The committee is entirely made up of volunteers.

Volunteering isn’t an easy task, it can be both physically and emotionally challenging, yet people from the local community turn up week after week to support beYOU in its important work.

The committee would like to extend its thanks to the current volunteer body, give a warm welcome to new volunteers, and offer a fond farewell to those who have left us.

Training

Training is a very important element of beYOU. New contact volunteers are trained over three consecutive sessions covering a wide range of subjects relative to our core services. Role play exercises cover some of the more difficult situations volunteers have to deal with. Safer sex, ‘coming out’, relationship issues, local information and resources are all covered.

Once completed, new volunteers take part in a series of ‘observer sessions’ where they are present at both the Helpline and the beHERE drop-in, before full membership of the organisation, and their inclusion into the volunteer rota.

All volunteers take part in four training days every year. These are used as refresher opportunities allowing us to learn from each other. In the past year we have had sessions on safer sex education from a member of staff at the Florey Unit, transgender issues from a member of London Transsexual Support and Social Group, younger and older people issues with speakers from the ReachOUT youth group and Berkshire Older Lesbian and Gay Forum. We would like to thank all these organisations for their help and useful input.


Recruitment

We always have had a turnover of volunteers as people move out of the area, change jobs etc. Following a successful recruitment campaign, this year we have managed appoint more new volunteers than have left us. We cannot be complacent and recruitment of volunteers will continue to be a major focus of our work.


Contact and non-contact

The membership of beYOU has been split into two groups, contact and non-contact. Contact members are those who have completed the full training course, and directly interface with our core clients. Non-contact members attend a shorter training course and deal with management, support or organisational roles. They will have contact with members of the community during social or promotional events.

Of course all volunteers are bound by our strict confidentiality agreements and operational procedures.

Volunteer’s expenses

Thanks to a generous grant from Berkshire Community Foundation, we have this year been able to offer our volunteers free lunches and refreshments at all our training days, drop-ins and helpline shifts. This has proved most successful at the training days, where instead of people having to go off and find lunch nearby, they can stay and chat with other volunteers, whilst enjoying good food.

We hope to extend this policy further to cover more volunteer’s expenses to other areas, particularly travel. In 2003-2004 we will be looking for funding to achieve this plan.