ASPIRING HIGH FOR
THE NETWORK
The ASPIRE project has been developed to build the capacity of
the Volunteer Centre Network Scotland.
Volunteer Centres have a key role in achieving the outcomes of the Scottish
Executive’s Volunteering
Strategy that seeks to develop a robust culture of volunteering in Scotland.
The Network of VCs is tasked with responding strategically and
operationally to the specific strands within the Strategy document. At the
same time there is a need to seize the social economy opportunities arising
from gaining an understanding of the specific interventions that
volunteering can offer to improve the quality of life for people and
communities throughout Scotland.
Lanarkshire
applied for funding support to lead the project delivery. As part of a two
phase project, ASPIRE Phase 1 has been backed by the Voluntary Issues Unit
of the Scottish Executive and ESF Objective 3.
The main beneficiaries of ASPIRE are Volunteer Centre
managers, the staff and volunteers of VCs, and the boards and committees involved
in VC governance. As a result of organisational and individual development
that ASPIRE provides for, the indirect beneficiaries include VC partners
and stakeholders, volunteer involving organisations, and ultimately – and
most importantly – volunteers themselves.
ASPIRE Phase 1 focuses on discovering the organisational and
developmental needs of VCs. This includes mapping skills, competencies and
structures within VCs as learning organisations, pursuing three distinct
research projects, and establishing the entrepreneurial case. The focus of
Phase 2 is on delivery, to meet the needs that are discovered from the
earlier activity.
Participating VCs commit to sustaining their involvement in
ASPIRE, recording the time designated for engaging in ASPIRE actively, and
following through on negotiated tasks according to established timescales.
ASPIRE is designed as an innovative, forward thinking project
that will prepare VCs for a more sustainable and outcome-focussed programme
of work that brings the VCs unique remit to the fore as a major
contribution to quality of life in Scotland.
For more about ASPIRE, please contact Karl
Monsen-Elvik or Craig Russell at the Volunteer Centre on
01698 358866, or e-mail volunteer@nlvda.org.
