Here at akt, we support LGBTQ+ young people aged 16-25 experiencing homelessness or living in a hostile environment. We support young people into safe homes and employment, education, or training, in a welcoming and open environment that celebrates LGBTQ+ identities.

Our volunteers are involved in a range of roles such as fundraising, mentoring, raising awareness about akt and supporting us at events. We currently have a total of 139 volunteers across 7 different volunteer roles.

Volunteers have always been very important throughout the history of akt and we would not be able to deliver the impact we can without the incredible support of such passionate volunteers who are so generous with their time.

Providing our volunteers with the best possible experience has always been at the forefront of our minds. We know that there are numerous potential barriers to volunteering so at akt we want to make volunteering as simple and accessible as possible. Around a year ago we undertook a significant project to empower our volunteers to take charge of their volunteering through the use of a platform called Volunteero. 

 Our overall aims were to: 

• Improve onboarding - Create a quick and easy onboarding experience for new volunteers 

• Improve our volunteers’ overall experience - Allow volunteers to manage their own volunteering, log feedback, connect with other volunteers and claim back expenses all within the same platform  
• Increase efficiency - Simplify processes within the organisation to free up the team to deliver an even greater impact for the young people we support 

We believe we are well on track to achieving these aims. Volunteero is a platform tailored towards volunteer management and through using Volunteero we have managed to directly recruit via our website using their application forms and track volunteer applications easily through the system.

Volunteers now also have more control of the shifts they sign up to which in turn significantly decreases the number of emails we have to send out. Our team create and publish events and other types of volunteering activities called “missions” which include everything volunteers need to decide if they want to participate. These “missions” provide clarity about what they can expect and what to do. 

Our volunteers use the Volunteero app to be kept informed and browse the opportunities as they are published. Once any activity has been completed, the volunteers can log reports and claim expenses in seconds. This volunteer feedback and the data from the Volunteero is extremely valuable for us to not only demonstrate the impact our volunteers are having but to also continue finding ways in which we can motivate and reward them. This has been key in offering our volunteers flexibility and accessibility in their volunteering.  

Through working with the Volunteero team, we have also made suggestions on improvements we and our volunteers would love to see. One such improvement was the ability to communicate with volunteers through the platform. The release of the chat feature this year has meant we can now create a digital community among our volunteers through group chats. It is extremely rewarding from the Volunteer Team’s perspective to see volunteers connecting and engaging with each other! We are confident this will ensure volunteers feel part of something special and always know that support is there for them. 

We are excited to continue our work with our volunteers and the team at Volunteero to further improve the volunteer experience at akt. The better our Volunteer Programme can become, the more of an impact we can deliver for LGBTQ+ young people. 

Any questions? Email [email protected]