Ageing Better and NCVO partner on age-friendly inclusive volunteering

NCVO announced last week that it will partner with the Centre for Ageing Better to support its efforts to increase age-friendly inclusive volunteering in England. NCVO will recieve a grant amount of £28,000 and the project will run until March 2023.

This new partnership with NCVO seeks to build on the legacy of our review of volunteering and community contributions in later life, carried out for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The review and its related projects resulted in the development of ‘five actions for more age-friendly and inclusive volunteering’ designed to help volunteer involving organisations. The Centre for Ageing Better will now share ownership of this research and learning with NCVO to maximise its impact at the national level and reach volunteering organisations across England with the five actions for age friendly inclusive volunteering.

To support this, NCVO will use the funding received from Ageing Better to incorporate the five age-friendly volunteering actions, and findings from the review, into its popular training course, Good practice in volunteer management, and action learning. NCVO will also use the funding and research received through the partnership to develop a group of organisations who will act as ‘advocates for age friendly inclusive volunteering’.

These organisations will grow their practice and analysis together, developing new practice and guidance for other organisations in this area. This will involve a minimum of ten organisations over a six-month period, recruited through an open applications process. This group will analyse barriers to age-friendly volunteering and create solutions which support the sector with volunteering policy and age, and advocate for systemic change with policymakers and government.

"We are delighted to be working with Centre for Ageing Better on this vital issue and thank them for their financial support to deliver this exciting and important work. Both our volunteer training and member network reach throughout England have the potential to help spread and embed age friendly and inclusive practices in volunteering across the country."

"The pandemic has further highlighted the need to engage volunteers of all ages but we must look to address the issues which are stopping older volunteers or potential older volunteers from engaging fully as we know how much they can bring and do contribute. We hope this joint work will have a massive positive impact on our communities.”

“We’ve built up a significant evidence base which shows that contributing in our communities works wonders for both individual and collective wellbeing. Volunteering opportunities need to be age-friendly and inclusive to give everyone the chance to be involved, whatever their age."

"This is a fantastic collaboration, combining NCVO’s brilliant reputation and reach with Ageing Better’s evidence-based research and learning. Focusing more strongly on embedding an age-friendly approach into volunteering will create real, tangible benefits for all people in their local communities.”