Volunteering Policy

Last Version June 2005

Agreed by Advisory Board and Trustees December 2005

• Outsiders is for shy, disabled and socially isolated people aiming to live life to the full by empowering, education, supporting, challenging and campaigning. It is a self-help club for people with physical and social disabilities seeking love. Most of our volunteers are disabled members of Outsiders. Our long-term volunteers belong to the Team of Coordinators and those who choose to also serve on our Advisory Board. Outsiders is thus essentially user-led but we also welcome volunteers from elsewhere as our current volunteers tend to be overstretched, overworked and would appreciate additional professional expertise to help them in their work.
• Members who join Outsiders to make use of our services, must be have been actively part of Outsiders for six months before volunteering.
• All volunteers must read and adhere to our policies of Volunteering, Equal Opportunities, Vulnerable Adults and Child Protection.
• Volunteers who come from outside are expected to join the Outsiders Club, the Board of Trustees or the Advisory Board.
• We aim to have volunteers with a wide range of disabilities and ethnic backgrounds that reflect our membership.
• Because of the delicate nature of our work, volunteers are selected very carefully. They are interviewed by the Coordinators Group and, if appointed, put on a trial period of six months before being instated. According to their skills and interests, each volunteer is taken on to work under one particular Coordinator, with a written job description. This can change with time and it is hoped that the volunteer will eventually join the team of Coordinators. Volunteers who seem unsuitable are told politely that we have no suitable work for them to do. We require two references and proof of professional qualifications.
• Until recently, all volunteers to date have come through Outsiders or our fund-raising activities. This is because we are a very special group which requires a particular understanding and acceptance of disability. However, Outsiders seriously needs professional people with time and energy to help us fulfill our aims, so we are attempting to seek more volunteers with varied professional expertise, particularly experienced in running a charity. We have sought advice and read the Volunteers Week Planning Group's "Get it Right from the Start" document.
• Volunteers are being sought from elsewhere by:-
  1. inviting people to help us on our website
  2. taking advantage of free advertising in the Evening Standard
  3. approaching organisations who provide trustees and volunteers
  4. through our group of specialists in the Sexual Health and Disability Alliance

  We seek further advice on attracting suitable volunteers and getting more support. Currently we are attracting new patrons who believe in what we do, such as Mat Fraser, Laurence Clark and hopefully Alison Lapper, We are awarding Alison Lapper in one of our fund raising enterprises, The Erotic Awards.

• Unsuitable people soon lose interest as Outsiders is very difficult to run and we have no funds. Only the most committed and inspired persevere. It has thus not been necessary to ask unsuitable volunteers to leave. Any grievances are dealt with as according to the Constitution.
• Outsiders campaigns for the sexual rights of disabled people and is the leading authority on the sexual and relationship issues of disability. We seek more volunteers who can help our work become better accepted by funders, other disability agencies and society. We also aim to encourage academics to study sexuality and disability outside the normal "sexual function of spinal cord injured men" research, which has dominated research. We need professional help with our V-Group to help us understand some of the sexual difficulties experienced by disabled women with a large range of disabilities, particularly those with MS, Cerebral Palsy and Spinal Injury .
• We welcome volunteers from other disability agencies, who can help us run workshops on shyness, social Phobia and Aspergers Syndrome, to help us enable people with these problems function better socially and find partners.
• Supervision and support is provided.
• All volunteers shall adhere to the Outsiders Constitution which states all volunteers and staff shall:-
  1. When running things for Outsiders, act in accordance with the code of behaviour which the Trustees find acceptable. Specifically, they shall follow club rules and the guidelines of the Starter Pack. They shall treat members with respect and never refer to them, or treat them, in a patronising way. They must not exclude people because of disability, however severe. Neither shall they exploit other members, use their position of power to gain sexual favours, or purposefully do things that might bring Outsiders into disrepute.
  2. Volunteers and staff shall accept training so they can learn how to fulfill the aims of the club. Should there be any doubt that a volunteer or member of staff is not adhering to the above and/or seem unwilling or unable to improve as a result of training, the Coordinators shall decide whether they have failed in this respect and, if they are Coordinators themselves, the decision shall be taken by the Trustees. Such failure may result in this volunteer or member of the staff or volunteers being told that their help is no longer required by Outsiders.
  3. Sign our Confidentiality Form, to state that they will not divulge information about any member to any person except to any authorised person and, only then when it is necessary to do so.
  4. Run any local events in strict conformity to the club guidelines, or must gain authorisation from a Committee member to deviate from those guidelines, on each occasion.
  5. Ensure that locally-run events are self-financing except where agreed beforehand with the Committee, e.g. in start-up operations.
  6. Be kept informed of the progress of other areas be expected to inform other groups of their progress.
  7. Have the right to a hearing, in front of the coordinators or trustees in cases of alleged breaches of the rules of Outsiders
  8. The Advisory Board handles the reviewing of Volunteering Policy.
  9. Our fund raising is aimed at providing expenses for volunteers and training for those who seek it.
  10. After funding from the Hilden Charitable Trust, we recognised the fact that Outsiders is a long way from being able to extend to ethnic minorities whose ideology is opposed to our work. We do have members who are devout Christian, Muslim, Hindu and cultures who are tolerant towards sexuality and disability, but we have been unable to attract many other groups, such as Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, German and Russian - either as members and volunteers. We continuously investigate the ethnic problems as they present themselves. This has much less to do with language or image, than to do with conservative attitudes towards disability, sex and marriage.
  11. All our material is available in plain type, large type, tape, email and on our website. The people who run the helpline and counselling at RNIB are part of our Sexual Health and Disability Alliance. Outsiders works with the Deaf-Blind UK in Peterborough and to offer services to residents suitable for their special needs, as they occur.
  12. Target Audiences - we have offers from the British College of Occupational Therapists and Scope to help distribute our leaflets but this needs finance and organisational skills, which we seek support for. We aim to reach all school leavers via leaflets. Posters in libraries and public places have so far been ineffective (probably removed soon after delivered).
  13. Outsiders has public liability insurance for all volunteers.
  14. All volunteers receive a copy of our Volunteers Policy and it is displayed on our office noticeboard and on our website.
  15. Volunteers are invited to a Christmas dinner, and receive free tickets to our fund raising gala and free membership.
  16. Volunteers are allowed access to the Outsiders office but must let the Secretary of the Coordinators know when they are going in, and adhere to the confidentiality contract.