We are excited to announce that we have successfully received funding from WCVA’s Volunteering Wales Strategic Grant! This funding will help us to co-produce a brand-new Volunteer Hub on our Insight app with its members.
Our new Insight app’s Volunteer Hub aims to open the volunteering landscape for people with learning disabilities. The Volunteer Hub will make volunteering more accessible and inclusive. We will do this by removing barriers and educating volunteers and those who offer volunteering opportunities.
What is Insight?
Insight, Innovate Trust’s free community app, connects people with learning disabilities across the UK. It provides access to online and in-person activities. The app connects members through online and in-person activities, creating a welcoming space for people to share and make friends in an accessible and friendly environment.
Why a Volunteer Hub?
During the first round of funding, our Insight Investigators successfully consulted with Insight members and non-members. This helped us to identify areas of Insight in need of development. Thanks to feedback from Insight Investigators participants, we will focus the second round of funding on developing Insight’s Volunteer Hub.
Co-production with our communities
By partnering with other organisations, we want to change how people with learning disabilities find and join volunteering opportunities. Insight’s Volunteer Hub will be a platform for local organisations to promote their volunteering opportunities. Not only are we co-producing our Volunteer Hub with organisations, but also people with learning disabilities. The hub will include a space for volunteers to connect, share their stories, and find useful resources, all in an accessible format.
We will have regular development sessions with individuals with learning disabilities. These sessions will be in person in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and online on our Insight app. Those interested will volunteer their time to help create and evaluate the Volunteer Hub. Project volunteers will meet monthly to oversee the progress of the Volunteer Hub.
Taster sessions
This project also aims to include adults with learning disabilities across many organisations. We will host one-off tester sessions to challenge our own and others’ assumptions of accessibility. This will help to make the new Volunteer Hub a fun, inclusive space for adults with learning disabilities. Members can use the Volunteer Hub to discover volunteering opportunities and improve their skills and wellbeing.
Are you an organisation? Get involved!
Alongside this, we will work with external organisations to upload opportunities to the hub, supporting them to meet high accessibility standards. Innovate Trust will support organisations in considering their practices concerning recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers with learning disabilities.
We are eager to work with any new organisations that would like to increase the variety of their volunteers. Additionally, we will work with our long-standing partners who have endorsed the new Volunteer Hub. If you are an organisation or support provider interested in being involved in the creation of Insight’s Volunteer Hub, get in touch with us!
