Building an Audience for The Wheelchair Skills College

Pete Donnelly is the brains behind The Wheelchair Skills College which he started full time in January 2022.  With a background in managing various empowerment programmes for disabled people in the third sector Pete had never worked directly in social media teams so when it came to his own start up  he wanted a Skilled Volunteer with social media expertise to provide advice around extending his reach and building an audience.  "People have commented that it looks as if I've been running for years so for me that shows I'm building credibility..."

Volunteers can offer the gift of time and talent

“Link UP has hit upon an outstanding idea” Mic told guest blogger and Skilled Volunteer, Anca Stef, during their chat about the value of Volunteering for local organisations and the communities they serve. Having been through a Link UP London project and matched with Skilled Volunteers to help his growing theatre company, Mic understands the value professionals can bring to a charitiable organisation. It’s why he has come back for more.

Transferring Skills To The Voluntary Sector

Susannah was looking for a path into volunteering and helping her local community.  During the Covid pandemic she discovered Link UP and Skilled Volunteering.  Here Susannah explains her journey and the impact  her contribution made to CAB Roehampton and it's wider community, as well as to own personal development.  Volunteering her skills “had a bigger impact than she would have imagined”. 

"Volunteering is the essence of collaborating"

In an interview, executive coach Harriet Dodd  talks about her Link UP volunteering experience and and how volunteering is meaningful at a personal and professional level. "Volunteering is the essence of collaborating to make the world a better place - do it! Why would you not? "

Running Virtual Events with Confidence

The biggest lesson I learned from virtual facilitation was, that the methodologies and practices you apply to run engaging physical events effectively are not the same methodologies and techniques you use in the virtual world; the rules are entirely different.

How To Reach The Heart of Your Audience

Practicing What We Preach

Looking for a Skilled Volunteer?

For a Skilled Volunteering Project to be truly effective, organisations need to invest a certain amount of planning upfront and be ready to make the most of the knowledge on offer. Over the past five years, we’ve learned a lot about how to maximise the value of working on a project with a new Skilled Volunteer so we thought we’d share a few tips that can make it an easier and more beneficial experience for both sides.  

Corporate Volunteering

We believe that Corporate Volunteering (when companies support employees to share their professional skills with charities) is an exciting area of growth and such programmes are hugely beneficial not only for charities but also for both employees and the business themselves.

Considering Volunteering?

Xavier has been volunteering for the last 20 years. After completing his first Skilled Volunteering project with Link UP last year he has written a blog for anyone thinking about sharing their skills with local charitable organisations which includes advice about what to consider when volunteering and what to watch out for when looking for new opportunities.

Why We Structure Skilled Volunteering Projects

One sticking point for explaining Link UP London’s work to the diverse charities, social enterprises and community groups we work with is the word ’project’. The fact that a word, so important to how we structure our engagements, causes confusion means that we have some explaining to do. The thing is, I completely understand why! 

Is Flexible Working as Flexible as it Seems?

Link UP Skilled Volunteer and founder of Fresh Solutions HR, Laura Walker, has almost 20 years of Human Resources experience across a variety of sectors. In this blog she shares expert advice for anyone looking to submit a Flexible Working request and a list of useful resources to find out more.

Covid-19 Is Reversing Gender Equality

Anyone reading the news is aware that women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. And most of us are, or know someone, who is juggling the demands of working from home, home-schooling, running a household and dealing with the psychological and emotional stresses presented by Covid. This past year, women have been more likely to be furloughed and lose their jobs and over half those interviewed for a Mumsnet poll recently expect the progresses made toward gender equality to reverse over the next year.

4 Way To Improve Your Social Media Strategy

At a time when social media and digital marketing are more important than ever, Skilled Volunteer and Founder of Social Media Marketing Agency, White Bee Digital, Aggie Meroni shares 4 ways Social Good Organisations can improve their online presence. 

8 Reasons Why Skilled Volunteering Is Good For You

Skilled Volunteering is invaluable to Social Good Organisations, as they provide free support to help them drive forward and ultimately reach more beneficiaries and continue to build stronger communities.

BUT Skilled Volunteering isn’t just great for Social Good Organisations – it’s great for you too! Here’s 8 reasons why you should sign up and share your skills with your community today!

Build your confidence through Skilled Volunteering

Link UP London CEO, Kim Perlow, explains how offering your skills to Skilled Volunteering can boost confidence and help you work towards a new job following a career break.

Celebrating 10 Diverse Link UP Projects from 2020

To celebrate the diversity of Social Good Organisations that our incredible Skilled Volunteers supported throughout 2020, we're looking back at 10 projects that made a huge difference to our local communities. 

Accepting the impermanence of volunteering

Will Foreman (Skilled Volunteering) talks talks about how framing volunteering as for a Reason, Season or Lifetime can help build better volunteering relationships.

Adapting to Remote Working ...again 

Kim Perlow, Link UP’s CEO shares her thoughts on lessons learnt from the last lockdown experience and how to stay connected as a team and work effectively from home.

Read on for Kim's thoughts!

How Has Volunteering Impacted Me? Volunteer's Perspective

Link UP Volunteer Imogen dives into how she found volunteering with us, helping us to restructure how traffic moves through our website!

Read on for Imogen's thoughts!

What's so great about Skilled Volunteering?

As lockdown eases and people return to work, we very much hope that the spirit of goodwill continues and Skilled Volunteering remains a part of people’s lives.

Read on for our thoughts!

Resilience - Surviving and Thriving in Times of Uncertainty

In the current climate, many charitable organisations have had to make an extremely difficult decision; serve their beneficiaries, or ensure their own survival. 

Read on for our thoughts!

How Has Volunteering Impacted Me? Volunteer's Perspective

Link UP Volunteer Chris talks here about the impact Skileld Volunteering has had for him! "My background in the IT industry was geared to the projects: understanding the problem, sorting a solution and successful delivery. Link UP is a bunch of very committed individuals – but the organisation and its ethos is far greater than the sum of the parts!"