Growing our teams

After a difficult 2020, 2021 provides us with many opportunities to provide another generation of girls with fun, adventure and the space to discover their potential. As current volunteers know it is incredibly rewarding making this difference to so many girls lives and having a team of adults and young women to support us makes it all possible.

Joint social media campaign

From 19 April 2021, for 6 weeks, Girlguiding and Scouts will be running a joint campaign to recruit more volunteers to our organisations. By making sure volunteers are supported, and units have the teams they need we will have a solid foundation in which to welcome young people back as well as providing an enjoyable experience for every volunteer.

If you feel you would benefit from some targeted online recruitment please speak to your commissioner if they haven’t contacted you already.

Local is best!

Did you know? Each county has a volunteer with the role of County Growth Coordinator, some Divisions have the role as well.

In a recent grant-funded project, work was conducted to see which were the most successful ways of recruiting volunteers and the finding were that local is best! Below are a few tips for when you need a few more volunteers.

• Start by finding out if parents have skills or interests that could help. Remember that some of this information might be captured in the volunteering section of their daughter’s starting form.
• Share your vacancies with parents and ask them to share with their networks. Who better to ask for help than the people who see first-hand how much Girlguiding benefits girls?
• Include information of vacancies when sending letters to parents along with the term’s programme, bringing their attention to the weeks you need help.
• If you’re struggling to find a certain skill keep at it but remember to change the adverts regularly to keep them fresh and let people know you are still looking.
• If advertising on social media (Facebook community groups are brilliant for this) include:
  • A link to girlguiding.org.uk/interested in your post.
  • Some or all of the following hashtags; #InspireGirls, #FutureGirl, #GirlsCan, #EveryGirl, #Volunteer
  • Hashtags for your community
• Make the adverts fun and in line with our key messages, you can find them here on the Girlguiding website and some images you can use from our own member resource centre.
• Support those that offer to help – give them specific tasks to the vacancy they responded to. You can give them more responsibility over time if they are interested in doing more.
• Add any new volunteers on GO as unit or occasional helpers so they will receive regular newsletters and other volunteer information.

Resources available:

• Download these social media images from Anglia’s resource centre to make your community group posts asking for volunteers or young members more colourful and eye-catching.
• Log into your GO record and book onto one of the national Growth: Recruiting Adults training sessions.
• Want to get your whole unit involved? Check out the Growing Guiding Challenge from Derbyshire County (you can even order a badge) or this one from North West England.
• Girlguiding have a whole area of their website dedicated to recruiting and retaining members, click here to start exploring.
• Want some eye-catching posters? Order free posters (pay P&P only) from the online shop or add your unit logo to a printable version in the easy to use online design centre.

What’s in a welcome?

Did you know? In Anglia, during the pandemic, over 200 members began their Leadership Qualification and over 250 new Unit Helpers joined us!

Before beginning recruitment, it is essential to invest some time in making sure you are set up for a warm welcome. A feeling of welcome can last a lifetime and sets a volunteer on a positive journey to finding their role within Girlguiding and can even bring them back later if they’ve stood back for a while.

Each county has its own processes for ensuring members are warmly welcomed and if you have any questions you can contact your commissioner or even your County Enquiry Coordinator through the directory section of your GO log in.

There are also resources you can use with new starters, resources for people supporting new volunteers and brilliant fun films for a warm welcome, featuring existing members, young women and girls, all available within the toolkit for a warm welcome on the Girlguiding website.

To LQ or not to LQ?

Did you know? The membership database, GO, contains 176 different volunteer roles types.

As lives change volunteering and what our young members are asking for has changed as well. Many units are moving away from a weekly meeting and are looking instead at school holiday guiding, monthly weekend meetings, online units that only meet face to face for camps and trips and everything in between. As well as thinking about what roles would be beneficial to you and your unit or area please don’t think that because a volunteer can’t make evening meetings there isn’t a role for them. Pass any enquiry not suitable for your area up to your district, division or even county commissioner as they will be able to help find the perfect role for that volunteer.