Over the years, Team Up has developed a strong relationship with the LSE Volunteer Centre and the inspirational students that attend London School of Economics. So, when Rosie, the LSE Volunteer Centre Programme Manager, approached us last November during a volunteer fair with the chance to participate in their Community Engagement Programme offering volunteer consultancy opportunities which could tackle ongoing issues within our sector, we were excited to take part.
Team Up works to tackle disadvantage by supporting young people in doubling their expected academic progress and to increase their confidence in English or maths through the use of inspirational volunteer tutors. We are very proud of the level of support and opportunities that we offer our volunteers so that they can make a lasting difference by improving the life chances open to under-served children. However, like many other charities reeling from the effects of lockdown and the current cost of living crisis, recruitment and retention of volunteers were becoming increasingly difficult for our small scale organisation. As a result, we were keen to investigate how to improve our recruitment processes and retention strategies and, in doing so, enable us to continue to grow as an organisation.
Rosie and the LSE Volunteer Centre team did an outstanding job in advertising our project and selecting a group of enthusiastic and highly-intelligent volunteers. Over the course of the 10 week project which began in January 2023, I met with our 8 volunteers to discuss the project once a fortnight over Zoom. Each week they came prepared and ready to discuss specific project plans, recent findings, or recommendations in the context of our mission. Their questions regarding Team Up and our current processes were insightful and clearly demonstrated the large amount of detailed research they had undertaken to understand the sector and our stakeholders, as well as the challenges that we had presented to them. Having an alumni mentor on hand to support them was also a great tool as it allowed them to be proactive in problem solving. For example, when survey responses within our existing network were lower than expected, the group took the initiative to both approach LSE’s network of volunteers, as well as undertake market research to gather more information regarding best practice within the educational charity sector. This initiative and determination led to a detailed report which had practical and perceptive data-led recommendations that Team Up could implement quickly. We were incredibly proud of the team when they presented their hard work to the other charities and their peers within the cohort. Furthermore, we thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to celebrate their team achievement of Best Presentation when attending the in-person presentation event hosted at LSE.
Throughout the process, Rosie and the LSE Volunteer Centre team were exceptional in the level of communication and support that they offered. From the initial stages of drafting the project proposal until the presentation of the final report and beyond, the LSE Volunteer Centre was on hand to offer support and guidance where needed. Rosie and the Volunteer Centre team’s support enabled us as a team to provide a clear project brief, ensure that data protection and privacy were always upheld, and benefit from a great opportunity for both volunteers and charity partners. I would most definitely recommend this opportunity to any charity, big or small. 
My advice for anyone looking to make the most of this opportunity would be to not only engage fully with both the LSE Volunteer Centre and the volunteers you work with, but also be open to the suggestions and recommendations made by these outstanding staff/volunteers throughout the process. In doing so, we were able to increase our recruitment efforts through a difficult period and develop grant applications with data collected throughout the project in order to improve as an organisation. Thank you to our CEP volunteers and the LSE Volunteer Centre for this great opportunity!
Pippa Coleman, Head of Programmes, Team Up
Interested in joining the Community Engagement Programme as a charity partner? Learn more about what the CEP entails in our previous blog post and apply for the scheme on CareerHub!
