Archive News

Autumn 2011

Wales Big Lottery Success

RSVP Wales heard in April that both bids to the Big Lottery Fund’s AdvantAGE programme had been successful. The bid had to be prepared to a very tight timescale, but as National Wales Project Manager Natasha John said, “The whole Wales team of volunteers and staff responded brilliantly.” Two strong bids were submitted which would allow RSVP to tackle social isolation among older people in south Wales (Blaenau Gwent and Rhonnda Cynon Taff) and west Wales (Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire), encouraging them on to greater independence and fuller lives.

Funding has been awarded for five years with a total value of £913,000 across the two projects.

Barbara Locke, RSVP UK Director, said
"I am absolutely delighted by this news. With a programme value of £20 million on offer for the whole of Wales, RSVP has scooped almost 5% of the total fund. That’s a huge vote of confidence from the Big Lottery Fund and we intend to prove that that confidence is justified."

Barbara Locke UK Director of RSVP

Earlier this year, Barbara Locke, RSVP Director of Wales, took over the role of RSVP UK Director.

As Barbara says:
"I have worked with RSVP volunteers and staff in Wales for 8 years now, and in that time we have made exciting and innovative progress, as well as facing a number of challenges together. I hope that my experience in Wales, coupled with my personal passion for the RSVP principle of 'volunteer led, volunteer managed', will help me take RSVP to a great new phase in its development. Our profile - as witnessed by the recent coverage in 'The Times' - and the impact of our volunteer led projects, have never been stronger. Our current team of Development Managers may be small in number but its members are experienced, creative and imaginative. We have the backing of a superb Advisory Group of volunteers and a wealth of skills to call upon from among our Volunteer Organisers. With the support and enthusiasm of the whole RSVP Team, I am confident we can move forward together to achieve more than ever through the power of volunteering. I am proud to have this opportunity to work with RSVP volunteers and staff across the UK as Director."

Spring 2011

2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion

RSVP was awarded European funding to deliver a project targeted at older people in the UK who suffer from poverty or social exclusion. Click here for more information.

Get Active Week 2010

For Get Active Week 2010 , RSVP celebrated in its usual style with lots of events around the UK. From Chester-le-Street to the Rhondda Valley, from Dunblane to Salisbury, from Pembrokeshire to Canterbury, hundreds of volunteers and their guests had a wonderful and stimulating day out. This year groups worked hard to secure extra funding to enable them to hold events. But in the final analysis what cannot be measured is the sheer joy and delight of so many housebound or isolated people who enjoyed something rare—a summer day out, sightseeing and being happy in the company of other people.

EVIVA - European Volunteers in Voluntary Action

Following a successful funding bid, EVIVA (European Volunteers in Voluntary Action) is arranging European exchanges of older volunteers. This started in May 2010 when six Italian older volunteers from Savona came to London for three weeks. In late August, six RSVP volunteers in turn visited Savona for three weeks to learn about projects there. For further details of the exchanges and the programme, go to www.eviva-exchange.eu.

Older Peoples Day

Older People’s Day was celebrated across the country on 1st October 2010 with the theme of Getting and Staying Active in Later Life. RSVP had variety of events planned, including a joint exercise session with Tees Valley RSVP groups from across Middlesbrough and Stockton, and gardening activities and Latin American dancing at community venues in the City of London.

Wales Funding Success

RSVP has been awarded two more contracts to provide Engagement Gateway projects in Swansea and on Anglesey. The Swansea contract is valued in total at just over £22,000 with no match funding requirement, while that on Anglesey is almost £43,000 with a certain match funding requirement.

Autumn 2010

Generations Together in Plymouth

RSVP has been successful in its partnership bid with Plymouth Guild and Groundwork Devon and Cornwall for an intergenerational volunteering project funded by Plymouth City Council under the national Generations Together fund. Project Coordinator Rick McDowell is developing volunteering opportunities in Plymouth and linking up with and supporting existing projects in Devon.
In March a successful symposium was held on Bridging Cultures and Generations, which promoted inter-generational community projects across Plymouth. Attended by over 150 people, this event was a good platform to showcase some of the work being carried out under the ethos of Generations Together.

The project came to a successful conclusion in March 2011.

Bridging the Generation

RSVP in Devon have begun a project where the young teach the not-so-young some basic IT skills. Sixth formers from Totnes Comprehensive School have been giving one-to-one guidance to local mature learners. These weekly sessions, the first of their type in Devon, have been featured in the local press, and Totnes mayor-elect was quoted as saying
"I think it's brilliant. Last week gave me the confidence to go out and buy a computer".

Respect project in Manchester

RSVP has also launched the 'Respect ' project, funded by the City of Manchester. Under Project Coordinator Andy Ellison, the aim is to raise awareness of the impact of cold damp homes on health and well being in the city, and give energy efficiency advice to community groups and households living in fuel poverty. The project has completed its first phase of training and we now have six fully qualified RESPECT mentors and over 40 other volunteers. The project also attracted the attention of the Lord Mayor of Manchester who was very impressed with the number and commitment of volunteers.

East Renfrewshire celebrates

RSVP East Renfrewshire has been celebrating its 10th Anniversary. They were pleased to welcome local MP and Minister for Scotland Jim Murphy along to join in the celebrations of this special landmark, and launch a campaign for more volunteers. The event was featured prominently on his website where he said,
“RSVP in East Renfewshire provide a fantastic service for older residents in the area. Over the last 10 years the work of local organiser Anne Marie and her team of dedicated volunteers has helped thousands of local older residents and it is a wonderful achievement to celebrate 10 years. They deserve the praise and thanks of the local community.”

Spring 2010

Wales Lottery Success

RSVP Wales has received a Big Lottery Fund grant of £244,405 for a 3-year project in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. Help 4 Carers will offer help with household tasks and affordable transport to unpaid carers.

Dorset East website

As part of RSVP’s policy to promote local websites, we are delighted with the arrival of the new Dorset East site which has just gone on line. Please take a look here.

Wales Digital Lead

RSVP Wales is the lead organisation for coordinating digital switchover advice and support for older and vulnerable people in the West Wales area. This will involve providing other voluntary and community sector organisations with details of training and grants available through the community outreach programme. RSVP Wales will also work with agencies such as lunch clubs, day centres and other voluntary groups to help ensure that support and advice is given where it is needed.
RSVP Wales Director Barbara Locke said: "We are delighted to have been given such a pivotal role in West Wales' digital switchover process. We are here to support those who would like assistance in making the switch, and to ensure that older and more vulnerable members of our community can begin to enjoy the amazing benefits that 'going digital' will offer."

Autumn 2009

Rachael on Radio 4

RSVP's UK director Rachael Bayley recently featured on BBC Radio 4’s daily You and Yours programme discussing the role of volunteering in society. This was an excellent opportunity, in responding to the public’s problems and queries, to look at the whole subject of volunteering and emphasize its vital nature. Rachael reinforced the fact that volunteering has reached an interesting point, where its role is recognised by a greater number of charities, where all political parties have volunteering in their agendas and manifestos, and there has never been a greater variety of roles and flexibility of opportunities for people to enjoy the benefits of being a volunteer.

RSVP UK director Rachael Bayley

Full of Life

Under the Full of Life banner, a wide programme of activity centred around UK Older People's Day took place on October 1st. UK Older People's Day is supported by Government, RSVP and other organisations. Click here to find out more.

Make a Difference Day

RSVP was actively involved in this year's CSV Make a Difference Day campaign. The theme for 2009 was the celebration of small acts of kindness which can be done to cheer up the day of a neighbour, a stranger or even a whole community. Among RSVP’s many activities, a high profile was given this year to RSVP's band of knitters, from knitting a sweater for Paul O'Grady's dog, to being featured in 'The Independent on Sunday'.

Tees Valley Big Lottery Success

We have just secured a 3‑year grant of £300,000 from the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund for two part time workers to consolidate and further develop RSVP’s work in Middlesbrough and Stockton.

Lottery Awards

Young people in Neath Port Talbot will soon get the chance to learn about life in WWII first hand from those who lived through it, thanks to a £50,000 grant from the Lottery. The money will fund RSVP's Celebrating History Together project. Volunteers will share their memories of life in the 1940s with over 500 local primary and secondary school pupils and work with them on a digital archive, to ensure their stories live on for future generations.

RSVP are also delighted to have received two other lottery awards, each for 3 years, to support vital activities around the UK. One is to support RSVP's disabled project in Barnet, north London, and the other is to enable RSVP activities in Coventry to develop and go city-wide.

As JenniferStewart, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for Wales, said,
"The war generation will soon be gone, so this project is vital to ensure we capture and conserve memories and stories, which would otherwise be lost forever."

Spring 2009

RSVP welcomes new director

We extend a very warm welcome to RSVP's new UK director Rachael Bayley who joined us at the end of February. Most recently Rachael was head of volunteering for the Samaritans, and before that was director of service at Volunteer Reading Help, which runs a schools reading scheme very similar to RSVP's schools work.

Costing the Earth

Volunteers from RSVP West in Bristol recently appeared on BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth. The focus of the programme was the ageing population and its impact on climate change, and our volunteers, who are involved in RSVP's project Climate Change and the Over 50s, spoke about what people could do, little by little, and how this could have a major impact. It was felt that older citizens could end up being role models in this regard.

Silver Surfers

RSVP played its part to mark Silver Surfers Day on 15th May, and RSVP City of London combined with the City e-Champion to offer computer taster sessions. People tried their hand at using the internet, looking at on-line genealogy, and even computer games.

Coventry Launch

The new RSVP Coventry project was launched in May by celebrity Pete Waterman. A host of volunteers turned out to celebrate the event and hear Pete Waterman, who hails from the city, give a motivational speech about the importance of volunteering, of getting active in our communities and taking part. This project will be vital in creating new volunteering opportunities for older people, reducing feelings of isolation and improving health and well-being.

2008

Looking back over 2008

2008 proved to be a splendid 20th Anniversary year for RSVP with events across the UK, reflecting the vital role RSVP has developed and played over the last twenty years in community life.

Celebrations were held in Derby, Exeter, Peterborough and Sandy (Bedfordshire), all involving the local mayors, where awards were presented for outstanding achievement. In the Forth Valley MSP Bruce Canford, Minister for Parliamentary Business, enjoyed meeting volunteers and presenting long service awards, while the knitters held a celebration in Dunblane with Stirling MP Anne McGuire and the Lord Advocate of Scotland, Eilish Angiolini - who cut the anniversary cake. In Pembrokeshire, the Cars for Carers scheme held a themed James Bond night, a glittering evening of entertainment and dining, and fundraising, as a result of which South Hook LNG kindly donated £3,000. Edinburgh and Midlothian held an Alternative Garden Party in sheltered housing right next door to Holyrood Palace with local MSP Sarah Boyack, and in Llandrindod Wells about 70 people enjoyed a Victorian picnic. A flagship fundraising dinner with many celebrities was held in the prestigious Marble Hall in Cardiff at which Ruth Marks, Commissioner for Older People in Wales, presented volunteer awards and spoke about the enormous value of RSVP
In April there was a major UK-wide evening reception at Dover House in London introduced by the Parliamentary Minister of State to the Scotland Office. The theme of the evening was Reaching Out, which is essentially what RSVP's 12,000 volunteers do, and it was a splendid occasion at which volunteers from across the UK could meet MP's and guests from other charities, who were eager to learn about the wide variety of RSVP projects. .

RSVP was set up in 1988 to mirror the changing role of older people, and how they have moved from the sidelines of society to become a positive force within it. The position in 2008 shows how far we have now come.

2008 itself saw a growth in volunteer numbers, the development of new projects and some encouraging awards.

Energy Institute Award Winner

In November 2008, RSVP's Energy Challenge project won a major international award. The London and Scotland based project was nominated in the Community Initiative category of the prestigious Energy Institute Awards 2008, and the final decision announced at a ceremony in the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London. RSVP is proud of the award, which shows the growing recognition of the success and the vital nature of the Energy Challenge project, helping to keep people warm and reduce their fuel bills. It is also a recognition of the dedication and commitment of the project's volunteers.

During 2009 the project continues in Scotland, funded by the Scottish Power Energy People Trust, and in London, led by volunteers.