October 10, 2025

It’s been a busy few months for the Volunteering for Health Project.

We are delighted that Sarah Coutts has joined us to support with the delivery of the programme, with a focus on the roll out of the survey and engagement process for the development of a Volunteering Strategy.

The Volunteering Strategy work which was launched in September will begin with an insight gathering process which will run until December. Over the next 2 months there will be 3 engagement workshops, one in Kendal on 16th October, one in Barrow on 14th November and one in Penrith on 20th November.

There is also an online survey; one designed for volunteers and one for Volunteer Managers. The focus of the workshops and surveys will be to explore current experience of volunteering, how it can be improved and what the problems are.

The links below provide more detail about the workshops and how you can book a place:

Cumbria Volunteering Strategy Engagement Workshop – Kendal
Cumbria Volunteering Strategy Engagement Workshop – Barrow
Cumbria Volunteering Strategy Engagement Workshop – Eden and South Lakes

Other priorities for the project are listed below and over the next few months we will be working on developing some of these themes:

• Improving processes for accessing volunteering opportunities across health and social care
• Using volunteering experience to support progression into paid work
• Promoting volunteering as a support mechanism for people returning to work after a period of sickness
• Identifying volunteering opportunities which can support with health and wellbeing
• Increasing levels of employee volunteering.