Envision is a national education charity that provides young people with the opportunity to make a difference. They recruit volunteers by using a V-Base Recruiter account to add their volunteering opportunities to Do-it. Here is their story about recruiting and placing a volunteer that applied through do-it.org.uk:

"Fran began volunteering with Envision in 2008 in order to gain experience working with young people before applying to train as a teacher.

She applied for the role of Envision Youth Educator, a role that requires her to attend a lunchtime meeting with a team of students once a week. She facilitates the team's meeting and suggests ways they could turn their plans – a project to raise awareness and funds for people in Zimbabwe – into reality.

The opportunity to gain experience working with young people was a major factor for deciding to volunteer with Envision for Fran. She says, "Envision has been brilliant because I can fit it into my current job in my lunch hour, without having to take annual leave and book a placement in a school."

She found out about the opportunity after searching on Do-it and she submitted her application to Envision online. Fran was contacted by phone to talk through the role with a member of staff. She was then invited to a face-to-face interview at Envision's head office to get more of a flavour of our work. Fran's Envision coordinator, Helen, said that "during this time we were able to learn more about Fran, and how she might deal with issues arising from the volunteer role. "

Before being assigned a school, Fran attended a day of training in central London. This covered facilitation techniques, activities to explore different issues with the students, and how to deal with problems within a team.

Fran was assigned to St Angela's School in Newham and put in contact with her Envision coordinator, Helen. Helen attended the first two team meetings with Fran and remained in frequent email and telephone contact throughout the year, to support Fran and her team.

Although Fran is unable to continue in Envision's volunteer role next year, it has changed her attitude to volunteering in the future; 'Before Envision I had never really volunteered – I only got involved because I needed the experience. Now I think it's fantastic and it's developed to the extent that I would definitely volunteer even if I didn't have to.'"