Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets runs a brokerage scheme to recruit and place volunteers in to a wide variety of local organisations. They recruit volunteers by using V-Base to add their volunteering opportunities to Do-it.

Rebecca Tully is a Project Worker at the Volunteer Centre. She explained how she recruited and placed a volunteer who applied through Do-it:

"We work with lots of volunteers every day, but one that springs to mind is a volunteer who initially applied for a large number of volunteering opportunities in one go, including a receptionist and professional mentor for police officers.

"After receiving her application I called her to have a further chat, because she had applied for so many opportunities. I was worried that she hadn't quite made up her mind about what she'd like to do, so I wanted to speak to her to help her decide what she actually wanted to volunteer as.  We've found that if someone applies for a large number of opportunities in one go it often means that they are confused about the process and will appreciate a quick call to clarify.

We spoke on the phone, and narrowed down some of her interests.  It turned out that she was looking to get some administration experience to help her look for work; she was 17 so was looking for valuable work experience to bolster her CV. By having a one-on-one telephone conversation we had the opportunity to ask open questions about her interests, motivations and what, in particular, had interested her about the opportunities she had applied for. Doing this meant we could make sure the opportunity was right for her.

After speaking we sent her the opportunity details by email. We also spoke to the organisation she was applying to, one we knew was recruiting urgently and they were happy to offer her the opportunity.

She is now volunteering as a health champion and also doing administration for the same organisation.  They have recently received some funding for a paid part time administrator and they have asked her to do this role. She is also considering applying to a separate health champion role that will give her different skills and more responsibility."