Working flexibly with volunteers and being organised enough to accommodate individuals' varying levels of commitment has enabled Asylum Welcome to broaden their pool of volunteers, for the benefit of the centre.

A key factor in making this work is using IT (eg electronic calendars) and rota systems to ensure that we have cover for periods of absence. We have often used a 'buddying system' to cover a particular role, which both promotes effective team working and means that if one volunteer is unavailable, another will be there to cover the work.

However, coupled with this is the importance of 'filtering out' through initial discussions those volunteers who would not be able to offer enough time to make the efforts to train and support them in their roles worthwhile. We maintain and constantly update a list of volunteer roles and role descriptions so that prospective volunteers can get a feel for the sorts of opportunities that are available before committing time and energy to first meeting with them for an informal chat, and then completing an application form.

Setting a budget for volunteer training and development has been one way of ensuring that volunteers are invested in and has enabled Asylum Welcome to be strategic about working with volunteers: training them to work one to one with clients. Our experience has been that asking volunteers to come in at times different from their regular volunteering has not been so successful, and we are investigating means of delivering training that can fit around different schedules (eg. working through on-line training material).

It has been important to disseminate clear and accessible information, not only about the various volunteer positions available, but also a specific job description and detailed information about how to do the role, so that it is extremely accessible to the volunteer. Our goal is to move away from being an organisation where information is locked away in the heads of a few individuals, to being an organisation where information is accessible via computer files stored on shared network drives, and printed written resources.

'SHOOPS' (Short Term One Off Opportunities) have filled a gap in volunteering opportunities for those who only have limited free time to give. A suggestion from our local volunteer centre that we found extremely useful is for 'bottom drawer' short-term projects that are set up and ready to go when 'I'm happy to do anything' volunteers contact us.