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Last updated: 23 November 2008
13 September 2006
Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third Sector, today pledged over £1million of funding to spread the best ideas for recruiting and retaining volunteers from hard–to–reach groups.
Mr Miliband announced that £1.1m has been awarded through the Office of the Third Sector's flagship GoldStar programme – aimed at organisations who work to increase the number of volunteers among people with disabilities or long–term illnesses, black and minority ethnic groups and those at risk of social exclusion.
The GoldStar programme, run by the OTS in the Cabinet Office, provides funding for third sector organisations to spread good practice around recruiting, managing and retaining volunteers and mentors from groups at risk of social exclusion.
Speaking at the GoldStar national conference, Ed Miliband said:
"I am delighted that we can support the Goldstar programme. Its projects show how volunteering can transform lives and communities.
"Voluntary organisations have the ideas and skills to help overcome social exclusion and can enable people who might otherwise have felt on the margins to use their experiences to empower others.
"Sometimes the resources and mechanisms are not in place to spread inspiring examples from one organisation or one town. With funding from the government these projects will be able to carry on their own valuable work and spread good practice around the country."
Phase 2 of the GoldStar programme sees 22 organisations receiving awards that amount to £1.1m in funding. A third of the grants will be spent on sharing this experience with other voluntary organisations with the remaining two–thirds to be spent on the projects themselves.