Our Volunteer Vision

At FC United, volunteering is placed at the very heart of the club. Our volunteers very generously donate their time and efforts to help the club be the best that it can be. Our volunteers contribute thousands of hours and save the club hundreds of thousands of pounds whether that’s by selling our pound for the ground tickets, running turnstiles, or non-match day roles; without volunteers we would not have a club.

With the importance of the volunteers in mind, a volunteer vision has been developed by volunteers for volunteers at a recent volunteer’s evening. This is a living vision and can be added to or changed in the future depending on the current viewpoints and ideas of our volunteers. Currently four key points have been highlighted:

1. Communication – a vital element in all things which was repeated again and again. Communication between the club and the volunteers and between the volunteers themselves is crucial in both the smooth running of operations ensuring that volunteers feel valued and listened to. A step forward in improving the communication is that we now have a dedicated volunteer coordinator to be a point of contact, whether it be recruitment, pastoral or anything else.

2. Being Valued – another element that came out repeatedly in developing this vision was that volunteers need to be valued and heard. Making sure volunteers have what they need to carry out their role, providing shadowing and learning opportunities, giving volunteers flexibility in choosing when and how they volunteer and also ensuring that their time is respected and not taken for granted. Another aspect of this is listening to suggestions and feedback and incorporating this into policy.

3. Community – FC United is a huge part of the local community, and volunteering forms a part of this, and builds its own community as well. We’ve had wonderful feedback around how welcoming the club is to its volunteers, and how it builds connections and communities within this. Other points that were raised within this concept included making sure there was a ‘smile on every face’, promoting a ‘sense of belonging and feeling I have made a positive impact’ and having a ‘community focus’. This is one of the most positive aspects of volunteering and we are committed to celebrating this as much as possible.

4. Building Momentum and Recruitment - as previously stated the club relies on its amazing volunteers to exist as it does. This means it is important to be able to continually recruit new volunteers, guaranteeing roles can be filled and making sure that regular volunteers are able to take breaks and be flexible without worrying about cover for their role. To build this momentum volunteers have said they would like to see increased advertisement about volunteering at the club and also emphasise the positives of volunteering and just how much it helps the club.

These are the current four principles which have been identified as important by our volunteers. Many positive things have been identified such as community links, and it is important to utilise and celebrate this. This is your club, and your volunteer vision, it is yours to shape and evolve. For more details email volunteer@fc-utd.uk