history and key achievements

We were originally founded by a sub-committee of the Southwark Police and Community Consultative Group (SPCCG) on 17th March 1995 and were first known as ‘Face to Face’. The project had started in mid 1993 as a campaign to raise the profile of volunteering for community safety programmes in Southwark. Face-to-Face was chosen as a name to reflect the nature of the kind of volunteering which is at the heart of community safety initiatives.

Successful funding from Southwark’s Single Regeneration Budget enabled the organisation to recruit its first worker, Maya Middlemiss in 1995 to run a local project to increase volunteering for community safety in the Peckham Five Estates area (later the Peckham Partnership). This also enabled us to successfully apply for a Home Office Made a Difference Scheme funding, which gave the organisation its borough wide remit and enabled us to recruit our first director, Karen Summner. As the organisations remit changed and broadened the decision was taken to have the new name ‘Volunteer in action Southwark’ This was formally approved, a long with proposals for incorporation and charitable status in 1996.

During this time Eileen Conn was the driving force in developing the organisation, and became its first chair before handing over the Charles Woodd. We also moved from our initial base within the Peckham Settlement to the Willowbrook Centre.

In 1999 Southwark Cares was established to develop employee supported volunteering in the borough. In 2000 work with the Media trust saw our name changes to via

In 2001/2 we were successful with two new funding streams: funding from the Bridge House Trust which enabled us to recruit a Good Practice Development Worker, and Lottery funding enabling us to recruit a Volunteer Development Manager for Individuals.

The organisation continued to grow and in 2003 John Barkus became our second director.

We soon outgrew our home within the Willowbrook Centre, and in 2004 we moved to Wigglesworth House in Bankside giving us space to grow and recruit new members of staff to expand our Business Volunteers Project and take on new project funding. At this time we developed several new projects including the Active Citizens Hub, Capital Volunteering, Aylesbury Work Experience Project, Work Experience Project, Year of the volunteer BME outreach project and Volunteers In and Police.

At the same time, in conjunction with other Volunteer Bureaux across the country we re-branded from Volunteers In action Southwark to Volunteer Centre Southwark.

In 2007 John Barkus left and Clive Pankhurst took over as Chief Executive. Later in the year Charles Wood, our long-standing chair also moved on with Claire Helman taking his place.

In recent times growth at the centre has stabilised and we now have about 19 members or staff, and a team of volunteers who support our work. Despite there being so much more we want to do, we are now one of the largest Volunteer Centres in the country. Work we are particularly known for includes our work around active citizenship; employee supported volunteering, supported volunteering with people experiencing mental ill health, and our work around volunteering and employability.