Volunteer Bucks celebrates a year of connecting communities across Buckinghamshire

This month, Community Impact Bucks is celebrating the first year of Volunteer Bucks, a platform dedicated to connecting volunteers, charities, and voluntary organisations across Buckinghamshire.

Launched in September 2024, Volunteer Bucks has already supported over 1100 residents to give their time to local causes, enabling charities and community groups to recruit and connect with new volunteers, and growing volunteering in Buckinghamshire.

Volunteer Bucks has helped over 1,100 individuals find meaningful ways to volunteer, supporting a wide range of local causes, from youth and education initiatives to health and wellbeing projects. By simplifying the process of matching volunteers with the organisations that need them most, the platform has strengthened the county's voluntary and community sector.

In the last 12 months, the Volunteer Bucks platform has:

• Registered 1192 volunteers
• Supported 193 organisations to recruit volunteers
• Facilitated 285 successful matches between volunteers and local roles
• Promoted 512 opportunities to volunteers
• Showcased a wide range of opportunities, from befriending and mentoring to conservation and fundraising

Community Impact Bucks recently announced a partnership with the Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy to make volunteering easier, more inclusive, and more rewarding for everyone in Bucks regardless of background or experience. This collaboration is part of a five-year initiative supported by funding from the National Lottery Community Fund.

"It's been incredible to see how Volunteer Bucks has grown in just one year," said Kate Walker, CEO of Community Impact Bucks.

"The impact goes far beyond the numbers; it's about the lives changed and the communities strengthened. From helping Talkback UK, an autism and learning disability charity, to recruit an accounts and finance volunteer, to connecting residents with hospital car drivers, to supporting a sight loss charity in finding volunteers they need - these are real stories of people making a difference to communities across Buckinghamshire."

What do platform users say about Volunteer Bucks?

“If people aren’t already using Volunteer Bucks, they should! Volunteer Bucks has changed my life – it’s exactly what I was looking for.” 

“Volunteer Bucks is a really cohesive platform for people to find out about volunteering opportunities in Bucks, and the support that is given for SEN and under 18s.” 

Organisations have also seen the benefits: 

“Volunteer Bucks is a great system which allows us to get our roles out to a wider audience who are actively looking to take on a volunteer role.” – Bucks Vision  

If you’ve been thinking about volunteering, or if your organisation needs volunteers, now is the perfect time to join Volunteer Bucks. 

If you have any queries, contact the team at [email protected]