As part of our National Lottery funded work, RVA’s Volunteer Hub wanted to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing volunteering across Rother’s voluntary and community sector.
We hosted a workshop, facilitated by local graphic facilitator Esther Springett, and attended by some of the local groups and organisations that RVA supports, as well as members of the RVA and HVA Volunteer Coordinator Forum. The resulting infographic captured key themes emerging from our conversations.
The infographic highlights four major areas shaping volunteering in Rother:
- Access and Participation – social, financial, transport and cultural barriers still prevent some people from volunteering, limiting diversity and inclusion. Some of these barriers are driven by outdated or inaccurate perceptions of volunteering and what type of person volunteers.
- Networks and Collaboration – volunteer coordinators can feel isolated in their work, are operating on limited capacity. They benefit from opportunities to connect and learn together.
- Value and Celebration – volunteering makes a huge contribution across Rother, but this contribution is not always fully recognised or valued by the public and also by local government and statutory sector organisations.
- Tools and Resources – organisations need accessible guidance, training and support to provide positive volunteering experiences. There is a need for accessible, simple tools across Rother and East Sussex, to make the administrative side of volunteer management easier.
Alongside the challenges, the infographic also reflects actions already being taken by RVA to support the sector, including:
- promoting volunteer opportunities more widely and using digital platforms to assist this,
- facilitating quarterly Volunteer Coordinator Conversations,
- launching the annual Rother Volunteer Awards,
- and providing training, tools and peer support for organisations.
Although the infographic is intentionally broad, it provides an important snapshot of the volunteering landscape in Rother and highlights the need for continued collaboration, inclusion and investment in volunteering infrastructure.
Most importantly, this is not a finished piece of work. The infographic will continue to evolve through 2026–27 as we build further conversations with the sector and use the learning to help shape future volunteering support that is relevant, practical and sustainable.
We hope this work becomes a useful tool for bringing organisations together, identifying shared priorities and strengthening volunteering across Rother.