York CVS are working alongside City of York Council and North Yorkshire Police to ensure volunteers have the right identification and documentation to be able to volunteer safely. To ensure North Yorkshire Police know that your volunteers are legitimate, please could you action one of the following:
We have ID badges:
If your organisation’s volunteers have photo ID badges already or you are able to facilitate this, please send a jpg image of a sample of this ID badge to: info@yorkcvs.org.uk. Please also provide the name of your organisation and your contact details so that the police are aware of who to contact if there are any difficulties. Please note it is good practice for an organisation to hold a list of named volunteers that are going out into the community.
We do not have ID badges:
If you do not have photo ID badges for your organisation’s volunteers and they are going out into the community, please send the following to: info@yorkcvs.org.uk:
- Jpg image of your logo
- A photo of each of your volunteers – a passport-style photo taken on your smartphone. Please save the file as the name required on that ID badge e.g. John.Brown.jpg.
- Your contact details
Once we have received your files, we will contact the Council to confirm that you are a recognised organisation and forward any ID requests on to Move the Masses, who are processing the ID badges. Please note that there will not be a charge to your organisation. Unfortunately, we cannot provide ID badges for staff who are not going out into the community but you can arrange this directly with Move the Masses with a charge required.
We will be periodically issuing a list to the Council and North Yorkshire Police of recognised groups and organisations that are providing a COVID-19 response and need to be out in the community. This will be accompanied by a visual catalogue of ID badges used per group/organisation. It is of course optional to be part of this process.
Validation letters:
Some volunteers have been challenged in supermarkets with regards to maximum quantity of items when they are purchasing for a number of households. The Council has produced a validation letter that they can issue per volunteer, they can facilitate this alongside the process above.
Volunteering update from City of York Council:
With over 2,300 offers made so far, City of York Council want to say a massive thank you to residents that have put their name forward to volunteer.
So far the Council has:
- Allocated 452 volunteers to hubs across the city that will act as warehouses to distribute items at a local level (not open to the public).
- Met the request for 100 volunteers to carry out welfare telephone calls through the Council’s Help Team (over 400 people put their names forward).
The Council are continuing to allocate volunteers as they are requested, if any community groups are providing a COVID-19 offer, however small, and need more volunteers please contact: Request.Volunteers@york.gov.uk