Capacity building

The national volunteering (NV) programme supports partner organisations through various capacity-building initiatives, which we hope will:

• strengthen the ability of NV partners to implement effective volunteer programmes

• increase sharing and adoption of good practices in volunteerism

• support improved service  delivery by partners to their communities.

Our capacity building support is done through:

Volunteer Management Systems (VMS) training

This is a three-day training course offered to volunteer-involving organisations that:

• introduces participants to the concept of volunteerism and the practices of volunteer managemen

• equips participants with tools to enable them to effectively manage their volunteer programmes

• enables participants appreciate the value of effective volunteer management and to promote volunteerism inside and outside of their organisation

• contributes to raising the standards of practice in volunteer management

• enables like-minded organisations network with each other and form linkages.

Seed funding

These are funds provided to an organisation for initial programme or project development in the area of volunteerism within the six VSO development goals (disability, education, health and social wellbeing, HIV and AIDS, secure livelihoods, and participation and governance). The funds are intended to build the organisations capacity so as to impact the society in the above mentioned goal areas.

Since 2005, VSO Jitolee has provided a total of over Kshs 7million organisational support to the National Volunteer Network Trust (NAVET) to enable them to contribute to the promotion and development of the voluntary sector in Kenya.

Study tours

VSO Jitolee strongly believes in learning through study tours so that tour participants are exposed to what others in the same field are doing. Our study tours expose participants to different organisations both local and international who work in the field of volunteerism. These tours are an important component of our capacity building component as they:

• facilitate learning of study tour participants

• enable participants to easily share their learnings and experiences

• offer platforms for networking.

VSO Jitolee supports participants on these tours by catering for all costs related to travel and accommodation. Our study tours in the national volunteering programme have exposed participants to different organisations working in the field of volunteerism. Since 2004, we have exposed over 10 individuals from our partner organisations to tours in the UK, India, Nigeria, Philippines and 16 individuals from our partner organisations to national tours to Machakos and Bungoma districts of Kenya.

Implementation of learnings from tours is a key component for applicants and they have to be able to demonstrate how they will share and implement their learnings with their organisations.

Commonwealth Professional Fellowships (CPF)

This programme seeks to enhance the skills of mid-career practitioners in developing countries. Fellows spend three months in the UK working with volunteer focused organisations that enable the fellow to share and gain skills. Since 2005, NV has been able to connect eight fellows to participate in the CPF programme.

Individuals who apply through VSO Jitolee's national volunteering programme have to meet the following criteria:

• over five years' experience of working in the volunteerism field/sector in Kenya

• have to be able to transfer the skills gained to their organisation upon return.

Volunteering development volunteers  (VDVs)

Volunteering development volunteers (VDVs) are VSO international volunteers who contribute to the development of volunteering programmes by working with our local partner organisations.

They perform a range of roles – for example, general organisational developments, assistance with research on volunteering, volunteer management training, fundraising for an organisation’s volunteer programme. VDVs can be long term (two years) or short term (up to six months).