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Advertise your roles on the Volunteer Website

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volunteer.extinctionrebellion.uk

This website works just like a jobs board and aims to help volunteers find roles and groups to find volunteers. Any XR UK group can apply for an account and recruit this way - you just need an official email address. In practice, the site is mainly used by UK-wide, national and regional groups which are less likely to find their people on the streets or at an in-person meeting.

On this website we've used the term 'volunteer' throughout rather than 'rebel' as it is better understood by people completely new to XR.

Setting up a team account

To get started, you will need to get a group account.

  1. Go to volunteer.extinctionrebellion.uk/integrator
  2. Watch the short (7 min) video which explains how the site works.
  3. Scroll down and click 'Create group account'.
  4. Use your XR group's email to set up an account - this needs to be an email that is checked regularly (please note we can't take personal email addresses).
  5. The application comes to the Pathways team for approval.
  6. Once the application is approved, you will receive an email with a link to click on to complete the registration.
  7. You are up and running and ready to post roles!

Writing an appealing role

  1. De-jargon! Try to look through the eyes of someone who knows nothing about XR. You can explain the ‘correct’ terms for things later if needed but for now communication is key e.g.:

☹ Internal coordinator, external coordinator, integrator, regen, rebel

😊 Team guide, team representative, team builder, wellbeing, volunteer

  1. Make it accessible Volunteers rarely have both good skills and lots of time. Asking for lots of time excludes certain groups of people and makes us less diverse as a movement. Can you break down the role? e.g. Internal Coordinators often get asked to do everything!

☹ Internal coordinator (hours: full-time)

😊
Team guide (hours: 10-15 per week)
Recruiter (hours: 2-4 perweek)
Newbie support person (hours: 5-9 per week)
Wellbeing champion (hours: 2-4 per week)
Secretary (hours: 2-4 per week)
Admin helper (hours: 2 per week)
Facilitator (hours: 2 per week)
Team tech support (hours: 2-4 per week)

  1. Be clear what you want someone to do, especially in the job title. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to get what you are looking for. However, if you just need more team members and plan to find out what they want to do later that's fine too! If you do this, try to have a few tasks your newbie can help with right away.

  1. Include key words in your description. Ask yourself which search words people are most likely to use if they want a role like yours.

  1. Consider the type of role: do you need a permanent member of the team or could the work be done as a time-limited project? The second of these is likely to attract more people, especially those who are skill-rich but time-poor.

  1. Create an eye-catching role ad using HTML
    We are hoping that a future update will make creating nice layouts on the Volunteer Website easier. But for now make sure you use the above advice to help you make your adverts eye-catching.

  1. Consider trying out several different titles for your role. You can even experiment by posting the role more than once and see which gets the best engagement.

Searching for volunteers on the database

If you are not getting suitable applications for your role, the first step is to do a sense-check: is it obvious what your role is and who it is for? Does it sound appealing? If yes, (and you are in a UK-wide team - please see note below) then maybe you want to try a search of the database.

Log in to your account and go to 'Volunteer Database' in the lefthand menu. You can search for volunteers by hours offered, preferred type of work, preferred location of work and by any search term you enter (this searches the volunteer's whole profile.) However remember that volunteers may have left their details some while ago so in practice you are far more likely to fill your roles through the normal process of letting people apply for them.

Note: Currently only UK-wide teams are able to view the database, however any team struggling to fill their roles is welcome to email volunteer@extinctionrebellion.uk for support.

Data Protection

It is of course very important to be aware that you are handling people's personal data and to treat it with the greatest respect. The data on the site is protected by website security and should not be copied elsewhere unless absolutely necessary, in which case it should be deleted as soon as possible. All integrators must read, understand and sign our Volunteer Agreement which contains our Data Protection Policy. (We ask new volunteers to sign this, after all!)


Site support is available by emailing volunteer@extinctionrebellion.uk

The Volunteer Website has been set up by the UK Pathway team and is maintained by the UK Pathway and UK Digital teams.