Volunteer Centre Hackney

Who we are

VCH is the lead organisation in Hackney, working to enable, promote and support volunteering across the borough. We provide a range of services to strengthen and facilitate volunteering. We have over 450 voluntary organisations offering a massive range of opportunities from music-making, web design to catering and event management. Through 1:1 support, volunteers and organisations are matched to meet both their needs, while our expert support and training ensures that the volunteering experience is the best it can be. We support organisations to develop interesting opportunities and follow best practice in volunteer management. We also lead on strategic promotion of volunteering across the borough, developing partnerships with key organisations to ensure that Hackney residents can benefit from all the positive effects of volunteering.

Our culture and values

We’ve been inspiring, developing, and supporting communities since 1997.

In 2021, we were awarded the Freedom of the Borough Award for our work supporting residents during COVID. We mobilised over 2,000 volunteers to deliver food, prescriptions and essential items, provide emotional support to isolated residents, and support the vaccine rollout.

We bring communities together to build a better Hackney.

We are Volunteer Centre Hackney.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

We work with hundreds of diverse community organisations and deliver various programmes to help residents share their skills and deliver their own social action projects to improve people’s lives. These include a befriending programme, volunteering brokerage matching local people to volunteer roles based on their skills, interests and goals, a specialist mental health programme, peer research and multiple resident engagement programmes at GP surgeries and estates across Hackney.