Royal Voluntary Service is a high profile, well respected, national charity.
In its 85th year, Royal Voluntary Service was set up by Stella, Lady Reading, in 1938 to help communities prepare for the impact of war. She recognised the enormous benefits that voluntary service can bring to the challenges that society faces.
Since then millions of volunteers have continuously adapted to deliver activities that are most needed – helping with the aftermath of air raids, providing care for arriving migrants, supporting the ageing population and delivering every day help during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Our adaptable volunteering ethic has seen us support whatever society calls for at any moment in time.
Our vision is to realise the kind of Britain where people are engaged in voluntary service, freely giving their time, talent and life experience to help tackle pressing challenges in their diverse communities. Their service makes them, and Britain, healthier and happier.
Our mission is to inspire and enable people to give the gift of voluntary service to meet the needs of the day in their communities by:
- Inspiring, mobilising and supporting others to enable and expand voluntary action.
- Working with the NHS, wider Health and Care Systems and communities to minimise health inequality and social disadvantage, helping those affected to thrive.
Everything we do is underpinned by our Stella values:
- Stronger Together.
- Better When Simple.
- Spark Brilliance.
- Care and Protect.
- Step Forward.
Our Strategic Outcomes
Our Strategic Framework sets out the difference we want to make by 2025:
- Voluntary service is supporting the NHS and wider Health and Social Care Systems to improve and maintain the health of the nation and tackle health inequalities and social deprivation.
- More people benefit from giving their time, talent and life experience to voluntary service.
- Key stakeholders across all sectors understand the value of volunteering and its effectiveness in improving the health of the nation and building resilient communities.
Delivery of these outcomes is support by a two year rolling Corporate Plan.
Our Key Priorities are to:
- Engage and support our people post-pandemic.
- Refresh our services for new health and care priorities.
- Expand Micro-volunteering and Volunteer Responders.
- Develop and deliver our fundraising strategy.
- Deliver “Volunteering for All”.
A copy of our current Corporate Plan 2023 – 2025 is in the “Further Reading” section of this site.