New digital platform brings potential of online volunteering to businesses across the UK

We’re excited to announce that Volunteering Matters is teaming up with the German social enterprise Volunteer Vision to make online volunteering easy for businesses across the UK.

Building on 25 years’ experience delivering and managing impactful face-to-face mentoring programmes for professionals, our new digital offering, eMentor Me, will enable that same support for young people but online rather than in person.

We have seen first-hand that many employees have the talent and will to engage in volunteering, but find it hard to commit to the time required away from their jobs. eMentor Me has the potential to change this.

eMentor Me is digital 1:1 mentoring programme for employees who want to mentor young people looking to develop their skills and enhance their employability. Mentors and mentees are matched based on shared interests and goals and supported by our experienced volunteer managers.

The programmes on the eMentor Me platform utilise state-of-the-art mentoring techniques and scientifically proven e-learning material all integrated into the platform, allowing mentees and mentors to meet regularly in digital conference rooms, connected via video chat.

Bev Frain, Head of Employee Volunteering at Volunteering Matters said: “As we are using digital technology more efficiently at work to enhance our communications and cut down on travel time, it is a natural step to apply this technology to volunteering, offering employees a flexible online volunteering opportunities with a high impact.”

Suska Dreesbach-Bundy, CEO of Volunteer Vision, said: “With our digital mentoring solution, companies can incorporate the potential of eLearning into their social employee engagement programs, and therefore scale up their impact. The goal of our digital mentorships is to allow people, regardless of their location, socio-economic status or other barriers, to find an entry point to humanity and knowledge. At the same time, we want employee engagement to feel natural and uncomplicated for use and integration in our everyday, digital world.”

If you are an employer and are interested in eMentor Me as an employee volunteering offer for your company, or if you are an organisation and would like to refer potential mentees to a mentoring programme, contact Gethyn Williams at gethynwilliams@volunteeringmatters.org.uk.