HVA began as a Local Volunteering Development Agency (LVDA), a project of HCVS in October 1996 before becoming a separate organisation in April 1997 under the name Hackney Agency for Volunteering (HAVE). Our office was based at
1 Kingsland High Street and we had two members of staff. We registered as a charity in February 1998 and began to expand on our services.
We set up training and support services for local voluntary / community organisations, starting the popular ‘Meet the Funders’ Sessions set up as a result of member organisation demand. We moved to our present offices at the British Red Cross Centre at Dalston Lane and continued to expand. In 1999, HAVE became the NACVS Training centre for the borough – one of only two centres in London – and employed its first full time Training Coordinator. We also introduced the first specialised volunteering project, Millennium Volunteers, which focused on encouraging sustained volunteering for young people between 16-24 years. In 2000, HAVE broadened the scope of its newsletter, Voluntary Connection, to include a wider range of voluntary sector information and became the first voluntary sector newsletter in Hackney to be distributed to all 1000 voluntary and community organisations. We increased our services to include membership packages and publications.
In 2002, HAVE introduced another specialised volunteering project for sports clubs and organisations, Sporting Chance, providing dedicated capacity support. In 2003 we took on two short-term projects providing fundraiser support to arts/cultural sector and sports organisations. We also launched a new Time Bank project for the Hoxton Sure Start area with a dedicated database to match parents who can exchange time and skills to support each other.
Within its first six years, HAVE expanded its staff team from two to nine posts, increased the range of our services to affect over 1000 organisations within the borough, and provided volunteer referrals and information for over 3,500 people and maintained and updated a local volunteering database with over 1,000 volunteer vacancies.
In February 2003, the London Borough of Hackney awarded HAVE the umbrella services contract to deliver CVS services within the borough under a 17-month contract. As a result of this contract we changed our trading name to Hackney Voluntary Action (HVA) to better reflect the scope of our new services and the organisation as a whole. The umbrella contract funds a Development Officer who supports organisations in all aspects of their development and operations.
HVA has maintained its role as a CVS within Hackney for three years but is looking to expand our services even further. We are looking to take a pro-active role in increasing the profile of Hackney Groups, representing the sector and promoting its needs. We wish to develop as an infrastructure organisation promoting volutunteering and partnerships.
In 2004, HVA became a member of the East London CVS Network and we undertook the position to lead on ICT developments within the East London Subregion. We introduced a new strategic service in 2005 with the ICT Development Workers and we aim to develop ICT capacity building into a new independent infrastructure service.
In 2006, HVA is undertaking a review of our services and our direction. We are looking to move with the changing climate of the voluntary sector, maintaining a competitive edge and continuing to promote member organisations to do the same.
HVA's legal status: Company Limited by Guarantee (registered in England no. 3357999)
HVA is also a registered charity (no. 1068104)
HVA's registered company/charity name is Hackney Agency for Volunteering and our trading name is Hackney Voluntary Action.
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