Frequently asked questions about Spark a Change

Spark a Change is managed by Spark Somerset, the Somerset based charity which runs the county-wide volunteer service. You can find out more about Spark Somerset here. Spark a Change is managed in partnership with Deedmob, an innovative Dutch start-up whose mission is to develop software that can empower everyone to contribute to a better world.

Spark a Change is a digital platform designed to help people offer time and skills to help a local good cause. It provides a complete journey; from searching to being accepted, and then keeping in touch. Whether you are an individual who would like to volunteer to help good cause, or an organisation looking for people to support your work, you can easily:

• Register as a volunteer or as a charity and create and edit a profile
• Explore or share volunteering opportunities
• Make contact and talk about what you’re looking for
• Begin your volunteering journey

Other features for groups include being able to create a bespoke application form, and to instantly share your opportunity via social media. Groups can easily and securely communicate with individuals, to a group or to all volunteers.

Spark a Change was launched in September 2020 and over the following months the project team has helped numerous local community organisations to use the platform promote their volunteering opportunities. We also support lots of communications activity to encourage more residents to choose volunteering as a way to help their community, and for all the benefits it can bring us as individuals.

We want to develop Spark a Change to be the platform of choice across the county of Somerset, and to continue to grow volunteering using its features. One aspect is to promote opportunities aimed at younger people (14+) and for groups - for example to support team building for business 'away days'.

Spark Somerset can also offer help to organisations who want to use the more detailed features in Spark a Change which can help them to manage and communicate with volunteers on an ongoing basis.

Data is stored securely and access to it is strictly controlled. The design of the site is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations. You can read our privacy statement here.

We hope that using Spark a Change will be easy and intuitive, even to the first-time user. Live Chat is available, and there is a Help Centre for many common activities. The team at Spark Somerset can offer guidance on how to generate local interest in your opportunity alongside Spark’s own marketing activity, and you can share your opportunties to your social media profiles straight from Spark a Change.

The previous database closed for new opportunities from Monday 7^th September. All groups within the database were moved automatically to Spark a Change, and sent a unique link to ensure their new account was activated.

The Corona Helpers site, which is also managed by Spark Somerset will continue to run alongside Spark a Change for the time being. Unless a group chooses to delete their listing, opportunities will appear in both Corona Helpers and Spark a Change as they are powered by the same system (Deedmob). We suggest groups that intend to continue to operate move their activity to Spark a Change. We plan to review this as England roadmap progresses. If you currently use Corona Helpers, your thoughts are very welcome to help us make a decision – please email [email protected].