Volunteers' Week will celebrate its 20th year from 1st til 7th June this year, a major event in the UK’s volunteering calendar.

There will be a burst of activity as volunteer managers publicly thank their volunteers and highlight their contribution to the organisation and the wider community. The publicity also means that it’s also a great time to recruit new volunteers and recruitment will be the major theme for 2004 with a particular focus on employee volunteering and young people.

Organised by Volunteering England, the new integrated volunteer development agency that works alongside VDS in Scotland, WCVA in Wales and VDA in Northern Ireland; this nationwide celebration recognises the vital work of the UK’s 22 million volunteers who work for charities in their spare time.

Groups and organisations of all kinds and sizes take part in Volunteers' Week - from private sector companies, to hospitals and schools, as well as major charities and small community groups, and individuals.

Christian Aid, which relies on an army of volunteers is wholeheartedly backing the week. Tim Moulds, Christian Aid's Associate Director for Churches and Community, says: "Christian Aid is a volunteer movement, a movement for justice and a better world. Christian Aid Week shows that volunteer movement in action."

"More than a third of a million people go door-to-door, collecting money that will support poor communities to stand on their own feet. Christian Aid volunteers organise and manage Christian Aid Week - raising £15 million."

The interested parties could organise a sponsored walk, concert or fundraising event, or apply to help out in various charity’s offices to support Volunteers’ Week.

For more detail about the Volunteers’ Week, please visit their website at www.volunteersweek.org.uk.

The following organisations are members of the Volunteers' Week Action Group and are active supporters of the Week:

Age Concern England
Amnesty International
Arthritis Research Campaign
British Red Cross
BTCV
Business in the Community
Citizens Advice
Consortium of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Voluntary Sector Organisations
Dixons Group
Gap Activity Projects
Greenpeace
Guide Dogs for the Blind Association
Inland Revenue
Macmillan Cancer Relief
Marks & Spencer Plc
MIND
National Association of Voluntary Service Managers
National Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations
National Railway Museum
National Trust
Oxfam
PDSA
RNIB
RSPB
SKILL
Sport England
SSAFA Forces Help
WRVS
Youth Action Network