Our Story

In 1984, 43 volunteer organisers came together at Sir Michael Sobell House in Oxford to meet for the very first time. Just six years later, in 1990, the “Association of Hospice Voluntary Service Coordinators” was born.

They identified a need for a national association to provide training and support and a voice at national level for those coordinating volunteers, so a steering committee was elected in 1989, and in 1990 a Constitution was adopted.

In the years following its formation, the association earned a reputation as a voice for good practice in managing volunteers, setting up and encouraging high standards, in particular with the publication of several in-house guidance documents.

The HVMN has been through several key periods of development, including developing its mission, aims and objectives, its organisational structures and in fact its name.

Over the last 10 years, the HVMN has supported members to attend the European Association of Palliative Care Symposium in Austria, and worked with the EAPC Task Force to identify ways in which we can be a voice for British hospice volunteering.

Since 2020, we’ve launched new membership subscription service enabling members to join us and renew their membership with ease and invested in video conferencing so that Regional meetings could happen remotely through the pandemic. We also held our first ever series of online virtual whole-network meetings to support members managing volunteers during the pandemic.

The Executive Committee team continue to look to the future, to shape and develop the offer to members and help to set the standard in volunteer management.