Thursday 18 September 2025 | 9.30am to 11.30am | Online via Zoom
Ticket prices: Members £27 | Non-members £43

What would it look like if inclusion wasn’t just a value, but something we practised and built together?

To mark National Inclusion Week, AVM are bringing together three speakers who will share practical insights on creating and developing communities where everyone feels they belong.

This session will explore how we can bring people together, share best practices, and drive real change with expert voices and peer-driven experiences to help you foster belonging, challenge bias, and ensure your volunteer programmes welcome and empower everyone.

Peer learning is more than just a buzzword; it’s a powerful, people-centred approach to change.  In a world where traditional training often talks at us, peer learning invites us to talk with each other.  It creates a space where insight and shared challenges become tools for growth.

For organisations, investing in peer learning is an investment in resilience and innovation. It helps deepen inclusion and strengthen team dynamics, especially in diverse volunteer settings.  For individuals, it’s an opportunity to be seen and supported while developing practical skills and deeper cultural awareness. 

The event consists of three interconnected sessions that address challenges and solutions in fostering psychological safety, embedding allyship, broadening volunteer participation, and responding to lived experiences of exclusion, including:

• Calling out instances where subtle comments are made to make people feel less than
• Focusing on inclusion and belonging: inclusive environments that don’t exclude views
• Build welcoming volunteer spaces where everyone feels safe and included
• Managing diverse volunteer teams effectively
• Strengthening connections and a sense of belonging within volunteer teams.

The sessions will blend expert input, case studies, peer discussion, and scenario-based exercises.  You’ll gain practical tools, real-world insights, and a deeper understanding of how to build inclusive practices into day-to-day volunteer management.

You will leave with:

• Practical strategies to embed inclusion into everyday volunteer management
• Confidence to challenge bias and microaggressions with empathy and clarity
• Tools to foster psychological safety and belonging in your volunteer teams
• New recruitment and support approaches that centre diverse and marginalised volunteers
• Insights from real volunteer experiences and peer learning you can apply immediately
• Greater awareness of lived experience and how to lead with allyship.

This session is for anyone who believes that inclusion isn’t just a tick box – it’s a journey. If you’re ready to move from intention to action, this webinar is where you start. Come ready to share, reflect, and leave inspired to make lasting change.

About the sessions

Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers: Peer Learning for Inclusive Volunteer Management – with Joanne Lockwood

This session explores the practical realities of managing inclusive volunteer teams in the charity and not-for-profit sector. Designed for volunteer leaders seeking actionable strategies to support belonging, foster psychological safety, and address challenges that arise within diverse groups this session addresses:

• Psychological Safety: How to create environments in which volunteers feel respected, valued, and empowered to contribute their perspectives.
• Challenging Bias and Microaggressions: Recognising and responding to exclusionary behaviours – such as team members being interrupted or dismissed -with empathy and clarity.
• Peer Learning Approaches: Using collaborative models to reflect on and address real issues faced within volunteer teams, supporting continuous improvement.
• Scenario-Based Discussion: Attendees will work through a scenario involving exclusion within a volunteer team, considering practical steps to restore safety and strengthen respectful interaction.

Participants will have opportunities to share insights and reflect on their own approaches, gaining tools for embedding inclusion as an everyday leadership practice. The focus is on real-world examples, peer dialogue, and the implementation of strategies that build more connected, effective volunteering environments.

Engagement & Empowerment: Inclusive Volunteering in Action – with Eddie Hartley

Discover how visibility, training, and meaningful dialogue are driving inclusion at every level – from Rainbow Badges and Pride events to new training on tough conversations. Featuring impact stories from real volunteers and insights from the National Volunteer Forum.

Creating Inclusive Volunteering at Sue Ryder: Lived Experience, Allyship and Accessible Pathways – with Lucy Swann

A deep dive into inclusive volunteering at Sue Ryder, including kind and thoughtful risk assessment, the Volunteer Inclusion Passport, and how criminal justice partnerships are reshaping recruitment and inclusion across retail and hospice services.

About the speakers

Joanne Lockwood is the founder of SEE Change Happen and The Inclusion Bites Academy and Podcast, a renowned speaker, consultant, and learning designer committed to creating inclusive cultures where people can thrive. Joanne partners with people-focused organisations to turn good intentions into practical action – helping build cultures of belonging where everyone can do their best work. She brings expertise in supporting HR teams, DEI leads, and people professionals to develop business-critical inclusion skills that move beyond performative gestures.

Eddie Hartley brings years of experience in the third sector, with a background spanning retail management and national volunteer leadership. At Sue Ryder, he leads the organisation’s healthcare and fundraising volunteering offer, working with teams across multiple sites and communities to build inclusive, engaging, and future-focused volunteer experiences. Eddie is passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion, and is committed to amplifying volunteer voices, removing barriers to participation, and showcasing volunteers’ vital role in delivering social impact.

Lucy Swann is the Retail Volunteer Manager at Sue Ryder and has more than 20 years’ experience in volunteer management across healthcare, heritage, and retail. Driven by a passion for people, Lucy is committed to making every interaction positive and breaking down barriers and bias wherever she can. Beyond her role at Sue Ryder, Lucy also volunteers as a Magistrate in the criminal justice system and cares for older people in her community.

AVM Members’ Discount

AVM members are eligible for a discount on the event ticket price. Please login to your account so that your discount can be automatically applied.

If you’re not an AVM member, you can join AVM today to gain access to this event, as well as receiving lots of other benefits, including access to free member-only events, discounts for all public events and the annual AVM conference. 

You will also have access to the AVM BiteSize webcasts and AVM Replay videos of previous events, including our annual conference. Members also have the opportunity to join our Mentoring Scheme and build their professional network through AVM Connect.

Join AVM today to access your discount for this event.