Pembroke 21C Community Association has recently achieved the Investing in Volunteers quality standard, in recognition of the excellent work they do with volunteers.

"We are absolutely delighted to have achieved this quality standard as we work with over 100 volunteers in the community and could not deliver our work without them", said Elizabeth Gossage, development officer for Pembroke 21C. "All our staff put a great value on the volunteers who gave over 5,000 hours of their time to our community projects over the past year. Achieving this award is due to the work of our volunteer co-ordinator, David Wall, who put in place all the procedures that help us to recruit, manage and retain our volunteers."

Investing in Volunteers is the UK quality standard. It aims to improve the quality of volunteering experience and to encourage organisations to better recognise the enormous contribution made by volunteers. Investing in Volunteers is managed in Wales by Wales Council for Voluntary Action.

Pembroke 21C was assessed against a range of best practice standards and proved to excel in all aspects of working with its volunteers.

Ken Jones, acting chair of trustees, said: "Investing in Volunteers has already made a huge difference to how we recognise and value our volunteers, enabling our staff to help them to find the work that suits them best, the hours they want to contribute and to get to know them and their needs. By being able to build good relationships with them helps to deliver projects that benefit the whole community."

The award was presented to Pembroke 21C on December 11 at their member meeting by Caroline White, the volunteering co-ordinator with Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services. On the same evening, several volunteers were presented with Volunteer of the Year Awards to recognise and thank them for the special contribution they have made over the past year.

Pembroke 21C is Pembroke's Community Association based in Foundry House on Pembroke Commons. It exists to work closely with the whole community by providing activities and projects that are open to all. It is a registered charity, governed by a board of eight local trustees.

The projects developed and managed by Pembroke 21C with the help of volunteers include management of the Pembroke Millponds and Holyland Woodland, running Pembroke Farmers Market and a local food project, establishing a community garden to grow fruit and vegetables, a Bread Club for people to bake together, The Pembroke Story local heritage project in the Tabernacle Church, and PembTech ICT group to help people with computer skills.