AN?ONLINE?one-stop shop for volunteering in East Hampshire has been launched this week.

The Volunteer Wessex website, unveiled on Monday by the Community First charity, gives volunteers across East Hampshire, Petersfield, Winchester and Havant the chance to find volunteering opportunities.

The www.volunteerwessex.org site is also the go-to place for organisations to find volunteers.

Community First helps organisations find, recruit and support volunteers, and they also offer guidance to the potential volunteer.

Development manager for Community First, Tom Belshaw, said: “We’re really proud to launch this new site which is the result of lots of work behind the scenes with volunteers and community groups.

“We know there are lots of people who want to volunteer and plenty of willing helpers, but it’s getting the information in one easy to access place, and the new site does this.”

A team of volunteers at Community First had worked really hard over the past few months to perfect the site before the launch.

It would be grown over the next few months making it the “local, one stop shop for volunteering”.

Chief executive of Community First, Tim Houghton, said:?“Volunteering is at the heart of a vibrant and successful community.

“Lots of people find their own ways of giving time but many people ask us for help, and our easy-to-use online service will make it much easier for people to find new opportunities and get into a volunteering role quickly.

“We’re really keen to attracr younger volunteers as well as those who might volunteer their time and expertise relevant to their work.”

He hoped to see a big upsurge in numbers of volunteers coming forward. Visit www.volunteerwessex.org. Or call 0300 500 8085 to speak to the volunteer team