NATIONAL Volunteers' Week this week aims to entice more people into voluntary roles in the community.

Workers at Evesham Volunteer Centre have warned that without more volunteers and more money, some of the services which hundreds of local people rely on could be under threat.

Centre manager Helen Gray has been in her position for just over a year and is already finding the world of voluntary services an uphill battle.

Struggling with a funding shortfall this year of £11,000, she is under constant pressure to keep the centre's services going at a cost of £60,000 a year while encouraging new volunteers to come forward so they can expand.

As well as its own services, the centre provides Vale charities with volunteers, including dog walkers for Dogs Trust, people to set up chairs for concerts in parks and volunteer staff for the Avoncroft Museum, but she said demand for volunteers always exceeds supply.

Some of the 220 volunteers currently on the books have been there since the centre opened 20 years ago.

They range from the retired elderly to university leavers pondering their next move to a 16-year-old boy who is helping to set up a website for the centre.

"Volunteering is now being pushed by job centres and by schools for their citizenship schemes," she said. "Anyone can volunteer. There are so many different things you can do."

The centre has a bank of 45 volunteer drivers who are on call five days a week for a social car scheme which allows elderly or disabled people who can't use public transport a chance to visit hospital or do their shopping in town.

"I know some of the drivers actually go into the store with them and help them get things off the high shelves. They're a big part of that person's life. They become really good companions," she said.

In April, the drivers took 509 passengers on 636 trips and covered a total of 7,202 miles.

The centre also hires out a Fiat Freedom vehicle for wheelchair users for £15 a day, which just covers their costs, and a befriending service for the elderly and housebound who receive visits once a week.

They also organise three volunteer-run lunch clubs for the elderly, for which there is always a waiting list, and a volunteer-run share and learn group for the blind and partially sighted, who have weekly meetings with activities like painting.

But the centre always needs new people and more money and is now expanding its Blackminster furniture recycling scheme, Roundabout, and opening a shop to sell the best quality furniture to make more cash.

The centre's only funding comes from council grants, social services, donations and fundraising by the centre's committee.

"The fundraising committee do some vibrant and wonderful things," Mrs Gray said. "But we need all these things on a regular basis just to keep us going."

She added that she has expansion plans, including new premises because the Oat Street centre is too small for an information centre and volunteer centre and a new building would allow a coffee room for drivers and office space for other voluntary groups.

"We have great ideas about services we would like to give but like everything, unless we have the funding or the people we can't do it," Mrs Gray said.

She hopes Volunteers' Week will inspire more people to think about giving a little of their time to help others and will also provide an opportunity for her to say thank you to the hundreds of volunteers currently working around Evesham.

Manager Bob Pooler, the only paid member of staff at Roundabout, is opening a new furniture shop next Monday to raise extra cash. He said: "Many of the projects in the community would not be possible but for the excellent work of the volunteers."

Contact Helen Gray on 01386 40165 for information on volunteering.

Centre volunteers will also be collecting funds outside Tesco in Evesham on Saturday from 9am to 6pm.