The Home Office has launched a new Year of the Volunteer campaign, which aims to raise one billion minutes of volunteered time for good causes by the end of 2005.

Give a Billion Minutes asks both new and existing volunteers to log the minutes spent on their voluntary service, whatever form that takes, in a bid to encourage people to become more actively involved in good causes. Minutes can be logged on the Year of the Volunteer website, by phone and by text messaging.

Christopher Spence, chief executive of Volunteering England, said: “The first six months of the Year of the Volunteer has been very successful in raising awareness of volunteering. The Billion Minutes campaign aims to turn the awareness into action.”

For further information visit www.yearofthevolunteer.org