The funding, which is worth £5 million, is guaranteed until 2008 by which time the GoldStar Volunteering and Monitoring Exemplar Programme aims to have supported 50 projects or groups.

"This programme is about more than the Home Office giving effective projects more money to carry on their work. We want the GoldStar projects to act as exemplars of good practice to the sector. For this reason some of each grant issued will be put towards sharing knowledge about what works with other practitioners and good practice in how to recruit, manage and retain the volunteers, mentors and befrienders who contribute so much to our communities,” said charities minister, Paul Goggins.

Grants will begin in April 2006 and will continue until January 2007. A partnership formed of four government offices, Volunteering England and the National Mentoring and Befriending Foundation will nominate around 20 of the projects, which will be sourced from regions where resources to increase volunteering activity among socially excluded communities are scarce. The remainder will be selected from those currently receiving funding from the Home Office.