Calling all volunteers
On our iPM New Years Honour programme we found our listeners are doing voluntary work ranging from setting up a basking shark watch project to distributing human milk to newborn babies.
And following our look at the stigma around unemployment, listener Janiece Spence told us volunteering was a worthwhile way to spend time between jobs: you learn new skills, gain potential employment references and it looks good on your CV.
Other people may be thinking that too. We've spoken with the charity Community Service Volunteers, who say that figures from December show there's been a 44% increase year-on-year in the number of applicants for voluntary work.
Have you done unpaid work during periods of unemployment? What did you do and how did you find it? Or do you run an organisation in need of volunteers? Leave us a comment or email ipm-at-bbc.co.uk
UPDATE Part of the government's plans to help the unemployed, include new volunteering opportunities. There's also the prospect that, for the long term unemployed, they could be required to undertake a period of unpaid work with a voluntary organisation. Ralph Michell of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations spoke to Eddie about this. You can hear and extended version of that interview in the player below.
(BTW ACEVO's CEO has a blog here)
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I started volunteering with hospital radio (Radio Tyneside Network) 20 years ago while I was on a low income - on the grounds that I would feel less guilty about not being able to put money in every deserving tin shaken at me, if I gave of my time instead.
My experience of unemployment was that I felt the system wanted me to be 'actively seeking (paid) employment' the whole time - and doing voluntary work was somehow 'skiving'. That probably wasn't meant to be the impression given, but that's how I felt.
Certainly I didn't have the confidence to pursue any voluntary role after we moved (because of my partner's employment) to our present location until I was back in full time employment.
I have been doing voluntary work ever since those days. At times when my employers froze their training budgets and continually 'restructured' so that I could never advance at work, I gained a lot of useful professional development and skills in my voluntary work instead.
I've been self-employed for the past 8 years, and the time-flexibility has enabled me to try out various different and fascinating types of unpaid role - such as serving on School Admission Appeals panels, Stage Three Review panels, and soon the Contact Point Shielding Review panels.
My self-employed (architect) partner anticipates a quiet year, work-wise, and is embarking on the Admissions Appeals panels work because he's heard me talk so enthusiastically about it.
I'm also a more conventional volunteer in my community - parish council chairman, village hall committee chairman, providing music for various church events despite being atheist, etc etc!
The line between 'volunteer' and 'paid-for' is blurring. I will be attending a seminar next month to show me how to teach primary children to sing harmony ... and my local primary school is eagerly awaiting my proposals, based on the voluntary stuff I've done with the same children for the vicar! The idea is to use folk music/musicians to bring live music back into schools.
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I have been a volunteer in my local library for almost 6 years - I spend about 6 hours a week preparing craft activities for pre-school children, after their storytime session.
I was new to the area, and needed to be available to support my family, so chose not to look for paid employment straight away.
My local supermarket had a notice on display, asking for volunteers in a number of areas in the library - the area I'm in keeps me working with an age group I worked with for many years, so I feel I'm using expertise and skills that would have been wasted, otherwise.
It was a great way to find my place in my new community, and kept my confidence and self-esteem intact.
I enjoy the work so much that when I did get part-time paid employment elsewhere, I made sure I could make the hours fit around my voluntary work.
The paid job fizzled out some time ago, but my voluntary job has led me to another paid position - I recently set up another pre-school session in another library, and get paid (pocket-money!) for it!
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I started to volunteer as I wanted to change my career path from childcare to horticulture. I am now doing a correspondence course in horticulture. To gain 'gardening' experience I volunteer for one day a week with a charity that uses gardening to change the lives of adults with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
I love it and I am able to use my new gardening skills in the pre-school that I work at.
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Four months ago we got a telephone call from a young guy who wanted to get some experience working in an engineering design office. He had just started a course at College (1 day a week) and wanted some practical experience. He said he would work for nothing.
We weren't looking to recruit anyone but we gave him a start and paid him not much more than his expenses.
After 3 months he had proved himself able and eager to learn. At the start of January, we picked up the cost of his College course and gave him a full-time 1 year contract, with a view to making it permanent.
Volunteering certainly worked for him, and us!
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I've always done voluntary work - since I left uni in the '80s and didn't know what to do next! At the moment I've not got a job and I'm volunteering at a community garden on an allotment site. It's really useful - even though I'm a pretty experienced gardener there is always more to learn and it's a very different context to my existing knowledge. It's good to have a reason to get up early every morning and gives a pattern to the week, and I know I'm helping out an organisation which is doing a good job with minimal resources. It's also helped me get some work which I will be starting soon - I'll miss my volunteering though!
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I just wanted to say that I've been involved with the Scouting Association for years and I have gained enormously in so many ways. Excellent self development! It has taught me skills in handling children and interacting with their parents in a constructive way so that they understand your motives and want to contribute with you. My only sadness is that my employer seems unable to recognise these skills because there are no official certificates.
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After ten years of commuting to London I gave up my job in IT to pursue other interests. I've always enjoyed the countryside so I starting doing voluntary work on one day a week with a local wildlife organization. This involved doing things like coppicing, scrub clearance, path clearing and litter picking. Most of it was hard work but very enjoyable and immensely rewarding. Eventually I was working up to three days a week doing voluntary work for four different wildlife organizations. A lot of these organizations rely on volunteers and are not shy in asking for them. I was actually quite surprised to discover how many opportunities for voluntary work there are. I am looking for paid employment now but I would still like to continue with the voluntary work. I would recommend it to people who are unemployed. There may not be any financial reward but it keeps you active, you make new friends, and you learn new skills. It will look good on your CV too.
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I wanted to volunteer and I saw this website http://www.volunteermatch.org/ however there is nothing for the UK.
I'm currently thinking about volunteering at http://mysociety.org/ however I'm unsure at the moment.
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I retired early on health grounds and came to live in Spain. I am an ex-serviceman and became invloved in an ex-service charity. There is plenty to do - fundraising, welfare work, hospital visiting and providing a freindship network for ex-pats. If you are in a Spanish hospital a visitor that speaks your language is a joy! Especially if they have an English book. We also provide help and advice for all members. I really enjoy the actual work but because our organisation is a membership network a large amount of time is devoted to committee work. Sadly, the committee work has been very contentious - largely, I think because people here have too much time on their hands and petty jealousies can occur.
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I help Coordinate the Master Composter volunteer scheme with Garden Organic (the national charity for organic growing formerly the HDRA) and eleven councils across the country.
Master Composters are volunteers who encourage people in their local community to start composting at home, and offer support to people who are already home composting and may be having difficulties or need encouragement.
Anyone can be a Master Composter – you do not have to already be an expert in composting as Master Composters are trained in 'how to compost' before they start their activities. There are Master Composters of every age group and they come from a wide variety of backgrounds. This contributes to the effectiveness of the scheme – Master Composters can reach parts that other compost promoting activities cannot reach as they talk to their friends, family and neighbours, attend village fairs, do stalls and talks in all kinds of places and it has even been know for a Master Composter to hold a compost-themed children’s birthday party!
The volunteers I work with are a fantastic, eclectic bunch. The enthusiasm they have is legendary. I have worked on a variety of training projects and schemes in the past where the participants have been there because they are being paid and the boss has made them or because its just a means to get a qualification, there is no comparison. Our Master Composter volunteers bring a commitment that can not be rivalled and really make a difference to the amount of people not sending their compostable waste to landfill. They take a great pride in what they do and are always coming up with inspired (and sometimes bizarre) ways of spreading the word. Working with a bunch of people who have elected to get involved in something that they feel passionate about is a real pleasure.
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Thanks for all the comments - very much appreciated.
I wonder if any of you who have been volunteering for a while have noticed a change in the nature of voluntary work. Have people become more focused on it as a route into employment? Are more people coming forward to volunteer?
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I took early retirement 2 years ago and since then have been working as a volunteer steward at our local Museum. I had no idea before doing this that such organisations depended entirely on volunteers, from setting up displays, documenting all the items, buying in goods for the shop, keeping accounts of transactions etc etc...all without a paid curator or manager in sight! If you want to do a really worthwhile job, learn a lot about the history of your local area and meet interesting people, do go down to your local Museum to offer your services. Our Lowestoft Museum is short of helpers, for example. You never know what you will be turning your hand to next: one morning, I had been asked to arrive at 9.45 to help Mike open up to meet a school party who would be arriving at 10.00am. I saw the coach party begin disembarking its group of excited youngsters as I hurried up the path a little later than I'd intended. As I opened the door I could hear strange noises coming from upstairs. "Is that you, Mike, are you OK?" I called out. As I approached the stairs I could see a body warmer being hurtled across the landing and to my amazement I saw a very large pigeon flying awkwardly into one of the glass cases . Mike had been trying to catch it in his body warmer. As I ran up the stairs it flew towards me and straight into my outstretched hands. Hastily I clutched it and managed to release it outside. We just had time to remove all the droppings from the Porcelain cases before the children arrived, although we had to temporarily cover the fireplace where a second (dead) pigeon was lying with an old duster. The children had a very enjoyable visit without being distracted by a pigeon!
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I volunteered as a young leader/Brownie Guider back in 1988 to improve my UCCA/PCAS and job applications. At university and polytechnic interviews it was abundantly clear that they didn't rate this (I initially applied in 1990) but I was interviewed at a local insurance company by a Scoutmaster who was able to see the transferable skills that could be developed into the workplace. I stopped being a Guider in 1996 when the time commitment and paperwork became just too much! The advert for leaders at the time was "Give a little time to Guiding" but I figured that all the planning, form filling, administration and meetings took at least 10 hours per week and more if Pack Holidays, Ventures, Fund Raisers, Census or Nativity plays were on the agenda. At the time it was also really difficult to get parent helpers or volunteer leaders to support. This was all on top of a job that (at the time) was 60+ hours per week + travelling.
At about the same time I stopped Guiding I volunteered for the Red Cross as a first aider. I thought I could do my basic training and then the commitment was 2 hours a fortnight plus any duties I volunteered for. I wanted to apply to Uni to do pharmacy and thought this would help.
By the time I got to Uni I had committed myself to far more with the Red Cross than I had with Guiding but it seemed much easier because there were more volunteers to assist with service provision and thus less onus on any single person. I was a first aider, youth worker and a Youth Work trainer with NVQ trainer/assessor awards. When I went to the interviews at Uni it was obvious (again) that they hadn't considered anything that I'd actually done in the voluntary work I'd undertaken. Employers, however, continued to look favourably on voluntary experience.
I'm still a volunteer with the Red Cross - I'm now a first aid trainer as well as a first aider. I have seen peaks and troughs in volunteering - 1999 was a good year and 2008/2009 is looking like another good year for us. People continue to come forward to volunteer with the group to enhance their career prospects or their University applications as well as for personal interest. I'm still not convinced that the Universities consider voluntary work when considering applications unless it is directly relevant to the course - if I'd worked as a volunteer in a pharmacy it might have been taken into account. My experience is that employers are more able to look at the wider skill set that volunteering may bring. In fact some of the training that is being offered to volunteers is now geared towards being written in "employer speak." When I've interviewed staff it is something I consider and it is something that HR encourage us to consider when finding evidence for skills, knowledge and attributes assessments.
With regards to those who attend for the training and then drop out fairly quickly - this happens with our courses too. We "recruit" 6 from a course of 12 and realistically we'd expect to "retain" 2 of them for 3 years. The other 4 aren't lost causes - they may not actively deliver the service for which we trained them but they will act as advocates for our group and the Red Cross and there is a chance that the time will come where they will be able to volunteer again. We try and remain in touch with them and allow them to meet the minimum requirement of 10 hours per year through meetings. They are certainly not lost causes and have no reason to feel they've let us down. As an aside, I do have a volunteer who doesn't like the sight of blood. She doesn't attend regularly but is really handy on a duty because she fills in all the casualty forms for us!
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I am the Regional Coordinator for Wales for a UK charity called the Oldies Club (www.oldies.org.uk) which helps rehome older dogs. The Oldies Club is run entirely by volunteers and so relies completely on people's generosity in time and resources. It works fantastically well, though many of the core people involved work very, very hard.
We are always looking for new volunteers - whether they are looking for one hour a month or can give us several hours a week.
I've been involved as Regional Coordinator since October 2008 and am looking to set up a network of volunteers across Wales. We offer lots of different 'jobs' (from putting up posters to running full-scale events) so whether people are looking for a hobby or for some specific experience, we do our best to provide it!
Because Oldies Club is run completely by volunteers there is a great sense of community, everyone is in the same position of giving what they can and it all adds up to the bigger picture of the charity's work.
Personally I always wanted to work with animals in some way, and although my paid work has taken me in a different direction, volunteering gives me the opportunity to do something I love for a great cause. Hopefully we (me and the other Regional Coordinators - we have opportunities all over the UK) can build a team that will make a real difference to the dogs.
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Chris (12) I can only speak from my own experience -
the person who used to volunteer with me certainly saw it as a route into employment, and gave up her voluntary work when she successfully applied for a library assistant's job.
For several months we have been actively seeking another volunteer to take her place, but no-one has come forward.
We currently have no volunteer IT ''Buddies'' either, so those needing help and encouragement to use the library's computers are missing out.
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I 'volunteered' for 18 months, full time for two of the largest national environmental and heritage organisations in th uk.
In the environmental sector the only way to get a paid job is to get 2 years experience. (that's what I was told at my interview) . In order to volunteer I had to pass an interview and do a day's work at the same time.
Then you have to work full time, hard physical work. They buy you some protective clothing and provide you with around £600 worth of training (first aid, chainsaw use, or possibly tractor and trailer driving, etc) You get a room in a house to live in (with no internet) and have to make a contribution to the bills.
You have no rights as either an employee or a tenant. You are basically an unpaid trainee at their beck and call and there's nothing you can do about it, and they make you feel like they are doing YOU a favour. You basically can't say no to anything or you look like you 'don't have the right attitude', even if some of the work you are asked to do is clearly very dangerous (I was nearly killed by a log crane falling on me while I was in the cab of a tractor - the cab was flattened and I JUST managed to jump out in time!).
People have no choice but to do this if they want a career in this field.
It seems that due to the market conditions of this sector, certain agencies take unfair advantage, so I'm training to be a social worker now instead where I at least get a bursary.
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In 2000 I volunteered with BTCV, the conservation charity. It was the most fulfilling year's work I've ever done and I met a broader range of people than in any paid work I had before or since. I went on to work for BTCV and was endlessly amazed and how much people were prepared to put themselves out to help complete projects. I put a lot of effort into showing them how much it was appreciated. Volunteering is hugely beneficial for both parties and some organisations would do well to remember that. I have recently relocated and am looking to volunteer again. I think I may be applying to work for the organisation Maximoog had such a bad time with. I sent the application off in early January and had no acknowledgement. I only found out I was being considered when I finally managed to speak to someone yesterday. I am quite able to get paid work locally but want to volunteer while I'm in the lucky position not to have to earn for a while. I am surprised at the lack of reponse and it is making me think hard about whether I want to give my time to an organisation that can behave so dismissively towards people who want to give their time.
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I am doing voluntary work at Shaw Trust and at New Life Family Church the Church where I attend.
I have always done voluntary work, Like
voluntary reading help in a school and have worked voluntary in a paly group
and also as a youth leader in different Churches over the years.
And have done voluntary office work and have done voluntary workin in a charity shop. All my voluntary jobs have been with registered Charities.
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Newhousewife: stay away from the one near Broadclyst! Don't make the same mistake I did! ;)
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Volunteering England is the leading national development agency for volunteering in England and a membership organisation.
We believe that now, more than ever, volunteering can play a vital role in contributing to the nation’s economic and social development. It can also play an important role in contributing to social wellbeing, helping people build connections and a sense of belonging within their communities.
Volunteering can provide a route to employment for many people, helping unemployed people gain the skills, experience and confidence they need to get back into work or change career paths.
It has been widely reported that the interest in volunteering is on the increase and with the current economic turmoil; many unemployed people will see volunteering as the first opportunity to increase their skills base. Many students volunteering will also seize the opportunity to gain the work based skills that will give them the edge in the competitive graduate job market.
However, we must also be aware that in the recession will make it harder for some volunteer, especially for those who are not reimbursed expenses. In these tough times for some it will be a cost too far.
That is why we have issued a ‘Recession Challenge’ to government, businesses and volunteer-involving organisations to ensure that volunteering can play its part in economic revival – now is not the time to cut back on volunteering to save money.
The economic conditions set up new possibilities for working with volunteers. Now is the time to build new partnerships so we can further strengthen volunteering and make the most of volunteering’s capacity to contribute to economic recovery.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/
http://www.volcomm.org.uk/
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We should not forget that our over 90% of cases that pass through our criminal justices system are dealt with by a band of 30,000 or so volunteer magistrates and the governance of our schools is managed by another band of volunteers.
I participate in both these voluntary sectors and I get far greater sense of satisfaction than I do from my 'day job'.
Regards
Allan
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Encouraged to volunteer,yes...Forced to work for dole,no. If jobs need doing in a society,then they should attract the normal rates for the job.I would.for example,feel very aggrieved at doing work for dole alongside normal paid employees.
I have done voluntary work whilst unemployed and quite enjoyed it. I might suggest that expenses or a small 'retainer' be paid over the dole rate be paid,I have been out of pocket volunteering in the past.Volunteer organisations seem not to be able to understand that if you are on the dole,you are living on the absolute minimum,and may not be able to afford to travel or pay other additional costs linked to volunteering.
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Volunteering raises self esteem. If children are given too much for nothing they do not look after what they are given. If adults are given too much for nothing they do not respect the giver.
However small, there must be some positive input into society, that can be measured, for all the welfare support given by tax payers to those who for one reason or other need welfare in whatever form it is given. Too many expect a free lunch.
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The saying goes...
"A single volunteer is worth ten pressed men"
...I wonder whether mandating that people undertake voluntaring work will possibly have a negative effect on the overall voluntary sector?
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