EXPLORING DIFFERENT WAYS OF VOLUNTEERING

Around 25 million people do some voluntary activity every year and about half of them are adults. About three-quarters are involved in fundraising activities (anything from doing a sponsored walk to working in a charity shop) and about a quarter are involved with voluntary sector organisations that are connected with sports, leisure and exercise.

One of the good things about volunteering is the amount of choice you have, not only in terms of what you do, but when, where and how you do it:

During the day – just about anything you can think of, from office and shop work to environmental research and car mechanics.

At night – on soup runs, telephone support lines, rescue organisations, hostels and refuges. If you’re working during the day you can still give your time in the evening or during the night.

Part-time – from an hour a week upwards.

Full-time – this is normal if it’s residential or overseas work that you are doing.

On a casual basis – this is fairly common with fundraising activities where you offer your time for a particular event.

On a regular basis – in terms of acquiring skills, understanding issues and making new friends, regular volunteering (anything upwards of once a week for the same organisation) is likely to be more rewarding. Also, many organisations couldn’t provide the services they do unless people committed themselves to giving their time on a regular basis.

Locally – with so many voluntary sector organisations in the UK it’s fair to say that there should be something you can do as a volunteer within walking distance of your home (certainly within a bus ride).

Away from home (including overseas) – this needs more planning, but it can be a great way to spend a holiday. The activities are, on the whole, likely to be more practical than administrative/clerical in nature.

Residential – if you are working with an organisation away from your home for more than one day it’s normal for the organisation to arrange some sort of accommodation; this could be anything from a tent to the floor of a school hall to living with another family.

Indoors – working in offices, shops, workshops, studios, classrooms, hospitals, people’s own homes – wherever there’s a building.

Outdoors – anything from taking people on shopping trips to doing a survey of the local bat population.

At a manual level (skilled or unskilled) – if you have a skill like pottery or car mechanics you could teach it to others; you could learn a skill (such as gardening, cooking, decorating) through volunteering; or you could do manual work such as furniture collections or crop harvesting. There’s also a lot of mundane and repetitive work to be done, like stuffing envelopes.

At an ‘administrative’ or ‘leadership’ level – perhaps running a shop or working in an office; being a team leader on a residential project or an expedition.

At a management level – on committees running organisations or projects.

The nature of the organisation you work with and for is up to you. It could be technical work, social, health, environmental, leisure, creative, religious, welfare (animal or human), campaigning – there really is a vast choice. See the section on volunteering in Chapter 2 for more ideas.

Getting paid for volunteering

Volunteering is nowadays quite complex and less easy to define than it used to be. For example, you can get paid for volunteering, both in the UK and overseas.

In the UK it is fairly common to be paid for voluntary positions that are residential and involve some type of care work, or for roles that have some element of leadership attached to them (for example, on conservation projects). If you are unemployed this can affect your social security rights and you should ask for detailed information from your Employment Service adviser before doing such voluntary work. (See the section below entitled ‘The cons’.)

Some overseas positions are clearly voluntary and you will have to pay your own way; others will provide you with food and accommodation; yet others will pay you a ‘salary’. Those that pay salaries try not to describe the people who do the work as volunteers – instead they use terms like ‘development worker’ – and they are often highly skilled professionals such as teachers and engineers. However, they are still often thought of as volunteer positions. Salaries are not as high as in the UK and the people who do the work give up a lot in order to do so and don’t expect great rewards – in other words, the volunteer ethos is quite a strong factor in their motivation. See Chapter 8 for more information about these kinds of position.

Volunteering with public and private sector organisations

Although this book is about the voluntary sector, it is worth taking a brief look at other opportunities for volunteering.

In the public sector there are many opportunities to volunteer and there will be many similarities to volunteering in the voluntary sector. Among other things you could:

• be a Special Constable
• be a part-time fire-fighter
• be an auxiliary coastguard
• be a Justice of the Peace
• be a school governor
• volunteer with your local social services department.

In the private sector, companies sometimes take people on as volunteers so that the person can gain work experience. It is usually called ‘unpaid work experience’ rather than ‘volunteering’. A good example is the media (newspapers, TV, publishing) where people do unpaid work experience in order to get a foot in the door or to get the necessary experience to get on a training course.

ASSESSING THE PROS AND CONS OF VOLUNTEERING

Volunteering can be very rewarding if you are clear about why you are doing it and about what you want to do (see Chapter 2). A lot of people feel that it’s wrong to get something out of volunteering for themselves; they think it should be purely ‘giving’. However, if you don’t acknowledge that you will get something from it, you could end up feeling quite upset if, for example, someone you are trying to help rejects your ‘gift’ of help.

So before deciding to volunteer consider the following pros and cons:

The pros

• Work experience – you can gain valuable experience that could help to get you on a course of study or could improve your CV. For example, if you apply to do a physiotherapy course, any evidence of voluntary care work that you have done will be taken into account when you make your application.
• Permanent work – being a volunteer can lead to getting a permanent paid position in an organisation; being there as a volunteer gives you advantages like knowing when a job is coming up, understanding the issues and, of course, relevant work experience.
• Skills and knowledge – whatever you do it is likely that you will learn something new. For some types of voluntary work proper training is provided because the work is something you wouldn’t be able to do without it. For example, some conservation organisations train people in things like dry stone walling or coppicing; if you want to be a counsellor the training provided is likely to lead to a qualification; working in a shop could provide you with basic personnel and retailing skills.
• Test out job ideas – if you are thinking of a career change or you are deciding which course to do at college, it could be useful to do some voluntary work that gives you an insight into what you might find in that kind of work or course. For example, if you are thinking of becoming a chef it might be a good idea to see if you can do some voluntary work in the kitchens of a homeless people’s refuge.
• Self-esteem – it’s important to recognise that at the very least being a volunteer is a chance to feel good about yourself. You might think of this in terms of feeling appreciated. If you feel you are not appreciated by the voluntary organisation you are with, there is nothing wrong with moving on; staying in the wrong place would be demotivating.
• Friends – volunteering can be a good way of finding new friends who share a common interest or outlook on life. This can be useful, for example, if you are moving to a new job in a different part of the country or if you have retired.
• Networking – networking is about making contacts with people and it is something we do all the time to a greater or lesser degree. It’s a two-way process and is really about being aware of what other people are doing and letting them know what you are doing.
• Travel – some volunteer activities are available only in certain parts of the world and part of the reason for doing them is to travel and see those other places. Volunteering can be a great way of seeing different places and learning about different cultures.
• Adventure – you don’t have to travel to have adventures and volunteering can be a way of seeing and exploring the world around you in a different way. Many volunteers have said how the volunteering they did changed their outlook on life.
• Personal development – as well as skills and knowledge and contacts, volunteering can give you a real sense of personal development. This can come from the kind of work you do, the kind of organisation you are working for or the kind of environment you are working in. There are lots of challenges to be faced in the voluntary sector and you can develop a depth of ‘skills’ such as flexibility, compassion, patience, communication, team-working, decision-making, confidence.

The cons

• Pay – as a volunteer you will get no pay or at least very little. For some jobs with some organisations you might get a contribution to your expenses, but for most volunteer positions you should not expect any financial reward. If you are thinking about volunteering overseas you may even have to pay to do it.
• Monotony – some volunteer work can be boring and repetitive with little contact with the people whom the organisation is helping. For example, can you stay motivated stuffing thousands of envelopes in an office when the work of the organisation is in overseas development, so you never actually see what’s happening?
• Commitment – some organisations will ask you to commit yourself to work at certain times or for a certain period. This is especially common with organisations that provide structured training.
• Cheap labour – this is an issue to be aware of concerning your own voluntary position – you may be used as cheap labour. However, some organisations are very clear on this and have policies about not using volunteers where they can afford to pay for someone, or where the volunteer could be taking a paid worker’s place.
• Benefit sanctions – if you are using volunteering as a way of building skills and experience to return to paid work, you need to check if your benefit entitlement will be affected. If you are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance you can do any number of hours’ voluntary work each week, provided you are actively looking for paid work and can start a paid job within 48 hours. If you are getting pay, expenses or training that leads to a recognised qualification there is a chance that your benefits will be affected. It is important that you get the most up-to-date information you can. Your local volunteer bureau, Job Centre or Benefits Agency office (listed in the phone book) should be able to help you.