Volunteering

I do ad-hoc bits of volunteering for local sporting events, because I take part in other events that wouldn't happen without volunteers, so it's only fair. One of them is the local marathon and I love it, I do two roles across the day and I think this year will be the 6th or 7th year in a row.

I'd volunteer at a local visitor attraction but understandably they ask for a particular day of the week commitment which I can't offer at the moment. When I'm retired I'll look at it again.

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide Thanks. I was reluctant to ask my employers who are busy.

I think there is a huge expectation gap between what charities need (reliable, qualified labour) and what volunteers can or want to offer.

see donations for Ukraine/ food bank/ Red Cross… people want to feel good and donate their old stuff. The charities want and need money…

Once a year work organised a volunteer thing… for years, people would paint a murial, do some gardening etc - when really, you don’t need a bevy of accountants and lawyers to do that - they could have donated their one day pay I stead and achieved so much more.
then they organised something using their skills, which was much better.

I volunteer at a very well-known London venue.

I have been doing it for 4 years and plan to continue for as long as I can (I'm 63).

It is connected to something I am really interested in which I think is key - if you enjoy the volunteering you do, you will stick at it. So choose carefully

I have to work! I’m doing 52 hours a week just to maintain the lifestyle I had before col crises when I was doing 30 hours. Plus kids. Also a lot is expected of volunteers. Set hours and weekly shifts. I’ve seen volunteer roles being advertised. For charity shops must have weekend availability, cv and references. I mean surely you’d just get a regular retail job.

It’s not so much getting around it. We’ve had SAHMs get references from their children’s teachers, for example. It’s about working with the volunteer to find something that works.

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide

How do you get arounf the references?

I used to volunteer and also run a group voluntarily but
a) I don't have the time to commit anymore
b) volunteering was taking too much time
c) people started taking the piss -because I was volunteering in one area they wanted other things for free relating to my skill set
d) lack of appreciation for the work I was doing - eg. doing something for months on end, some bloke shows up and does it once and had his name and photo all over the local magazine (he wasn't a celebrity - just a bloke from the village). I never had my name and photo in the local magazine
e) too much paperwork and too much risk regarding health and safety, risk assessments

It used to be SAHMs who had a bit of spare time while the DC were at school, or who had never worked so had more time to give when the children flew the nest. Most mothers work now, or have commitments at home.

Retired people used to volunteer, but are now called on to help with grandchildren childcare.

Older volunteers paused during covid and don't feel comfortable returning.

Most of the volunteers at the charity I work for are linked to faith groups where the volunteering bug is ingrained.

We also get fabulous teams of volunteers from local businesses to do ad-hoc projects.

Teens who are doing DofE are are great source of committed volunteers, albeit 1 hour a week.

It takes a lot of time and expense to manage charity volunteers. But the commitment, generosity, expertise and positive attitude can be priceless.

Personally, I volunteer at PTA, Parkrun, School Governor and the occasional community event. I encourage my DC to volunteer when they're not too busy with exams, as I think it's a positive way to be part of a community.

This with bells on!

On the two most recent occasions I have volunteered (a food bank and RDA) I have been taken advantage of, including timings over running by 1-2 hours every time and organisers and other volunteers being rude and shouty.

It would take a hell of a lot to get me to go back to volunteering.

I used to do quite a lot of unpaid ‘benevolent’ work through the W.I. All sorts of things, from running the tea tent when the Tour of Britain came through the village, making support bags for chemo, transcribing some registers, and just helping out when other members were ill or in difficulties.
I don’t belong to the WI any more. I dislike the fact that men are now allowed to join as long as they ‘identify’ as women, and they change the feeling of any group they belong to.

I also used to do cleaning ( especially brass polishing, I’m a demon polisher) in my parish COE . I stopped when Welby told us we were too pale and middle class to be an acceptable congregation. DH stopped doing the mowing, as well.

my ( gay male ) friend packed in his unpaid coordinator role for a large heritage association when they tried to insist on him wearing a Gay Pride lanyard.

I now volunteer for a local gardening based charity and a fund raising event.

I think that a lot of the reasonably active and well off ‘Retired ‘ are discouraged by the politicisation of volunteering and of charities. We don’t want to stop anyone else holding their own opinions on these things, but we don’t want to be forced to espouse views which we don’t hold.

Farmerama1

It wasn't myself that set up the food collection

The letter said the money would be for a van to collect & distribute donations

I volunteer for Girlguiding. I enjoy planning and running the meetings and I haven't had any problems with the parents, but what is likely to drive me away is the admin burden. Trying to change signatories on a Bank account, endless forms and risk assessments, having to attend first aid and safeguarding training but struggling to find a course in my area. I think these areas have become more challenging in recent years and this hasn't helped volunteer retention.

I do ad hoc volunteering through my sports club. I’m on the committee making sure members are supported but much like the PP who volunteers at parkrun, mainly I will do an event or two a month as a marshall/timekeeper/scorer etc because if every participant volunteers at a couple it means events continue and are affordable to take part in.

That sounds poorly handled. Did the food bank explain why, and did you agree what types of items you would collect with them first?

Volunteered for a well known youth charity for decades. Through working full time and having my own children I managed it . But how things have changed, training (obviously safeguarding is important) so much admin, accounts, parents expectations are massive, first aid, paperwork, prep. It’s like a second job and becoming harder and stressful. I feel my time is nearly up.

I don't do any formal volunteering. I've 'done my bit' for school (listening to kids read/manning the tea and coffee table at fundraisers/selling raffle tickets etc), sports clubs (adding up scores, stewarding etc), helping vulnerable individuals: getting them to appointments, bit of batch cooking for them, taking them shopping. Stuff like that. Volunteering for organisations rightly or wrongly (I don't know) has a reputation for being treated quite badly and I'm not up for that.
Having said that I'm looking into teaching English as a foreign language and would consider volunteering for that.

I used to volunteer for a youth organisation but my husband now works evenings and we have a small child so it doesn't work for me anymore. Paid employment has to take priority. I also found there was so much being asked of us in terms of admin, paperwork, training etc and not enough support to do it that I don't have the time outside of the 2 hour weekly session to do all the prep and admin needed.

@CheeseLouisePlease

Yes not good

Yes there always seems to be the officious types of people overseeing which I find hard to deal with

I have two voluntary roles. A major change to volunteering is so few places will take volunteers under 18 because of the changed take on child labour laws & the need for suitable child supervision.

Also a lot is put on volunteers and they walk way because of it sometimes. For example I visit elderly people, post pandemic and am encouraged to get them accessing the community but I'm very much left to get on with that brief. Volunteers at my friend's wildlife charity are expected to deal with members of the public, put in a certain amount of hours, attend training. All of this is great, you can understand why but there's no nurturing or support or thanks. In the wildlife ones you feel almost you're supposed to be grateful to be able to volunteer. It's weird!

Ive been a Girlguiding leader for nearly 10 years and am about it give it up.

The paperwork and admin behind the scenes takes HOURS each week. I work FT and have a toddler - i finish work, do tea / bath / bed etc, eat my own dinner and then easily do another couple of hours on admin / planning / chasing parents for responses etc.

Some of the parents are extremely rude - parents complaining about the waiting lists, the activities, we've worked hard to put together a summer camp for the girls and the first reply was a parent complaining about the day as her daughters couldn't attend. 5 leaders are giving up their own weekends to take the girls away and there was no recognition of this at all.

Then on top of this, a general unwillingness of anyone else to step up leaves all the pressure on an ever decreasing number of volunteers. So i am sadly adding myself to their number and stepping away before it starts to impact my wellbeing.

A few years if you hadn’t worked / had a significant gap volunteering was a good way to get current experience/skills or references. A lot of people kept volunteering even after they got a paid job. In our area the unemployment rate is so low many employers are taking on people without experience so no need to volunteer first.

I am also a serial volunteer. I think a lot if volunteering us a luxury. For one organisation it costs me a lot of money as the expenses they pay are minimal.

I think people wishing to volunteer has dropped because:

• it's generally expensive and the colc means people can't afford it
• charities take advantage of people and expect too much
• volunteers aren't appreciated enough
• people see how others are 'on the take', think PPE contracts during covid and see how the country seems to have a 'every man for himself' culture and won't give their time for free/will go for paid work.
• people see how those in power/royalty, think the coronation, expect others to pay for them when their privilege and wealth grows by the day. They see these people being lauded for cutting a ribbon and shaking a few hands and getting hours of praise whilst more and more seems to be expected of them in the name of community and 'our reputation as a country'. Everyday hard working people being expected to just do it for the pride etc whilst they themselves are paid £££££
• younger people can't afford to volunteer and older people getting too old/not getting the healthcare they need to keep going

I am put off because 1) how will I get out of it if I don’t like it/can’t commit anymore (things change!) 2) what if I don’t know what to do/am given too much responsibility 3) don’t really want anything to do with the public after the hell of working in a call Center.

@MyFaceIsAnAONB

they should be interviewing you and going through expectations as part of that, you should also be able to say there are things you don’t want to do. This should be then reviewed to check it’s all working.

@woodhill she was a horrible woman. They were actually chatting about going to university as one of them was an academic placement. Making contacts is part of the volunteering process. She also tried to make my volunteers do paid staff jobs, FOH stuff. Which is not why they were there.

I would love to volunteer but the main barrier for me is time. Between work, being a single parent and trying to get to the gym fairly regularly there is just no time. Maybe when the kids are older I will be able to.