1. Being a volunteer - key lessons from research in Ilkeston
Study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

2. Volunteering and policy
the Year of the Volunteer
The voluntary and community sector is the invisible glue that holds society together, builds social capital and empowers individuals to make a difference in people’s lives………….. the passion of people who give their time and talents is a great strength of today’s Britain (Home Secretary Charles Clarke 2005).
The YEAR OF THE VOLUNTEER The Home Office, as the government department with responsibility for encouraging active citizenship, is working in partnership with two well-established volunteering organisations Volunteering England and CSV to coordinate the Year.

3. Expectations of volunteering
Build social cohesion - ‘social capital’
Support public services
Combat worklessness

4. Changing context for volunteering - Some issues
More formality in volunteering
Training, selection, appraisal, accreditation
Less altruism, more emphasis on what the volunteer can gain?
Some survey evidence of more interest in gaining skills as a motive for volunteering National Survey of Volunteering 1997
At a national conference Modernising Volunteering it was claimed that we are no longer a society where the numbers of people needed as volunteers can be recruited on a purely altruistic basis Modernising Volunteering: Royal Society of Arts, London, March 2002
“’Voluntary work’ is a fragile concept, carefully nurtured over the years and in danger of being misunderstood, misused and over-loaded” Age Concern 1999
Millennium Paper: Future Work and Lifestyles: Interim Report

5. Volunteering - who participates?
Numbers 17 million (in England and Wales)
Most likely groups to volunteer:
Higher incomes
Living in affluent areas
High education levels
Middle aged
Employed
Men and women volunteer – but in different roles (Source Home Office)
Men – Sports, hobbies, arts and culture, representing people, driving
Women – Social welfare, children, the elderly, education, shopping, providing food, befriending

6. Being a volunteer in Ilkeston: Why we did this research
We wanted to know more about
The ‘work’ of volunteering
How people manage time
Commitments and responsibilities
What volunteering means
Capture Context, complexity detail that are not accessible by statistical methods
Explore negotiation, uncover dynamics of social process

7. What we did Visited volunteering sites, observed meetings events
Interviewed
Volunteers
Former volunteers now paid
Managers
Stakeholders
Focus groups

8. Becoming a volunteer Giving back for help received
Giving to ‘the community’
Wanting to be needed
Being asked
Changing direction - gaining new skills

9. Being a volunteer
Volunteers sometimes go beyond the formal remit of their role
Volunteering can be a household activity rather than an individual one
People call their volunteering ‘work’
Structuring daily life – some volunteering needs to be managed like a job (eg. finding childcare)

10. Rewards and consequences
Increased confidence
Making a difference for others
Having a role
Accreditation
Paid work - new careers
Reject the idea of monetary rewards

11. Conclusions Distinctions between paid and voluntary work are not sharp
Volunteering can substitute for paid work
Demands on (and rewards for) families as well as individuals