Posts Tagged ‘volunteering’
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Volunteer Awareness Week 2009
Australia and New Zealand celebrate Volunteer Awareness Week this week, 14th to 20th June 2009. The have a blog dedicated just for this, and anyone can contribute to the blog with the username and password they’ve provided here - bloggers even stand the chance of winning a prize for their entries.
Another good blog that promotes volunteering and encourages people to contribute their stories is the one run by Seek Volunteer Australia.
It certainly looks like volunteering is alive and kicking Down Under. Over 5 million people volunteer in Australia. This is very heartening news, and it’s good to see the number of initiatives being undertaken to promote volunteering there. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand and reading this, I hope you contribute to one of the two blogs above, or even both. While we’re on the topic, wouldn’t it be good if we could it make it Volunteer Awareness Week wherever we are? Just talk a friend into volunteering with you today, and that’s a good start.
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Podcast available from v/Demos roundtable on volunteering – compelling or compulsory?
On 2nd June Demos hosted a roundtable, with v, looking at new MORI research into young people’s attitudes to volunteering. Is it a good idea to compel young people to perform a kind of national civic service? Or should volunteering be something young people choose to do? Peter Bradwell speaks with Terry Ryall, Chief Executive of V, Noreesh Farooq and Marie Keplay from V20, Paul Oginsky, Youth Policy Advisor to David Cameron, and Alex Mitchell from the Institute of Directors.
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The European Commission proposes 2011 be designated as the European Year of Volunteering
In a move that is bound to help the cause of volunteering in Europe, the European Commission has announced today that 2011 should be designated as the ‘European Year of Volunteering’. It was spurred on by the initiatives of a network of European organisations that are involved with volunteering. It is likely that the Council and the European Commission will endorse this proposal at the beginning of next year.
More than 100 million people currently volunteer in Europe, strengthening the bonds of society with their valuable work.
From a joint press release issued today, the objectives of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 are “rewarding and recognising voluntary activities; empowering volunteer organisations; and raising awareness about the value of volunteering in our societies.”
The network of organisations involved in this alliance will soon put up a website dedicated to EYV 2011. Meanwhile, you can find a lot of relevant information here.
Here’s hoping more people will learn about the benefits and value of volunteering by 2011.
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Is volunteering a lifeline for young people hit by the recession?
Last week, The Prince’s Trust warned that young people will be among the hardest hit by the recession due to rising unemployment. Today, v publishes new research showing that many young people believe volunteering could offer a lifeline.
‘Young People Speak Out – Attitudes to and Perceptions of Full-Time Volunteering’ shows that over 2 million young people– around 3 in 10 – might consider volunteering on a full-time basis, with more than half agreeing that young people will be more likely to volunteer if rates of unemployment continue to go up.
41% of young people said they would be encouraged to consider volunteering full time if they could gain skills and experience related to work or their future career, and 31% would be encouraged to consider volunteering full time if it was related to their job or study.
The research is backed by statistics for v‘s website, vinspired.com, which show an increase in demand for volunteering opportunities. Online applications to get involved in volunteering have increased by 183% and unique visits to vinspired.com are up by 77%.
Today, v is hosting round table discussions with young people, policy makers, politicians and charities to discuss how best to deal with this growing appetite for volunteering. But what do you think? Is full-time volunteering the way into employment for the recession’s “lost generation”?
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Volunteering is sexy
Via @Elinesca on Twitter, an interesting idea from Adam Ferrier, a consumer psychologist who also contributes to the SEEK Volunteer blog in Australia. Adam says that the reason people don’t want to volunteer is because of the frumpy and dowdy image associated with it. You know, that it’s uncool, it’s something for old people or people on the dole, or students who have to do it to build up their CV. Adam says that that can all be changed simply by convincing everyone that it is sexy to volunteer, backed up by actual research that people who volunteer are in fact seen as more attractive to the opposite sex. From his post:
So what needs to happen for more people to volunteer?
- Volunteer organisations need to re-brand themselves and strip away their dowdy image – you can make yourselves better.
- People need to be aware of the benefits, and believe they are real.
Go and read the original blog post here.
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Does volunteering have an image problem?
This Guardian article from September 2008 speaks about how the very word ‘volunteering’ and the images associated with it turn people away from contributing their time for a cause. An excerpt:
New research by youth volunteering funding body called “V” suggests the word “volunteer” is part of the problem. Of the 2,000 young people V and One Poll surveyed in July, 66% thought the term was off-putting. Some 21% said volunteering had a boring image, while 24% thought it was “geeky”.
What has your experience been? Six months down the line, do you think this still holds true? How do you think this situation can be changed? Do let us know in the comments section.
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Obama on youth volunteering
This article from Newsday is a good follow-up to my previous posts on the state of volunteering in the US, and to a smaller extent, even my post on the Generational Theory. President Obama signed the Serve America Act a couple of weeks ago and requested the youth of America to take part in volunteering huge numbers. He states the completely different circumstances of today’s younger generation, that grew up in ‘the aftermath of 9/11 and Katrina, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an economic recession without precedent’. The article questions whether Obama’s initiatives to increase volunteering among young people in America would be any more successful than those implemented by Presidents Bush or even Clinton, but then mentions how Obama himself has done a lot of volunteering in his lifetime and doesn’t utter empty words not backed by experience. The article also cites Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, a book that documented the decrease in civic engagement from the 1960′s onwards, something that I personally think about a lot. (Putnam speaks of the concept of social capital and how that contributes to re-vitalising or improving the condition of a society).
Indirectly touching on the Generational Theory, the article also mentions how people born during the difficulties that came about as a result of the Depression and the Second World War were more service-oriented than the baby boomers that followed, and therefore the young people of today who are struggling with the effects of terrorism, war, natural disasters and economic meltdown are, in a repetition of the characteristics of people born two generations before them, more open to volunteering.
I thought this was one of the more interesting paragraphs of the article:
The generation entering adulthood is also the first one intimately acquainted with the most advanced communication technologies the world has ever known – such as cell phones, text messaging and the Internet. And we know that having a social connection to someone who is civically engaged is an important predictor of whether someone volunteers.
There aren’t enough youth volunteering organisations that reach out to young people on their terms. v is doing a lot to change this with vInspired.
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Gordon Brown’s plans for compulsory community service for under-19s
Fresh off the press is the news that Gordon Brown has mandated 50 hours of compulsory community service for all youth under 19 if Labour is brought back to power in the next elections. According to this article, it is part of an integrated plan to encourage kids to stay in education or training till 18. Youngsters will have till age 19 to complete the 50 hours, so it’s not a ‘per week’ or ‘or per month’ allocation at least.
The poster above that accompanied the News of the World article is essentially the same one that calls for citizens to fight for the country during the First World War. If the comments to the article are anything to go by, Gordon Brown is going to have a tough time getting people to agree that compulsory community service is a good idea. His intentions may be good but it will be interesting to watch how he executes on it.
Gordon Brown’s words, for reference, are below (taken from the News of the World article):
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Young can boost community spirit
By Gordon Brown
EVEN in the face of these difficult economic times, the generosity and community spirit of the British people is humbling.
Whether raising record amounts for Comic Relief or rallying round after disaster struck in the North Sea, we have seen communities across the country draw closer than ever to help and care for each other in times of need.
What is inspirational is the number of young people who are serving their communities in endeavours from charity fundraising to green activism. We want to harness and encourage this community spirit.
Already three million young people give their time to community service each year, usually without recognition or reward, whether by helping in an old age home or tutoring younger pupils, campaigning on local issues or fundraising for global causes, organising community activities or helping deliver environmental projects.
But we can achieve a step change in the participation of young people in community service.
It is my ambition to create a Britain in which there is a clear expectation that all young people will undertake some service to their community, and where community service will become a normal part of growing up.
Compulsory
That would mean young people being expected to contribute at least 50 hours of community service by the the age of 19. This will build on the platform provided by citizenship classes in schools.
As we set out our manifesto for the next Parliament, we will consider the best way of achieving our 50-hour goal. By building from compulsory citizenship studies in the 14-16 curriculum, we can create an expectation of national youth community service.
And we can take immediate steps in the next school year to boost national youth community service. This will give thousands more pupils the opportunity to participate in community service and many more school-leavers the opportunity to undertake full-time and part-time placements.
Martin Luther King once said that everyone could be great because everyone can serve. And with our younger generations more involved in their communities, we can build a stronger, more united Britain.
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What do you think?
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