The Changing Face of Volunteering and Impacts Locally

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The Changing Face of Volunteering and Impacts
Locally

• Patricia Fanning, LINK Community Transport
• Emma Sampson, Whittlesea Community Connections

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Broader changes to volunteering

• Volunteering crosses cultural, class, age, gender
  and socio-economic boundaries
• A shift in the way organisations engage with the
  community as volunteers
• For example, a shift from supply led to
  demand led volunteering i.e. agencys
  re-framing the question from where are all the
  volunteers to meet service demands? to what are
  the volunteers/communitys needs? (community
  engagement)
• Shift from volunteers recruited to meet an
  Agencys service provision objectives towards
  Agency providing meaningful volunteer
  participation experiences
• Shift from Civic duty towards self interest as a
  motivation for volunteering

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Broader Changes in volunteer motivations

• Baby Boomers
• Employee volunteering
• Corporate volunteering
• GAP students
• Students
• Pre-employment volunteering
• Short term volunteering
• Government volunteering programs

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Broader Changes in motivations for
volunteer-involving programs

• Volunteering as a community-led activity 
• a way for an organisation to change their
  relationship with community members to recognise
  build social capital (eg community members are
  not only clients but have strengths skills)
• a process of community agencies, service
  providers government working in partnership
  with local communities on issues impacting on
  those communities
• a process that should build connections, widen
  networks, build use skills and learn from other
  members in the community, foster ownership
  create resilience
• volunteering as an activity that attempt to give
  communities a greater involvement, a greater say
  and a bigger stake in the processes
  institutions that affect their lives

•  

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Assessing local community needs

• Assessing the characteristics, needs strengths
  of the community is the first step to ensuring
• volunteering is accessible to the community, and
• Your volunteer program is meeting the needs in
  the community
• What are the demographics and characteristics of
  your community?
• What are the needs of the community members and
  how do these impact on volunteering?
• What are the particular strengths in your
  community and how can these be facilitated
  through volunteering to benefit the community?
• What are the barriers for participation in your
  community (eg what is stopping people from
  getting involved?

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Whittlesea as a local example

•  
• The Whittlesea local government area is located
  on the metropolitan fringe, approximately 20
  kilometres to the north of Melbourne, covering an
  area of approximately 490 square kilometres.
• The municipality faces significant challenges
  including having to balance simultaneously being
  urban and rural without the bedrock of social and
  physical infrastructure found in the older, inner
  city suburbs (RMIT Centre for Applied Social
  research, 2003).
• The City of Whittlesea is characterised by
• Rapid growth development the population is
  estimated to be 127,000 and expected to double by
  2030
• Relatively youthful population (50 of population
  aged under 29 yrs)
• Also has a rapidly aging population, particularly
  in the long established suburbs, as well as new
  housing estates small rural townships
• Whittlesea is the third most multicultural City
  in Victoria with over half of its residents
  (54.3) are from non-English speaking backgrounds
• Has many newly arrived migrants refugees
• Is the 7th most disadvantaged LGA in Victoria
  (SEIFA Index)
•  

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Assessment of local volunteer needs motivations

• Recognition that volunteer benefits/gains
• I would like to volunteer to get more skills
  experience
• Introduction to new area of residence
• Volunteering gives me an opportunity to get to
  know the community in which I live, to meet
  others in the community and get to know what
  services are there
• As part of the settlement process in Australia
• volunteering helped build my confidence in a
  work environment that was new to me. My
  communication skills improved and I was employed
  soon after volunteering.
• As a part of a life transition or pathway to
  something else (eg employment, retirement,
  returning to workforce after raising children)

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Volunteering to meet local needs

• Whittlesea community is interest in getting
  involved over 1000 community members accessed
  WVRS
• Of those wanting to volunteer locally
• 60 are from CALD backgrounds, many are newly
  arrived to Australia
• 70 are unemployed
• 15 identified as having a disability
• 25 young people (aged between 18-24)
• Many volunteers speak a second language
• Volunteering is a pathway or transition for many,
  but many people are still volunteering for longer
  periods too

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Local Barriers to Participation

• Transport people cant get to their
  volunteering
• Availability of opportunities locally (eg the
  amount of service organisations is
  limited/non-existent in some parts of the
  municipality)
• Availability of meaningful opportunities (eg
  roles that meet the needs, skills, aspirations
  and interests of the volunteer as opposed to
  roles that an agency has defined as needed to
  service clients)
• Issues of care for family members
• Childcare
• Caring for a person with a disability
• Caring for older parents

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Participation models

• The Traditional or Charity model of volunteer
  participation
• The Social Enterprise model of volunteering
• Formal and Informal Volunteering

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Models of Participation Charity Model

• Charity model or traditional models of
  volunteering characterised (which have been the
  backbone of service provision over the past 50
  yrs)
• This model characterised by
• Loyalty
• Low turnover of volunteers
• Gold watch approach to recognition
• Service delivery and high commitment
• Motivation client focus and social interaction
• Long term involvement with an Agency

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Models of Participation Charity Model

• The Charity model
• The Agency focuses on retaining a core of regular
  volunteers
• High input from traditional volunteer groups
• Women have been primary caregivers
• Retired volunteers looking for a long term
  commitment a place to use their many skills
• Main motivator social interaction
• High levels of regular on-going participation

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Models of Participation Social Enterprise Model

• Self interest volunteering
• People in full-time work, jobseekers, students,
  baby-boomers young people
• A level of tertiary education
• Motivated by personal gain, educational
  advancement, skills development
• Short term
• Lower commitment average 2 hours per week
• High turnover of volunteers
• Out of hours volunteering

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Case Study LINK Community Transport

• Charity model
• Small number of regular volunteers
• The majority volunteered for 2 days each week
• Majority of male retirees aged between 50 70
• Majority Anglo/Australian
• Highly motivated, small friendly team
• Regular social and volunteer recognition events
• Volunteers recognised for years of service at
  annual presentation
• Family focused events
• High level of commitment to providing a service
  for the clients
• The organisation actively recruited volunteers
  who could commit to one full day from 8am 5pm,
  or two days per week.

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Case Study LINK Community Transport- Towards
Participation

• First step Program review
• Identify opportunities for increased
  participation
• Identify possible barriers to potential volunteer
  participation
• Events - The dominant culture which included
  family focused Christmas parties and footy pie
  nights, although ideal for some volunteers,
  excluded others
• The volunteer commitment of one day or two days
  excluded volunteers who could commit half days,
  or fortnightly days or emergency days

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Barriers to Participation

• The early start time of 8am and late finish time
  of 5pm may have excluded volunteers who had
  children at school
• The amount of training and induction required was
  geared to long term volunteers and excluded
  shorter term volunteers who could not commit a
  minimum of 6 months

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LINK Community Transport Case Study

• We had a majority of men, was our recruitment
  literature excluding women?
• What was the community profile of people living
  in the Northern Suburbs (including Whittlesea)?
• Were we including all possible volunteers in our
  promotion literature jargon?
• The physical environment was it welcoming,
• volunteer participation and recognition?

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LINK Community TransportPromoting Participation

• Recruited for women and men and used pictures of
  a broad range of volunteers in promotional
  literature and press releases visual signals of
  participation
• Translations into relevant community languages
  aimed to translate leaflets into one community
  language each year
• Offering flexible opportunities by offering a
  maximum of one day per week as opposed to two
  days to provide more opportunities for
  involvement

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Case Study LINK Community Transport Towards
Participation

• Focused on creating meaningful volunteering/learni
  ng opportunities rather than focusing on
  recruiting volunteers to deliver a service to
  clients
• Appealed to short term volunteers
• Reduced the time of the induction program by
  offering Ride Alongs and half day taster
  volunteer induction sessions
• Introduced more flexible start and finish times
• Reduced induction/ training time for new
  volunteers
• Introduced a new volunteer training program
  giving ownership to individual volunteers
• Introduced fortnightly volunteering opportunities
• Offering volunteers the opportunity to review
  their role after 3 months and promoting the
  shorter involvement time

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Case StudyLINK Community Transport

• Outcomes
• Increased volunteer participation in the service
  with a 100 increase in volunteer recruitment in
  2 years
• Increased number of women volunteering
• Increased number of volunteers taking up half day
  opportunities providing contingency for absence
  and improving service reliability for clients
• Decrease in the number of volunteers offering 2
  day opportunities
• Increase in number of volunteers from CALD
  background

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Challenges

• Challenges
• Maintaining and consolidating the volunteer team
  with increasing team size
• Increased recruitment effort to recruit new
  volunteers on an on-going basis
• Providing opportunities for both long term and
  short term volunteers whilst providing a service
  to a broad range of clients from different
  backgrounds.
• Providing cultural awareness training

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Conclusion

• Changes are inevitable learning about how these
  impact locally are important
• Is your program responsive to broader local
  trends that impact on volunteering?
• Is your volunteer program accessible for a
  diversity of local community members?
• Have you identified local barriers that prevent
  people getting involved as volunteers?
• Are you open to continually reviewing changing
  your program to meet community needs?