‘Volunteers strengthen communities and make great things happen’

Ruth Leonard, Chair Association of Volunteer Managers

We are living in disruptive times and disruptive times call for innovation. The response to one of the greatest disruptors experienced so far in the 21^st Century was led by local volunteers rolling up their sleeves and doing what they can in the circumstances. New ways of communicating and co-ordinating responses have been developed. It became necessary to take action outside of prescribed government channels. We are seeing this continue with the response to war in Ukraine. What do you do that’s also known as volunteering? It doesn’t have to be about food parcels for people in need or turning in a regular duty at a treasured organisation or charity shop. In addition to running a not-for-profit organisation, you might ‘just’ be being neighbourly or helping out a bit at your sports club. There is no hierarchy of contribution – it all counts.

The definition of volunteering set out on the Vision for Volunteering website

‘Volunteering takes many different forms... whatever form it takes, volunteering is an active, deliberate pursuit. Each volunteer chooses an activity they want to do, motivated by the difference they want to make, and how this shapes the world they want to live in.’

Volunteering is acting deliberately in response to need.

In early May, the NCVO launched a ten-year Vision for Volunteering. At the time, I noted:

I’m at the Volunteer Expo at the NEC and back with the volunteer development crew for the first time in a very long time – and it feels good. In particular, it feels good because the young #iwill ambassadors have been challenging assumptions and long held beliefs: ‘Honesty is Leadership!’ <-- OMG!!! This!!

There is a freshness and spaciousness around this new Vision – it doesn’t feel like the usual trite, hackneyed stuff... It consists of five focus points. Volunteer-centric, it considers what volunteering looks like and how volunteers feel within their volunteering activities:

• Awareness & Appreciation
• Power
• Equity & Inclusion
• Collaboration
• Experimentation

This vision is hopeful.

It creates space to interpret ‘whose good?’ more inclusively, to create a new shape for volunteering. I am genuinely excited about this shift in perspective. Traditionally, volunteering was often envisioned and shaped by people with power in Society – the people in the flowery hats and white gloves with great intentions, but often driven by ego and appearances. By the way, I find having a mental ‘is this too flowery hat?’ test useful when assessing a proposed set of actions against levels of inclusion. How have the proposed set of actions been derived and decided?

Just before the launch at the NEC on 6^th May, three (young) #iwill ambassadors spoke to us – each challenging thinking in a different way. Although mixed, the audience contained many white faces of a certain age range and socio-economic status. In a section led by George Fielding BEM, he got us taking part in an edgy participation exercise, asking us difficult questions against the backdrop of the encouraging and inspiring call:

‘Honesty is Leadership!’

As we go about our lives, interacting with others there are so many questions… What are our assumptions and how have we acquired them? What judgements are we using? Are they ours, or were they learned from others? Who are those ‘others’? (Are they still in our lives?!) Are our working assumptions currently valid? Can we disrupt them? Should we?

Each of the five foci of the Vision for Volunteering give us an opportunity to develop and hone our leadership. The first focus of the Vision for Volunteering is ‘Awareness and Appreciation’ and this week (1^st to 7^th June) is Volunteers Week. Who will you be celebrating this week, and on into the future?  

I have shared my responses and what resonated for me, but don’t just take my word for it! The ‘Vision for Volunteering’ website is a very relatable site and contains a great deal of information, including many relevant reference documents.  

• What resonates for you?
• What are your hard learned lessons; what is your ‘honesty’?
• How will you be disrupting your assumptions?
• What will you do?
• What is your #iwill …?

George argued that we can each choose and demonstrate greater inclusion as we choose and decide our interpretation of ‘good’. The hope and optimism of this new Vision is that it gives us the space and appreciation for each of us to create a way of being the change we want to see in the world. There is space too to make a commitment, to declare your #iwill over on the ‘Take Action’ section of the Vision for Volunteering website.