The Changing Face of Volunteering A Modernising Approach: Creating the Critical Conditions for Volunteering to Prosper

1. The Changing Face of VolunteeringA Modernising Approach: Creating the Critical Conditions for Volunteering to Prosper Volunteer Development Scotland at the CDAS Conference November 2009. © VDS 2009

2. Volunteer Development Scotland • Scotland’s Centre for Excellence in Volunteering • National organisation working with governments, national & local partners to deliver agreed outcomes through volunteering • Approach: • Leadership to allow others to achieve outcomes through volunteering • Quality through good practice development to improve experiences • Evidence through research and engagement to inform policy and practice • Aims: • Releasing the potential of volunteers to build resilient communities • Creating the critical conditions for volunteering to prosper. © VDS 2009

3. Key Facts Trends & Issues: • Volunteering participation does not reflect the diversity of Scotland • Volunteering levels have not significantly changed over past 5 to 10 years (around 25% of adults self-reporting as volunteers in formal settings) • Volunteer Centres experiencing rises in enquiries of about 40% • The commonest reason for starting volunteering is being asked to help out • 60% of non-volunteers say they have not been asked • 41% of former volunteers say that nothing would cause them to return (53% for lower socio-economic groups) • Volunteering appearing as a public policy response to specific needs (employment, immigration, health improvement, youth engagement, etc.) © VDS 2009

4. Volunteering Development Perspectives • A need to present modernising approaches to volunteering • A broad view of what counts as volunteering (forms of participation) • Hold on to what works from the traditional ways: • Recruitment, retention, recognition • A need to improve volunteer involvement practices • Flexibility in information sources, access, roles, development options • Volunteering as a developmental journey (into, through, beyond) • A need to think beyond organisations and processes • People co-producing solutions for themselves • Stress relationship building through “associations”. © VDS 2009

5. Case Study: People Making Waves • Connecting to the Olympic/Paralympic Games Movement • A Legacy response through volunteering • Before, during, around & after the Games • Capturing individual stories • Generating new thinking (Demos/Volunteer Development Scotland partnership) • Small scale creative expressions (Make a Splash grants) • Exchange of experience (London/Scotland Wave of Friendship) • Collective identity established for the common good. © VDS 2009

6. Wealthier & Fairer Response • Value of volunteering in the economic climate (examples): • Volunteering Options (DWP/VDS partnership) • VSkills (Workforce Plus) personal development, changing directions • ESF/CPP Employability projects (North Lanarkshire) • Volunteering projects within Fairer Scotland Fund activities • Supporting broader people involvement • Capturing learning to inform volunteering interventions • Encouraging better collaboration between the players • Providing tools to support grassroots voluntary action • Research, Policy, Practice Tools, Knowledge Transfer, Evaluation. © VDS 2009