THE RISE OF GIVING BACK
We look at why it’s been the year of volunteering
As the Covid-19 lockdown began to bite, Shabana Younis, 43, a mother of three, didn’t hesitate to pitch in to help. ‘My parents are in their 70s and live with my brother, so I knew they were okay,’ she says. ‘But I was thinking – what if they needed help? Someone to do the shopping, someone to get their prescriptions from the chemist?’ She called her local branch of Age UK and offered her services. ‘I said, “I have a car, I can buy things and deliver them to people who can’t get out,”’ she explains.
Age UK quickly responded and, after an online interview and checks, Shabana was given the green light to volunteer. She would then receive text messages two or three times a week asking her to make contact with elderly people in and around Bradford, where she lives. ‘Age UK would send me their details and I’d call them to ask what I could do,’ she says. ‘Usually they would make a list and I’d collect that and go and shop for them.’ It wasn’t always easy. ‘I’m Muslim, and I was sometimes asked to get meat products I’d never normally buy,’ she explains. ‘But, if I wasn’t sure about something, I’d ask for help from the supermarket staff.’
One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been the huge surge in people like Shabana stepping up to volunteer. An early indication of this willingness to pitch in came with the launch of the NHS Volunteer Responders scheme at the end of March: the 250,000 target was smashed within hours of its launch, with three-quarters of a million people signing up – 600,000 of whom made it through the selection process. The last time people signed up to help on that scale was during the Second World War. Since lockdown, other charities, the Samaritans and Age UK among them, have reported a rise in those coming forward. Could it be that one positive legacy of the pandemic will be a greater understanding of what volunteering means and why it’s so valuable?
Helen Haste, emeritus professor of psychology at University of Bath, who specialises in the study of civic participation, thinks it could. ‘When everyone is rushing around, heading to jobs in city centre offices, they don’t notice what’s happening on their doorstep,’ she says. ‘But lockdown made people more aware of what was going on in their neighbourhood. Added to which, realising we were all under threat made us tune into the needs of others. So a strong ethos emerged around the importance of helping one another.’
Volunteering has long been a part of the fabric of UK society. According to the Time Well Spent survey carried out in 2019 by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), seven in 10 Britons had volunteered at some point in their lives. But volunteering levels hadn’t increased for years and 45% of volunteers before the pandemic were aged 65-plus, which meant many were unable to continue through the Covid-19
restrictions because of shielding issues. This meant charities had to be creative and put new sign-ups to work as quickly as possible, despite the difficulties in training volunteers during lockdown.
EXTRA CHALLENGES
Organisations such as Samaritans, under pressure from extra callers because of the psychological impact of lockdown, had to pivot quickly. With a call coming in to Samaritans every six seconds, it was bad news that one-third of its volunteers were not able to go into branches to take calls due to shielding.
Samaritans responded by setting up a new wellbeing helpline for NHS workers, staffed by at-home shielding volunteers, and diverted some of its training online. Lucia Capobianco, a listening volunteer with Samaritans, says that over recent months it’s been rare to have a caller who doesn’t mention Covid. ‘People who phone us are experiencing isolation, fear and loneliness, and all this has increased through the pandemic,’ she says. ‘Many callers have been unable to access other services, which has made things even harder for them.’
It’s not only the Samaritans volunteer programme that was disrupted by Covid: food banks, such as the one managed by Jane Chitnis in the Ribble Valley, found there were more demands than ever on their services, but they had a reduced volunteer pool, again due to shielding.
‘What we do isn’t rocket science. It’s just human interaction and caring – and that’s what makes the difference’
‘Demand for our services for the four months from March was up by more than three times on the same period for last year,’ she says. ‘And we’ve seen a lot more families in need: the number of people needing nappies, for example, has increased, and so has the number of clients who are in professional jobs and who never expected to be seeking help from a food bank.’
Because of Covid restrictions, The Trussell Trust food banks, like Jane’s, switched from welcoming clients into their premises to offering deliveries only, but safety considerations meant drivers weren’t allowed to work alone, nor could they share a car with someone not from their household. ‘We had to ask volunteers whether anyone from their family could accompany them on delivery runs, and lots of people stepped in to help; partners and older children,’ she says. ‘We even had volunteer parents who did deliveries with children who were learning to drive.’
Younger people, who were on furlough or sent home from universities, were among those who offered to help. ‘One woman in her 20s called up and said she’d had to leave university and come back home, and did we have anything she could do to help,’ says Jane. ‘And she was really invaluable: she gave us hours of her time. There were other students who came along as well, and they gave us new perspectives – they were often more clued up on technology, for example. Like any organisation, a food bank works best if it has a diverse workforce, so it was great to have these young people on board. I think some of them will continue to help us during university holidays and having younger people will encourage other young people to pitch in.’
NEW ENTHUSIASM
A crucial element of harnessing the new enthusiasm for volunteering will be meeting the needs of those who’d like to get involved. Karl Wilding, chief executive of NCVO, says successful volunteering requires flexibility on both sides; organisations have to understand the reality of volunteers’ lives, and they have to be realistic about what’s possible in terms of opportunities, vetting and training.
The other thing that’s needed, he says, is humility, and the truth is that, although volunteers may sign up initially out of a sense of ‘doing something for others’,
many quickly recognise that they benefit just as much as the people they’re helping.
Jenni Mccartney, chair of trustees at Samaritans and a listening volunteer herself for 37 years, says that, for her, the gains have been immeasurable. ‘There’s a very special feeling of belonging to something that’s not your personal life and not your working life,’ she explains. ‘Added to which, it boosts your self-esteem to feel you’ve made a difference. And, of course, it gives you skills that spill over into your personal life: I’m more likely to have conversations with friends and family who are having a difficult time because of my training and experience with Samaritans. On balance, I feel I’ve got more out of it than I’ve put in.’
MATCHING SKILLS
The issue of the moment isn’t so much getting people to take the first step and volunteer, it’s more about matching people’s skills and enthusiasms to what charities and organisations need to get done. As Karl explains, ‘The challenge is how to make it a good, life-affirming experience, because that’s why people come back and continue to give their time.’
Discerning what individuals will enjoy doing is a big part of the challenge for organisations that welcome volunteers. In the Time Well Spent survey, 39% of volunteers in full-time employment reported that they preferred using skills and experience that were different from their day-to-day activities. But the reality is that a trained accountant may be worth a lot more to a charity if they are doing the books rather than painting walls, as many small organisations simply can’t afford the skills of the professionals whose input could transform their platforms.
As charities like Samaritans, Age UK and The Trussell Trust gear up for a Christmas that’s likely to bring a level of heartbreaking need not seen in decades, volunteers will continue to bridge the all-important gap
‘Volunteering gives you skills that spill over into your personal life’
between society as it lamentably is, and society as it should be. ‘We’re always busier at Christmas, and I’m expecting things to be busier than ever this year,’ says Jenni. ‘Getting together with your family won’t be easy – neither is not being able to be with your family.’
Jenni always works a festive shift herself, and what’s heartwarming is how many people phone up to say thanks. ‘You get people who call to tell you they’ve been reflecting on the past 12 months, and how Samaritans were there for them at the point when they really needed someone, and they want to express their gratitude,’ she says. ‘That’s really special.’
It brings home, too, something about the nature of volunteering that makes it so valuable. ‘It’s about a human being doing something for another human being without payment. It’s about realising that people care about what’s happening in other people’s lives,’ says Jenni. ‘At the end of the day, what we do isn’t rocket science. It’s just human interaction and caring – and that’s what makes the difference.’