Lending a hand today can be the start of legacy that is felt for generations to come
You make friends when you get out to lend a hand with others. And that fosters a feeling of unity
In 1975, a young Prince Charles spoke impressively in the House of Lords about the power of volunteering, which he declared was “quite simply good for the soul”.
Today, more than six million Britons are planning to throw themselves into lending a hand in the Big Help Out, a nationwide festival of volunteering to mark the King’s Coronation.
More than 30,000 organisations have shared volunteering opportunities on our app so that everyone can play their part and make a positive change in their community.
But the Big Help Out was always about much, much more than one day.
It’s about increasing – long term – the number of people prepared to play a role in the success of our country.
I dreamt up the idea of today’s celebration with Catherine Johnstone, chief executive of the Royal Voluntary Service, inspired by the surge in volunteering that we saw during the pandemic.
Who can forget the 12 million people who gave their time and energy during Covid lockdown? A third of those said that they’d never done it before, and
More than six million Britons plan to throw themselves into lending a hand in the Big Help Out most said they wanted to continue in the future. We witnessed a similar surge during the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where people from every corner of the British Isles gave up their time to make the event such a success.
But as with previous volunteering surges, participation levels have declined. The Community Life Survey shows in 2019-20, 23 per cent of the public volunteered at least once a month, which has decreased to 16 per cent.
My own organisation, the Scouts, relies almost entirely on volunteers.
We have an army of 143,000 committed adult volunteers to run Scout activities. Yet we still have a waiting list of 90,000 young people desperate to join. We could always use more. Of course, money matters. Fund-raising remains a core requirement in the voluntary sector and that won’t change. But it’s clear that in Britain a culture of giving time, as well as money, is needed and that’s what today’s focus is on.
We’ve taken inspiration from Comic Relief and Children in Need. But we’ve worked with the Together Coalition to ensure that this is about kick-starting a new era of volunteering in the UK.
By selling the benefits of volunteering to the individual – enhanced skills, improved wellbeing and connectedness – we’ve mobilised organisations to upload opportunities, signposting the public. The benefits are many. In 1975, the young Prince of Wales was right; volunteering promotes a feeling of wellbeing for people across the spectrum – particularly for older generations, the unemployed or those on low income or with health conditions.
The sense of doing something that is worthwhile is reflected in studies.
Volunteering is often used successfully by people going through huge life upheaval – retirement or bereavement.
Evidence shows it leads to increased life satisfaction, social connection and a sense of purpose.
You make friends when you get out to lend a hand with others. And that also fosters a feeling of togetherness, of common achievement and goals.
Today’s Big Help Out, on its own, won’t be enough. We need to change our traditional approach to volunteering as a nation if we’re to create a new era of mass participation.
Government could encourage the nation by extending the Big Help Out into the future. Help make it an official day every year.
I hope that those who take part today will toast the King and Queen – but mostly themselves – for ensuring that this wasn’t just a Coronation service for a nation but a legacy that is felt for generations to come.