Fiona Liddell, Helpforce Cymru Strategic Lead, reflects on her 22 year journey with the volunteering team at WCVA.
I was thrilled to join WCVA in 2003 for a three year Community Fund project supporting organisations with marketing and recruitment of volunteers. Little did I realise I would stay for so long, working a total of nine consecutive roles.
Now, as I approach retirement at the end of March, I’m tidying files and coming across reminders of some of the big changes we’ve seen over the past couple of decades.
A DIFFERENT LANDSCAPE
The landscape of volunteering has changed immeasurably. The stereotype of middle aged women ‘doing good’ in their community is no longer true. A wider range of people are doing a wider range of activities known by a variety of different labels.
Who among us 20 years ago had heard of ‘micro volunteering’ (short bursts of public spirited activity) or ‘episodic volunteering’ (one off or occasional volunteering’)? These are now well recognised terms.
Others include informal community participation, community led social action and mutual peer support. More controversially, many educational courses, including the Welsh Baccalaureate, require their students to volunteer – ‘is that sufficiently ”voluntary” to count as volunteering?’ some people ask.
ENHANCING YOUR PORTFOLIO
Colleges and universities, as well as employers, now look favourably on volunteer experience to demonstrate skills, values and commitment. This means that building up one’s personal portfolio (whether it’s for LinkedIn, a job application or even a dating site) is enhanced by well-chosen examples of volunteering.
We know so much more about the different motivations of volunteers and the importance of recognising these. Altruism and the desire to help others is still a common reason for volunteering, but so too is gaining skills, confidence, social connections, or to pass the time.
PROFESSIONALISING VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT
I can recall the introduction of the first National Occupational Standards for volunteer management, followed soon after by the Investing in Volunteers UK quality mark. Both have played their part in raising the quality and expectations of volunteer management and of volunteers’ experiences.
In Wales there were abortive attempts to set up a professional body for volunteer managers and establish a masters qualification. In England the Association of Volunteer Managers was launched in 2007. Volunteer managers in Wales, most of whom work with relatively small organisations, are supported by local and national networks run by County Voluntary Councils and WCVA.
DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT
Postal applications and Excel spreadsheets have largely given way to digital tools for recruitment and management of volunteers.
The earliest Volunteering Wales website, used for advertising volunteering opportunities, was a primitive business, compared with today’s site. Volunteers can now sign up directly to opportunities, rather than through volunteer centres but, importantly, personal support is still available for those who want or need it. Many larger UK-wide organisations often have their own web systems for managing volunteering.
One consequence of these developments is the potential for gathering data which can be used to build evidence for volunteering and make the case for strategic investment.
More volunteering opportunities can now be undertaken online, which makes them accessible regardless of geography or mobility. It adds to the range of ways people can get involved.
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Ten years ago, (let alone 20), I couldn’t have imagined the degree of engagement we now have with public sector health and care bodies such as Health Boards or Social Care Wales.
Since then Helpforce, and Helpforce Cymru have made great strides in influencing both the narrative and the practice of volunteering within the NHS. We’re also beginning to do so in public sector social care and are striving towards models of care in which the public and voluntary sectors are more equal partners, with services better integrated, person centred and closer to home. Volunteers have a special part to play in delivering the agenda of A Healthier Wales.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced new partnerships and ways of working and gave greater credibility to the role of the voluntary sector and volunteers. We have been able to build on this since then.
A LAST WORD
Most of my working life has concerned the areas of health, community development or volunteering. The last six years leading on Helpforce Cymru has combined several areas of personal interest, making them a particularly rewarding time.
I assure you that I’ll continue to wave the flag for volunteering after stopping paid work in March. I’ll still be volunteering and the insights and experiences gained during my time with WCVA will continue to be valuable. I shall, at least some of the time, be among the ranks of those stereotypical middle aged women ‘doing good’ in their community!
Meanwhile, I’m confident that Helpforce Cymru will, as part of the wider WCVA health and social care project, continue to make a positive difference to health and social care in Wales, slowly but surely!
What volunteering may look like in the next 20 years, well… who knows!
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