The International Year for Volunteers

Volunteering that is - according to the National Survey of Volunteering in the UK.

But what exactly do we mean by volunteering? One definition, adopted by the UK volunteering forum in June 1998, is that it is: “the commitment of time and energy for the benefit of society and the community and can take many forms. It is undertaken freely and by choice and without concern for financial gain and an important expression of citizenship and is essential to democracy.”

2001 is the International Year of Volunteers and in a speech to the National Council of Voluntary Organizations (NCVO) in January 1999 the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, exhorted us to “mark the Millennium with an explosion in giving, ‘acts of community’, that touch people's lives.”

He pledged himself to volunteering once a week and every minister was encouraged to do the same under the Government’s Millennium Volunteer Scheme (though it is a moot point as to whether they have lived up to this promise).

The National Surveys of Volunteering show that more is done by people in high income groups and with higher education levels and good jobs than those with lower incomes or who are unemployed. The National Centre for Volunteering says in its Policy Briefing ‘Volunteering and Social Exclusion’ that “We do not believe this disparity is due to differences in altruism or social responsibility. Rather we believe [it] indicates the existence of barriers which make it harder for those less well-off to afford the time, energy and money costs of getting involved in community and voluntary activity.”

Is it also a question of definition? For example, doesn’t the work of a single parent or keeping an eye on a neighbour who isn’t coping or housing a family which has found itself out on the street take time and energy while benefiting the community and is done without thought of financial gain?

Tony Blair recognized volunteering as real and valuable work in his 1999 speech to the NCVO conference. He said: “A fully employed society isn’t just one where everyone who wants a job has a job. It is one where everyone contributes all their talents - through the things they do, paid or unpaid, in the service of others.”

As The National Centre for Volunteering Policy Briefing points out, it would be good if someone told the DSS, the Employment Service and Benefits Agency. We have seen the Government back to work schemes riding roughshod over the important calls people have on their time, whether it be to do with caring for children, other relatives or within the community where they live.

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