Over the Christmas and New Year I visited an old friend, and as they always love a good debate after a while they got the conversation round to my job, managing volunteers and volunteering.
“I wouldn’t do anything that I could get paid for... for free” they asserted challengingly.
And so began a very enjoyable two hours explaining (heatedly!) why nobody volunteers for free and if you understand why people volunteer you get to understand what makes volunteers tick and why our communities wouldn’t be the places they are without them. I’ve listed my thoughts below, do you agree? Have I missed any?
Health and fitness
Volunteering helps keep your mind and body active and just being in nature can help increase your fitness and reduces stress. Creating beautiful areas we can all enjoy helps people keep physically fit (all that walking) and mentally young and alert. At a time when physical inactivity is causing concern for the UK government, volunteers already have this one sorted.
Interest and knowledge
Some volunteers have an unbelievable wealth of knowledge and we are lucky enough that they want to share it with us; others already know a lot but want an opportunity to put it into practise and learn even more. I have a volunteer who has retired and is far from ready to hang his coat up following retirement! - instead he has rolled his sleeves up and is using his wealth of experience to sort out some of my data collection processes – I wouldn’t know where to start, but he has it all sorted and has told me he is benefiting by keeping his mind active, I couldn’t be more grateful.
Meeting people and making friends
Volunteering gets you out and helps you meet other people. At your local reserve, community centre or school, volunteering helps you meet other people who have time in their life to give to others and their community. It really is a great way to make friends while doing something that interests you.
Children are our future
Being a mum of two, I never really appreciated how much I wanted to share nature until I had my own children. Parents of school age children will know how intensely emotional it feels when you realise how amazing it is to share your local green areas, local community, art and historical resources with your own kids. Lots of volunteers start because they want to share it with their families.
Work experience
Volunteering is a tried and tested way to get to know an organisation. If you know what you want to do as a career you can gain experience and skills by volunteering in your chosen field. It helps you build a network of people who can give you advice; you can try out an activity and see if it will really suit you and best of all it shows potential employers that you really love what you do. Volunteers can fit this new experience around their current lifestyle by looking for volunteering roles that will fit around their own jobs or school work.
Being part of something bigger
We are all individuals and together we can make a real difference. We hear that from organisations looking for our help and support – and it is true. Together we can make a real difference... to our own families, to our neighbours, to our communities, to our local areas. Being part of something bigger is empowering and in a small way individuals can see how their own actions can make a difference.
Love and Protect
And there are those people who really do volunteer out of the goodness of their own hearts. These volunteers genuinely love and want to protect the people, places and things around them. It could be for hugely personal reasons, something from their past or childhood; it could be because they have seen first hand the disappearance of their favourite woodland or the hardship of people in their local community. They want to help because they care, and being allowed to be involved with their protection is the thanks they need.
Basically my friend was missing the point, volunteers look to get things from their volunteering other than pay, a win-win relationship that allows them to be something bigger than themselves, to improve themselves or just to connect with others in their community.
I love volunteering and think volunteers are great... don’t you?
As for my friend... they say they are thinking about it, I’ll let you know if they do.
Rhoda
Want to Volunteer? Ask me!