Volunteers | AwakeWelfareSociety
What is volunteering?
Volunteering is when someone spends unpaid time doing something to benefit others.
Helping your close friends or relatives isnt volunteering. But doing something to benefit the environment (and through that, other people) is.
Volunteering can be formal and organised by organisations, or informal within communities. It should always be a free choice made by the person giving up their time.
What volunteers do
Volunteering is well established in the UK. Most
charities and voluntary organisations involve volunteers in some way.
Some of the things volunteers do include:
- Raising funds
- Being a trustee (a voluntary role with legal responsibility for a charity)
- Supporting or running events
- Campaigning
- Giving tours
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- Befriending
- Giving advice, guidance or information
- Monitoring and conserving wildlife
- Giving first aid
- Providing legal help
- Driving or transporting people
- Administrative support.
Public sector organisations also work with volunteers. Their volunteering roles can include:
- School governors or parent and teacher associations
- Magistrates
- Parish councillors
- Supporting library services
- Special constables with the police force
- Helping the NHS
- Campaigning and lobbying for MPs
- Coastguards for the coastguard rescue service.
Volunteering can also be informal and not organised
through an organisation. For example, driving a neighbour to a hospital appointment or tidying
your local park.
Who volunteers are
Everyone has the right to volunteer. Volunteers can be
any age and from any background. They can be studying, working or retired.
They might be employees for a company given time off
to volunteer. They could be medical or legal professionals giving their time for free. They
could be looking for work or seeking asylum.
Every volunteer has their own reasons for volunteering. These include:
- Getting experience to get into work or change career
- Supporting a cause thats meaningful to them
- Meeting other people
- Representing others, as a union rep for example
- Contributing to the local community
- Changing something for the better
- Using their skills or experience to help others
- Doing something completely different or new
- Learning new skills
- Continuing their professional development.
Volunteering is not employment
Volunteers aren’t employees and arent covered by employment law.
Its important to keep a difference between paid staff and volunteers. It should always be clear that:
- Volunteering is the volunteers choice
- Volunteer roles are not the same as employee roles
- Volunteers are not a replacement for paid staff.
To make sure you are not treating volunteers like employees, you should:
- Avoid language that suggests employment (for example, refer to a volunteer agreement rather than a contract)
- Have separate processes for recruiting and supporting staff and volunteers
- Talk about what you expect from volunteers rather than saying they must’ or ‘have to’ do anything
- Not sanction volunteers for not meeting expectations
- Avoid perks that could look like payment (for example, training not needed for the role)
- Treat unpaid interns as volunteers and paid interns as staff
- Not ask volunteers to book or apply for holiday or time off
- Pay out-of-pocket expenses instead of a fixed amount.
