Thoughts On Volunteering From Across The Pond

What's in it for me?

By Megan Lane
BBC News Magazine

As befits the me-me-me age we live in, those who volunteer can get as much out of giving their time as those they are helping. For volunteering can be good for the CV, the waistline - even the love life.

Fitter. Happier. More productive. Better work/life balance. Credit at (moral) bank. With apologies to Radiohead, giving time to good causes is essentially a selfish business. Rare is the charity that asks for volunteers simply by appealing to people's altruistic nature.

Some work with businesses so time given can be counted towards an employee's work hours. Thus projects such as repainting village halls or clearing scrubland have been rebranded as team-building sessions.

Others offer qualifications with a heavy practical component, pitch physical labour as an alternative to the gym, or attract volunteers to scenic locales with working holidays.

Paradoxical it may sound, but the Institute for Volunteering Research has even looked into whether people should be paid for their time (the answer was no, but costs incurred, such as travel and childcare, could be reimbursed).

ADS TO RECRUIT VOLUNTEERS

"Do something for others and gain practical skills"
"Live with people from around the world (and have a laugh)"
"Improve your employability while making a real difference to people's lives"

Source: What's It All About by Julian Baggini

Nor do volunteers simply seek to contribute to society - although that is a key motivation.
Students and jobseekers keen to get into the course or workplace of their choice hope voluntary work will help them stand out from the crowd.

This chance to gain experience - to develop personally and professionally - is high on the wish-list of young people, according to the institute's study into how to get them to give their time. Claire, a 19-year-old who supports a fellow student with cerebral palsy at university, says not only does she get a sense of achievement from helping another, "the skills I have learnt - such as effective communication and teamwork - will be useful for any kind of career".

For refugees and other new arrivals, getting involved is a good way to gain language skills, self-esteem and a stake in the community. But there's a cultural barrier in some communities that volunteering isn't worth it as it's unpaid, says Saima Ayez, the volunteer coordinator at Derby's Asian Advisory Service.

But the success of immigrants such as Vandanna Bhanot, from India, is helping to change attitudes. She arrived in Derby with an MSc in computer sciences but no experience of office protocol in the UK. "Now I write in my CV that I have experience of working in the UK, through volunteering at the Asian Advisory Service," she says.

And it has long been an open secret in the volunteering community that giving up your time to do something you're passionate about can lead to love.

"It is one of the beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

What's more recent are the statistics to back this up. In a Community Service Volunteers (CSV) survey last year, young and old alike - one in five 18 to 24-year-olds, and 8% of over-65s - said volunteering had improved their sex lives, especially those who offered their professional skills, or got involved in conservation or heritage work.

Mukta Das is a vigorous advocate of the philosophy, and has a long-term relationship to prove her point. "Volunteering is what speed-dating promises but never fulfils - a way of seeing a lot of truth about someone you've just met in a short a time as possible," says Mukta, who met her partner Ian in 2001 while helping on Make a Difference Day. All her previous relationships started at the bar, she says. This, her longest so far, "is the only one which started out sober and during day-light hours."

Little wonder that advice to lonely hearts suggests volunteering as a way to meet like-minded individuals. But it's not only singles whose love-lives get a fillip. "You get out there, meet people, get some exercise, work towards a common goal, feel good about what you're doing. All that energy and self-esteem has got to make a difference to your sex life," says the CSV's Esther Freeman. "The typical date apparently costs £200; well, with volunteering, you get it all for free."

Selfish pursuit?

The same poll found that nearly half of volunteers enjoyed improved health and fitness, a quarter had lost weight - especially those working with children or doing conservation projects - and two-thirds felt less stressed.

WHO VOLUNTEERS?

-Over half the population volunteers
-Sport and recreation accounts for a quarter of all volunteering
-More are volunteering through employer-sponsored schemes
-In 2003, the figure reached 1.5m in England and Wales

So businesses have cottoned on that this is a way to keep the workforce happy and productive - and it doesn't do their community profile any harm at all. Staff, too, get a break in the daily grind and the chance to develop and demonstrate valued "soft skills" such as initiative and decision-making.

CSV is currently conducting another survey, this time on whether volunteering improves recruitment, retention, productivity, morale and absenteeism. Workers and managers are being polled separately, and the final results will compare their opinions. "We want to know if it actually makes a difference in the workplace, or if volunteering is seen as something dreamed up in an HR department because it sounds good," says Ms Freeman.

Not only are business-sponsored placements on the up, the Government is ploughing money into the sector, including £150m earmarked to recruit one million young volunteers in the latest Budget. So the push is on to make volunteering as attractive to as many people as possible.
Should we worry if volunteering also helps the helper? Julian Baggini, editor of the Philosophers' Magazine and author of What's It All About, thinks not. "Good deeds that benefit all parties involved are preferable to those that only benefit one. The more people who benefit, the more the act achieves its aim of making the world a better place."

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/magazine/4578349.stmPublished: 2005/05/30 09:54:35 GMT© BBC MMV