Any Volunteers?

Presentation to the Wyre Borough Council, 31st July 2008

The Wyre Pensioner Forum is celebrating its tenth year with a membership representative of the 25,000 senior residents of Wyre. As we are all volunteers, many with more than one role, it was thought timely to reflect on the value and contribution of volunteering

Society makes clear distinctions between the changing aspirations and challenges faced by generations aged from fifteen to fifty. As you reach sixty and beyond the distinctions potentially become much starker.

There is a generation who continue to lead full and active lives. There is another generation who for reasons largely outside their control find themselves becoming excluded.

A good sense of well-being is built on satisfying basic personal needs, the quality of the place where we live and feeling part of a community. As individuals we need enough money to live on, good health and regular contact with others. We also want to feel safe and secure wherever we live and that it is clean and accessible with amenities we are able to use.
We want to belong to a community where we feel supported and able to play an active part as a family member or resident.

The plans put together by the council and its partners for older people focus on all of these areas dealing with money, health, finding what we need, feeling safe and making a contribution.

Yet despite all our good efforts it is still possible that up to 12,000 residents of Wyre could be experiencing exclusion in one or more ways.

Exclusion can begin with illness, death of a loved one, reducing value of a fixed income, loss of mobility or transport or finding it increasingly difficult to access amenities.
It means meeting fewer people, being unable or feeling less inclined to take part in cultural or community activities, discovering how much has become unaffordable or finding it difficult to use new products or technology.

Tragically all of the causes are out of our control and more likely to effect older people

Exclusion initiates a vicious circle where less participation means meeting fewer people and a lowered sense of well-being. We lose confidence and seek fewer opportunities for social contact leading to even less participation.




Older people make a huge contribution to our community by continuing to remain in work, playing a full role in family life and through volunteering.
Volunteering in particular can become a lifeline that encourages some of those excluded older people to join a virtuous circle of increased participation, offering more opportunities for social contact, restoring their confidence and sense of well-being.

There are many traditional volunteering roles such as fund raising, organizing and running events, committee work, providing transport, giving advice and visiting.

Newer roles are emerging where volunteers actively participate in the development and delivery of services. Volunteers add value by being sources of local knowledge, delivering services based on their own experiences, precipitating change through campaigning and enabling services to be user led.

Typical local examples include Expert Patients, Hawthorne Park, Poulton and Fylde Railway, Transage and Thornton Action Group and there are many more.

Volunteer roles do not replace the professionally led delivery of services or replace paid staff in their traditional roles. Instead they can add unique value while helping to promote community cohesion and build strong communities.
There are 25,000 residents in Wyre who potentially have the time, skills and experience to be volunteers and for some of them it could be the first steps on the way back from experiencing exclusion.
There are also many opportunities for volunteering in Wyre so one or two simple steps might suffice in order to encourage more people to come forward.

For example:
- Raise the profile of volunteering by appointing a Volunteering champion, establish a volunteers’ charter and provide recognition and rewards for volunteers and volunteering
- Make volunteering open to all by removing obstacles, establishing a small volunteer fund and introduce employer supported volunteering
- Provide training for volunteers and WBC staff in how best to manage volunteers

Two constructive first steps would be:
- Ask the current Older Peoples Champion to also become a Volunteers Champion and start to plan some of the suggestions above
- Introduce a policy for WBC employees to become volunteers, using Taskmasters as a WBC employee pilot, thus helping staff to understand the contribution of volunteers in developing and delivering services.