The B** S******

Sorry about the *s, but I'm trying to avoid this expression while talking about volunteers.

A survey  by  Wyre Together indicates that during an average week in March, 2673 volunteers contributed 10,653 hours. On a yearly basis this adds up to over 500,000 hours or £3 million when valued at the minimum wage.

National surveys consistently claim UK volunteering to be equivalent to two million full time workers, which when scaled down  suggests the Wyre weekly figure should be closer to 100,000 hours.

This is not to say the that the Wyre analysis is flawed but it captured the mainly formal volunteering in the borough whereas the national figure includes all the informal volunteering witnessed on a daily basis.

Informal volunteering consists of  individual acts of help, philanthropy and service, such as being part of a campaign to save a post office, driving a group of children to school, helping a neighbour with their bins  or attending a float and rattling a tin on gala days. These millions of small acts make up the gap between the measured results and the reality. As the National Citizenship survey showed in 2007, 73% of all adults had volunteered at least once over that year and nearly 50% had been involved at least once per month.

If our vision is of a society in which we are united by a common concern for the well being of others, and in which we enrich our own lives by enriching the lives of others through the giving of time, then the survey suggests that Wyre is on the road to achieving that vision.



In all things, we can try to do more and do it better.



The Wyre Volunteer Bureau launched 18 months ago, has to date successfully recruited over 200 volunteers and perhaps it is timely, in the run up to the end of the contract in October, to revisit the whole subject of volunteering in Wyre.

For example:

- Should support for formal volunteering  be more focussed around delivering specific outcomes, targeting the volunteers required for particular projects rather than a general bureau?

-Look more closely at how volunteers can add to what the paid workforce can do, not by replacing paid workers but by complementing their role to everyone's benefit

- Continuing the campaign to raise the profile of volunteering but recognise and celebrate informal as well as formal volunteering.

-Identify and remove obstacles to informal volunteering (recent examples include personal liability concerns about snow shifting and red tape for street parties).

- Promote schemes and approaches that encourage informal volunteering.



Our aim should be to encourage a culture change in our society so that helping others and benefiting from a culture of mutual dependence becomes a way of life, from which the whole of society benefits. Where not volunteering should be seen as missing out on something that is life enhancing, enjoyable and useful. Being able to to make a contribution, by giving time and deriving satisfaction and enjoyment from doing so, makes volunteering a win-win situation.



There, I haven't mentioned the B** S****** once!