If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

All | Emma | Olivia | Sammy | Ashley | Rochelle | Tom | TomG | Harry

Monday Jun 15, 2009

End of the student year....

 

“I don’t know what you are complaining about – us students work 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 2 weeks a year.”

And that’s only true if you work hard during exam time. However, as exams are for some reason an inherent part of the University experience (like debt), I suppose it is only fair to note how it can affect volunteering as a student.

Under some blind assumption that I was going to do some revision, I actually asked both the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Sheffield Live radio station whether I could cancel all of my commitments for three weeks over my exam period. Thankfully they were fine with this, and I guess that is just one of the more obvious upshots to some types of volunteering – as long as people aren’t too dependant on you, it can be very flexible.

After my exams, I started drinking and smoking again. But aside from this, there was also a ‘volunteering showcase’ of all the work that the volunteering committee at my university has done over the past year. The start of this showcase was a kind of gentle social mingling affair, and so I excelled in socially awkwardness and knocking into people. More importantly though, towards the end there were speakers from charities, schools and the Lord Mayor about how they had benefited from the volunteer work done by students here in Sheffield.

I think volunteers generally do things regardless of whether they might by thanked or not, but this was better than a ‘thank you’ - it provided examples of what had been achieved by volunteers over the year, from helping children get through their exams, to raising money for cancer care. Which can show a lot more than a ‘thank you’ anyway, and is probably a better way of recruiting/keeping more volunteers.

Speaking of the flexibility of volunteering, I’m moving home for a while now, so I’ll have to see what else I can get up to in terms of volunteering

Posted by Harry ( 10:33 PM )
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Sunday May 17, 2009

Volunteering Online

It is exam revision time, and so I find myself attached to my laptop for a ridiculous amount of time each day, and also doing a ridiculously small amount of revision. As I’m going to spend the next three weeks avoiding Property Law by sampling whatever the internet can offer me, I thought it might be apt to talk about online volunteering.

Obviously the emergence of the internet has brought new opportunities to volunteer, and new organisations to work with. In some Citizens Advice Bureaux you can advise people on their problems through e-mail, or you can use your Ebay nous and help Oxfam with their online shop. These are just two examples of the traditional notion of volunteering, but done online. However, there are other things happening on the internet.

Take Wikipedia for instance. This free online encyclopaedia depends almost entirely on people giving up their time up for free. Some users spend hours of the day deleting Wikipedia vandalism, or adding new information to articles about such absurdities as exploding whales. However, these users are rarely noted as ‘volunteers’.

It goes further: forums, blogs, even social networking sites - like the Bermuda triangle for students that is Facebook - all these sites depend on time given up by their users, without payment. Again, these users do not call themselves ‘volunteers’.

Whilst it is probably a little far-fetched to pass off 5 hours of Facebook stalking as ‘volunteering’, I do think that the contributions made on sites such as Wikipedia really should come under the V banner. After all, it’s pretty hard to nail down what volunteering is essentially about anyway.

Without boring you by discussing what makes something ‘voluntary’, or where the word’s obscure Latin roots lie (from: voluntas “will,” and velle “to wish,” by the way); I suppose we can agree that most things done for something other than yourself, and for free, might come under volunteering.

And if we agree on that, then this is great: we have a lot more volunteers than we first thought, and not just online. Additionally, if we carried this message more, there wouldn’t be any qualms about the supposed negative perception of volunteering – because everybody is doing it, it’s just at the moment they don’t call it volunteering.

I’m hopeful anyway, and as a short aside here are some websites which the charity, UK Citizens Online Democracy runs. If you are interested in doing some online volunteering, they are always looking for more help:

Theyworkforyou – Keeping tabs on your MPs and what they get up to

Fixmystreet – Making sure the council knows when those potholes get too much

Pledgebank – Want to do something, but only if other people will do it too? Try here.

Posted by Harry ( 7:19 PM )
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Thursday Apr 23, 2009

At Least it is Sunny

 

Well at least it is sunny. I’ve had a good Easter, I don’t know about you. Literally, I don’t know how your Easter has been, so I hope it has been good.

Last week a co-volunteer on Sheffield live 93.2fm managed to get free tickets to see a night of stand up comedy through interviewing the comedians on his radio show. Arnold Brown did a set that was the best stand-up I have ever seen – I was crying with laughter - and we got in through the guest list, instead of paying the £16 ticket cost. My point? Well, I guess that if you give up time for free, sometimes you might get free things in return – which has to be good (the best things in life are free etc. etc.)

Next week Sheffield Live is hosting its first “Radiothon”, essentially a week of fundraising appeals and events, and as a result the show that I am involved with will be going out live from Sheffield’s winter gardens. We’ll definitely get more publicity, but whether it will be of the kind that the station is after with me at the helm, remains to be seen. Anyway, to further the cause of the station we have decided to try and get a Sheffield based celebrity on the show for an interview. Michael Palin, Sean Bean, Noel Sharky, David Blunkett, Roots Manuva, Martin Simpson are all being tried, but if my recent, half-hearted, attempts to get Bob Dylan along (i.e. sending an email to bobdylan.com at 4am asking if he’d fancy it) are anything to go by then we might have to disappoint our starry eyes.

Not that it matters greatly. The best people I have met and interviewed for the radio show have been thoroughly un-famous. When we have interviewed a government minister (only the one, mind) or a trade union official, it has rarely resulted in anything other than a lacklustre conversation. Speak to the bloke down the road (he did actually work just down the road) who runs a free access space for the public to get creative with computers/technology, and the results have been far more involving, interesting and valuable.

What does this mean? No idea.

Volunteering is a good way to get freebies and meet interesting people (as long as they aren’t trade union officials). I’m hardly unearthing the secret of youth there, but maybe that’s what the ramble above means.

 

Posted by Harry ( 8:55 PM )
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Thursday Mar 26, 2009

Paying to Volunteer?

 

 

A few weeks ago some members of the volunteering committee, and the volunteering office at my university, organised a weekend of 1-2 day volunteering opportunities.

Over 150 students took part, doing anything from painting to gardening to creating a dramatic play on community history. Everyone (including me) seemed to really enjoy it, and it gave a really good taster for how rewarding a bit of volunteer work can be.

The interesting thing though was that to put on just one weekend of short-term volunteering opportunities, it cost the volunteering office around £4,000.

I found this interesting because sometimes it just seems so perverse to have to pay in order to give your time up for something. It's not as if Gordon Brown has been paying money to senior bankers just so that he can bail out their failing institutions.

Hang on a minute......

One student asked me what events we were planning next week, and although I knew Just Do It was only held annually, I didn't realise that this was because it cost so much.

I can't see a way around it: the money was used for essential things like food, equipment and transport for the volunteers; and it was given to volunteer organisations that are usually pretty strapped for cash anyway.

But after getting that feel-good factor (perhaps naïvely) on the way home from a project – the one where you feel like you've actually helped out somewhere – the fact that your free time and hard work alone was not enough can feel a little bit demoralising.

Like I said, I'm not sure what can change, and I certainly don't think it's the fault of the organisations that were accepting volunteers. But whilst I could see why you might have to pay to volunteer in Africa; or how the popularity of National Trust conservation holidays might lead to slightly inflated prices; I didn't realise that even with non-residential volunteering sometimes you might still have to pay to give up your time.

It's a shame, because for students who might be a little dubious of long term volunteer commitments, weekend volunteering 'tasters' seem to work really well.

Ideas on a S.A.E. please!

Harry.

Posted by Harry ( 10:23 PM )
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Tuesday Feb 17, 2009

Choose Leisure Wear and Matching Luggage.

 

I have to sort something out that has been niggling me a little bit: for someone who writes a blog on ‘volunteering’, I hardly do any. Twice a week at my local community radio station has been my entire diet of voluntary action since returning to Sheffield early last month.

I hope that doesn’t make me some kind of fraud: I certainly tried not to pretend I was anything else but a low-life student. I like volunteering, and I like writing about it too, but I am not saying that I am some archetypal volunteer demi-god.

I have been looking for some new volunteer opportunities though, especially ones that go through my student union at Sheffield University. Especially ones that will help me get through my Law course at Sheffield University.

Unfortunately an opportunity again fell through this week and due to repeated communication failure between me and the organisation I have decided to dolefully give up hope of volunteering there.

However I am going to look for any opportunities teaching English to non-speakers and any one day activities coming up in Sheffield. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and before I go – what about CRB checks? Why do we have to have a different CRB check for each organisation we volunteer or work for? Could we not have one over-arching CRB check which cleared us for a year?

Someone I tried to volunteer with through WWOOF – Willing Workers On Organic Farms – likened the need for so many CRB checks as a stealth tax.

At the cost of £36 each, someone is benefiting somewhere, and it is also so frustrating when you want to take part in something short-notice but then have to wait 4 weeks for your CRB to come through.

Next update should be about online volunteering, including Wikipedia and Youtube.

Posted by Harry ( 1:20 AM )
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Saturday Jan 31, 2009

Volunteering in 2009

So the UK has entered its first recession since 1991, and the Guardian is providing us with an exciting timeline of the 'mounting job losses', which are creating the highest UK unemployment level since 1997. Considering we all survived the 1990s the papers may be over-exaggerating the impending financial doom a little, but as jobs are undoubtedly being lost and with 'thrift' the word of the month, the position of the voluntary 'Third Sector' is certain to change.

In fact this change is already happening, but it is happening in two different ways. As unemployment rises the voluntary sector benefits as the government looks to keep people learning new skills, interacting with other people, and most importantly for them: away from the effects of long-term unemployment.

Labour has already announced plans for employers to be paid £2,500 for every person they recruit and train that was previously unemployed for over six months but as well as this, a government white paper also outlined that 'a new full-time structured vocational volunteering programme is being created'. For more coverage check Kate Bowgett's blog at volunteermanagers.org.uk.

As the government is seemingly only able to bail-out banks and big businesses, volunteer advice centres also stand to receive increased state funding as the government seeks to rely on them to sort out the people's problems. The government has already announced increased funding for the Citizen's Advice Bureau to deal with the increase of debt problems.

On the other hand it is common sense that in periods of financial uncertainty, people spend less. If you're saving money the non-essentials are the first to go; the result is that many voluntary organisations which are dependent on donations will begin to suffer in the downturn. I know from my own experience on the voluntary radio show Sheffield Live (93.2fm) that businesses are also less likely to support the third sector if they worried about cutting costs.

Similar themes appear in Richard Gutch's article in the Guardian – 'Tough times for the third sector'

So voluntary organisations may face a mixed future in 2009, but it is also clear that it is now that we will need them the most – to support those in need (Rethink, Shelter etc.) and to provide the public with an outlet for edification and creativity (Do-It, VSO, etc.)

Harry.

 

Posted by Harry ( 1:25 AM )
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Thursday Jan 08, 2009

Happy New Year: Wishing you bail-outs and not bankruptcies!

 

So Christmas and New Year are out of the way, and we are now faced with the 2009 calendar, full of little empty white boxes waiting to be filled in.

  I have been living back in Scarborough over this Christmas break and unfortunately I haven’t being doing much volunteering over the past few weeks. I started to practice the art of student-laziness-during-holiday-periods. To counter the huge amount of work I managed to do over term-time, obviously......

  However, my local Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) re-opened their doors on 5 January and I have been volunteering there over the past few days. I am still training to be an adviser, but finally I can see some kind of progression and I am enjoying it so much more because of this.

Every now and then at the CAB you stumble upon little trinkets of surprising information which enlighten you to one aspect of the world.

This week I was looking up Attachment of Earning’s Orders – which is basically where the government gets a court judgment allowing them to take money directly out of a person’s income, through that person’s employer. This is in order for that person to repay any debts owed to the government (for instance Council Tax arrears).

The catch comes where a person has been making payments through his/her employer for some time, but then his/her employer ceases to trade and therefore cannot make more payments to the government.

In such instances some local authorities may apparently argue that the client has to start from the beginning again, repaying all the money that s/he has already repaid, as well has the rest. A re-re-payment.

Who said the government wasn’t draconian?  

  Unfortunately I cannot talk too much about what I have been doing there, as the service is completely confidential, but If you’d like to help advising people with problems such as this then I am sure most bureaux would be more than happy to train new advisers, with some opportunities listed on the do-it database, and further information on the CAB website.

 In the Scarborough Bureau, and I assume nationwide, there has been a big increase in the amount of clients coming in to the CAB with debt problems, often caused by the backlash from the current economic climate, so the more volunteers the better.

 

--

Anyway, I’ll be returning to the icy cold of my student house in Sheffield next week and I am looking forward to continuing my volunteering back in South Yorkshire. It’s interesting to have almost two different lives in two different places.

Despite this, I will probably be cutting a figure of considerable rancour throughout the next four weeks, whilst my exams and the lack of heat conspire to break any springtime optimism I may be encountering.

Have a good 2009.

Posted by Harry ( 5:22 PM )
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Wednesday Dec 10, 2008

Pre-Christmas Ramble

 

  Just a short update before my term finally ends and I return home to Scarborough – where I can still get some meals cooked for me. Get in.

  Staving off the nihilistic rage, I have been doing a bit of flyering for the winter volunteering opportunities I mentioned in my last blog. It's quite enjoyable really - you watch people squirm to get away from you, some outright ignoring you, and others regarding you suspiciously as they walk by. Of course, most people just take the flyer, and some are even a bit enthusiastic about it.

  I tried to be as friendly as I could be, and not to shove anything in front of people's faces. The entrance into our union at Shef Uni is (probably like most unions) like a crowded maze of people trying to hand you things, usually advertising the latest night of drinking under oddly disconcerting names – Carnage, Brain Damage, Liver Cancer (ok I made that one up) etc.

  As I was flyering for volunteering I thought that a) this was ok, and b) it should be done in a different way to the profit making promotions around us. So I tried to only give flyers to people who had first said that they were interested, although I did stop everyone who past me and asked if they were in fact interested.

  My mate thinks differently. He cited Red Nose Day and Comic Relief as getting money for people who need it by forcing the issue – a TV version of shoving a flyer in your face and saying people need your money (ok, maybe a little more subtle). Otherwise, he said, they simply wouldn't get the funds needed to help.

  So should volunteering, and more especially fundraising, become profit driven? Is it simply the higher cash taken = the better job done. This is definitely Oxfam's way of looking at things.

 Or should we keep in mind the fact that a lot of the problems we want to help are possibly linked to everyone's exuberance for chasing money (homelessness, poverty, even mental health issues)?   

--

On a lighter and better note, David Blunkett recently announced that he's keen to see people from 16-25 years old do a period of 'intensive' volunteering for at least 6 months, to bind us all together (obviously). My friend spotted this gem in the article:

When asked whether the scheme should become a form of compulsory national service Mr Blunkett replied: "It's been reinforced to me in the last year that you can't have volunteering unless it's voluntary."

Gold Star for David.

Posted by Harry ( 12:27 AM )
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Sunday Nov 23, 2008

It's Christmas. Again.

 
It's getting seriously cold now, my friend tried to type out his essay wearing gloves earlier today (I'm not joking!), and none of us can work out how to bleed the radiators in our freezing, non-insulated house. Apparently this lack of bleeding is why, every morning, the radiator in my room heats up, ever so slightly, at the bottom – providing the faintest insight as to what life might be like with a fully functioning radiator. Imagine that.

Anyway, that digression links neatly into the fact that Christmas is coming, the annual 'BNP membership list leakage' has already happened and also, there are lots of opportunities to help out and showcase largesse anywhere you'd like over the festive period.

In Sheffield the Uni's Volunteer Committee are running a four day publicity event called 'Winter Warmers', just to make sure that everyone is aware of what opportunities are out there for anyone interested. I'm even thinking of joining in. And I hate Christmas.

Here are some of the things going on in Sheffield, just to give any of you a taster as to what might be available in your area:

• Christmas Gifts Appeal: "Brighten up Christmas for the local homeless, families fleeing domestic violence, refugees and asylum seekers by preparing them a gift"
• Christmas Party: "Get into the party spirit this Christmas by helping to run activities, supervise dodgem cars and prepare a buffet for children suffering from life limiting illnesses and their siblings."
• Santa 5k: "In aid of Amy's Retreat, why not lend a hand (register runners, hand out costumes etc), or enter as a runner (£5 entry fee).  Free Santa outfit provided!"
• Homeless and Rootless at Christmas (HARC): "Help provide food and entertainment to guests at this city-centre shelter for homeless and vulnerable people over Christmas & New Year"
I'm seriously considering the 5k run in a Santa costume. Of course, to check any events going on in your area you can use the Do-It database search or alternatively get in touch with your local Volunteer Centre

and they will be able to find you something no doubt.

Maybe I'll be able to get some pictures up of someone hating Christmas whilst simultaneously doing a 5k run in a Santa costume haha.

  

Posted by Harry ( 12:22 AM )
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Monday Nov 03, 2008

Selfish Altruism?

On the 24^th October I completed the Spiderwalk – a 26 mile walk around the Sheffield area, starting at 9pm - along with other members of the Volunteering Committee. Its aim was to raise money for charity, although there seems to be some uncertainty as to which charity all the money is going to. Nonetheless money has been raised and the event was great fun, if a little gruelling.

The first 23 miles or so went absolutely fine as we wandered out of the city and into the quiet countryside of the Peak District. Generally we were all feeling good but then, with only 3 miles to go, my body started to tell me that it didn't like walking constantly for 7 hours, at a time when it was usually sleeping. This seemed to be the message most people were getting at this time and two of our group had to drop out with the end almost in sight.

 Thankfully the rest of us managed to keep going and for the second year in a row I was one of the last to cross the finish line! The event was organised by Sheffield Rag, and there are RAG (Raising And Giving) events held throughout the country – organised by students. (What is RAG?)

Aside from this I have had my first training session for my role as one of the publicity officers for the Sheffield Uni's Volunteering Committee. It's been quite interesting getting to grips with what they do and how all these committees work but I am still a relative newbie so hopefully I will be more informative later on in the year.

Two things we focused on were the under-represented groups in volunteering, and the image of volunteering. As a white male from a middle class background, I tend to be over-represented in things, but at Sheffield University volunteering females completely outnumber their opposite sex, especially where children are involved. I also had similar experiences whilst volunteering abroad over last summer. Maybe we are less charitable? More lazy? Or maybe we are worried about being labelled paedophiles if we volunteer with children?

Who knows, but some people have also begun to think that the image of volunteering is bad, and that the word 'volunteering' itself may have negative connotations. Working on the publicity for volunteering at the University I'd like to challenge some of these assumptions, but part of me wants to say that if you are really put off by the word 'volunteering' then yes - you probably shouldn't volunteer. I'm pretty selfish myself, so I am wary of claiming the moral high-ground here.

Recent volunteer opportunities at the Uni have been publicised under the title 'V!', and of course we can emphasise the skills that can be gained from volunteering and the affect it has on your CV – but surely it is primarily about helping something external from you? Can you volunteer to help yourself?

NfpSynergy – a specialist research consultancy for not-for-profit organisations - has lots to say about this in their report – The 21^st Century Volunteer.  

 

Posted by Harry ( 9:47 PM )
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Tuesday Oct 21, 2008

Walking Around Sheffield in the Middle Of the Night. For Charity of Course.

   The academic year has started in earnest now so it’s time to neglect studies, sit back, and play solitaire on windows - naturally. Apart from that I have been volunteering at the Sheffield radio station Sheffield Live FM twice a week and have even got involved with union and joined a committee – the Sheffield Volunteering Committee. As I’ve only just joined them it’s hard to get a feel for how it works, however everyone seemed very friendly and there were no Nazi-esque initiation ceremonies like the one causing a little stir in the news recently.  

  What they have been doing is organising some great things, and this Friday a few of us from the committee will be entering the RAG organised event, “Spiderwalk”. Think less volunteering, more sponsored-madness. It involves a 26 mile walk around Sheffield starting at 9pm, all for the purposes of raising money for a variety of charities. When you put it like that it doesn’t sound too bad, but I did it last year and I can distinctly remember the phrase ‘never again’ running through my head as me and my friend arrived at the final checkpoint. That walk had started at midnight and I had imagined the sight of a beautiful sunrise inspiring us as we sampled the nearby peak district in the early morning. Instead we were shrouded in a thick mist and went wandering off completely the wrong way, adding a needless five miles extra to our ramble. My friend and I very nearly finished last out of nearly one hundred students!

   Still, the Volunteer Committee are doing it together and I am somewhat sadistically looking forward to it this Friday. If anyone wants to sponsor me feel free to leave a comment at the end of this page and I will put some pictures up if/when I complete it.

    I’ve realised that I missed out last year by not being involved in the union’s volunteer projects and instead just doing my own thing, so if anyone has just got to university and is looking for something to do it might be worthwhile to check if your union has similar things. On the other hand, I found out about Sheffield Live FM through the do-it.org.uk database and the experience has been so enjoyable (if very amateurish). If I get anywhere above ‘mumbling idiot’, I might put a link up to the show. But more on the radio project later.....back to the solitaire.

Posted by Harry ( 11:16 PM )
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Monday Oct 06, 2008

Eye-opening experiences so far

Hello I'm Harry, (Stev, Stev-o or Steve to my mates, or 'curly' if you are that drunk at the bar last week) and I'm studying Law at Sheffield University, just starting my second year. I hail from the delightful seaside town of Scarborough, where I've spent the majority of my life: living with my parents and taking the time to avoid over-exerting myself in my studies. Now though I live in Sheffield, and I'd like to try a bit harder with my work, so we'll see how that one goes.

I started volunteering a couple of years ago after watching a BBC documentary on Homelessness (I think it was called 'Evicted.' ) and finding myself with lots of spare time and little to do. At the end of the film they advertised the site www.do-it.org.uk and ever since then whenever I've had lots of spare time and little to do, I come to this site and see what I could be doing, which is part of the reason why I am writing this blog right now.

I began by delivering newspapers round my local hospital for the WRVS which got me over my fear of lifts and hospitals at the same time, and then I began training as an advisor for the CAB. Both experiences were eye-opening in different ways – offering the Scarborough Evening News to mothers holding their (literally) new-born babies was a particularly comical experience – especially when they bought one. I'm still training to become an advisor now (largely due to laziness) and I'll be coming face to face with my first clients this Christmas. I hope.

What I love about volunteering is getting to do things that I wouldn't really think of doing, or wouldn't be encouraged to do as part of a 'real' job. I have also met some brilliant people through volunteering and so for me it is definitely a two way street - I enjoy helping others a lot, but I also get a lot out of volunteering myself - so I'm never going to pretend that I'm some Mother Teresa figure of self-sacrifice.

Anyway, I'm back in Sheffield for the next academic year (having spent most of the summer in Scarborough) and I have begun volunteering for a local radio station – Sheffield live 93.2 FM – and I'm also looking for another opportunity, perhaps volunteering in a local scheme similar to TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), but I guess I'll be writing about that later on anyway.

That's the boring bit about me out of the way; hopefully I'll be able to write at least some things of interest in the future.

Harry. 

 

Posted by Harry ( 4:23 PM )
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