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 | Fiona | Sammy | Ashley | Rochelle | Tom | TomG | Harry

« My commitments | Main | At Least it is Sunny »

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 )
Link to this post Comments[0]