This
Month's Hot Topic
Print Version
July
2008
A sector by every other
name
By
OzVPM Director Andy Fryar
I
spent last Friday at a very exciting conference.
Titled,
“Making a Difference: Social inclusion for new
and emerging communities” the conference program
was jammed packed full of speakers talking on a range
of topics relating to the advancement of social inclusion
and the integration of new populations, including
asylum seekers.
It was genuinely
a great day and I learned a lot about the many wonderful
initiatives being developed to assist new arrivals
in learning English, starting life in a new country
and finding employment in a foreign environment.
Now
in all of this discussion about new and existing government
initiatives, community mobilisation and social inclusion,
guess how many times the term ‘volunteer’ was uttered
throughout the day? Only three …and one of those instances
was when the conference convenor was thanking her
own team for their help at the end of the day!
Like
you, I know first hand that without the dedicated
effort of volunteers that the successfully integration
of new Australians would be in disarray. I had the
pleasure about a year ago to visit a tutoring program
involving the Melbourne Sudanese community and was
astounded at the way in which volunteers from all
walks of life were patiently assisting children, teens
and adults to learn English and get ahead. In fact,
these volunteers were doing exactly what the conference
title suggested and “making a difference” .
So why was there
so little mention of ‘volunteers’ throughout the day
of the conference I attended?
Well
in actual fact they were not forgotten at all. Volunteers
were discussed right throughout the day but by an
array of differing titles.
Consider
the following terminology I heard mentioned at the
conference:
•
Committee members
•
Community policing
•
Community support
•
ESL tutors
•
NGO support
•
Support workers
•
The work of non-profits
•
Youth participation
Implicit
within each of these terms is the valuable work of
volunteers, and beyond that, a leader of volunteers
will in most cases also be present, it was just that
for those at the conference there seemed very little
need to spell that out.
When
considering terminology, we should also think about
the often under representation of volunteers and volunteer
leaders from the areas of recreation, sport, the environment
and emergency services at mainstream events such as
national volunteering conferences and advanced volunteer
management training. Is this because they simply don’t
want to attend, or do they see what they do as being
something different to what mainstream volunteering
has to offer?
Let’s
look at just one aspect of this involvement – namely
men as volunteers. Susan Ellis made the point some
years ago that “men have always volunteered, they
are just usually referred to as coaches, fire fighters,
pro bono lawyers, scout leaders and so on”.
It
is not that men don’t volunteer (here in Australia
the ration of women to men is not far off a 50/50
split) they just label it differently. The same is
true of other groups who contribute voluntary time
- parent helpers in schools and teachers in Sunday
school being just two that spring immediately to mind.
Now
here’s the point of this hot topic, and the question
I’d like to pose to each and every reader – does
it matter that the work of volunteers is not titled
volunteering?
From one perspective,
and this is the reality, it is never going to happen
- so perhaps it is a null and void argument to begin
with. However, it does raise a number of interesting
points of view that are worth exploring.
There
are really two points of view which need to be considered.
The
first of those argues that we should work a lot harder
to ensure that the work of everyone acting in a voluntary
capacity somehow gets ‘captured’ under the volunteering
title. It surely stands to reason that if we are better
able to gather these numbers together, the overall
impact of volunteers will be better understood and
volunteering as a whole will be better off – right?
Well
here are a couple of key questions.
•
Do you believe that a more unified understanding
of volunteer work would automatically translate
into outcomes such as greater funding & support
of volunteer projects?
•
What would be the desired outcome of such as wish
(if not greater funding and support)?
For
me, one of the reasons I get a little ‘miffed’ at
people not properly understanding the scope of volunteerism,
is because it is in some ways a hindrance to the advancement
of volunteer management as a profession. But in the
same way that volunteers are often pigeon holed, so
too is the work of volunteer managers in many of those
same fields
For
instance, to pick up Susan Ellis’ example again, volunteer
coaches are more likely to work under the guidance
of someone with the title ‘sports coordinator’ rather
than volunteer manager. Fire fighters may work under
a Captain or team leader, parent class helpers under
a teacher. All these people are leading volunteer
effort and like their volunteers have probably never
thought of themselves as a volunteer manager or part
of the profession of volunteer management.
This
brings me nicely to the second perspective we should
discuss - and that is this. Perhaps those of us in
the ‘mainstream’ volunteerism sector actually need
to get better at finding ways to link in with others
who are volunteers or who are leading volunteer effort
without getting too precious about the terminology
we use to describe what we are all doing. After all,
if volunteering (by whatever name) is taking place
and people are benefitting from it, surely that is
the most important point.
It
seems to me that our main strategy over the years
has simply been to grumble about the low representation
of these groups and do very little about it, but surely
there must be other ways to educate about the sheer
volume and scope of volunteer work in all it’s forms
than simply forever trying to bundle it all up as
‘volunteering’. Because let’s face it, if Mohammed
won’t come to the mountain perhaps it is time we went
to Mohammed!
So
here are some questions I’d love to hear your thoughts
on:
•
Firstly, do you agree with my sentiments or vehemently
disagree? Why / Why not?
•
Are there ways we can better communicate with the
entire sector involving volunteers and encourage
their participation in more greatly acknowledging
volunteerism (ie not seeing what they do as being
in a bubble from everyone else)
•
Should groups like Volunteering Australia and the
Australasian Association of Volunteer Management
consider a name change to increase their relevance
to a broader audience? Would it make a difference?
•
What might be the impact of us doing this better?
Let’s
hear your thoughts!
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