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Voluntary Action:
The Journal of the Institute for Volunteering Research
Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
Published by the Institute for Volunteering Research,
Regent’s Wharf, 8 All Saints Street, London N1 9RL.
Registered Charity Number 1102770
ÈAn initiative of In association with
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical
or photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
© The Institute for Volunteering Research 2006
ISSN 1465-4067
Typeset by Jacki Reason, London N8
Printed by RAP/Spider Web, Oldham
Contents

Editorial 5

Abstracts 7

Homeless people and volunteering 11

Kate Bowgett, OSW (Off the Streets and into Work)
(interviews by Sharon Kirk)

Summer on the island: episodic volunteering 31

Femida Handy, School of Social Policy and Practice,
University of Pennsylvania and York University;
Nadine Brodeur, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University;
and Ram A. Cnaan, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of
Pennsylvania

The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions 47

of the service quality of a helping and caring charity
Roger Bennett, Centre for Research in Marketing,
Department of Business and Service Sector Management, London
Metropolitan University

Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: 63

the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
Professor Yvonne Hillier, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning,
City University, London

Reconsidering the paradoxes of cultural voluntarism in Greece 79

at the threshold of the twenty-first century
Dr Yiannis Ioannides, Research Institute for Regional Development,
Panteion University, Athens; Cultural Manager, Municipality of Moschato,
Athens

Editorial
This is an important issue of
Voluntary Action, because it is the
last in the current format. Readers
might remember that some time
ago we promised a new look for the
journal. We postponed a redesign
while we took a longer look at how
the journal should develop. I can
now report that the editorial and
Institute advisory board has decided
to make the journal online. After this
issue, all future issues will be online
only.
Why have we made this decision?
Inevitably cost was one of the
factors, but we are also moving with
the times: a recent survey (Third
Sector, 1 March 2006) showed that
an increasing number of voluntary
sector organisations are delivering
their publications online – indeed,
Volunteering England, of which the
Institute is the research arm, has
successfully delivered its monthly
magazine online for over a year.
Our academic colleagues have also
advised us that universities and
colleges are in favour of online
journals because it makes access (and
storage) easier.
We also feel that we will be able
to offer a better service to readers.
Subscribers, for example, will find
that they will not be paying for
postage and that their access to
5
back issues will be better. Existing
subscribers will be advised how the
transition to online delivery will
affect them. Details of the new-format
journal and how to subscribe will
soon be available on the Institute’s
website at www.ivr.org.uk
In all other respects the journal
remains the same. It will still look
like a journal, it will still be peer-
reviewed, and we will still strive
to include articles that are both
accessible and practical.
This final hard-copy issue begins
with an article by Kate Bowgett on
volunteering and homeless people.
Little research has been done into
this theme, so Bowgett explores
homeless people’s experience of
volunteering and attitudes towards
it. She concludes with a list of
practical recommendations on how
organisations can work with homeless
people to open up opportunities in
volunteering.
The article by Femida Handy and
colleagues is based on a presentation
at the research seminar IVR held
over two days in Birmingham in
November last year. (Readers might
like to know that the first issue of
the online journal will present more
papers from this very successful
event.) Handy et al explore the
growing phenomenon of episodic
volunteering. Up to now, episodic
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
volunteers have been spoken of
as a homogeneous group, but this
article distinguishes between three
types: those that volunteer for
one-off events at the same time as
doing other volunteering; those that
volunteer episodically for a range
of organisations; and those that
volunteer once or twice a year. There
are suggestions for how each type
might be recruited and managed.
Roger Bennett’s article presents
some fascinating research on the
satisfaction clients feel with a
service and how this is mediated
through working with volunteers.
He concludes that the relationship
between the volunteer and client
has an impact on satisfaction with
the service, and moreover that
adjustments to the management
of volunteers to increase their job
satisfaction will improve the service
and the satisfaction of clients.
Yvonne Hillier’s article offers
a different perspective. It looks
back at how volunteers have been
involved with supporting adult
learning – noting in particular
how professionalising a service to
deliver narrow outputs can fail to
utilise the skills and experience of
volunteers, and their willingness
to deliver better outcomes. Coming
after Bennett’s investigation of how
volunteer job satisfaction increases
client satisfaction, this article makes a
6
powerful point. (Readers who wish to
follow up on any points should note
that Yvonne was at City University
when the article was submitted, but
is now Professor of Education at the
University of Brighton.)
Our final article describes the
role of voluntary organisations in
the development of civil society
in Greece. Dr Yiannis Ioannides
provides a fascinating account of
the participation of volunteers in
cultural activities, noting that the
development of some organisations
has been restricted by political
interference and that participation
rates in general appear to be in
decline. He argues that voluntarism in
Greece needs to build on the devotion
of local volunteers in cultural
organisations, while at the same time
recognising that organisations must
satisfy the needs, motivations and
aspirations of volunteers if they are
to develop.
We hope you will continue to find
Voluntary Action a stimulating
read: the first online edition will
be published within the next few
weeks, and will contain papers from
our research symposium. In the
meantime, if you have any questions
about the implications of the journal
going online, please contact us
through the website.
Steven Howlett
 7

Abstracts

Homeless people and volunteering

Kate Bowgett, OSW (interviews by Sharon Kirk)
Volunteering is increasingly being viewed – not least by the UK government
– as a route out of social exclusion, with the potential to help individuals
build their self-confidence, form social networks and increase their
employability. Yet so far, little has been done to look at how volunteering
can be promoted to homeless people and at how they can be supported to
find and keep voluntary opportunities. This article presents the findings of
the first-ever research into homeless people’s experience of, and aspirations
towards, volunteering. It looks at the attitudes of both volunteers and
people who have never volunteered, and attempts to establish what
homeless people want out of volunteering, whether they find volunteering to
be beneficial, what barriers homeless people face and what they think are
the most effective methods of supporting people to volunteer.

Summer on the island: episodic volunteering

Femida Handy, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania
and York University; Nadine Brodeur, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York
University; and Ram A. Cnaan, School of Social Policy and Practice, University
of Pennsylvania
In the fields of volunteer research and management, the phenomenon of
episodic volunteering is growing in popularity. This study of volunteers at
summer festivals in British Columbia, Canada, is the first empirical study
of episodic volunteers. We find three distinct groups of such volunteers and
define them as Long-term Committed Volunteers (LTV), Habitual Episodic
Volunteers (HEV) and Genuine Episodic Volunteers (GEV). We examine the
differences between these three groups of volunteers in their commitment
to volunteering, their motivations, their interest in tangible rewards and
their willingness to donate money. We find some significant differences,
expected and unexpected, among the three groups. This leads us to rethink
current beliefs about episodic volunteers and to suggest questions for future
research as well as ideas for the management of volunteers.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006 8

The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions

of the service quality of a helping and caring charity
Roger Bennett, Centre for Research in Marketing, Department of Business and
Service Sector Management, London Metropolitan University
The clients of 91 ‘contact’ volunteers in the South East of England division
of a large international helping and caring charity were questioned
about their levels of satisfaction with the organisation’s services. It was
hypothesised that client satisfaction was significantly influenced by the
degrees of job satisfaction and organisational commitment reported by the
91 volunteers. The strength of the posited connection between volunteer
job satisfaction and client satisfaction was assumed to vary with respect to
three moderating variables, namely (i) the depth of a volunteer’s personal
involvement with the good cause dealt with by the charity, (ii) the intensity
of the client’s need for the organisation’s services, and (iii) the frequency
of volunteer-client interactions. A model was developed on the basis of
prior academic literature in relevant fields and tested on a dyadic data set
collected from the 91 volunteers and 182 of their clients (two clients for
each volunteer).

Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of

volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
Professor Yvonne Hillier, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, City
University, London
The field of adult literacy in England has a long history, but has developed
particularly during the last three decades. Throughout this history,
voluntary organisations and volunteers have played an important role in
the field. This article examines how volunteers have been deployed and
professionally developed during this period, and identifies some of the
tensions which exist between volunteers and professionals in the field. It
draws upon a research project funded by the ESRC entitled Changing faces:
a history of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL 1970–2000, conducted
between 2001 and 2004. A total of 200 interviews were undertaken with
practitioners and adult learners, from four case-study regions in England.
Documentary evidence and an archive of materials were collated and
from this, a series of timelines were created which chart the development
of Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL (ALNE), during the thirty-year
Abstracts 9

period. The interview responses were analysed using Atlas-Ti, a software

programme, and a number of themes have emerged from the data. The
article discusses how these continue to be challenges for the field in the
current Skills for Life strategy.

Reconsidering the paradoxes of cultural voluntarism in

Greece at the threshold of the twenty-first century
Dr Yiannis Ioannides, Research Institute for Regional Development, Panteion
University, Athens; Cultural Manager, Municipality of Moschato, Athens
A debate has recently begun about civil society in Greece, accompanied
by analyses of the extent of participation in voluntary organisations. His
article looks at a specific field of voluntary activity – cultural voluntarism
– that has developed in Greece during the last thirty years. After the fall
of the military junta (1974), there was an explosion of voluntary cultural
activities. The organisations responsible constituted a massive cultural
movement, characterised by a high degree of voluntary participation.
In spite of this, cultural development has in practice taken place under
the aegis of the political parties. This ‘colonisation’ of the organisations
promoting cultural voluntarism seems to have prevented a truly autonomous
development. Also, during the 1990s and the early years of the twenty-first
century, voluntary organisations have been operating against a background
of declining participation. Greek voluntarism has developed by building on
the personal element in its organisational practices, and is characterised by
a strong localism, activating a micro-level voluntarism.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006 10
 11

Volunteering is increasingly being viewed – not least by the UK

government – as a route out of social exclusion, with the potential to
help individuals build their self-confidence, form social networks and
increase their employability. Yet so far, little has been done to look at
how volunteering can be promoted to homeless people and at how
they can be supported to find and keep voluntary opportunities. This
article presents the findings of the first-ever research into homeless
people’s experience of, and aspirations towards, volunteering. It
looks at the attitudes of both volunteers and people who have never
volunteered, and attempts to establish what homeless people want
out of volunteering, whether they find volunteering to be beneficial,
what barriers homeless people face and what they think are the most
effective methods of supporting people to volunteer.

Homeless people and

volunteering
Kate Bowgett, OSW (interviews by Sharon Kirk)

According to the Home Office Increasingly, volunteering is being

National Citizenship Survey 2003
(Home Office, 2004), 28 per cent
of the population are engaged in
formal voluntary activity. Since
the 1960s the number of voluntary
organisations has mushroomed, and a
significant number of these are reliant
on volunteers. The 2003 survey found
that, had these volunteers been paid
the national average hourly wage,
they would have earned £21.3 billion
in total.
seen as one of the indicators of
a healthy, proactive society. Over
the past ten years, the Labour
government has placed growing
emphasis on the importance of
volunteering:
Voluntary activity is the cornerstone
of any civilised society. It is the glue
that binds people together and fosters
a sense of common purpose. It is an
essential building block in our work
to create a more inclusive society
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
... A strong culture of volunteering
brings with it confident individuals,
empowered communities which are
safe and friendly places to live,
better services, local and national
government which is more responsive
and a more vibrant economy
(Blunkett, 2001:2).
Volunteering not only helps to create
stronger communities, but also
helps the individuals who volunteer.
Increasingly, volunteering is seen as a
route out of social exclusion, helping
individuals to build their confidence,
form social networks and increase
their employability. Over the past ten
years the government has launched
schemes to promote volunteering to
young people, long-term unemployed
people and older people. Many
funders give priority to organisations
that promote volunteering to socially
excluded groups, and there is a
considerable amount of research
which looks at volunteering and
social exclusion together. Research
clearly shows that disadvantaged
groups – such as people with
mental health problems, people with
disabilities, ex-offenders, and refugees
and asylum seekers – benefit hugely
from volunteering:
Respondents said that volunteering
provides structure, direction and
meaning in their lives and also
reported that it increases social
networks, teaches and improves both
12
vocational and interpersonal skills,
and facilitates access to employment,
education and training opportunities
(Institute for Volunteering Research,
2003:31).
There has been no previous research
into the benefits of volunteering
for homeless people, but in view of
the fact that many of them suffer
from isolation, a lack of basic and
‘soft’ skills, low self-confidence and
a lack of structure or direction in
their lives, we might surmise that
volunteering has the potential to be
hugely beneficial. Yet so far, very
little has been done to look at how
volunteering can be promoted to
homeless people and how they can be
supported to find and keep voluntary
opportunities. Off The Street’s (OSW)
report No Home, No Job (Singh,
2005) found that only 13.5 per cent
of respondents had volunteered
since becoming homeless. This low
involvement is particularly shocking
when one considers that the same
report found that 78 per cent of
respondents identified volunteering as
a positive step towards resettlement.
This article presents the findings
of the first-ever research into
homeless people’s experience of, and
aspirations towards, volunteering.
It looks at the attitudes of both
volunteers and people who have
never volunteered, and attempts to
establish what homeless people want
Homeless people and volunteering
out of volunteering, whether they
find volunteering to be beneficial,
what barriers homeless people
face and what they think the most
effective methods are of supporting
people to volunteer.
Methodology
The present research came about
because the pilot phase of OSW’s
Volunteer Development Project
identified a gap in existing
knowledge. The project was set
up to work with organisations to
promote volunteering to homeless
people and to support them to
find and sustain voluntary roles. A
review of the existing literature on
volunteering and social exclusion
found nothing about homeless people
and volunteering, so the project
carried out the first research into
homeless people’s experiences of, and
aspirations towards, volunteering.
The primary research comprised:
· A survey of sixty homeless
individuals carried out by a peer
researcher.
· A focus group of ten workers from
homelessness agencies.
· Telephone interviews with staff
from six volunteer centres.
The survey was conducted using two
questionnaires – one for people with
experience of volunteering and one
for people with no such experience.
13
The final draft of the questionnaires
was prepared in consultation with
a focus group of peer researchers.
Existing evidence was collated via
desk research.
This article is the first stage
of a report into the benefits of
volunteering for homeless people.
The second stage will track
people who have found voluntary
opportunities through the Volunteer
Development Project and look at
their individual experiences and the
effect volunteering has had on their
lives. One of the survey respondents
mentioned the need to look at how
people are managed and supported as
volunteers:
This survey does not ask enough
questions. It should look at how
volunteers are treated. There seems
to be a bit of abuse within the
homelessness voluntary sector.
Once the second stage of the research
is completed, we should have a
fuller picture of both the benefits
that volunteering can bring and the
potential problems that homeless
volunteers might face.
Terminology
The terms ‘volunteering’ and
‘homeless’ have a range of different
meanings. Here we discuss the
meanings we have attributed to these
terms for the purposes of this article.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006 14

‘Volunteering’ large statutory agencies.

The OSW Volunteer Development
Project sees volunteering as an
unpaid role entered into freely
to benefit other people or the
environment with a charitable or
voluntary body, statutory agency,
self-help or community group. So
it is not work experience with a
commercial company, or New Deal,
community service or any other
compulsory scheme.
Volunteering encompasses any
activity that falls within this
definition. So, for example:
· It could be anything from a one-off
activity to a full-time residential
role.
· It could involve working with a
wide range of organisations, from
small community groups with no
paid staff to national charities or
· It could involve work that is
practical, caring, administrative or
creative.
· It could require very formal
training or hands-on training.
· It could require intensive support
and supervision – or no support at
all.
‘Homeless’
The term ‘homeless’ does not mean
simply street homeless: the category
is wider and more complex. OSW
works with a very diverse range of
people who are homeless or at risk
of homelessness. These clients could
be living in hostels or temporary
accommodation, staying with friends
or squatting, or they may have even
have been recently resettled and have
their own flat. The chart below shows
the current housing situation of the
people surveyed.

Supported Temporary
accommodation accomodation
4% (inc B&B)
Street homeless
11%
6%
Hostels
Squat
33%
2%

Someone's sofa
6%
Recently LA/Housing
resettled association
Nightshelter 17%
15% Not answered 4%
2%
Homeless people and volunteering
Are homeless people
interested in volunteering?
Many projects support people from
socially excluded groups to volunteer.
Volunteering has become such a
mainstream method of improving
inclusion that it is explicitly included
in government policy on reducing
exclusion for refugees and people
with mental health problems.
However, the OSW Volunteer
Development Project was only the
third project in the UK specifically
supporting homeless people to
volunteer, and at the time of writing
is the only one still in existence. The
homelessness sector has been slow
to investigate the potential benefits
of volunteering for its clients. This
may partly be because, until recently,
many homelessness agencies had
policies banning homeless people
from volunteering with them. This
means that, unlike many other
sectors (such as disability, refugee
and asylum seekers, HIV), the
homelessness sector has not been able
to see at first hand the benefits that
volunteering brings to its clients.
The growing emphasis placed by
funders on the involvement of
service users, together with the
work done by organisations such as
Groundswell UK on the importance
of user-led solutions, has led to a
surge in the number of organisations
actively trying to involve their clients
as volunteers, and a consequent
15
growth of interest in the benefits
of volunteering. However, many
staff in homelessness agencies are
still reluctant to invest their limited
resources in supporting clients to
volunteer. The most common reasons
they give are that there are more
important priorities (housing, paid
employment) and that few clients are
likely to be interested in volunteering.
Our own research (Singh, 2005)
strongly contradicted this latter
assertion: 78 per cent of respondents
believed that volunteering is a positive
step towards resettlement. So the first
question this article sought to answer
was whether homeless people are
interested in volunteering – and why.
Anecdotal evidence from workers
in homelessness agencies suggested
that a significant number of the
people we interviewed who had never
volunteered would also have no plans
to volunteer in future. However, when
asked if they would ever want to
volunteer in the future, not a single
person answered ‘Never’. In fact, 71
per cent said that they would want to
volunteer at some time in the future,
and 29 per cent said that they wanted
to volunteer now. Interestingly, of the
71 per cent who said they wanted to
volunteer in the future, half stated
that what was stopping them at the
moment was not finding the right
sort of opportunities. So presumably
they had actively considered
volunteering as an option.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
I would volunteer if the opportunity
was working with people whose
problems I can relate to, and if I
would be learning new things and
meeting new people.
Just 21 per cent of those who were not
currently volunteering said they would
volunteer only if their lives became
more stable – contradicting the view
that homeless people are not interested
in volunteering because it gets in the
way of other priorities such as finding
paid work or housing.
In fact, our research shows that most
people don’t regard volunteering as an
activity they can only take up when
they become more settled – they see it
as part of the route to becoming more
settled. Far from viewing volunteering
as the preserve of individuals with
settled lives, our survey of homeless
people with experience of volunteering
showed that people often started to
volunteer precisely because they were
homeless.
Volunteering helps you to keep a
foothold in the mainstream and stops
you from sinking further down.
When asked what first prompted them
to volunteer, current volunteers cited:
· The desire to improve employability
(15 per cent).
· Boredom (25 per cent).
· A wish to give something back (55
per cent).
16
Past volunteers cited:
· The desire to improve employability
(12 per cent).
· A wish to feel better about
themselves (13 per cent).
· A wish to give something back (19
per cent)
· Boredom (37 per cent).
Those surveyed saw volunteering as
potentially a way of solving some
of the problems that they faced, or
of fulfilling their duty to make life
better for other homeless people. It
was also noteworthy that 79 per cent
of the people who were currently
volunteering had not volunteered
before they became homeless, and
69 per cent of people who had
volunteered in the past had started
volunteering after they had become
homeless. Therefore the majority
of people surveyed had started
volunteering after they had become
homeless, implying once again that
the impetus to volunteer was partially
due to the experience of being
homeless. This evidence suggests
not only that homeless people are
definitely interested in volunteering,
but also that many people see
volunteering as a means of tackling
some of the problems associated with
homelessness:
Volunteering is a chance to get out of
a vicious circle. It’s a positive move
forward – lets you know that things
aren’t over.
Homeless people and volunteering 17

What do homeless people get · Only 31 per cent said that

out of volunteering? increased employability was the
There has been a tendency among most important factor.
funders to view volunteering by
socially excluded groups as primarily People with experience of
a means of increasing employability. volunteering and those who had
Our research (Singh, 2005) showed never volunteered both felt that
that 58 per cent of people surveyed volunteering had a wide range of
did indeed see volunteering as possible benefits. Given a list of ten
an important step towards paid potential benefits, 85 per cent of
work. However, we also found that respondents thought that volunteering
increased employability was rarely would be useful in helping people to
seen as the most important benefit achieve all ten. In particular:
to be gained from volunteering. Of
the people who had experience of · 100 per cent thought that
volunteering: volunteering enabled homeless
people to widen their social circle.
· Only 23 per cent felt that the most · 92 per cent felt it helped homeless
important thing that homeless people to gain experience.
people got out of volunteering was · 91 per cent felt that it helped
increased employability. homeless people to gain
· 66 per cent felt that it was feeling confidence.
better about themselves.
· 11 per cent felt it was a chance to Those people with experience of
give something back. volunteering were marginally more
likely to say that volunteering
Similar views were held by people brought major personal benefits.
with no experience of volunteering: This is backed up by the finding that
100 per cent of the individuals who
· 69 per cent said that the most had volunteered said that, overall,
important benefit was making volunteering had been a positive
people feel better about themselves. experience.

Percentage of people who thought that volunteering could help people a great
amount to:
100
90
80 100
92
70 92 91 91
87 87 85 85 85
60
50

people Gain Gain routine

Meet new Gain Develop a
experience skills Imrove CV
confidence
Get training
Testareas
out new
of work Tackle stigma
communication Ge a reference
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
It seems clear that the people
surveyed saw volunteering as a way
of increasing social and ‘soft’ skills,
and in many cases regarded this as
more important than the benefits
related to employability. Most people
felt that the increase in self-worth
and confidence, and the chance
to ‘give something back’, were the
most important benefits. However,
respondents did also feel that
volunteering increased employability:
· 93 per cent thought it would help a
great deal in gaining experience.
· 85 per cent thought it would help
them in gaining a reference.
· 86 per cent felt that it would
improve their CV.
In particular, respondents mentioned
volunteering as being useful for
people who had not been employed
for a long time:
Volunteering helps you build on your
CV, which is very useful if you have
large gaps of time where you haven’t
done anything.
There was also an emphasis on
volunteering as a way of ‘trying
out’ employment. Several people
mentioned it as a way of safely
testing their capabilities:
Volunteering is proof that I’m capable
of things that I have struggled with in
the past.
18
It would take much longer-term
tracking to see what the actual effects
of volunteering on employability
are. Although previous research has
universally attributed volunteering
with the potential to make an
individual more employable (for
example, Gay, 1998), few studies
have had the resources to keep in
touch with individuals beyond the
immediate lifetime of a project, so
the conclusion that volunteering has
a positive effect on an individual’s
long-term employment prospects is
largely speculative. In fact, a study
of volunteering and employability
commissioned by the Department for
Education and Skills (DfES) found
that, far from dramatically increasing
employability, volunteering had
only a minimal effect on how long
it took most individuals to get off
the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
register (Hirst, 2001). However, this
study did find one group for whom
volunteering seemed to increase
employability – people who were
socially excluded:
It appears that those who are most
likely to benefit are those who are less
likely to have well developed social
networks. Volunteering, therefore,
may play a role by enabling such
people to develop social networks.
The impact may be as much in terms
of social skills and social benefits as
those directly related to employment
(Hirst, 2001:28).
Homeless people and volunteering
This reinforces the findings of our
own research – that the development
of ‘soft’ skills is the most important
benefit of volunteering. Future
research carried out by OSW will, one
hopes, be able to track the progress
of individuals over several years and
draw a more informed conclusion on
whether volunteering is a significant
factor in helping people to find paid
employment.
Focusing solely on employability
denies us the full picture of the
benefits of volunteering. As a
high proportion of funding for
move-on services in homelessness
agencies is dependent on ‘hard’
outcomes (e.g. jobs, qualifications),
there is a tendency to emphasise
employability over other personal
outcomes. It seems clear from this
survey that many homeless people
see volunteering as a way of helping
them achieve ‘soft’ outcomes, such
as improved confidence and self-
esteem. Because soft outcomes are
hard to measure, and are rarely
linked to funding, they can be seen
as less desirable. But it’s interesting
to note that the people we surveyed
generally ranked soft outcomes as
being more important to them than
hard outcomes. Many respondents
mentioned the reciprocity of
volunteering:
You feel that you are giving
something back to the community,
19
but you are also getting something in
return.
With volunteering I can contribute
something to society whilst developing
my skills and experience.
The fact that volunteering is a
way of helping other people was
an extremely important motivator.
Among respondents with experience
of volunteering, 11 per cent said it
was the single most important benefit
to be derived from volunteering, and
many people mentioned it alongside
other benefits. This sense of reciprocal
benefit gives volunteering a unique
advantage. It is more than just a
meaningful activity: the experience
of actively choosing to help someone
increases self-worth and helps people
to recover their self-esteem – benefits
that this survey’s respondents
attached more importance to than
gaining references or improving their
CV.
Homeless people should not be given
the stigma of being useless. The
most important thing I get out of
volunteering is a sense of pride.
Another finding of the DfES survey
(Hirst, 2001) was that people who
volunteered were fussier about what
jobs they would take. This raising
of expectations and aspirations
is another important benefit that
volunteering can bring.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
There seems to be a difference
between what funders and
government identify as the primary
benefits of volunteering, and the
primary benefits identified by the
homeless people we surveyed.
Employability is an important benefit,
but for our client group, it seems, it is
not the most important.
What sort of voluntary
roles are homeless people
interested in?
The overwhelming majority of
respondents identified their ideal
role as working within an agency
that helped homeless people. Where
people showed an interest in working
in other sectors, it was generally
linked with past experience of using
services in those sectors. Of the
current volunteers:
· 85 per cent volunteered for a
homelessness agency.
· 10 per cent volunteered for other
services where they had been
clients (drug and alcohol, mental
health and youth groups).
· 5 per cent volunteered for
completely external agencies.
Of the people with no experience of
volunteering:
· 53 per cent said that they would
like to volunteer for a homelessness
agency.
· 24 per cent said that they would
20
like to volunteer for another service
where they had been a client.
· 23 per cent said that they would
like to volunteer for an external
agency.
Individuals wanted to volunteer in
organisations similar to those that
had helped them because they wanted
to give something back:
You’ve been helped, so you help back.
People also felt that their past
experience would give them the
knowledge and understanding to do
the work well:
Because you’ve experienced
homelessness, you may relate to the
people you work with better and
you’ll get more job satisfaction.
These findings are particularly
interesting when one considers that
many homelessness agencies operate
a blanket ban on homeless people
volunteering for them. In effect,
this means that many homeless
people are barred from precisely
the opportunities they are most
interested in. Blanket bans on clients
volunteering are slowly becoming
a thing of the past, but until that
happens, there is a significant group
of people who would volunteer if
the right role came up but may
well remain non-volunteers. This is
particularly worrying when we look
Homeless people and volunteering
at volunteering as an expression
of active citizenship. Volunteering
is not just about helping others
– it is also about playing an active
role in shaping the community in
which you live. The chance to ‘give
something back’ is as much about
having an input into how services are
run as it is about giving time to do
more practical tasks. Several of the
volunteers we spoke to were engaged
in roles where they felt they were
representing the views of their peers
and helping to change how services
viewed clients:
I started volunteering because I
though that it was really important to
communicate service-users’ needs.
To enable homeless people to derive
the full range of benefits from
volunteering –including having an
input into their local community
– these blanket bans need to be lifted.
It is not surprising that homeless
people want to help people in similar
situations to themselves; a survey
of volunteers in a cancer charity
would probably reveal that many of
them had in some way been affected
by cancer. However, this finding
could also partly reflect respondents’
experience of seeing other people
volunteer. Whilst it is undeniably true
that, given the choice, many people
would prefer opportunities within
the homelessness sector anyway,
21
some people’s decision may be partly
predetermined by the fact that this
is the sector where they can most
easily find opportunities. When asked
how they would go about finding an
opportunity:
· 41 per cent of people said that
they would approach a known
organisation or ask around within
services they were currently using.
· 54 per cent of people with
experience of volunteering had
found their opportunity through
being a service-user at an
organisation.
· 5 per cent had been asked by an
acquaintance to start volunteering.
· 23 per cent had found their
volunteering opportunity through
support workers in homelessness
agencies.
These statistics suggest that not
everyone is fully aware of the range
of opportunities that exist outside
the homelessness sector. Whilst it is
vital to ensure that people are able
to use their skills and experience to
volunteer within the homelessness
sector if they choose, it is also
important to enable people to make
an informed choice by finding
about the full range of opportunities
available. Only 6 per cent of
respondents mentioned volunteer
centres, which suggests that much
more needs to be done to promote the
range of opportunities such centres
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
can offer and the support they can
provide.
Eighty-two per cent of respondents
said they would prefer part-time
opportunities because they had other
commitments in their life. People
felt that part-time volunteering
could fit in alongside training,
looking for paid work and caring
responsibilities. None of the people
who were currently volunteering
were working full time. Although
50 per cent of the people who had
volunteered in the past had been full-
time volunteers, the reason they had
stopped was in every case because
of other commitments. Since very
few volunteering opportunities are
full time, this finding suggests that
the amount of time our respondents
were willing to give fits in with the
needs of most volunteer-involving
organisations. It also emphasises the
fact that volunteering is an activity
that people can fit in alongside other
things. For most people, it is seen
as part of a programme of move-on
activities.
Eighty-eight per cent of respondents
said they would like the opportunity
to take part in one-off opportunities.
They felt that these would be a good
way to try out volunteering:
It would only be a small commitment
and then I could build from that.
22
It would be good to try things out
and see what they’re like.
At present there are few one-off
voluntary opportunities available.
Community Service Volunteers (CSV)
runs the Go scheme, which enables
people to turn up and take part
in a one-day task; and the British
Trust for Conservation Volunteers
will take on one-day environmental
volunteers. The level of interest
displayed in one-off opportunities
suggests that it would be worthwhile
making links between homelessness
agencies and these existing schemes,
and that it may be useful to think
about developing other one-off
opportunities.
What are the barriers to homeless
people volunteering?
Three-quarters of respondents felt
that homeless people faced barriers
to volunteering. Of those with
experience of volunteering, 81 per
cent felt that homeless people faced
barriers, whereas only 65 per cent
of those who had never volunteered
thought so. This is interesting,
because we can presume that the
people who had volunteered were
speaking from personal knowledge,
which suggests that in practice there
are even more barriers than someone
who has never volunteered might
initially anticipate. Of the people who
had volunteered:
Homeless people and volunteering
· 37 per cent identified stigma as a
barrier.
· 33 per cent identified people’s own
attitudes (particularly a lack of
confidence) as a barrier.
· 27 per cent identified practical
issues, such as having no fixed
contact address, as barriers.
Of the non-volunteers:
· 40 per cent identified people’s own
attitudes (particularly a lack of
confidence) as a potential barrier.
· 30 per cent identified practical
issues, such as poor appearance
and not having a fixed address, as
potential barriers.
· 20 per cent identified stigma as a
potential barrier.
Both groups identified personal
attitudes as a bigger problem than
practical obstacles. Both groups
perceived lack of confidence and the
feeling that they had nothing to offer
as a major barrier to homeless people
offering time. This problem was also
noted by the Institute for Volunteering
Research in its study of socially
excluded groups and volunteering:
Lack of confidence was found to be
a key barrier. It was exacerbated for
individuals who had experienced
exclusion in other areas of life ...
the perception (rightly or wrongly)
that organisations would not
welcome them puts some people
23
off volunteering (Institute for
Volunteering Research, 2004:8).
Because most of the volunteers we
surveyed were working in settings
where they had also been clients, it is
difficult to assess the level of stigma
homeless volunteers might face if
they volunteered in a different type
of agency. Interestingly, everyone
who had volunteered with other types
of agency since becoming homeless
had chosen not to disclose that they
were, or had been, homeless; this
strongly suggests that people had
concerns about being stigmatised
or treated differently. It is difficult
to tell whether the stigma is real or
perceived. Over the last year sixty
organisations from outside the
homelessness sector have chosen
to attend OSW training in making
their volunteer programmes more
accessible to homeless people, which
suggests that many organisations
are more than willing to take on
homeless people as volunteers.
However, it is also almost certainly
true that many organisations out
there would balk at the idea of taking
on a homeless person as a volunteer.
It is worth noting that most of
the volunteers we surveyed had
experience of volunteering within the
homelessness sector. Therefore – and
perhaps somewhat paradoxically
– when they spoke about stigma
and being made to feel unwelcome,
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
many respondents were talking
about the homelessness sector rather
than more mainstream volunteer-
involving organisations. The fact that
many homelessness organisations
have a blanket ban on homeless
people volunteering may partly
explain why people felt that they
would not be welcome as potential
volunteers. However, further research
is needed into individual experiences
to see how far the stigma attached
to homelessness affects homeless
volunteers.
Attitudinal barriers are extremely
difficult to overcome. Our results
suggest that, for homeless people to
have equal access to voluntary roles,
we need to change the perceptions of
both homeless people and volunteer-
involving organisations. The only
way to do this is to support more
homeless people to volunteer.
The more people see their peers
volunteering, the more the perception
that homeless people can’t volunteer
will be challenged. And the more
homeless people volunteer, the more
organisations will realise that such
people have something to offer. By
facilitating this support, tracking the
progress of individuals and publicising
the project’s work, the Volunteer
Development Project can help to tackle
people’s prejudices and assumptions.
However, it will need more than one
project to change ingrained thinking.
24
If real progress is to be made, more
resources need to be directed towards
supporting homeless people to
volunteer, both within homelessness
agencies and externally by volunteer
development agencies.
Of the practical barriers, the most
significant was the perception that
volunteering would affect benefits.
Thirty-five per cent thought that
volunteering could result in them
losing welfare benefits; 80 per
cent (28 per cent of the people
questioned overall) of these people
were given this information by the
benefits office. This is particularly
unfortunate, because volunteering
should not affect welfare benefits
as long as the only money the
volunteer receives is a reimbursement
of expenses. This survey found that
Jobcentre Plus staff are routinely
advising people incorrectly, negating
the reality that one of the major
advantages of volunteering for
people living in hostels and other
forms of temporary or supported
accommodation is that it does not
affect their housing benefit. Ours is
not the first piece of research to have
identified this completely avoidable
barrier.
Many respondents feared losing their
welfare benefits if they volunteered.
Although the regulations state that
most benefits claimants can volunteer
for an unlimited amount of hours
Homeless people and volunteering
... in many cases the message was
not getting through to potential
volunteers, so they were too fearful
to volunteer. In other cases the
message was not getting through to
benefits staff, resulting in people
being threatened with the withdrawal
of their benefits (Institute for
Volunteering Research, 2004:32).
What is the best way to
support homeless people to
volunteer?
Of the volunteers surveyed, everyone
who had started volunteering since
becoming homeless had been given
some kind of support by the staff
of homelessness agencies. These
members of staff were the most
popular first port of call for finding
out about volunteering. Therefore
it seems likely that the best way
of supporting homeless people to
volunteer is to build the capacity
of staff to advise people about
volunteering. This fits in with the
findings of Volunteering England’s
survey of people with mental health
issues, which found:
Sixty-six per cent of respondents
indicated that the most effective
means of informing potential
volunteers was via key workers
or support staff (Institute for
Volunteering Research, 2004:29).
However, as previously stated, many
staff in the homelessness sector
25
assume that volunteering is not
worth expending limited resources
on. Work needs to be done to educate
staff about the potential benefits
of volunteering; 83 per cent of
people surveyed thought that more
training about volunteering for
workers in homelessness agencies
would be useful. Since most barriers
to volunteering seem to be to do
with perceptions – more often based
on assumptions than reality – it is
important that people should have
access to accurate information about
all aspects of volunteering; 83 per
cent of respondents thought that
written information on benefits,
police checks etc. would be really
useful.
The focus group of workers felt that,
whilst it would be useful to be able to
give people better advice and to know
in which direction to signpost them,
they lacked the time to give people
the intensive support they needed
to start and sustain a volunteer
role. This was also the case with the
volunteer centres, which found that,
without dedicated staff, it was hard
to stay in touch with people and keep
them motivated. Eighty-nine per cent
of homeless people surveyed felt that
special mentors to support people to
find and keep opportunities would be
very useful. It would seem that this
level of intensive support is needed if
multiply disadvantaged people are to
be helped to volunteer. There need to
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
be more resources for support workers
in homelessness agencies or volunteer
centres, and existing projects that
provide people with intensive
support to find paid work need to
be extended to support people into
volunteer roles as well.
The Institute for Volunteering
Research’s social exclusion survey
found that:
Evidence suggests that word of
mouth is the most common route into
volunteering, but for people who are
excluded from other areas of society
the reality is that they are unlikely to
be connected to the networks that do
the asking (Institute for Volunteering
Research, 2004:33).
The fact that so many of the
respondents who were not
volunteering said that they would
do so if the right opportunity
presented itself suggests that the
above observations are also true for
homeless people. A major part of
making volunteering more accessible
to homeless people is connecting
them to the ‘networks that do the
asking’. Eighty-one per cent of
people surveyed thought that events
where they could meet people from
volunteer-involving organisations
would be really useful. This could
take the form of regular sessions with
advisers from the local volunteer
centre, or large volunteer promotion
26
events with several organisations
represented.
Conclusions
· Many homeless people are
interested in volunteering and see
it as a means of tackling some of
the problems they face as a result
of homelessness. For the majority
of people who were not currently
volunteering, the major factor
stopping them was not having
come across the right opportunity.
· Homeless people can derive a wide
range of potential benefits from
volunteering. Although respondents
clearly saw volunteering as a way
of increasing employability, they
attached more importance to ‘soft’
benefits such as raising confidence
and increasing self-worth. The
reciprocity of volunteering is
unique and enables it to offer a
unique range of benefits.
· Most people surveyed were
primarily interested in volunteering
within the homelessness sector.
However, blanket bans on client
volunteering in many homelessness
agencies mean that opportunities
can be limited.
· In some cases, people may be
expressing an interest in roles
within homelessness agencies
because they are not fully
informed about other voluntary
Homeless people and volunteering
opportunities. Work needs to
be done to ensure that people
are aware of the full range of
opportunities, so that they can make
an informed choice about which
volunteer role is right for them.
· The barriers to volunteering
that homeless people face are
largely attitudinal: either their
own perception that they have
nothing to give and would not be
welcomed as volunteers, or the
perception of volunteer-involving
organisations that homeless people
would not make good volunteers.
· The biggest practical barrier was
the fear that volunteering would
affect welfare benefits. One reason
for this is the fact that people are
being given inaccurate information
by Jobcentre Plus staff.
· The most effective way to support
homeless people to volunteer is
via the agencies that are already
supporting them. Homeless people
need to be connected with the
networks that actively recruit
volunteers.
Recommendations
· Volunteering should be widely
promoted as an option for
homeless people. It needs to be
seen not as second best to paid
employment, but as an important
outcome in its own right.
27
· The staff of homelessness agencies
need to know more about the
potential benefits volunteering can
bring; they need to think beyond
volunteering as just a way of
‘trying out’ paid work.
· The staff of homelessness agencies
need to be given the training and
support that will enable them to
advise clients accurately about
volunteering and to signpost them
to agencies where they can find
voluntary opportunities.
· Homelessness agencies should link
up with volunteering brokerage
agencies (such as volunteer centres)
to ensure that people are aware
of the full range of opportunities.
This will enable them to make
an informed choice about which
volunteer role is right for them.
· Support should be made
available to assist people to
find opportunities that fit their
individual needs and help them to
meet their goals.
· More resources should be made
available to develop specialist staff
or extend existing schemes to offer
support for people to volunteer.
· Homelessness organisations
need to drop their blanket bans
on clients volunteering and
actively encourage their clients to
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
volunteer. The homelessness sector
needs to be aware that when it
refuses to take on its own clients as
volunteers it is sending out a very
negative message.
· Respondents were very interested
in the possibility of one-off
volunteering opportunities, so
links need to be strengthened
between homelessness agencies
and organisations running one-off
volunteering schemes.
· The attitudinal barriers to
volunteering that homeless people
face need to be tackled by raising
awareness and by increasing
the number of homeless people
volunteering.
· More research needs to be done
into whether stigma really does
stop mainstream organisations
from involving homeless people, or
whether this is just an assumption.
· The biggest practical barrier was
the fear that volunteering would
affect people’s benefits. The
problem can be minimised by
ensuring that homeless people have
access to the correct information,
but Jobcentre Plus also needs
to ensure that its staff are
correctly trained on the subject of
volunteering and benefits.
28
References
Blunkett, D. (2001), ‘From strength
to strength: rebuilding community
through voluntary action’, speech
by David Blunkett (then secretary of
state for education and employment)
at the NCVO annual conference,
London, 7 February 2001. Available
at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/speeches/
media/documents/strengthtostrength.
pdf
Gay, P. (1998), ‘Getting into work:
volunteering for employability’,
Voluntary Action, 1(1), pages 55–67.
Hirst, A. (2001), Links between
volunteering and employability,
Research Report 309, Nottingham:
Department for Employment and
Skills. Available at http://www.dfes.
gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/
RR309.PDF
Home Office (2004), 2003 Home
Office Citizenship Survey: people,
families and communities, Home
Office Research Study 289, London:
Home Office Research, Development
and Statistics Directorate.
Institute for Volunteering Research
(2003), Volunteering for mental
health: a survey of volunteering by
people with experience of mental
ill health, London: Institute for
Volunteering Research.
Homeless people and volunteering 29

Institute for Volunteering Research

(2004), Volunteering for all? Exploring
the link between volunteering and
social exclusion, London: Institute for
Volunteering Research.

Singh, P. (2005), No home, no job:

moving on from transitional spaces.
Available at http://www.osw.org.uk/
pdf/No_Home_No_Job.pdf
 31

In the fields of volunteer research and management, the phenomenon

of episodic volunteering is growing in popularity. This study of
volunteers at summer festivals in British Columbia, Canada, is the
first empirical study of episodic volunteers. We find three distinct
groups of such volunteers and define them as Long-term Committed
Volunteers (LTV), Habitual Episodic Volunteers (HEV) and Genuine
Episodic Volunteers (GEV). We examine the differences between these
three groups of volunteers in their commitment to volunteering, their
motivations, their interest in tangible rewards and their willingness to
donate money. We find some significant differences, expected and
unexpected, among the three groups. This leads us to rethink current
beliefs about episodic volunteers and to suggest questions for future
research as well as ideas for the management of volunteers.

Summer on the island: episodic

volunteering
Femida Handy, School of Social Policy and Practice, University
of Pennsylvania and York University; Nadine Brodeur, Faculty of
Environmental Studies, York University; and Ram A. Cnaan, School of
Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania

The phenomenon of episodic and Srinivasan, 2002; Hall et al,

volunteering is growing in popularity
and taking the fields of volunteer
research and management by storm.
The interest has grown as inductive
assessments showed that volunteer
co-ordinators are increasingly faced
with people who wish to help only
for shorter and very well-defined
tasks (Macduff, 1990, 2004; Handy
2001). The AARP (2000) study of
older people found that that nearly
half of volunteers aged 50–59
volunteered mostly for episodic
special projects (47 per cent). Only
about a quarter of the volunteers (23
per cent) were steady volunteers who
donate about the same amount of
time each month, with about another
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
fifth (22 per cent) volunteering in
both contexts.
In addition, Hustinx and Lammertyn
(2003) have argued that an
unintended consequence of modernity
may be a switch from long-term to
episodic volunteering. They suggest
several factors that are influencing
this change: women joining the
labour force, people changing jobs
quite rapidly, employers relinquishing
responsibility for their employees and
their communities, mass media and
culture becoming international, and
accessing information through the
internet. These factors influence more
and more people to seek out and
engage in short-term experiences that
will fulfil their immediate and timely
needs, and then to move on to other
fulfilling experiences.
Most researchers agree that
episodic volunteering is a growing
phenomenon (Cnaan and Handy,
2005; Macduff, 1990, 2004).
Along with virtual volunteering
and corporate volunteering, it is
universally viewed as the ‘wave of
the future’ (Culp and Nolan, 2000).
Macduff was the first to coin the term
‘episodic’ to describe short-term, one-
off (event) volunteers, in response to
a trend towards reflexive volunteering
rather than collective and traditional
volunteer opportunities and
organisations (Macduff, 1990).
However, episodic volunteering is not
32
a new phenomenon: Fischer, Mueller
and Cooper (1991), for example, used
a low-sensitive, two-item measure
of ‘occasional’ versus ‘regular’
volunteers in their classification of
volunteering.
Cnaan and Handy (2005) perceived
episodic volunteering along a
spectrum: episodic volunteers might
include someone who volunteers
spontaneously at a food bank for one
day over Christmas, someone who
works at the same food bank and at
other seasonal charities for many days
throughout the Christmas season, and
someone who volunteers at the same
food bank every Christmas (for one or
more days) in addition to volunteering
at the organisation throughout the
year. Macduff (2005) has identified
episodic volunteering as an aspect of
volunteering in organisations that also
have a substantial base of long-term
traditional volunteers. However, there
exist many organizations – such as
those we investigate in this article –
that have a negligible base of regular
(long-term), committed volunteers
and rely almost solely on episodic
volunteers (Cnaan and Handy, 2005).
Unlike the organisations discussed by
Macduff (2005), these organisations
do, however, have episodic volunteers
who return each year and fulfil the
roles that are often performed by
regular, committed volunteers.
Brudney (2005) attempted to assess
the scope of episodic volunteering
Summer on the island: episodic volunteering
in the United States, based on data
from the independent sector. He found
that 31 per cent of all volunteers can
be defined as episodic volunteers.
However, such assessments are
limited to those long-term volunteers
who may also function as episodic
volunteers. Put differently, this means
that a long-term committed volunteer
in a local hospital may occasionally
help by working at a water station
in an annual marathon run, and as
such may be counted as an episodic
volunteer.
Hager and Brudney (2004) studied
the differences between agencies
relying more on episodic volunteers
and those relying more on ongoing
volunteers. They found that agencies
using episodic volunteers:
... tend to apply more recognition
activities, collection of information
on volunteer numbers and hours, and
measuring the impacts of volunteer
activities.
On the other hand, agencies with
more ongoing volunteers:
... are more likely to have liability
coverage or insurance protection,
training and professional development
for volunteers, screening and matching
procedures, and regular supervision
and communication (page 6).
These latter practices indicate a
greater investment in volunteers.
33
While the existence of episodic
volunteering is now well
acknowledged in the literature, no
empirical study has focused solely on
episodic volunteers. In this study, we
fill this gap by studying individuals
who volunteer for episodic tasks and
categorising them into sub-groups
based on the study’s empirical data.
As we discuss below, we identified
and collected data in one community
(Victoria, Vancouver Island, British
Columbia) that during the summer
hosts a series of local festivals and
cultural events that depend almost
exclusively on the labour of episodic
volunteers. Three distinct categories
of such volunteers emerged from
conversations with volunteer co-
ordinators and from the data we
collected. First, we identify a group
of people who, in addition to the
episodic volunteering they do at the
summer festivals, are also engaged
in long-term, regular, committed
volunteering within the same or other
organisations. Perlmutter and Cnaan
(1993), Macduff (2005) and Cnaan
and Handy (2005) identified these
regular, committed volunteers. We
define them in this article as Long-
term Committed Volunteers (LTVs).
Secondly, we identify individuals that
local volunteer co-ordinators call
‘circuit volunteers’, who volunteer
for multiple episodic opportunities
(three or more) throughout the year.
We define this group as Habitual
Episodic Volunteers (HEVs). Finally,
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
we identify individuals who volunteer
for two or fewer volunteer episodes
in a year and define them as Genuine
Episodic Volunteers (GEVs). This
latter group is compatible with
Weber’s (2002) definition of episodic
volunteers as those who contribute
their time sporadically, only during
special times of the year, or consider
volunteering as a one-off event.
Weber further suggested that these
volunteers give time without an
ongoing commitment, often in the
form of self-contained and time-
specific projects with a limited time
commitment.
Research questions:
hypotheses
Our key research question focuses
on the differences between these
three groups of volunteers. Given
that the LTVs are also involved in
traditional long-term volunteering,
we suggest that they are likely to
be more socially concerned than
the other episodic volunteers (HEVs
and GEVs), as the net costs of their
volunteering are likely to be higher
than for the others (Handy et al,
2000). Furthermore, the GEVs, who
volunteer the least, are likely to be
the least socially concerned. These
people are usually recruited for
one or two tasks, and do not take
on responsibilities as crew leaders.
They give only a few hours and they
often come with friends or crew
leaders: for example, the students
34
from an ESL (English as a second
language) class who were recruited
by their teacher (a crew leader in one
of the events) to volunteer for one
activity. Accordingly, we expect the
three groups to differ in their social
commitment in the following ways:
H1: LTVs will report longer years
of volunteering and more hours
of volunteering when compared
with HEVs, who in turn will report
longer years of volunteering and
more hours of volunteering than
GEVs.
H2: LTVs will report being more
motivated by altruistic motives
than by utilitarian, self-serving
motives when compared with
HEVs, who in turn will report
being motivated more by altruistic
motives than GEVs.
H3: LTVs will report being less
interested in the tangible rewards
offered by the events when
compared with HEVs, who in turn
will report being less interested in
tangible rewards offered by the
events than GEVs.
H4: LTVs will report having
donated money more often to
charitable causes than HEVs, who
in turn will report having donated
money more often to charitable
causes than GEVs.
Summer on the island: episodic volunteering 35

Methods 20 questions. The instrument was

designed to cover a few key areas:
Setting
demographics, volunteer involvement
The surveys were conducted at
and frequency (both at the studied
festivals and cultural events on
events and elsewhere), motivations,
Vancouver Island in Victoria,
rewards, recruitment and perceptions
British Columbia, Canada, during
of the value of volunteering.
the summer of 2005. Vancouver
Island, a large island off the coast of
To assess the differences between
British Columbia, is approximately
the three studied groups, we applied
the size of the Netherlands and is
a set of outcome measures. Years
accessible only by ferry or plane.
of volunteering and hours of
The population of the island is about
volunteering were obtained as replies
700,000, of whom half live in or
to direct informational questions.
around Victoria (Tourism Victoria,
We based the design of questions
2005). Of the two main industries of
about motivation on the National
Victoria, one is government: the city
Survey of Giving, Volunteering
is the provincial capital of British
and Participating conducted by
Columbia. The other main industry
Statistics Canada in 2000, adding
is tourism, owing to the climate and
ten items for a total of 18 items.
a variety of year-round activities.
We divided the instrument into
In 2005, there were more than 20
11 self-serving motives (Cronbach
festivals and events throughout the
alpha = .74) and seven other-serving
year (City of Victoria, 2005).
motives (Cronbach alpha = .71). In
addition we used a nine-item scale
Since a number of these summer
for measuring anticipated rewards
festivals and events in Victoria rely
from volunteering, with a reliability
on volunteers, we surveyed those who
of .87 using the Cronbach’s alpha.
volunteered at eight of the largest
Finally, respondents were asked to
and best-known: FolkFest, Luminara,
report if they had donated money to
Open Air in the Square, Victoria Latin
a set of charities that people in North
Caribbean Festival, Victoria Flower
America were commonly expected to
and Garden Show, Victoria Fringe
support in the year of the study.
Festival, Victoria Dragon Boat Festival
and the Victoria Symphony Splash.
Procedure
We administered the surveys at the
Instruments
orientation sessions for the eight
We used a self-administered,
events or festivals. We introduced
anonymous four-page survey with
ourselves, informed the volunteers
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
what we were researching and
requested them to fill out the survey
– but asked them not to do so if they
had already completed the survey at
another festival. As we were using the
respondents as the unit of analysis,
and some individuals volunteered
at more than one event, we did not
want to duplicate their responses. It
took five to ten minutes to complete
the survey. For events or festivals
that lasted more than two days, we
administered the survey on-site at
the festivals and at the volunteer
headquarters, so as to include those
who did not attend orientation
sessions.
Respondents
We received 716 volunteer responses
at the eight events or festivals. It
is estimated that there were nearly
2000 volunteers in the summer
of 2005. Thus, although we were
granted access to all these events,
we managed to sample a little over
a third of the volunteers. However,
around 500 of the total were not
eligible as they were under age (16
years or younger), or their command
of English was insufficient to self-
administer the questionnaire (mostly
ESL students). In the event, therefore,
we surveyed about half the eligible
episodic volunteers. Some elderly
people were suspicious about filling
in the survey; others didn’t go to
orientation sessions (where we had a
better chance of meeting them); some
36
were too busy during the festival;
and others just refused to fill in the
survey. As such, our sample may be
biased towards those who take the
assignment more seriously and attend
orientations, and towards newer
volunteers, who are more likely to
attend the orientations.
The 716 respondents ranged in age
from 16 to 82 years, with a mean
of 36 (s.d. = 17.2). Only a small
percentage of the respondents (11.2
per cent) were born in Victoria,
while the rest had immigrated to the
island. About a third (30.9 per cent)
were born outside Canada and had
immigrated there. On average, the
respondents had lived in Victoria for
14 years.
About two-thirds (66.5 per cent)
declared themselves White, while
the rest consisted of diverse small
ethnic groups, the largest of which
are Chinese-Canadians (5.9 per cent).
A quarter (25.9 per cent) had up to
high-school education (including
some who are under 18) and 17.4 per
cent reported postgraduate education.
The majority reported a household
income of below 40,000 Canadian
Dollars (CND) (46.8 per cent), whereas
only a tenth (11.6 per cent) reported
being in the highest annual category
of above 80,000 CND (see Note
One). The majority of respondents
were single (63.8 per cent) and
consequently most of them did not
Summer on the island: episodic volunteering
have children (77.5 per cent). These
findings may be unique to Victoria,
to summer volunteering or to episodic
volunteering; only a national survey
may be able to suggest how far our
findings can be generalised.
As noted above, our focus in
this article is on comparing and
contrasting three types of episodic
volunteers. Of the respondents, a
third (32.5 per cent) are Long-Term
Committed Volunteers (LTVs), a sixth
(14.9 per cent) are Habitual Episodic
Volunteers (HEVs) and about half
(52.5 per cent) are Genuine Episodic
Volunteers (GEVs). Given that our
focus was on finding episodic
volunteers in events that recruit such
volunteers, this distribution is helpful
and could serve as a benchmark
for future research on episodic
volunteering.
We analysed the data to assess if
these three groups are significantly
different in terms of their key
demographic characteristics. We
found that where marital status,
employment status and income were
concerned, there was no significant
association with volunteering type.
However, more males than females
were found among the GEVs and
more females among the LTVs (X2
= 9.12, d.f. = 2, p < .01). Similarly,
more retired people reported being
among the LTVs and fewer retirees
among the GEVs (X2 = 12.54, d.f. = 2,
37
p < .01). In contrast, there were more
students among the GEVs and fewer
among the LTVs and HEVs (X2 = 7.41,
d.f. = 2, p < .05). Not surprisingly,
the LTVs and HEVs were, on average,
older by six years than the GEVs (F
= 5.3, p < .01). Finally, compared
with immigrants, there were more
Canadian-born people among the
LTVs and HEVs than the GEVs (X2 =
12.77, d.f. = 2, p < .01).
Findings
To test the first hypothesis – that
LTVs donate more hours and have
volunteered for more years than
HEVs, who in turn donate more
hours and have volunteered for
more years than GEVs – we used
ANOVA (see Note Two). Regarding
years of volunteering, we found that
our hypothesis was only partially
supported. The F-test was significant
(F = 7.84, p < .001). Using post-hoc
Scheffe test at the .05 level reveals
that Habitual Episodic Volunteers
(HEVs) indeed volunteer for longer
(2.70 years) than Genuine Episodic
Volunteers (GEVs) (1.74 years), but
also for significantly longer than
Long-term Committed Volunteers
(LTVs) (1.98 years). The low number
of years of volunteering among
LTVs is most likely an artefact of
our survey. We asked for years of
volunteering with regard to the eight
festivals or events only, and not to
any other volunteering. We have
no data on years of volunteering
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
for the LTVs (those individuals who
reported on-going volunteering in
other contexts) and this may have led
to the low number obtained for this
group.
We ran a multiple regression (see
Note Three) with the dependent
variable ‘years of volunteering’. We
found that the impact of the three
groups disappeared. Instead, two
variables emerged as significantly
explaining years of volunteering in
these summer events or festivals:
being retired and living longer in
Victoria.
The second part of the first
hypothesis considers the number
of hours of volunteering in 2005.
This measure was also recorded for
the LTVs in their other activities.
As expected, we found significant
differences (F = 140.81, p < .001):
LTVs volunteered for many more
hours (356.10) than HEVs (89.88) and
GEVs (29.05). Using post-hoc Scheffe
test at the .05 level reveals that LTVs
are indeed significantly different from
the two other groups, but that HEVs
are not significantly different from
GEVs. However, this difference was
noticeable and significant at the .064
level, i.e. almost significant. As such,
the second part of the first hypothesis
was supported almost in full.
When running a multiple regression
with hours of volunteering as the
38
dependent variable, we found that, in
addition to group differences (LTVs
volunteering more than the other
two groups), people who were born
in Canada and who had spent more
years in Victoria tended to volunteer
for more hours. This finding may
suggest that newcomers to Victoria,
and by extension everywhere else,
start volunteering at episodic events
such as these festivals and when more
settled become LTVs. This suggestion,
however, requires further research.
The second hypothesis focused on
the motivation to volunteer. We
divided the motives into two groups:
those geared towards the utilitarian
and self-serving (e.g. ‘It feels good
to volunteer’ or ‘I get free passes to
some of the events’) and those that
are more to do with serving others
(e.g. ‘To contribute to the cause of
the event or the organization’ or ‘To
answer to my sense of civic duty’).
For each motive, the respondents
were asked to rate its relevance to
themselves on a Likert-type scale of
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree). Regarding self-serving
motives, there were no significant
differences between the three groups
(means of 3.11, 3.20 and 3.11
respectively; F = .89, p = .43).This
means that each group was as likely
as the other groups to report self-
serving behaviours in comparison
with the other groups. Furthermore,
using a regression model did not
Summer on the island: episodic volunteering
reveal any variable that could explain
variation in self-serving motivation.
As regards altruistic motives,
however, a significant difference
was found (F = 14.40, p < .001).
Using post-hoc Scheffe test at the
.05 level reveals that LTVs and HEVs
were significantly more likely to be
motivated to volunteer for altruistic
motives than GEVs, with means
and standard deviations of 3.61
(s.d. = .60) and 3.67 (s.d. = .70) 3.36
(s.d. = .72) respectively. As such,
the second hypothesis was only
partially supported, in that GEVs are
less concerned with the welfare of
others than the other two groups.
However, when running a multiple
regression using altruistic motives
as the dependent variable, we found
that the impact of the three groups
disappeared. Instead, two variables
emerged as significantly explaining
‘serving others’ motives: being a
student (negatively) and years in
Canada (positively).
The third hypothesis focused on
rewards from the volunteer work.
Contrary to our expectation, the
three groups did not differ in their
expectations of rewards (F = .73,
p = .48). When we averaged the
responses for the nine reward options,
the mean of the three groups ranged
from 3.17 to 3.22, with standard
deviations ranging from .89 to .94,
where 3 is neutral (on the Likert-
39
type scale ranging from 1 to 5)
about the importance of this reward.
We further analysed the association
between the three groups and the
nine reward items (e.g. ‘thank you
note’ or ‘free T-shirt’). In each of the
nine separate analyses, the Chi-square
tests of association resulted in an
insignificant association. Hence, our
third hypothesis was rejected. Using
a regression model did not reveal any
variable that could explain variation
in the interest shown by volunteers in
tangible rewards.
The fourth hypothesis suggested
that LTVs are more likely to donate
money to charitable causes than
HEVs, who in turn are more likely to
do so than GEVs. We asked whether
the person had donated money in the
past 24 months to the organisation
in which they volunteer, to the
tsunami relief (see Note Four) and to
any other charitable causes. Only 48
(6.7 per cent) reported donating to
the organisation for which they had
volunteered. A larger number – 313
(43.7 per cent) – donated money
to the tsunami relief and 458 (64
per cent) donated to other causes.
Using Chi-square test of association,
we compared those who do not
donate at all, those who donate to
one charitable cause and those who
donate to two or three of the listed
options. We found a significant
association between the three groups
and three responses of donating
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
behaviour (donating to none, to one
cause and to two or more causes)
(X2 = 9.92, d.f. = 3, p < .05). Among
LTVs, 45.5 per cent reported donating
to two or three causes, as compared
with 42.1 per cent of HEVs and 34.4
per cent of GEVs. Similarly, 33 per
cent of GEVs reported not donating
at all, as compared with 28.0 per cent
of HEVs and only 23.2 per cent of
LTVs. We tested the impact of income
on the relationships between groups
and donation; the association is not
due to level of income (see Note
Five). As such, the fourth hypothesis
was supported by the data. When we
studied the impact of other variables,
only years of residence in Victoria
significantly explained donating
money to charity.
One of the authors, through
experience as a volunteer co-
ordinator with FolkFest and the
Victoria Dragon Boat Festival and
through observing the volunteers
during data collection, observed
strong ties among the HEVs. Among
these volunteers, the sense of
camaraderie led to mutual recruitment
for future events in which they could
participate together.
Conclusions
LTVs, as expected, provided more
hours of service and are also more
engaged in donating money to
charitable causes. While a few of our
hypotheses were not fully supported
40
and one was rejected outright, the
overall picture is that there are
volunteers who are more involved in
caring for others and the community.
Among those engaged solely in
episodic volunteering, the HEVs were
the more committed. They may face
constraints to becoming LTVs, but
when they can find the time – in this
case during the summer – they give
many hours and assume leadership
roles. This finding is relevant to
volunteer management, as some
episodic volunteers can easily be
retained and are willing to assume
leadership roles (in our case as crew
leaders) on an episodic basis (in our
case the summer).
With regard to years of volunteering
experience, LTVs and GEVs are
similar. As we did not measure
years of volunteering outside the
eight episodic festival or events, the
more relevant difference is between
HEVs and GEVs. It makes sense that
the entry point into an episodic
volunteering experience should vary,
although one of the reasons why
the number of hours volunteered
by HEVs might be significantly
more than those donated by GEVs
may be because, for HEVs, episodic
volunteer opportunities are reinforced
by the sense of community that we
found among such volunteers. It is
reasonable to assume that such a
community may not develop among
LTVs and GEVs. For LTVs, their long-
Summer on the island: episodic volunteering
term commitments might be more
of a priority, and this is where they
form their communities. As for GEVs,
who may face greater constraints and
participate only sporadically with
little chance of returning (e.g. the ESL
students), episodic volunteering at
events or festivals is not where they
seek or find a sense of community. A
future study investigating the sense
of community and social capital
created among HEVs through their
episodic volunteering would deepen
our understanding of the benefits of
such volunteering to volunteers and
the community.
The fact that only 48 people (6.7
per cent) reported donating to the
organisation for which they had
volunteered may be indicative of
the nature of episodic volunteering.
In long-term volunteering, people
may develop attachments to the
organisation they serve and thus may
also be motivated to help financially.
However, as we studied only eight
short-term festival or events, it is less
likely that people will develop such
attachments and contribute to the
organisations concerned. At times, we
found that volunteers did not even
know the name of the organisation
that had planned the events, only the
name of the event with which they
had agreed to help. Among those who
did donate to their organisations,
many are also long-term volunteers
or even board members for these
41
organisations, in addition to being
episodic volunteers. It may be
useful for organisations to try to
solicit donations from the episodic
volunteers, who may develop an
attachment to organisations that they
get to know personally and whose
work they appreciate.
Using regression models, we found
that being Canadian-born and retired,
and having resided for some time in
Victoria, led to greater investment in
volunteering, as measured by hours
per year and/or years of volunteering.
One could interpret the finding thus:
being born in Canada exposes one
to the norm of volunteering; living
for some time in Victoria exposes
one to the various festivals and the
opportunity to volunteer; and being
retired gives one more free time to
volunteer. Another explanation might
be that people who reside longer
in a community and probably have
property in it (as may be the case
with most retired people) are more
concerned about the quality of life
in their area, and thus have a greater
proclivity to volunteer to these
community events or festivals.
Further study is required to
establish if there is a progression
in volunteering experiences. Do
individuals start as GEVs and
progress to becoming HEVs and
LTVs as they reap the benefits of
volunteering and develop a sense
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
of community? Is it possible that
initial experiences as a GEV help
people to ‘test the water’ and that
if their involvement results in a
positive experience, they are more
willing to increase their involvement
in volunteering? Although these
questions are beyond the scope of
the present study, our initial findings
suggest them as themes for future
research.
The fact that not all our
hypotheses were supported raises
the possibility that some of the
current understandings of episodic
volunteering in the literature need
re-evaluation. A common belief
regarding episodic volunteers is that
they are a new breed of volunteers
who are not willing to play by the
‘top-down’ model of volunteering
or to invest in being trained before
being given the volunteer task.
Hustinx (2003, 2005) noted that
episodic volunteers tend to view
themselves as autonomous, picking
and choosing tasks that are not
necessarily based on the objectives
of the organisation, but rather on
personal goals, preferences and
motives. However, our findings
suggest that episodic volunteers
are well able to be directed, as
shown by their ability to sustain
so many festivals and events in
Victoria year after year. Episodic
volunteers of all kinds may well be
autonomous in their decision whether
42
to volunteer or not, but once they
have volunteered, they do attend
orientation and training sessions,
they come to their shifts on time and
they carry out tasks assigned by the
organisers while reporting to crew
co-ordinators. Even those people
who are Long-Term Committed
Volunteers elsewhere are accepting
episodic volunteer challenges that are
situational, provisional and short-
lived. Put differently, the time frame
is situational but the commitment is
to quality service, as needed by the
host organisation. We found that
episodic volunteers at these events
successfully carried out some of
the least inspiring and demanding
of tasks, from cleaning bathrooms
(environmental crews) to directing
visitors to the ticket booths. Thus,
volunteer administrators can rely
on episodic volunteers to carry out
a variety of tasks and can expect
quality and reliable volunteer service
so long as the duration of the
volunteering is episodic.
Our findings also support Macduff’s
(1995:201) assertion that ‘supervision
of short-term volunteers can be
done quite effectively by long-
term volunteers’. Indeed, in many
events and festivals in Victoria, the
GEVs were routinely trained and
supervised by other volunteers (crew
co-ordinators). This saved the host
organisations the resources required
to manage the GEVs.
Summer on the island: episodic volunteering
McCurley and Ellis (2003) argued
that, given the rising trend of
episodic volunteering, the field of
volunteer management is in danger
of ‘using the wrong model’ to design
volunteer jobs, to manage and
supervise volunteer labour and to
integrate these vital human resources
into organisations. Our findings
suggest that, without a rigorous study
of the types and nature of episodic
volunteering in various organisations
and sectors, any generalisations may
be premature.
As for recruiting episodic volunteers,
our findings suggest that they are
not a homogenous body of people.
Attention needs to be paid to each
specific group so that its members
can be recruited and retained
for future events. LTVs can be
further engaged by offering them
opportunities to carry out ongoing
tasks even after the end of the
events. To ensure that volunteers
return year after year, giving special
attention to building community
among HEVs and GEVs volunteers
would do much to help. As we have
seen, HEVs do return, and support
recruitment efforts by recruiting
among themselves. The categorisation
of volunteers as HEVs or GEVs may
be fluid, in that GEVs may over
time become HEVs, given positive
reinforcement and as their time
constraints relax. This suggests that
volunteer administrators should find
43
ways to reach out to GEVs and to
understand the possible life-cycle
effects on all three groups and their
choices to engage in volunteering.
This will enhance efforts at
recruitment, management and
retention.
Notes
1. We asked a question about income
based on literature that suggests that
people with higher income are more
likely to donate money rather than
volunteer time. The household income
groups used were $19,999 and below;
$20,000 – $39,999; $40,000–$59,999;
$60,000–$79,999; and $80,000 and
above.
2. A Statistical Analysis Of
Variance (ANOVA) that analyses the
significance between categorical
data.
3. In all cases of multiple regressions
in this study, we included age,
years of education, whether born in
Canada, years in Canada, gender and
disability. We only report variables
that were found significant.
4. We asked about the tsunami relief
as, at the time of data collection,
it was the latest natural disaster to
encourage people to donate money,
and in North America was the single
cause to which many people donated
money.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
5. We used a three-way Chi-square
test of association with donation
and group as the primary variables
and their layer. None of the possible
associations was significant at the
.05 level and the Chi-square results
ranged from .76 to 6.3 with four
degrees of freedom.
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Publishing.
Macduff, N. (2005), ‘Societal
changes and the rise of the episodic
volunteer’, in J. Brudney (ed),
Emerging areas of volunteering,
Indianapolis: Association for Research
on Nonprofit Organizations and
Voluntary Associations, pages 49–61.
McCurley, S., and Ellis, S. (2003), ‘Is
volunteer management superior to
employee management?’ Retrieved
2 December 2005 from http://e-
volunteerism.com/
Perlmutter, F., and Cnaan, R.
(1993), ‘Challenging human service
organizations to redefine volunteer
roles’, Administration in Social Work,
17 (4), pages 77–95.
Tourism Victoria (2005), Tourism
Victoria. Retrieved 15 October 2005
from www.tourismvictoria.com
Victoria Dragon Boat Festival Society
(2005), Victoria Dragon Boat Festival.
Retrieved 13 October 2005 from
www.victoriadragonboat.com
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006 46

Victoria Immigrant and Refugee

Centre Society (2005), Victoria Latin-
Caribbean Festival. Retrieved 13
October 2005 from www.vircs.bc.ca

Victoria International Flower and

Garden Festival Society (2005),
Victoria International Flower and
Garden Festival. Retrieved 13 October
2005 from www.flowerandgarden.ca

Victoria Symphony Society (2005),

Victoria Symphony Splash. Retrieved
13 October 2005 from www.
symphonysplash.ca

Weber, M. (2002), ‘What can be

learned about episodic volunteers
from a national survey of giving and
volunteering?’ Paper presented at the
annual meeting of the Association for
Research on Nonprofit Organizations
and Voluntary Action, Montreal, 14–
16 November 2002.
 47

The clients of 91 ‘contact’ volunteers in the South East of England

division of a large international helping and caring charity were
questioned about their levels of satisfaction with the organisation’s
services. It was hypothesised that client satisfaction was significantly
influenced by the degrees of job satisfaction and organisational
commitment reported by the 91 volunteers. The strength of the
posited connection between volunteer job satisfaction and client
satisfaction was assumed to vary with respect to three moderating
variables, namely (i) the depth of a volunteer’s personal involvement
with the good cause dealt with by the charity, (ii) the intensity of the
client’s need for the organisation’s services, and (iii) the frequency of
volunteer-client interactions. A model was developed on the basis
of prior academic literature in relevant fields and tested on a dyadic
data set collected from the 91 volunteers and 182 of their clients (two
clients for each volunteer).

The effects of volunteer job

satisfaction on client perceptions
of the service quality of a helping
and caring charity
Roger Bennett, Centre for Research in Marketing, Department of Business and
Service Sector Management, London Metropolitan University

This article presents the outcomes to South East of England division of

a study of the possible connections
between a charity volunteer’s level
of job satisfaction and the degrees
of satisfaction with the charity’s
services expressed by its beneficiary
clients. The research was completed
over a two-year period in the
a UK ‘helping and caring’ charity.
‘Contact’ volunteers within a charity
of this nature constitute a primary
link between beneficiaries and the
organisation. For instance, hospice
volunteers furnish personal care
services (changing linen, giving
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
bed-baths, massage, shampoos, etc);
support (listening, holding hands,
reassuring); entertaining (reading
books, playing cards, swapping jokes)
etc (Stephany, 1989). Gidron’s (1983)
survey of ‘human service’ charities
described the activities of volunteers
who ran occupational therapy groups
in a mental hospital, tutored slow
readers, acted as ‘big brothers’ in
a probation office, operated help
lines for the homeless and offered
companionship to the lonely.
Volunteers in asylum-seeker and
refugee charities (which rely almost
totally on unpaid workers) represent
beneficiaries in their dealings with
government immigration officials,
landlords, social security offices
etc. Thus, volunteers of this nature
manage the service supply side
of the organisation’s work and
effectively ‘create the service offering
at the place and time of contact’
(Judd, 2001:12). Even the manner
in which a volunteer answers the
telephone can create a favourable
or unfavourable impression in a
client’s mind. It is hardly surprising,
therefore, that ‘first-line’ volunteers
can exert considerable influence on
client perceptions of a charity and
the quality of its services (Judd, 2001;
Bennett and Barkensjo, 2005a).
Charities in the helping and caring
area (essentially those that assist
people with social, psychological or
medical problems) depend heavily
48
on the inputs of volunteer workers
(Starnes and Wymer, 1999; Shin and
Kleiner, 2003). To cite just a few
examples, the Samaritans (a large
UK charity that provides assistance
to depressed people) had 21,300
volunteers in 2004; Victim Support
(an organisation that aids victims of
crime) had 14,000 voluntary helpers;
the British Salvation Army had
10,000; the UK Hospice Movement
80,000; and the charitable trusts of
the National Health Service 36,000
(figures taken from organisational
websites). It follows that research
into the consequences of volunteers’
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with
their jobs is both necessary and
worthwhile. The study reported
in the present article sought to
contribute to the field by improving
contemporary knowledge of the
connection between volunteer job
satisfaction and client satisfaction
with a charity’s services. It examined
the influence of job satisfaction on a
person’s organisational commitment;
the link between the latter variable
and beneficiary satisfaction; and the
moderating roles of (i) the degree to
which a client felt an intense need for
the charity’s help, (ii) the level of a
volunteer’s psychological involvement
with the good cause dealt with by
the charity, and (iii) the frequency
of volunteer-client interactions.
The outcomes to the research offer
guidance to charity managers vis-à-
vis the investments they should make
The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions of service quality
in order to improve volunteer-client
relationships.
Volunteer job satisfaction
Although voluntary activities are
undertaken for altruistic as well
as egotistical reasons (Gidron,
1983; Bennett and Kottasz, 2000),
the relevance of job satisfaction
to voluntary work has long been
recognised (see Gidron, 1983;
Wymer et al, 1996; Galindo-Kuhn
and Guzley, 2001). As in paid
employment, volunteers operate in
environments wherein tasks have
to be completed, individual skills
are utilised, linkages exist between
effort and results, achievements are
recognised and duties are performed
‘within a specific organisational
context under specific conditions with
set relationships to supervisors, peers
and sometimes subordinates’ (Gidron,
1983:21).
Research undertaken in the
commercial sector has concluded
that the job satisfaction of customer-
contact employees constitutes a
critical determinant of customer
satisfaction (see Homburg and Stock,
2004, for details of relevant studies).
By analogy it seems reasonable
to suppose that voluntary workers
who exhibit high job satisfaction
will have a greater influence on
beneficiaries’ satisfaction with a
charity’s services than will volunteers
who are dissatisfied with their jobs.
49
This is because clients are likely
to ‘catch’ the positive emotions
exuded by highly satisfied volunteers
(Howard and Gengler, 2001:189).
‘Emotional contagion’ of this
nature has been noted by a number
of studies of the interactions of
company employees with customers
(see Homburg and Stock, 2004:147,
for details of the relevant literature).
These investigations have found
that customers directly perceive
emotional states within employees
that are derived from the latter’s
degree of satisfaction with their
jobs. However, these emotional
states are not consciously controlled
by the individual worker (Pugh,
2001). For example, job stress (a
dissatisfier) normally arises from
working conditions imposed by the
organisation rather than from the
behaviour of a specific employee.
A highly stressed (and hence
dissatisfied) individual is likely to
exhibit a degree of emotional tension
that will quickly be felt by those with
whom the person comes into contact,
thus reducing their sense of well-
being (Singh et al, 1994). Conversely,
employees who are satisfied with
their jobs might appear to others
as more ‘balanced and pleased with
their environment’ (Homburg and
Stock, 2004:147), resulting in positive
influences on customer satisfaction
(Pugh, 2001). The issue is not entirely
clear-cut, however, as several studies
have concluded that job satisfaction
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
is only mildly associated with overall
employee performance (see Wilson
and Frimpong, 2004, for details).
It is nevertheless assumed here that
satisfied volunteers, ceteris paribus,
will be more enthusiastic and positive
than dissatisfied volunteers during
client encounters (cf. Burke et al,
2005). Volunteers are self-selecting
and want to utilise their skills and
aptitudes to deliver excellent services
to beneficiaries. A volunteer with
high job satisfaction will be especially
anxious, perhaps, to make the extra
behavioural efforts that delight
clients, through, for example, being
exceptionally courteous, respectful,
helpful, empathetic, reliable and
considerate – areas known to
represent important criteria against
which people evaluate service quality
(Wilson and Frimpong, 2004).
Appropriate positive emotions will
be displayed and then transmitted
to the beneficiary (cf. Ashforth and
Humphrey, 1993).
Job satisfaction and organisational
commitment
Dailey (1986) reviewed a body of
literature which concluded that
job satisfaction is a major cause
of organisational commitment.
Typically these studies alleged that
an individual’s reactions to particular
elements of a job (e.g. its duties,
the supervision provided, personal
relationships with colleagues etc)
50
engendered wide-ranging perspectives
on the entire organisation.
Satisfaction with the various elements
of a job, according to Hesket et al
(1997), caused workers to experience
and thereafter ‘exude’ commitment
to the employing organisation (page
79). Signals relating to the person’s
organisational commitment would
then be picked up by the people with
whom the worker came into contact,
leading them to regard the service
provided as possessing a higher value.
Consequently they would experience
greater satisfaction. Vilares and
Coelho (2003) tested this proposition
empirically, finding positive and
significant connections. They
justified their results on the grounds
that employee commitment was a
variable that (i) customers intuitively
associated with satisfied workers, (ii)
was easily observed by them, and
(iii) represented a good proxy for
other favourable perceptions of the
organisation (bearing in mind that
it is not operationally feasible to
measure every possible element of
customers’ notions of what makes
a satisfied employee). The last
point was particularly true, Vilares
and Coelho (2003) continued, in
situations where there was frequent
and close contact between the parties.
A committed employee acts as an
advocate of the organisation, and as
such will be perceived by outsiders
as being dedicated to achieving its
goals, as wanting to produce work
The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions of service quality
of the highest possible quality and
as being willing to invest much time
and personal effort in completing
occupational duties.
Moderating influences
Murray et al (1995) argued that,
because a volunteer’s job satisfaction
will be more visible to clients
in relationships characterised by
frequent interactions, the link
between volunteer job satisfaction
and beneficiary satisfaction should
be stronger the more frequently the
parties interact (see also Cannon
and Homburg, 2001). It is suggested
here, moreover, that two further
variables have the capacity to
increase or decrease the magnitude
of the connection between volunteer
job satisfaction and beneficiary
satisfaction with a charity’s
services: namely, the intensity of a
client’s need for the organisation’s
assistance, and the volunteer’s level
of psychological involvement with
the good cause pursued by the
charity.
1. Need intensity
Bhattacharya and Bolton (2000)
noted in the commercial sector how
the larger the perceived loss and
physical risk to a client arising from
not engaging with a service provider
and the greater the importance
of this possible loss to the person
concerned, then the greater the
individual’s propensity to want a
51
relationship with the supplier. In
the charity context, beneficiaries
often place critical dimensions of
their lives into a charity’s hands and
want desperately to be assisted. In
extreme cases the client might be
facing a life-threatening situation
and hence may feel afraid, powerless
and chronically dependent. Thus
any help provided by the charity
may be deeply appreciated, and the
smallest indication that the charity
can improve the beneficiary’s
condition could be a huge source
of satisfaction. In short, clients who
are terrified and ‘clutching at straws’
might reasonably be expected to be
more easily pleased in the course
of their interactions with helping
organisations than people whose
needs are less pressing (Bennett and
Barkensjo, 2005b). Within ‘high
need intensity’ situations, contact
volunteers become particularly
important to beneficiaries,
consequent on their role as highly
visible ‘boundary spanners’ (cf.
Singh, 1988:95) between individuals
requiring assistance and the
organisation furnishing the help.
Therefore, in relationships with high
levels of client need, the degree
of a volunteer’s job satisfaction is
likely to be more apparent to the
beneficiary, with the result that
the link between volunteer job
satisfaction and client satisfaction
may be stronger.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
2. Cause involvement
Volunteers could be dissatisfied with
their jobs, yet still treat clients well
because of their feelings of personal
involvement with the good cause in
question. Cause involvement refers to
the volunteer’s innate interest in the
field within which a particular charity
operates (cancer care, a specific
form of disability, hospice activities,
HIV/AIDS etc), as opposed to the
particular charitable organisation
for which the individual happens to
be working (cf. Lodahl and Kejner,
1965; Dailey, 1986). The level of a
volunteer’s cause involvement will
vary with respect to the degrees to
which the person (i) identifies with
the cause, (ii) wishes to participate
in the cause irrespective of his or
her specific role or function, and (iii)
believes that the cause is important
(Rabinowitz et al, 1977). A priori it is
anticipated that a volunteer with high
job satisfaction will be even more
enthusiastic and proactive towards
clients if simultaneously that person
is deeply involved with the good
cause covered by the charity.
A suggested model
The above-mentioned considerations
imply the model depicted in Figure
One, which posits that volunteer
job satisfaction affects beneficiary
satisfaction both directly and
through the mediating influence of
organisational commitment. Clients
are assumed to pick up positive cues
52
that can be attributed to volunteers
being satisfied with their jobs and
also to their expressing commitment
to the organisation. (Note in this
connection that volunteers might
not be satisfied with their jobs, yet
might still be highly committed to the
organisation, consequently enhancing
beneficiary satisfaction.)
It is hypothesised that the impact of
job satisfaction on organisational
commitment will be relatively
higher if a volunteer feels a deep
sense of personal involvement with
the specific cause covered by the
charity. Likewise, the strength of the
link between job satisfaction and
beneficiary satisfaction is assumed
to be greater if the volunteer
concerned experiences high cause
involvement. Client need intensity
and the frequency of volunteer-
client interactions are additionally
posited to moderate (upwards) the
impact of volunteer job satisfaction
on beneficiary satisfaction. Thus it
is proposed that a client in desperate
need will be more likely to appreciate
the positive cues emanating from
a satisfied volunteer than will a
beneficiary whose need for the
charity’s services is marginal. Equally,
the advantageous effects of job
satisfaction will be reinforced by a
high frequency of volunteer-client
interactions.
The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions of service quality 53

Figure 1: The Model

Volunteer’s
Volunteer’s
commitment
commitmentto to
the
theorganisation
organisation
.59 .23
(10.12) (4.99)
.09 Beneficiary’s
Beneficiary’s
Volunteer’s (2.75) .22 (5.27) satisfaction
Volunteer’s satisfaction
job
jobsatisfaction
satisfaction with
withthe
thecharity’s
charity’s
service
serviceprovision
provision
.11 .07 .10
(6.54) (4.43) (8.33)

Intensity
Intensityofofthe
the Frequency
Frequency
Volunteer’s
Volunteer’s client’s
client’sneed
need of
ofvolunteer
volunteer --
level
levelof
ofcause
cause for
forthe
thecharity’s
charity’s client
client
involvement
involvement services
services interactions
interactions

Measurement of variables involvement in an organisation;

Four of the six constructs used see Caruana and Calleya, 1998)
in the study were measured by was measured using six relevant
multiple items adapted from past items modified from Mowday et al’s
literature in the (commercial) job (1979) Organisational Commitment
satisfaction and client satisfaction Questionnaire. Examples of the items
fields (see Note One). The other are ‘I talk up this organisation to my
two were assessed via single items friends as a great organisation to be
based on relevant prior literature. involved with’, and ‘I would accept
A volunteer’s job satisfaction was almost any type of job assignment in
evaluated through Gidron’s (1983) order to keep working for this charity’
instrument for assessing this (five-point scales: 5 = strongly agree,
among service volunteers. Thus, 1 = strongly disagree). Volunteer
respondents were asked (five-point cause involvement was evaluated
scales) whether they found their jobs via five items created on the basis
challenging, interesting, enjoyable, of the suggestions of Rabinowitz
satisfying, a source of personal and Hall (1977) and Bennett and
fulfilment, and whether the job Gabriel (1999). Thus, respondents
required responsibility and utilised were asked to indicate the strength
the person’s skills and knowledge. of their agreement or disagreement
Organisational commitment (i.e. with statements querying whether the
a person’s identification with, good cause with which the charity
emotional attachment to and was concerned was a ‘critical life
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
interest’; ‘of great personal relevance’;
‘something that involves me deeply’;
‘of great importance to me’; and
‘something I feel deeply that it is
necessary for me to contribute to’.
Frequency of volunteer-client
interaction was measured by the
single item employed by Murray et al
(1995) in analogous circumstances.
This requested the beneficiary to
specify a category following the
question ‘On average how often have
you interacted with the charity?’
(weekly, monthly, several times a
year, once or twice a year). It is
relevant to note that volunteer-client
interactions within the charity in
question occurred face to face or by
telephone rather than through written
correspondence. A beneficiary’s need
intensity was assessed by a single
item worded ‘When I approached this
organisation I needed its assistance’,
followed by five options ranging
from ‘desperately’ through to ‘only
marginally’. This was taken from
Bennett and Barkensjo (2005b).
Five items assessed a beneficiary’s
satisfaction with the charity’s
services, based on Rosen and
Surprenant (2003). The first two were
worded ‘It has been a pleasure to
use this charity’s services’ and ‘The
services this charity provides really
do deserve to be recognised’. Items
three and four read ‘This charity
has always (i) put my best interests
first and (ii) understood and acted
54
upon my needs’. The fifth item was
worded ‘Throughout my experience
with this charity it has always been
extremely able and competent’.
Overall satisfaction measures of
this nature offer, according to
Roberts and Surprenant (1998),
a ‘summary of past interactions
with the organisation’ (page 190).
Another justification for using overall
measures of client satisfaction is that
most beneficiaries lack the technical
expertise in charity service delivery
to be able to evaluate accurately each
individual aspect of their care (Tucker
and Adams, 2001).
Research method
The study was completed over a
two-year period as part of a major
investigation into the impacts of
various volunteer management
practices on the quality of the
beneficiary experience in the
South East of England division
of a large international charity
that offers face-to-face assistance
to (adult) people experiencing a
variety of social problems, often
connected with substance abuse
and homelessness (see Bennett and
Barkensjo, 2005a, for details of this
wider investigation). As is the case
with many large helping and caring
charities, the organisation in question
relies heavily on the services of the
several thousand volunteers. These
volunteers carry out a wide range
of duties, from fundraising to the
The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions of service quality
face-to-face provision of beneficiary
services. The current investigation
involved only individuals engaged
in front-line beneficiary contact, not
fundraisers or volunteer workers in
the charity’s retail outlets. About half
the organisation’s volunteers came
into direct contact with beneficiaries.
Contact volunteers of this type
received several half-days of formal
training, followed by a planned
experience programme under the
direction of a mentor (who might
be an employee of the charity or
a long-serving volunteer). Typical
duties of the respondents in the
sample included giving lifts in motor
vehicles, speaking to and comforting
beneficiaries on the phone, helping
clients in their dealings with
government agencies and social
services departments, offering ‘moral
support’ in times of crisis and, under
supervision, providing basic (non-
clinical) counselling services. The
sample was restricted to volunteers
who had received training and
had been on ‘active service’ for
at least six months. Hence, all the
respondents had sufficient experience
to be able to comment on the
nature of their relationships with
the organisation. On average, the
sample volunteers had been in post
for 2.2 years (range 0.5 years to 17
years). Attrition rates averaged 25–30
per cent annually. Questionnaires
covering volunteer job satisfaction,
commitment and cause involvement
55
were completed by 91 volunteers in
five of the charity’s regional offices
that agreed to participate in the
investigation (which was backed
by the organisation’s national
headquarters). This represented 64
per cent of the people approached.
Information on the number of
contacts between the volunteer and
the client was available from the
charity’s log-books.
A dyadic data set was compiled
containing judgements provided by
the clients to whom the volunteers
furnished assistance, as well as the
views of the volunteers themselves.
This approach was deemed
appropriate because statements
made by highly satisfied volunteers
might overestimate the level of
beneficiary satisfaction consequent
on satisfied volunteers holding
generally positive perceptions of the
organisation. The charity hosting the
study routinely monitors the work
of its client-contact volunteers and
regularly conducts client satisfaction
surveys. Volunteers working for the
organisation typically handled five or
six clients per month and had several
contacts with each beneficiary. The
organisation was able to identify
a minimum of ten beneficiaries
(randomly selected from volunteers’
log-books) with whom each of the
91 volunteers had been in substantial
contact over the previous six months.
These beneficiaries were then
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
telephoned and asked to participate
in a ‘quality control and client
satisfaction’ survey currently being
undertaken by the charity. The aim
was to collect two client responses
for each volunteer, so data collection
ceased after two client observations
had been recorded for a particular
person. If ten approaches failed to
generate two responses, a further
ten of the volunteer’s clients were
identified and sequentially contacted
until two responses were recorded.
Test of the model
Each set of items pertaining to the
various multi-item constructs shown
in Figure 1 was factor analysed and
tested for internal reliability. Factor
analysis is a statistical technique
for reducing a large number of
variables (questionnaire items in the
present case) into a smaller number
of ‘factors’ containing groupings
of items that all relate to the same
underlying construct. Unidimensional
solutions emerged in all cases (see
Note Two). This means that all the
items which had been assumed to
be measuring the same thing did in
fact group together and thus could
be regarded as belonging to the
same construct, according to the
statistical tests applied to each set of
items within each of the constructs.
Hence the items in each construct
were averaged to create composite
variables. Figure One contains the
standardised parameters (t-values
56
in parentheses) emerging from the
estimation of the model, which
was undertaken using the AMOS 5
package. It can be seen from Figure
One that the model performed
well statistically (see Note Three),
with all the hypothesised variables
attaining significance at the .01 level.
The significance of the impacts of
the variables was ascertained by
examining the t-values associated
with the regression coefficients,
as shown in parenthesis in Figure
One. T-values greater than 2.58
indicate that there is a less than
one in a hundred chance that the
effect of a variable is merely due to
chance. The values of the regression
coefficients shown above the t-
values in Figure One demonstrate the
relative importance of each of the
independent variables. The strongest
relationship shown in Figure One
links a volunteer’s job satisfaction
with the person’s organisational
commitment. This latter variable then
impacted positively and significantly
on beneficiary satisfaction. Thus,
volunteer job satisfaction influenced
client satisfaction both directly and
indirectly via the mediating effect of
the individual’s level of commitment
to the organisation.
A volunteer’s level of personal
involvement with the good cause
with which the charity was concerned
moderated upwards the magnitude
of the connection between an
The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions of service quality
individual’s job satisfaction and the
degrees of service quality satisfaction
of the beneficiaries that the person
serviced. In other words, beneficiary
satisfaction tended to be higher
among clients who had been dealt
with by volunteers who, in addition
to being very satisfied with their jobs,
were also deeply involved with the
relevant good cause. A volunteer’s
level of cause involvement also
modified positively the relationship
between job satisfaction and
commitment to the organisation.
Additionally, a significant interaction
effect applied vis-à-vis the effect on
beneficiary satisfaction of a volunteer
experiencing high job satisfaction in
conjunction with the client feeling
an intense need for the charity’s
services. Thus it was indeed the case
that people who perceived themselves
to be in great need were more
responsive than others to the positive
cues and messages emitted by a
volunteer who was extremely satisfied
with his or her job. Moreover,
beneficiary satisfaction was higher
if a volunteer with job satisfaction
interacted with a client frequently
rather than occasionally.
The model shown in Figure 1
was re-estimated using different
configurations of pathways and
moderators on an experimental
basis. However, none of the changes
attained statistical significance (R <
.05). For example, cause involvement
57
was not a direct determinant of
volunteer commitment to the
(specific) organisation. Neither client
need intensity nor the frequency
of interactions moderated the link
between organisation commitment
and beneficiary satisfaction.
Conclusion
The significant relationship between
employee job satisfaction and client
satisfaction noted by studies in the
commercial sector (see, for example,
Singh et al, 1994; Howard and
Gengler, 2001; Pugh, 2001; Homburg
and Stock, 2004; Burke et al, 2005)
also seems to exist in the voluntary
domain. This was expected a priori
because, within a helping and caring
organisation, it is often the case
that clients perceive the front-line
volunteers with whom they come
into contact as representing the
organisation in toto. The contact
volunteer is the charity so far as the
beneficiary is concerned. A dyadic
approach to the issue was adopted,
incorporating the views of clients
as well as volunteers, thus ruling
out common method bias (i.e. the
possibility of the volunteers who
provided the inputs overstating the
likely beneficial consequences of those
inputs). The results suggested that:
· When job satisfaction was high,
client satisfaction was high.
· High job satisfaction led to greater
commitment to the organisation.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
· The link between job satisfaction
and client satisfaction was stronger
(a) the deeper a volunteer’s feelings
of involvement with the good
cause covered by the organisation,
(b) the more the client needed the
charity and (c) the more often the
volunteer and the client interacted.
Overall, the proposition that
‘emotional contagion’ has a
substantial impact on the degree of
client satisfaction is supported by the
outcomes to the investigation.
It follows from the above that
beneficiary satisfaction can be
increased through human resource
management practices that create
high levels of volunteer job
satisfaction. Hence, investments
in measures to improve volunteer
job satisfaction may be expected
to be worthwhile. Moreover, if jobs
are impoverished, organisational
commitment will not be forthcoming,
with detrimental consequences
for client satisfaction. Another
managerial implication arising from
the study is that client satisfaction
is likely to increase if a beneficiary
deals with the same volunteer on a
regular basis (provided the volunteer
is satisfied with his or her job) rather
than with different individuals. Also,
it might make sense for a charity to
seek to recruit volunteers who possess
high levels of cause involvement.
58
A limitation of the study was its use
of just two clients per volunteer. The
employment of a greater number
would have captured a wider
range of interaction experiences.
Unfortunately, it was not feasible to
question more than two beneficiaries
per volunteer in the present study
owing to budgetary constraints
and the need to avoid excessive
interference in the charity’s day-
to-day operations. It was often
necessary to contact all ten of a
volunteer’s named clients (sometimes
more than ten) to obtain two
responses, and the administrative
work (and financial cost) involved
was considerable. Further research
might attempt to replicate the study
employing more beneficiaries per
volunteer. It would also be useful
to repeat the study incorporating
organisational behaviour constructs
additional to those shown in Figure
One, and perhaps to apply alternative
job satisfaction, organisational
commitment and beneficiary
satisfaction measures.
Notes
1. The adaptation procedure applied
followed the recommendations
of Engelland et al (2001). Thus,
candidate items were examined to
ensure that they fell well within the
scope of the domain of the relevant
construct, that they expressed
the theoretical construct in an
effective manner, were worded at an
The effects of volunteer job satisfaction on client perceptions of service quality
appropriate level of abstraction and
were compatible with the vocabulary
of the target respondents, and were
likely to generate outcomes similar
to those of the original studies from
which the modified items were taken.
2. In all cases the first factor
explained more than 68 per cent
of total variation in the data and
the value of the Cronbach’s alpha
coefficient exceeded .79. All the
moderates were mean-centres to
minimise technical problems arising
from multicollinearity.
3. The goodness-of-fit statistics were
as follows: GFI = .88; AGFI = .85;
RMSEA = .05; R = .84.
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Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006 62
 63

The field of adult literacy in England has a long history, but has
developed particularly during the last three decades. Throughout
this history, voluntary organisations and volunteers have played an
important role in the field. This article examines how volunteers have
been deployed and professionally developed during this period, and
identifies some of the tensions which exist between volunteers and
professionals in the field. It draws upon a research project funded
by the ESRC entitled Changing faces: a history of adult literacy,
numeracy and ESOL 1970–2000, conducted between 2001 and
2004. A total of 200 interviews were undertaken with practitioners and
adult learners, from four case-study regions in England. Documentary
evidence and an archive of materials were collated and from this, a
series of timelines were created which chart the development of Adult
Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL (ALNE), during the thirty-year period.
The interview responses were analysed using Atlas-Ti, a software
programme, and a number of themes have emerged from the data.
The article discusses how these continue to be challenges for the field
in the current Skills for Life strategy.

Professionalising the ‘do-

gooders’: the deployment of
volunteers in adult basic skills
from 1970
Professor Yvonne Hillier, Department of Education and Lifelong
Learning, City University, London

In the early 1970s few people spelling. People who were ‘illiterate’
expected that adults who had enjoyed were thought to have low intelligence
a school education would have or to have led dissolute lives that
difficulty with reading, writing or kept them from learning properly.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
The shame of having problems
with literacy thus prevented many
adults from seeking help, and most
people found ways to disguise their
difficulties – such as pretending to
lose their glasses if asked to read
in public places, and by learning to
recognise words more as pictorial
symbols.
In 1973 the British Association
of Settlements, one of the few
organisations that did offer literacy
tuition to adults, began a campaign
to obtain funds and government
commitment to help adults who
wished to improve their basic literacy.
The Right to Read campaign (BAS,
1974) attracted the attention of the
BBC, and in 1975 a programme series
entitled On the Move was launched to
encourage people to come forward for
help with their literacy. The 26 ten-
minute programmes, shown on prime-
time television on Sunday evenings,
were accompanied by a telephone
helpline, the first of its kind used by
the BBC. People flooded the helpline
with calls, and the demand created
required urgent responses from
local education authorities (LEAs)
and voluntary organisations alike if
people were not to be turned away.
This demand was met in the early
days by recruiting volunteers who
would work on a one-to-one basis
with an adult. This article examines
how the practice developed over the
next thirty years.
64
The research
It is impossible to do justice to
the breadth of practices employed
in adult literacy, numeracy and
ESOL (ALNE) during the past thirty
years. The research project therefore
had to capture the experiences of
practitioners and learners through
a case-study approach. Four case-
study regions were chosen, to
represent urban and rural areas, and
the differences between LEAs with
community-focused education and
those in urban areas which observed
strict boundaries between schools,
further and adult education. Within
each case study, between 15 and 25
practitioners who had been involved
in the field across the three areas
of literacy, numeracy and ESOL
were interviewed using a semi-
structured interview format, along
with a further 20 key actors at local,
regional and national level. All were
asked to tell their stories: how they
became involved in the field, their
views on practitioners and learners,
their high points and low points,
the key moments and key people
that had influenced their practice
and the changes they had observed
during their involvement in the field.
The learners were drawn from the
National Child Development Survey
(NCDS) cohort; they were all born
within one week in March 1958 and
were therefore young adults at the
start of the literacy campaign in the
early 1970s. The 78 respondents who
Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
lived within the four case-study areas
were asked about the learning they
had undertaken as adults as well as
about their familiarity with any of
the literacy campaigns that had taken
place. These interviews provided
insights into the impact of provision
both for those who had self-identified
a difficulty with basic skills and
for those who had not. In addition
to the interviews, documentary
evidence was gathered from agencies
– including the Adult Literacy and
Basic Skills Agency (ALBSU), the
Basic Skills Agency (BSA) and
organisations representing the field,
such as the National Association
for Teachers of English Languages
(Natecla) – and through donations
of archive material from interview
respondents and members of
networks associated with basic skills.
Key dates in the history of the field
were specified from the interview and
documentary sources, and these were
linked to a timeline of events from
across education and more general
public policy in England, Europe and
world-wide where appropriate. The
emerging history can be divided into
four key phases:
1. Mid 1970s: Literacy campaign
led by a coalition of voluntary
agencies with a powerful media
partner, the BBC.
2. 1980s: Provision developed
substantially, supported by
Local Education Authority Adult
65
Education Services and voluntary
organisations, with leadership,
training and development funding
from a national agency (ALBSU,
later the BSA).
3. 1989–98: Depletion of LEA funding
and control, statutory status of
ALNE through a more formalised
further education (FE) system,
dependent on funding through a
national funding body.
4. 1998–present: Development
of Skills for Life policy – new
government strategy unit created,
£1.5 billion of government money
committed.
The story of how volunteers have
been recruited and deployed flows
through all these key phases.
The early years
Imagine the scenario: the BBC tells a
local authority that it is broadcasting
a series of programmes likely to
result in numbers of people within
the authority’s area coming forward
for tuition. There is no one in the
local authority with any knowledge
of how to teach this group of people,
there is no accommodation where
that teaching could take place and no
one has any idea of the numbers of
adults who are likely to be requesting
help. The officer responsible for adult
education contacts the principal
of the adult education institution,
who is asked to create provision.
They find out that in London there
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
have been programmes run by the
settlements at Cambridge House
and Blackfriars, where volunteers
do the teaching. Could an organiser
be appointed to do the same thing
in their own locality? Where does
the organiser begin? How does one
recruit volunteers and what kind of
training do they need to do the job?
These questions received different
answers up and down the country,
but essentially all were agreed on
one point: it was important to attract
volunteers.
Recruiting volunteers needed a
publicity campaign, a training
programme and an infrastructure
that could provide ongoing support
once the volunteer started work
with an individual adult learner. The
BBC’s On the Move series provided a
major publicity campaign. In its first
month over 8,000 volunteers had
been recruited from the telephone
referral service (Hargreaves, 1980).
However, to continue to reach people
in the long term, more down-to-earth
approaches were needed. The use of
printed material was extensive. As
this was in the 1970s, publicity was
printed on duplicating machines or
even handwritten. The only means
of contact was in person or by
telephone.
Having recruited volunteers, the next
challenge was to ensure that they
knew how to teach their students.
66
The way forward was to bring groups
of volunteers together to learn very
basic ways to teach literacy. The
training – six sessions lasting two
hours – would give people a start.
From then on, they were literally on
their own, making it up as best they
could, though supported by their
organiser. Up and down the country
volunteers met with their learner in
the person’s home, in community
centres, in pubs, anywhere that
would enable them to meet and
work together. Their resources were
handwritten, and in many cases
children’s reading material was
appropriated for the task.
Nationally an agency – known
initially as the Adult Literacy Resource
Agency (ALRA) – was created to
help with the task of providing
resources for those working with the
adults who had come forward. In
those days, it was assumed that the
literacy campaign would be a one-off
initiative, and that once everyone had
acquired the necessary basic skills,
the agency, the organisers and the
volunteers would be thanked and the
government could move on to dealing
with other pressing issues of the day.
It was estimated that around two
million people needed help with their
reading and writing, but no one knew
for sure.
Volunteers came forward in
droves from fashionable middle-
Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
class areas, but the learners were
mainly (although not exclusively)
to be found elsewhere. Matching
learner with volunteer took time,
and organisers had to consider the
needs of both parties as well as the
logistics of ensuring that volunteers
could travel to the homes of the
learner or the community centre,
as there was usually no funding
to cover travel time and expenses.
This was particularly acute in rural
areas, where vast distances had to be
covered.
Volunteering, by its very nature,
involves people offering to undertake
an activity for no remuneration or
direct benefit to themselves. People
who had just come forward in the
hope of improving their literacy
found themselves under a curious
obligation. They might find their
volunteer helpful and the relationship
might work very well. However, if
they did not want to continue with
their learning, how could they tell
someone who bothers to visit their
house that they no longer wanted
their help? In other cases, volunteer
and learner became very attached
to each other, and if the volunteer
could no longer continue the learner
dropped out. From the very beginning
of the adult literacy movement,
volunteering became an area that
needed to be managed, with all the
benefits and problems this brought.
67
By the 1980s most volunteering
within adult basic education schemes
had changed. People now came to
adult institutions, community centres
or schools to be taught in small
groups, with a paid tutor. The number
of volunteers went down, from about
45,000 at the peak in the mid-1970s
to about 20,000 by the mid-1980s
(Hall, 1983; ALBSU, 1987). Volunteers
were still active in the field, but now
they worked with a tutor, continuing
their one-to-one work, but usually
with all members of the group.
This change in the deployment of
volunteers was seen by some of our
interviewees as a retrograde step.
Their argument was that people
who had already failed in groups
(for example, at school) craved the
individual attention that working
with a volunteer afforded them. On
the other hand, some practitioners
were convinced that volunteering on
an individual basis was detrimental
to the needs of students, who were
better off sharing their problems with
fellow students, and working together
on activities, albeit at different levels
within the same class. This debate
about the pedagogical implications of
the use of volunteers continues today.
The middle years
Adult basic education practice
continued to develop during the
1980s. Basic numeracy became
more available in adult basic
education schemes, and in the
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
mid-1980s another area of basic
skills, English for Speakers of Other
Languages (ESOL), was incorporated
into the field. By now there was
a government-funded agency
– the Adult Literacy and Basic Skills
Agency (ALBSU) – that supported the
work in the field. It had funding to
support the professional development
of organisers, tutors and volunteers,
which was delivered through regional
training. The training was based
on an identification of priorities
by people working in the field, and
volunteers were invited to join in the
training events. Tutors and volunteers
attended the half-day and full-day
workshops, usually at the weekend,
for no pay. As many volunteers were
subsequently offered paid teaching
work, there was considerable overlap
between volunteers and tutors at this
time.
Further afield, the 1980s were a
time of huge cuts in public spending
and high rates of unemployment
for young people and adults alike.
The government of the day, initially
led by Margaret Thatcher, began to
dismantle the social infrastructure of
the country. Calls for accountability
for public spending reached far
into the public sector, and the
effectiveness and professionalism of
adult basic education was questioned.
What were learners gaining from
attending basic literacy classes? What
were tutors gaining from professional
68
development? What did volunteers
get out of their activities, and how
could they use their skills elsewhere?
At this stage, regional training
ceased to be funded by ALBSU, and
in its place a new qualification for
volunteers was created, the Initial
Teaching Certificate (ITC) in Adult
Basic Skills, accredited by City and
Guilds and also known as the C&G
9281. Now volunteers were not only
asked to undertake training, but were
also required to submit a portfolio for
assessment. If successful, they gained
a qualification, the ITC, before being
placed with a group.
The ITC proved highly controversial.
Although it was developed to accredit
people to work on a one-to-one
basis with a learner, in practice its
use was not restricted to volunteers:
it was also used to recruit and train
tutors responsible for groups, and
the employment training profession
used it to recruit and train instructors
involved in work-based training.
The later years
By the end of the 1990s the teaching
of adult basic skills had changed yet
again. It was now funded centrally
through the Further Education
Funding Council (FEFC), using a
funding mechanism that paid for
learners on the basis of recruitment,
retention and achievement. Staff were
expected to work towards teaching
qualifications, and new standards
Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
were being created with which these
qualifications would be aligned: the
Further Education National Training
Organisation Standards (FENTO,
1999). Very few volunteers now
worked in the traditional way: one
to one in a small group. Only in
voluntary organisations were they
still likely to be deployed in this way.
In 2001 the government launched its
Skills for Life Strategy, based upon
recommendations from a committee
chaired by Sir Claus Moser in 1999
(Moser, 1999). The main thrust of
the strategy is to encourage more
adults to improve their basic skills,
by creating a national curriculum,
a national set of standards for
practitioners and a qualification
structure for both staff and learners.
All these aims have targets to be
met, measured in terms of how
many people gain a qualification
in basic skills or how many staff
gain a teaching qualification which
has specialist training in literacy,
numeracy or ESOL. The place of
volunteers in the new strategy is
hidden by the professionalising
imperatives contained in the targets.
Tensions
The story of ALNE as outlined above
did not touch upon the tensions that
permeated volunteering during this
time. To discover what these tensions
were, we need to return to the early
days.
69
People and purposes
It’s easy for them sometimes to
appear to be patronising. But
generally they were good-hearted
people who really wanted to help
(AP, volunteer at Cambridge House,
London).
Volunteers are not a homogenous
group, and organisers were aware
that many of them had valuable
experience from working as primary
teachers, social workers, librarians
and in a range of other, similar
careers. However, there were also
those who felt compelled to help out
in the literacy campaign because
they wanted others ‘less fortunate
than themselves’ to develop a love of
reading and literature. The diversity
of motives for volunteering created
tensions that needed to be managed,
as this quote shows:
There was a lot of blue rinse wanting
to do ... volunteering ... I think there
were quite a lot of bored housewives
(organiser, Manchester).
There were class issues too:
You had this debate about volunteers,
unpaid, unqualified people – there
was very much this idea of that
won’t do, you know our students had
missed out, why should they now
have anybody who walks in off the
street ... it was very much that it was
a mood of, you know, ‘do-gooding’.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
I suppose because this was the big
council estate and they were the
nice middle-class ladies from Hale
or North Cheshire who would swoop
down and have sort of dinner-party
fodder (SJ, Manchester).
The realisation that volunteering
to help adult learners could bring
benefits to the volunteers themselves
caused additional strains for the
organisers, who found themselves
dealing with people who might not
be particularly appropriate because
of their own ill health. Not only were
adult learners referred to adult basic
education schemes, but potential
volunteers too.
And we were also getting a lot of
people jumping on the bandwagon,
not in a nasty sense, but people, say,
with mental illness who were finding
it difficult to relate to people and the
doctors would say, ‘Why don’t you go
and teach, you love reading, go and
teach people to read’ (JN, Norfolk).
Recruitment
The underlying challenge for working
with volunteers is that they offer
their services even though there may
not be stringent recruitment and
selection processes in place. This
was particularly true in the early
days of the adult literacy campaign,
when the nascent field had not
yet developed its notions of ‘good
practice’ and when, in the face of
70
overwhelming demand from adult
learners, organisers were relieved that
anyone was offering to help out. But
even during this early period some
organisers were already concerned
about taking on volunteers.
We all had a bit of a passion for
the work, so there was a political
dimension to it and there was
the idea that you didn’t just have
somebody off the street who was
untrained, who would do, and the
idea of volunteers at all was very
frowned upon by this site because
it was felt that more time went on
the volunteers, there was no kind of
screening of volunteers, there was
no training and so there was a little
bit of hostility to the whole idea of
having volunteers (SJ, Manchester).
Recruitment and training was labour-
intensive, because volunteers often
decided to move on – particularly if
they discovered that teaching literacy
is not as easy as they imagined.
I did all the volunteer training stuff
and went through all the usual
things of volunteer training and
realising that you are endlessly
training new people only to move on
in a year or so, thinking what is this
about? Why are we doing this? ... So
no, that’s not to say there weren’t
individual excellent volunteers,
but as a system I just was never
convinced (MH, Leics).
Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
Yet there was a clear understanding
about the impact of the recruitment
of volunteers through the BBC
campaign. Indeed, the use of the
media to recruit volunteers was
proselytised by David Hargreaves,
producer of the On the Move
programmes, when he analysed their
impact on adult education:
We now know, and urge other
broadcasters to consider, the degree to
which public sympathy and concern
can be channelled into positive
volunteer effort, which is altruistic
and motivated by compassion and
simple ‘goodwill’ ... this is perhaps
the greatest, and the least tapped
[potential] in the world of education
(Hargreaves, 1980:148).
What was it like being a volunteer?
Once paid teaching came to be
provided through LEAs and voluntary
schemes alike, tutors were often
recruited from the pool of volunteers,
so we were able to gain insights into
the experience of being a volunteer
from our respondents. Interestingly,
most of the interviewees who had
been volunteers themselves did
not draw on their own experiences
when describing the volunteers
they became responsible for. This
‘amnesia’ was also apparent when
part-time tutors became full-time
organisers, and quickly forgot the
sense of marginalisation felt by part-
time tutors and volunteers and their
71
reliance on organisers for finding
work. However, we did uncover
some examples of organisers who
remembered what it was like. Here an
organiser describes how working with
only one adult learner has its rewards
– not least because the teaching can
be tailored entirely to their individual
circumstances – but can also be
demanding.
I was probably offered a place being a
volunteer in a group ... and I decided
that would be more interesting than
just working one-to-one. And it
was quite intense was that one-to-
one. You know, if you did two hours
together it was really exhausting
both for the student and for the tutor
(organiser, Manchester).
Quality and professional development
There were benefits in having
professionally trained volunteers, and
organisers recognised this.
I think it’s fair enough to question
whether a volunteer is equipped and
suitably trained but I think, given the
right training and support, volunteer
tutors can be immensely useful,
especially in the early stages (JS,
London).
Our respondents raised concerns
about quality, usually in relation to
teaching and learning. How could
volunteers who had only been given
a short training programme be able
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
to work as effectively as a fully
trained teacher with experience of
teaching in compulsory education?
Assuring quality was the rationale for
the initial creation, and subsequent
demise, of regional funding and
for the setting up of the accredited
training for volunteers. There was
little information about how effective
the training was, despite the funding
that had been devoted to it.
We spent hours and hours training
the trainers and training people ...
if you go to any party of people over
the age 40 at least half of them
have been trained [as a volunteer].
It was like a production line, wasn’t
it, it was like the First World War,
there we were training them and
they disappeared into the dust, we
never saw them again. The amount
of money spent on it must have been
phenomenal (AW, London).
As noted earlier, the accredited
training and the qualification
changed the nature of the
psychological contract between
volunteer and basic education
scheme. Asking volunteers to
demonstrate what they had learnt
from their training and to go forward
for accreditation was far more
demanding than simply asking them
to attend a training programme and
then work with a student. Organisers
and tutors alike bemoaned the loss
of flexibility in the training as
72
accreditation was gradually imposed
through funding mechanisms and
quality assurance requirements.
The whole training of the volunteers
was very good. It was a very good
thing at the time, we had some
superb volunteers. I think we lost
it, the 9281 [ITC], when it became
a teaching qualification rather
than a volunteer qualification. It
was corrupted because of that (ME,
Manchester).
Volunteer or paid professional?
Should volunteers be involved
at all? The 1970s were an era of
social action aimed at achieving
social justice, and the adult literacy
campaign was one manifestation
of this. In fact, the early literacy
campaign benefited from the
experience of the housing action
group, Shelter. Furthermore,
arguments for the deployment
of volunteers were based on the
notion that it was time to break
the mould of educational practices,
particularly since adults with
literacy problems had not fared well
in traditional education. Drawing
upon people from a wide range of
backgrounds would ensure that the
adult learners were given support
in ways that might not have been
possible through traditional teaching
techniques. However, there were
also powerful arguments against
involving volunteers, which was seen
Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
as exploitation, a means of using
people for free, when there should
instead be a government commitment
with appropriate funding for paid
staff.
I was opposed to volunteers on
principles because it was exploiting
people (AH, London).
So that was when it was all done
by volunteers, and you had massive
volunteer training programmes and
so on. I don’t think we thought
this at the time, but it really did
tell you something when the whole
government’s attitude to basic
education and skills for adults had to
be done on a free basis, rather than
done professionally (DG, Manchester).
At the time of the most extensive
deployment of volunteers in adult
basic education schemes, there was a
keen debate about their contribution,
particularly as this was also when
LEAs were moving towards a
mainstreaming of provision within
their adult education schemes. David
Hargreaves, director of the On the
Move programmes, exhorted critics
of the involvement of volunteers to
think again.
Those who under the guise of
integrating the adult literacy
provision into the structure of the
adult education service, seek to rid
themselves of the ‘encumbrance’ of
73
volunteers will, in our view, do a
grave disservice to the development
of the continuing education of adults
(Hargreaves, 1980:114).
Reflections on the past and
implications for the future
What does our research tell us about
the deployment of volunteers in the
past three decades?
From our analysis of the interview
data and the statistics of how many
volunteers were recruited during the
past thirty years, we can challenge
the way in which they were deployed,
given the wealth of experience that
many of them possessed, and their
willingness to be involved in a
variety of ways, not just teaching
individual learners. In many ways,
we can see that opportunities have
been missed: to draw volunteers into
decision-making processes about how
best to work with learners, and to
enable these volunteers to use their
knowledge of the world of work or
public services to help people with
basic skills difficulties to be more
effective in their encounters with
government agencies, schools, health
services and employers. A key theme
throughout our findings is that there
are tensions to be managed in this
field rather than problems to be
solved. One major tension concerns
voluntarism versus professionalism.
There are compromises to be made
if volunteers are to be recruited and
deployed.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
I would rather have somebody who is
less brilliant but has really committed
themselves and will do the training.
It doesn’t mean we didn’t take any of
the others, but I felt that we should
be loyal to the people who were loyal
to us, I suppose (JN, Norfolk).
In organisational terms, ALNE requires
funding and structural support to
enable it to help adults improve their
basic skills and function effectively
as members of society, including
participating in the workplace where
appropriate. The danger in using
volunteers is that responsibility can
shift from public services, with the
associated demands for accountability,
to the voluntary sector, sending the
message that it is less imperative to
help adults using professional – and
more importantly, fully paid – staff.
We need a professional workforce
who has the skills and at a high
level to be able to cope with what
I think is a very complex job. And
the services across the country are
their own worst enemy, having
marginalised it by giving people the
illusion that anybody can do the job
because they can read and write, and
‘I can come along and help teach and
then because I’m good, I’m quite nice
and I’m helpful to the tutor, I can get
a teaching job’ (MH, Leics).
Yet working with volunteers widens
the spectrum of people involved in the
74
field, and thus adds to the available
range of activities, practices and
understandings. The current regime,
which insists that everyone who
teaches or trains adult basic skills
learners should have qualifications
that are set against a series of national
standards, runs the risk of imposing a
strait-jacket on the potential repertoire
of practices in the field.
Because so many of the volunteers
have been lost, now I don’t doubt that
some of the volunteers were not all
that hot but it seems to me maybe
it’s got itself a bit out of balance,
and that the notion of engaging with
ordinary people to help other people
learn has been in danger of being lost
(BP, Leics).
A wider context
We can locate the tensions we have
uncovered within the wider context
of adult education generally. ALNE
was practised primarily within adult
education, and this in turn has a
variety of purposes, as evidenced
by its relationship to the agenda for
social change. As long ago as 1983,
ACACE undertook research into
volunteers in adult education and
noted that there are three forms of
adult education: formal, non-formal
and informal (Hall, 1983). Volunteers
could be found in all these settings,
including working in settlements
(now known as the Educational
Centres Association), in the Workers’
Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970
Educational Association (WEA), in
organisations such as the St John
Ambulance Brigade, as well as in
formal LEA provision. This provision
has relied on the contribution of
volunteers in numerous ways,
including involvement with
management committees where
professionals are responsible to them,
rather than for them, as was the case
of adult basic education in LEAs. The
use of volunteers has enabled some
work to be done that might otherwise
never have got off the ground.
Volunteers can be seen as ‘gap-
fillers’, experimenters and
complementers (Hall, 1983;
Deakin, 2001). Indeed, the role
of the voluntary sector was seen,
particularly after the Second World
War, as to concentrate on the
‘vanguard pioneering role and filling
gaps by experiments which could
then be incorporated into state
provision, once their success had
been satisfactorily demonstrated’
(Deakin, 2001: 50). Voluntary action
has been evident through the use of
people as innovators. Adult educators
responsible for the deployment of
volunteers throughout the period of
our study have vigorously defended
volunteers’ motives of self-help,
altruism and independence. These
characteristics have been particularly
important in supporting the various
purposes of adult education, which
have been categorised as revolution,
75
reform and maintenance (Westwood
and Thomas, 1991:112) and can be
seen in the variety of ways in which
ALNE was provided during the three
decades under study. In turn, these
purposes have determined to some
extent the practices found across the
spectrum of what is today known as
Lifelong Learning.
Freirian notions of empowerment
(Freire, 1971, 1972) have probably
been most influential in ALNE, but
the idea of reform – particularly
by challenging basic assumptions
about society and the way in
which people’s lives are shaped
by schooling and education – also
pervades practice in adult basic
skills. We can therefore see that
the use of volunteers is part of an
agenda for social change, offering
adult learners a pedagogy different
from compulsory schooling and
fostering the notion that people can
make a difference to their lives by
improving their own basic skills.
Indeed, the Thatcher administration
encouraged voluntary action, as it
would provide a route to ‘greater
responsiveness and efficiency in
delivery through empowerment
of individuals using services as
consumers, not participants’ (Deakin,
2001:53). Ironically, it is the
withdrawal of the state from certain
activities that led to the rise of paid
work in the voluntary sector, thus
diminishing the numbers of unpaid
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
volunteers. In ALNE it is clear that
the introduction of innovatory
practices, plus the demonstration
that adults could be helped to
improve their basic skills through
the early use of volunteers, defined
the field and fostered its continuing
development, latterly through
mainstreamed, funded structures.
Today, we can see that frustration
over the lack of social change and
the increasing control from the
centre through DfES initiatives and
requirements leads managers of
ALNE to wonder whether the move
away from voluntarism has resulted
in a more conservative approach to
the field. As Mayo (1997) argues, it
is imperative that adult educators
should respect the knowledge and
skills that adults bring, based upon
their life experiences. Learners
and volunteers need to be aware
of their own position in society
and to understand how oppression
operates through practices that
are taken for granted. Lifelong
learning, with its challenge to the
status quo – particularly through
its attempt to redress the failures of
the compulsory sector – can benefit
hugely from the deployment of
people outside the formal education
sector. It is not clear whether the
deployment of volunteers has much
influence on the curriculum and
format of ALNE, but there is a clear
correlation between the alignment
76
of ALNE with an agenda for social
change, an empowering view of
the purposes of ALNE and the
willingness of those in positions
of authority to entrust teaching to
people who volunteer, albeit under
the guidance of a ‘paid professional’.
If the goal of ALNE is to help foster
civil society, we need, as Deakin
argues, to:
... prove the extent to which civil
society is an ungoverned area, a
terrain vague, a seedbed, or zone
of altruism or of tensions, and try
to establish what is special about
the activities that take place in that
area, especially those undertaken
by smaller bodies, at the local
level. What are the consequences
of voluntary actions of this kind:
are they subversive or conservative?
(Deakin, 2001:56).
Our research does not offer
‘solutions’ to the tensions, or even
give us a platform from which to
identify how best the tensions should
be managed. However, we can offer
insights into the way in which the
field of ALNE developed, and how
much it owes to the thousands of
people who devoted time and effort
so that adults could improve their
basic skills. This story is important
to tell, particularly at a time when
the government agenda is focused
primarily on education and training
Professionalising the ‘do-gooders’: the deployment of volunteers in adult basic skills from 1970 77

as an investment in economic Hall, D. (1983), Volunteers in adult

benefit, thereby pushing into the
background the second and equally
important aim of creating a just and
inclusive society.
Professor Hillier is now Professor
of Education and the University of
Brighton.
References
Adult Literacy and Basic Skills
Agency (1987), Annual Report 1986-
87, London: ALBSU.
British Association of Settlements
(1974), A right to read: action for a
literate Britain, London: BAS.
Deakin, N. (2001), In search of civil
society, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
education, Leicester: Advisory Council
for Adult and Continuing Education.
Hargreaves, D. (1980), Adult
literacy and broadcasting: the BBC’s
experience, London: Frances Pinter.
Mayo, M. (1997), Imagining tomorrow:
adult education for transformation,
Leicester: NIACE.
Moser, C. (1999), A fresh start:
improving literacy and numeracy,
Sheffield: Department for Education
and Employment.
Westwood, S., and Thomas, J.E.
(1991), The politics of adult education:
radical agendas, Leicester: NIACE.

Department for Education and Skills

(2001), Skills for Life: the national
strategy for improving literacy
and numeracy skills, London: The
Stationery Office.

Freire, P. (1970), Pedagogy of the

oppressed, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Freire, P. (1972) Cultural action for

freedom, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Further Education National Training

Organisation (1999), Standards for
teaching and supporting learning in
further education in England and
Wales, London: FENTO.
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006 78
 79

A debate has recently begun about civil society in Greece,

accompanied by analyses of the extent of participation in voluntary
organisations. His article looks at a specific field of voluntary activity
– cultural voluntarism – that has developed in Greece during the last
thirty years. After the fall of the military junta (1974), there was an
explosion of voluntary cultural activities. The organisations responsible
constituted a massive cultural movement, characterised by a high
degree of voluntary participation. In spite of this, cultural development
has in practice taken place under the aegis of the political parties.
This ‘colonisation’ of the organisations promoting cultural voluntarism
seems to have prevented a truly autonomous development. Also,
during the 1990s and the early years of the twenty-first century,
voluntary organisations have been operating against a background
of declining participation. Greek voluntarism has developed by
building on the personal element in its organisational practices, and is
characterised by a strong localism, activating a micro-level voluntarism.

Reconsidering the paradoxes of

cultural voluntarism in Greece at
the threshold of the twenty-first
century
Dr Yiannis Ioannides, Research Institute for Regional Development,
Panteion University, Athens; Cultural Manager, Municipality of
Moschato, Athens

The emergence and expansion of institutions of civil society are the

voluntary activity over the last few outcome of continuous rapid change
decades have once again brought the in social and economic conditions.
discussion of civil society to the fore. Thus it is only natural to expect little
The organisations, movements and homogeneity among them. In fact,
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
the sheer number of organisations
of countless different forms (such
as profit, non-profit and NGO) that
constitute civil society is reflected
in the diversity of definitions of
organisations and of the distinctions
drawn between them. The boundaries
of these organisations are often
blurred, unstable and ever-changing.
The very limits of these organisations
are undefined and variable as they
are influenced by different historical
and social factors. These diversities
make comparison, research and even
building a common framework of
analysis a momentous task. Thus,
it is not uncommon for studies to
characterise a particular society as
‘weak’ or that society’s voluntary
sector as ‘underdeveloped’, while
another study comes to the opposite
conclusions (Gellner, 1994; Mouzelis,
1998).
This article will attempt to describe
the dynamics of, and the variations
between, these organisations in
relation to the specific circumstances
and the different environments in
which they develop.
Our goal is to prove the fundamental
importance of those Greek civil
society organisations that are active
in the social and cultural field and
which play a decisive role in local
development. Our evaluation of these
organisations will not be Manichaean,
concerned with either ‘powerful’
80
or ‘weak’ civil society. Instead, we
will focus on three specific criteria
that determine the type of voluntary
activity in accordance with the
parameters of time and space. In
addition, this article will also describe
the antinomies inherent in the field of
voluntary activity in Greece.
New analytical parameters:
the Greek case
Debate about the level of
development of civil society takes
many forms. For example, two
commonly used analytical parameters
are the degree of economic
decentralisation in a society and its
institutional/ideological pluralism
(Gellner 1994). Others maintain
that the dynamics of a civil society
are determined by the power
concentrated within a society’s
institutions (political, economic,
social and cultural), as well as by the
balance of the relationship between
those institutions (Mouzelis 1998).
Another debate attempts to assess
collectively all the factors that shape
a society within its broader social,
political and economic relationships.
For example, the ‘social origins’
theory refers to four models of civil
society development: the liberal, the
social democratic, the corporatist
and the statist (Salamon and Anheier
1998).
The challenge is not only to ascribe
a country’s civil society to a specific
Reconsidering the paradoxes of cultural voluntarism in Greece
development model, but also to
determine the particular aspects that
distinguish it. We therefore suggest
that research should be re-orientated,
focusing on analysis of the individual
elements that belong to the specific
civil society and to the organisations
that develop within it. Study of the
composition of Greek civil society,
as well as of the antinomies revealed
by certain analyses, has led us to the
above methodological conclusion.
More specifically, the study of
voluntary contribution and collective
action, which form an integral part
of a civil society, should regard the
local as central, without ignoring its
specific spatiality. It should focus on
the specific as the general without
eliminating its particularity, and
approach the partial as the total
without altering its actual dimensions.
The Greek case supports this
approach. Historically, Greek society
was based on the criterion of political
organisation. The most important
example of this is the communalism
that could be described as the
‘archaeology’ of Greek civil society.
Greek communities, especially during
the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries under the Ottoman Empire,
developed into secondary centres
of power, with local police forces
and a federal system of organisation
(Stathopoulos 1990). Greek
communalism was an exceptional
mixture of social solidarity, collective
81
action, voluntary contribution and
local development that shaped the
previous version of Greek civil
society (see Note 1). Despite the
tradition that developed thereafter,
modern Greek society seems to
have been based on affiliations
preceding the ‘political’ and for this
reason it has been able to construct
a uniform national identity. The
bond that unites Greeks as members
of Greek society is less a political
one (such as a feeling of common
political awareness, a reference to
common political values) and more
a cultural one, based on elements
such as origin, language, religion,
awareness of a common history
and heritage, common experiences
and moral values (Tsoukalas, 1996;
Koliopoulos and Veremis, 2002). It is
essentially an idiosyncratic form of
underdevelopment, characterised by
clientelistic networks, an irrational
public administration, a weak
labour movement and an absence of
autonomous groups and organisations
involved in interest mediation. The
Greek state has never been fully
separated from society, the political
parties from the government and the
private space from the public sphere.
The debate on Greek civil society
has developed over recent years,
with more specific analyses of the
extent of participation in voluntary
organisations, which is the lowest
among the member states of the EU
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
(Eurostat, 1998 and 2000, quoted in
Panagiotidou, 2000). The predominant
view on voluntarism in Greece, and
on Greek civil society in general, is
that it is weak and underdeveloped,
feeble and insubstantial. Would
it be possible, however, for the
representation of non-economic
interests to be organised in a
pluralistic fashion? Is it possible
for citizens to configure their
interests and the framework of their
participation in alternative ways?
The important question – whether
Greek civil society is a powerful
one – should not be asked in terms
that predispose us to give a negative
answer: this will not only undermine
every effort to interpret and analyse
Greek civil society, but it will also
hold back its future.
In order to avoid this negative
conclusion, we propose that the
assessment of certain factors related
to the specific time and place of a
collective activity is an indispensable
prerequisite for analysis. This is
because voluntary action varies
according to the time at which it
takes place, the place and the cultural
environment within which it is
expressed, and the issues it tackles.
To be more specific, the dimension
of time and history enters into the
study of volunteer organisations,
which therefore represent a
concrete historical base. Moreover,
82
participation in volunteer
organisations is also conditioned
by locality, since place constitutes
a living social network comprising
institutions and uses, but also ideas,
requests, relationships and conflicts.
Thus one of the main characteristics
of the voluntary movement is that the
universal stems from the local. The
final criterion – the type of voluntary
activity – emerges from developments
that have taken place in the last
decades. The shifting of values in
contemporary western societies
is encapsulated in the transfer of
needs and values from a material
to a post-material level (Inglehart,
1977) and in the need of social
subjects to self-define their identities
(Giddens, 1998). Post-material
values and attitudes contribute to
the appearance of many different
forms of voluntarism, in which
everyone retains their individuality
and identity, their specific methods
of action and methods of operating.
These include voluntary organisations
whose members take action to
promote non-profit causes – causes
that are not related to their material
interests in the narrow sense (anti-
realistic organisations) or that are
related to the promotion of so-called
‘third generation’ rights, or solidarity
rights: for example, the right to
peace, the right to development and
the right to humanity’s common
heritage. Voluntary activities often
take the form of humanitarian
Reconsidering the paradoxes of cultural voluntarism in Greece
aid, international co-operation
and solidarity, or are related to
environmental issues and ecology,
leisure and the quality of life, as
well as to the prevention of natural
disasters and the confrontation of
their consequences.
A particular component of the
voluntary movement emerges where
voluntarism is introduced into
the cultural sector. The common
ground of these two sectors forms
the field of ‘cultural voluntarism’.
This component is exemplified by
voluntary organisations active in the
fields of inter-cultural understanding
and education, cultural creativity and
production, artistic expression and
cultural heritage. The cultural field is
an advantageous one for voluntary
organisations to develop and act in.
Since the 1980s, it has been noted
that voluntary organisations should
be considered as the focal point of
participation in cultural democracy
and as an important factor in cultural
development. Voluntary organisations
have come to be the most appropriate
agents for the development of
cultural actions, often more so than
governments themselves (Grosjean,
1986). Furthermore, the political
component in the collective activities
of voluntary organisations is an
important factor in the empowerment
of civil society. Consequently, it is
possible for cultural issues to play
an integral part in the protection
83
of human rights and liberties, the
enhancement of social cohesion
and the encouragement of citizen
awareness, active participation and
voluntary activity. In other words,
such issues can reinforce creativity in
human participation and collectivity
in action, and can forge a feeling
of individual responsibility and
collective accountability.
The relationship between the cultural
sector and the field of voluntary
activity is essentially one of vital
interest. The paths of mutual
empowerment are diverse, and are
related to the new dimensions of the
field, which has been described as the
‘site of citizenship’ (Audigier, 1999;
Council of Europe, 1999). The ways in
which culture can foster civil society
are many. For example, voluntary
cultural organisations can promote
understanding of, and respect for,
cultural diversity. Moreover, the
‘diplomacy’ of cultural voluntarism
can contribute to the reduction
of tension and can serve as an
important source of reconciliation and
revitalisation for ruptured societies
(Fisher and Fox, 2001). Cultural
voluntarism organisations become
exceptionally important in creating
the conditions for participative
democracy.
The following analysis of Greek civil
society is based on the three above-
mentioned criteria relating to the type
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
of voluntary activity, as well as to the
time and place of a particular activity.
As stated above, this analysis refers
to a particular field of voluntary
activity – cultural voluntarism
– that is not included within the
conventional fields of social policy
and which has developed in Greece,
a country with specific characteristics
and traditions. Furthermore, the
analysis deals with a specific time
frame – the last quarter of the
twentieth century through to the
beginning of the twenty-first – which
will be examined in order to point
out the paradoxes and contradictions
that arise.
Intense collective voluntarism
in a colonised environment
Voluntary activity in Greece reached
its peak in the decades following the
fall of the military junta in 1974.
The circumstances and atmosphere
of the time created a new culture
of involvement. Hence, beyond the
expected minimum legitimisation of
political parties and trade unions,
participation developed in voluntary
organisations covering a broad span
of activities. These activities brought
forth initiatives that were novel
to Greece, including the ecology,
feminist and cultural movements.
In the field of cultural voluntarism,
there was a true explosion of activity.
During this period, it became obvious
that neither national nor local
84
government was able to intervene
in the country’s cultural problems
or to implement a long-term and
coherent cultural policy. This led to
the emergence, in every Greek city
and in almost every neighbourhood,
of cultural organisations, often
of excessive proportions. A study
by the Greek National Centre for
Social Research identified about
1,900 of them (Gizelis, 1977). These
organisations constituted a massive
cultural movement, characterised
by a high degree of voluntary
participation.
Despite the lack of comparative
research into the Greek situation,
data from various studies shows how
voluntary organisations interpret the
concept of ‘active membership’ by
differentiating between ‘membership’
and ‘participation’. Here we look
at one specific case: the voluntary
organisations of Piraeus, the Greek
capital’s seaport and the biggest
harbour in the eastern Mediterranean.
Piraeus is an independent and
autonomous city, with its own
traditions, a representative social
composition, a highly developed
sense of civic pride and an important
economic, social and cultural life.
Around the end of the 1970s,
voluntary organisations in the city
considered as ‘active members’ those
who either ‘complete the tasks they
undertake’ or ‘take initiative and act
collectively’, rather than those who
Reconsidering the paradoxes of cultural voluntarism in Greece
are merely ‘financially scrupulous and
have the right to vote’. Moreover, the
degree of collectivity in voluntary
organisations during this period and
in this city was particularly high. The
majority of organisations had ‘more
than 50 active members’, a number
considered exceptionally large for
Greek organisations of local scale
(Ioannides, 2002).
In addition, the variety of forms
of artistic expression and cultural
creativity reveals the diversity
of activities practised by cultural
voluntarism organisations: for
example, cultural clubs and cultural
centres, art clubs and art workshops,
educational circles, literary clubs, city
beautification unions, publications
on cultural issues, and informal
groups without specific legal status.
The cultural voluntarism movement
of this period actively contributed
to cultural production and artistic
creation: it was the focal point of
local intellectual and social life, and it
came to be the most important factor
in local cultural development.
In spite of the high degree of mobility
observed in the forms of voluntary
action, local cultural development in
practice took place under the aegis of
the political parties. Participation in
one of the political parties of the time
usually led to a parallel participation
in a local cultural society of similar
ideological and political leanings.
85
As a consequence, these cultural
voluntarism organisations could
be described as colonised forms of
collective activity. In other words,
they do not appear as independent
expressions of a collective will, but
rather as subsidiary organisations,
dependent on the political parties
that either founded them or colonised
them.
Voluntary organisations of this
type are characterised by their
manipulation by political parties,
which renders them incapable of self-
administration and self-definition. The
methods, principles, organisational
rules and norms of internal operation
dominant in the voluntary bodies
of this period typify a specific
kind of organisational culture that
repressed rather than encouraged
true participation. For example, the
high degree of bureaucracy and the
low level of representation within the
administration of these organisations
reinforced electoral systems and the
sub-groupings. Dismissals and group
walk-outs of members reduced the
quality of democracy within the
organisations and undermined the
pluralism of their internal operations.
In this way, despite the wide spread
of the voluntary movement, the
equally widespread patronage system
created a stifling environment for
participation in Greek civil society
– an environment that did not allow
for a pluralistic representation of
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
interests, as is pointed out in macro-
analyses of the period (Tsoukalas,
1986). The active involvement of
members of voluntary organisations
in the electoral procedures of political
parties completed an organisational
culture that, in its extreme expression,
is the small-scale equivalent of a
political party. Indeed, it was not
unusual for large numbers of volunteer
organisation members to participate in
the elections as candidates of political
parties. The above-mentioned study of
Piraeus found that half the voluntary
organisations active at this period had
members who had been candidates in
parliamentary elections; and of those
organisations, two-thirds had members
who, after having been elected, did
not resign from – or at least did
not suspend their participation in
– the organisation in question. In
conclusion, it seems that, despite
their active involvement in cultural
life, colonised cultural voluntarism
organisations do not contribute to an
essentially local and self-determining
cultural development.
In the early 1980s, with the accession
to power of the socialists and
subsequent efforts to establish a
social state (Spourdalakis, 1996),
a new socio-political situation
developed in Greece. In the field of
cultural voluntarism, an impressively
widespread quantitative development
of cultural societies took place
throughout the country, mainly due to
86
the ad hoc funding policy adopted by
the government. In this way, a kind
of parallel ‘cultural welfare state’ was
created. The state divided the total
available funds between the largest
possible number of organisations,
without applying any criteria and
without a strategy for their true
development (Konsola, 1990). The
relationship between the state and
the cultural societies reflected a state
policy that created dependence and
led to colonisation. This model of
centralisation in the cultural field
was taken up at the local level by
local government. Municipalities
now implement coherent cultural
policies, but at the same time they
foster an idiosyncratic local cultural
statism with pronounced colonising
tendencies. On the one hand this
practice ensures the survival of
voluntary organisations, but on the
other hand it effectively condemns
them to stagnation.
The power of cultural statism, as
practised by central as well as
local government, is shown by
the phenomenon of voluntary
organisation members transferring
their participation. It is obvious
that, as a result of colonisation,
any changes at the central or local
level will directly affect voluntary
organisations. For example, the
results of the 1981 national elections
led to hopes of overall change.
Consequently, many of those
Reconsidering the paradoxes of cultural voluntarism in Greece
who had parallel membership of
a political party and a voluntary
organisation chose forms of purely
political action, carried out through
political parties, or even took up
state positions. In addition, local
government’s quest for competent
and experienced professionals drained
away a significant proportion of the
human resources of local voluntary
organisations. Cinema provides a
characteristic example. A study by
the Greek National Centre of Social
Research links the spread of municipal
cinemas that took place in the early
1990s with the demise of the local
cinema clubs that had been powerful
voluntary organisations during
the previous period (Gasparinatos,
Ioannides and Tsakiris, 2000).
In order to adapt to the new
circumstances, volunteers sought
new ways of channelling their
participation: in other words, a
kind of substitute action to replace
the forms of action they had left
behind. In conclusion, the voluntary
organisations of this period suffered
leaks of their human resources to the
state, the political parties and local
government, and they started to show
the first signs of decline and crisis.
The transference of participation by
their members marginalised voluntary
organisations, but did not obliterate
them from cultural life; in fact, it
provided them with the conditions
necessary for their survival.
87
Participatory culture under
conditions of micro-level
voluntarism
Since the early 1990s, Greece has
entered a new socio-economic phase,
characterised by the shrinkage of
the welfare state. The economic
dimension of the cultural sector is
recognised as an important branch
of economic activity, while artistic
creation has been to a great extent
commercialised and industrialised.
A review of welfare policies has led
to a crisis of political commitment,
extending to all forms of communal
action that characterised traditional
political activity (political parties,
labour unions, etc).
Within such a stifling environment,
social action experiences significant
changes related to the emergence
of new subjects for voluntary
involvement. At the end of the
twentieth century the voluntary sector
was defined by the wide variety
of its organisations and the great
diversity of its activities and modes
of operation. It is a ‘dynamic and
changing field, a kaleidoscope of
social diversity’, with one-third of
its organisations founded after 1990
(Stasinopoulou, 1997).
One particularly significant tendency
has been the ‘culturisation’ of
the entire voluntary sector – the
process by which artistic activity
ceases to be the preserve of purely
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
cultural voluntary organisations
and becomes a field in which most
voluntary organisations are active (see
Note 2). In other words, voluntary
organisations are now defined by
their variety and the range of their
complementary actions: they are
multidimensional organisations that
are attempting to restructure the
framework of communal action and
participation.
An important symptom of this change
of direction has been the fact that
voluntary organisations have recently
been operating against a background
of declining participation: personal
involvement has been weakening over
the past decade. An indication of this
tendency is that ‘active members’ are
now defined as ‘the members that
are financially scrupulous and have
the right to vote’, in contrast to the
situation in previous periods. In the
current period, besides the blunting
of the criteria for voluntarism and
the shift in the meaning of ‘active
member’ towards milder forms of
participation, a dramatic reduction of
the members participating in voluntary
organisations has been noted.
During the 1990s, as revealed by the
above-mentioned study of Piraeus,
half the organisations functioned with
‘fewer than 20 members’. Only one
in ten organisations had ‘more than
50 active members’, which had been
the norm during the previous period.
88
Also, the ratio between active and
non-active membership has reversed:
non-active membership is now
growing. Furthermore, organisations
now have narrower range and lower
penetration, since their activities
are targeted at smaller audiences.
Precisely because of these small-scale
activities, voluntary organisations
restore a human scale to participation,
and enjoy more direct ways of
motivating their members, based on
the intimate ties between them.
These, then, are the characteristics
of the various types of cultural
voluntarism. At the dawn of the
twenty-first century, the dominant
type of voluntary organisation is
the targeted activity organisation.
Greek voluntarism has developed by
building on the personal element in
its organisational practices, and is
characterised by a strong localism,
activating a micro-level voluntarism.
This type of voluntarism is a powerful
factor in shaping the organisations
themselves and in encouraging
individual forms of voluntary activity.
The individuality of members is
considered fundamentally important
in the dynamics of voluntary
organisations, in the realisation of
their aims and in their organisational
practices. In view of the fact that
the individuality of volunteers is
a mixture of their personal needs,
attitudes and wishes, as well as of
their expectations, ambitions and
Reconsidering the paradoxes of cultural voluntarism in Greece
interests, an inherent contradiction
is revealed, one that is registered in
the chromosomes of every voluntary
action. The incorporation of the
individual element into the collective
does not mean that the motivations
of all voluntary activity are
automatically consistent. It is possible
for voluntarism to have a wide range
of motivations. It can sometimes be
directed towards selflessly targeted
action, where voluntary participation
is considered an end in itself; in other
cases, it can have selfishly targeted
objectives, whereby voluntary action
is exploited as a means to achieve an
end – thus depriving voluntarism of
its essence.
The Olympic Games of 2004 in Greece
offered a good example of this mixture
of motives. The need to involve a huge
number of volunteers (80,000 citizens)
in order for the Games to succeed
offered a first-class opportunity
for analysis and study. Most of the
interviewees in studies of Olympic
voluntarism said that they considered
their participation in the Olympic
Games as ‘a valuable experience
for their future career’ or that they
‘expected some recognition of their
contribution’ (Athens Olympic Games
Organisation Committee, 2000).
The individual rationales of members
of voluntary organisation for
their collective activity are, to a
great extent, post-materialist and
89
individualised motivations, expressed
through the demand for substantial
and responsible roles with obvious
effectiveness. At the dawn of the
twenty-first century, within the
stifling environment of a receding
participatory culture, a powerful
and multi-faceted micro-level
voluntarism has developed. Modern
Greek volunteers can be described
as follows: on one hand they claim
and adopt functional roles that can
provide them with social recognition,
and on the other hand they expect
some return for their contribution.
That is to say, the volunteers require
motivations for participation and
rewards that correspond to their
individual expectations.
Notes
1. During the last decades of the
twentieth century, new approaches
to the concept of ‘communalism’
were attempted, exploring its
potential as an alternative social
system. ‘Communitarianism’, the
communalism of US origin, is an
example of an ideological, social and
political movement that provides
theoretical analyses of modern society
and its relationship with the economy
and with the individual (Etzioni,
1995).
2. A study by the Greek Ministry of
Health and Welfare records 10,000
voluntary organisations combining
cultural activities with social care
Voluntary Action Volume 7 Number 3 Winter/Spring 2006
activities (Panagiotidou, 2000).
Furthermore, the international
research project Volmed found that
two-fifths of all Greek voluntary
organisations regarded the ‘cultural
field’ as the main area of their activity
(Stasinopoulou, 1997).
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