Volunteering

This section discusses the benefits of and barriers to becoming a volunteer, good practice guidance for organisations in assisting people who are homeless or insecurely housed to improve their skills and gain experience by volunteering.

Content in this section is adapted from OSW's work on volunteering. The documents are available on this page, and from the OSW website.

Why volunteer?

OSW have undertaken two major surveys into homeless people’s attitudes to and experiences of volunteering. The surveys involved people with experience of homelessness, some of whom had volunteered and some who hadn’t. The first in 2005 identified the reasons that prompted people to volunteer as being:

to improve employability
to make them feel better about themselves
to give something back to services
to provide something to do

Meaningful occupation and self esteem improvement are key factors for many people in homelessness services, particularly those who may be in recovery from drug or alcohol addictions.

One respondent to OSW’s second survey of homeless people’s experience of volunteering said:

“I’ve had a drug problem for a number of years and I’d done a years treatment, I had to find something to keep me occupied while I’m in temporary accommodation.”

Both those who had volunteered (mostly in homelessness services, some in other support services they had themselves used such as drug/alcohol or mental health services, and a small minority who volunteered in external agencies) believed that volunteering helped people:

meet new people
gain experience
gain communication skills
test out new areas of work
gain confidence
improve CV
get a reference
develop a routine
tackle stigma.

The issue of tackling stigma, and raising a positive awareness of the contributions of homeless people is a point echoed by the experience of one formerly homeless volunteer, who is now employed as a teacher in a large hostel in London. Aggrie Chikiwa, who won the Michael Whippman Award 2008 for service user contribution to the community says:

“The picture of homeless people is changed to a friendly person – someone you can work with.”

Volunteering can provide a platform for service users to have their voices heard, as one respondent to OSW put it:

“I started volunteering because I though that it was really important to communicate service users needs.”

Residents at Anchor House, where Aggrie works, attend the local Community Forum.

“The Canning Town Community Forum meets once a month to discuss resident and community issues. Canning Town has its issues, and going to the forum enabled me to represent homeless people, to say how they feel about issues in the community and things happening around them: injustices, discrimination, marginalisation.

My question to residents here was: what are you doing to change it? It is you who makes the change. You have privileges here – a roof over your head, food and if you budget properly and learn priorities you can change something. And people began to see that when you are volunteering you are not enslaved – you are just not paid!

To be someone you need the experience, this is what you get from volunteering. If someone is serious about their work, they are often offered a job. That’s what happened to me. Moreover, the organisation can give you a written reference. You’re learning skills, building confidence. I’ve seen people don’t believe that the system works, but when they’re engaging and participating they can see that it can work.

The funny part about involvement is when people who wouldn’t share their personal information or their opinions with the management here, but they would open up and contribute at the Community Forum.”

The link between service user involvement and volunteering is clear – meaningful service user participation often leads to an interest in volunteering, and experience with external organisations and learning new skills adds value to inhouse participation schemes.

OSW’s survey found that 54% of people with experience of volunteering had found their opportunity through being a service user at an organisation. Furthermore, lack of confidence and concerns about perceptions from others were cited in the OSW report as barriers to homeless people becoming invovled in volunteering. Meaningful and well supported participation schemes in organisations can help people gain the confidence to make the step to volunteering outside their organisation.

Where to find a volunteer opportunity

Respondents to OSW’s survey of homeless and formerly homeless volunteers said that they had been fortunate to find out about volunteering opportunities:

“Most homeless people don’t know about voluntary work, there should be more access to voluntary work. The people I live with, no-one’s ever told them about volunteering. Support workers and people should be offering it to you as an option. All the people who’ve worked with me try to push you into paid work, but you might not be ready for that. They never suggest volunteering instead.”

Respondents felt that support workers and keyworkers had a major role to play in suggesting volunteering, assisting people to find suitable opportunties and to make contact and apply.

Taster sessions, or an opportunity to visit a project and meet other volunteers before committing were welcomed by potential volunteers.

“The chance to go in and see if you fit in was really useful, I went in for the day and met the kids, did some activities with them so I knew it was right for me.”

Local volunteer centres may be able to assist in these aspects of the process, and individuals or keyworkers should aim to develop links with the local centre. Find your local volunteer centre here.

Goldstar is an organisation set up to promote good practice in mananging volunteers from socially excluded groups.

What about benefits entitlements?

The DWP guide to volunteering while on benefits sets out the basic rules:

You can volunteer for as many hours as you want, as long as you still meet the conditions to get your benefit or tax credit.
The old rule that you could only volunteer for 16 hours a week no longer applies.
You can generally be refunded for your expenses by the organisation you are volunteering for without it affecting your benefit or credit. For tax credit purposes, any expenses you get for doing voluntary work will usually be disregarded when it comes to working out your income.
If you are getting an income-related benefit, like Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Council Tax Benefit or Housing Benefit, then you must declare any payment, payments in kind, or expenses you receive for doing voluntary work. You will also need to keep all your receipts, to back up your claim.

Read the DWP guide to volunteering while on benefits