The Morgan Inquiry has just published its report which looks at "the real reasons for more young people to volunteer, the barriers that prevent young people from doing so - and produced a series of practical recommendations for change".

We've highlighted some of the recommendations from the final report:

"It is widely acknowledged that children and young adults often relate better to, and are inspired by, young adults who are closer to their age. However, attracting and retaining young adults into voluntary positions where they have a leadership/mentoring role for young people is proving difficult to achieve."

"There has been a lot of speculation about the introduction of a new national bank holiday, with the notion that it could be dedicated to volunteering. However, from our evidence the introduction of a new bank holiday per se, would have very little impact on volunteering. Instead this Inquiry would like to see the introduction of a new scheme that would grant young adults an extra day a year to volunteer."

"There is also a particular issue with regards to the payment of expenses ‘up front’ to young adult volunteers. Again, DWP along with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) need to produce clearer guidelines on this practice, which is sometimes wrongly regarded as a means of payment and thus means that unemployed young adults are penalised with regards to their benefit claims."

"With volunteering so vital in the development of the transferable skills that employers are looking for nationwide, this Inquiry would like to see the development of a Government accredited volunteering skills award that would be universally recognised and valued by not only industry but also higher/further education establishments."

"Our final recommendation is that we would like to see a consolidation of the information that is available for young adults who wish to volunteer. At present information is confusing to both young adults and employers who are interested in getting involved in volunteering."

The full report can be downloaded here.

Here at AVM we've been staying up late working on a new AVM project- developing a wiki in volunteer management. The idea is to build a resource for volunteer managers which is free, open and community driven. The project itself is still pretty rough and ready- but we have a bunch of articles that are gradually growing. If you're interested put your name down in our community page, check out what's going on and how you can get involved.

One page on the wiki we'd currently really like to draw your attention to is a discussion paper we've drafted with a view to approaching the Office of the Third Sector about the future of training for volunteer managers. We'd love your input in this discussion and would welcome additions (ideas or points we've missed) to the article. 

Daily Telegraph recently (03-05-2008) published a long article on volunteering and the National Trust. It's well worth a read, covering lots of different roles and issues in volunteer management. Here's a quote from one of the volunteers, Darcy, who's interviewed in the article: 

 "Volunteering doesn't feel like a burden," he says. "You do what you can, and it is an enjoyable experience. We're a small team, we're friends."

Here below is the recent mention in Parliament of the amendment proposed to include childcare costs as reasonable expenses which don't trigger the minimum wage legislation. Hooray :-)

It was interesting to see the BBC's 'Politics Show' covering volunteering yesterday. The main programme featured a report by Baroness Julia Neuberger talking about the benefits of volunteering. It spelt out a lot of what was contained in the report by the Commission on the Future of Volunteering chaired by the Baroness. You can read a written article on this video report here.

As part of the region section of the Politics Show a number of different video reports were broadcast in different areas. Including the following:

Last week on Woman's Hour the discussion 'Are Baby Boomers Backing Out?' was:

"The number of people over the age of 55 who do voluntary work is falling. It seems the baby boomer generation would rather spend time travelling or shopping than helping out at a local school or charity. The findings in a new report are described as 'worrying' – the over 55's and women in particular have been seen as the bulwarks of the voluntary sector. The government has spent millions of pounds encouraging them to do more. So why are they going off the idea of helping out, while at the same time the number of younger people offering to do their bit is going up?"

Joe Saxton, founder of nfpSynergy, a specialist research consultancy for not for profit organisations and Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, Executive Director of Community Service Volunteers (CSV) were on the programme discussing the issue.

You can find the report from nfpSynergy 'Who Volunteers? Volunteering trends 2000-2007' here.

The other week I received an invitation to contribute evidence to the Morgan Inquiry. According to their website the Morgan Inquiry is explained as follows:

We just received this news:

The second edition of 'Turn your organisation into a volunteer magnet' was launched today at the Institute of Volunteer Management in Blackpool, England. Editors Fraser Dyer and Andy Fryar (Rob Jackson was unable to attend) and one of the 40 authors, Erin Tierney, launched the new publication with much fanfare.

You can download it from OZvpm or you can flick through the pages on screen here.

Third Sector wrote this week about the Conservatives proposal for school-leavers to take part in a six-week 'national citizen service' volunteering programme. Apparently you can comment on these ideas put together by Paul Oginsky, David Cameron's Youth Policy Advisor.

Ok, here's a shameless plug: just wanted to flag up a service we have on TheSite.org, do-it.org.uk's sister website, called askTheSite.

You can ask questions online and in confidence and for free on a whole range of issues. We have a brand new section called Work and Study where we're happy to field any questions on volunteering- in particular where you or the people you work with are looking to see how volunteering can get them the experience/skills they're after :-)

For more:
http://www.thesite.org/community/askthesite

This is from the acknowledgments page:

These National Occupational Standards have been developed in consultation with hundreds of individuals from across the UK who manage and co-ordinate volunteers and provide strategic direction on volunteering within their organisations. The Voluntary Sector National Training Organisation (VSNTO) wishes to thank all those involved in their development. This work could not have been completed without their assistance.

I just found out about this new website called Experts in Volunteering managed by Greater London Volunteering. According to their site:

Last Friday Baroness Julia Neuberger was on BBC Radio Five Live with Simon Mayo talking about her work as Champion for Volunteering for Gordon Brown's Government. The conversation covered many issues in volunteering such as expenses, recognition and why people volunteer. It's interesting to hear her views.



You can download the interview here [9.24 MB 26.55 mins].

It's becoming the time of year when the national printed press bash volunteering on a gap year. No that's no quite true. There's certainly a debate to be had about the value of volunteering with certain projects around the world, but really it's part of the broader debate on approaches to development work in general. For example, the charge of "new colonialist" is something that could be levelled at any number of developmental projects across the globe.

Judith Brodie, VSO Director, origin of the "new colonialist" quote issued another press release this year- hammering home her message in case we'd forgotten:

"Last year VSO warned that gappers risked becoming the new colonialists if attitudes to voluntary work in the developing world didn't change. It argued that the gap year market was increasingly catering to the needs of volunteers, rather than the communities they claim to support."