Untold Stories of Volunteering: A Cultural Animation Project

Professor Mihaela Kelemen, Keele UniversityVéronique Jochum, NCVO

Origins and History of the Project• Follow on study based on an initial AHRC scoping study ‘Exploring

personal communities: A review of volunteering processes’ (2012)

• The initial study established via a literature review and interviews with 30 volunteers that:

– Definition of volunteering is complex: some people volunteer but do not use the label of volunteering to qualify their involvement

– Wide range of practices identified as volunteering

– Volunteering stories and experiences are a powerful way of understanding how personal communities are formed, sustained and how they change over time

Outcomes of the Original Study• The documentary drama on volunteering, ‘A little act of kindness’

was showcased by the AHRC in London, March, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QsosP821t0

• The story of the Ford Green Hall which was threatened with closure but saved by its volunteers – From altruistic volunteering to militant volunteering

• The Etruria Industrial Museum’s story focused on the ‘princess’ (the engine of the last steam powered potters’ mill in Britain). The volunteers restored the engine to working order– From instrumental volunteering to militant volunteering

• The New Vic volunteering story explored how volunteering could turn one’s life around by giving ‘voluntolds’ a second chance in life. – From forced volunteering to instrumental or altruistic volunteering

A Little Act of Kindness

Untold stories of volunteering

• Who is missing from our story?

• Official discourses based on the assumptions that– There is an unlimited reservoir of goodwill in communities – People can be encouraged to volunteer more

• However, at a grassroots level we find– Diversity in people's engagement with and support for

volunteering– Constraints related to other activities, such as work and

personal caring commitments– Diverse motives, practices and affective relations involved

in volunteering

Background• ‘Untold Stories of Volunteering: A Cultural Animation Project’

– Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under the Connected Communities Programme

– Keele University, University of Leicester, New Vic Theatre, NCVO– 17 month project in two phases (Feb 2013 – June 2014)

• Four Phase 1 workshops– Between 15-21 participants at each workshop (2:1 female to male),

over 30 in total– Range of volunteers, volunteer managers, senior managers, senior

researchers, academics and theatre practitioners– New Vic Borderlines, Victim Support, Staffs Buddies, Mum’s on a

Mission, Roma Volunteers, Voice for Change, NCVO, CDF, Volunteer Centre Lambeth, RNIB, The Cabinet Office etc.

– Wide range of ages and experience

Cultural Animation

• Draws on the everyday experiences of ordinary people and their abilities to achieve things

• Describes community arts work or methods which animate or 'give life to' the dynamics of everyday life

• Builds up trusting relationships between participants by inviting them to work together in activities which may be new to them but which draw on their life experiences

• Articulates ideas and experiences in actions and images rather than the written word

Cultural Animation Outcomes

• A series of artefacts, based on themes and issues raised by the volunteers themselves

– Poetry, songs, puppets and models, shadow puppet theatre and short plays

– A code of ethics for co-designing and co-producing research with communities

It’s Paradoxical

You can volunteer for a short time friendBut you better find yourself a job in the end

(It’s paradoxical)

They want the community to have more saySo why are you taking all the funding away?

(It’s paradoxical)

I want to do something for my communityBut you come and tell me I need a CRB

(It’s paradoxical)

We’d like to do everything that comes our wayThere’s only 24 hours in a day

(It’s paradoxical)

They sent me to work in a factoryWhat! You want my time and you want it for free!

(It’s paradoxical)

Big Society is a propagandaBut we all have a proper agenda

(It’s paradoxical)

Stacking shelves for free is not my future seeI want to work in geology

(It’s paradoxical)

Some people see volunteering as fashionThe rest of us think that it’s all about passion

(NOT paradoxical)

Key Findings (1): The ‘voluntold’• Time frames

– ‘Volunteer short term – fine. Volunteer long term – get a job!!’

• Recognition and rewards– ‘Volunteering is fine if you’re paying tax’– ‘Do too much volunteering and then you’re not looking for

work’– ‘Volunteering is an individual thing and shouldn’t be dictated by

government’

• Commodification– ‘Free work is not the same as cheap work. Unpaid work is not

volunteering’– The stigma of being ‘low hanging fruit’ for 3rd party providers

Key Findings (2): Relationships with the State

• The absence of local government: contrary to the spirit of the Localism Act, 2011, the discussions referred exclusively to central government

• National bodies and individual volunteers found it difficult at times to understand each other’s experiences and points of view

• Impact of government policy is diluted to the extent that volunteers are mostly unaware of official policy, choosing to concentrate on the immediate needs of individuals and their community

Key Findings (3): Research Process

• There are significant differences between co-designed/co-created projects and existing research on volunteering which tends to be output rather than process focused

• A wide range of other stories of volunteering need to be considered in Phase 2. For example: – Stories from professional volunteer management– Stories from ‘voluntolds’– Stories from people who work during the day and cannot attend

day time workshops– Stories from disabled volunteers– Stories from younger people (school pupils)– Stories from volunteers with bad experiences – Stories from corporate volunteers, including civil servants and

MPs

Phase 2 Involvement• People could become involved in Phase 2 of the project in a

range of ways, including: – Direct involvement in co-design and co-creation– Partial involvement through occasional workshop attendance, – Engagement with project blog– Keeping a diary about their volunteering experiences– Doing their own recordings– Being interviewed by the team– Direct or indirect dissemination of project information and

findings

• Outcome: an interactive piece of documentary theatre performed in Stoke, Leicester and London in 2014