Engaging Families in Volunteering

As the weather warms and the Easter Holidays are upon us, families might look for ways to spend meaningful time together. Have you thought about appealing to families and friend groups who might (or might not) have considered volunteering as a collective activity?

Not every organisation may be able to offer volunteering for family groups, so ask yourself:

• Can you adapt or offer a role which is family-friendly?
• Do you have the capacity?
• Are your existing volunteers able to help you recruit by encouraging a family member to help?
• Can you provide a positive volunteer culture within your organisation for family volunteers to feel welcome and accepted?

If you answered yes, then there could be some real benefits to your organisation, your volunteers, and your community.

Benefits for organisations
There are lots of benefits to welcoming volunteers, from young children to older adults:

• Build a larger support base and become more accessible: Reach more supporters and multiple generations with your mission when you welcome volunteers of all ages and engage people who might not typically have access to traditional volunteer opportunities. When you create an inclusive environment that welcomes all ages and abilities, your volunteer offer becomes more accessible for everyone, your impact grows, and your organisation is strengthened into a community. Plus, when groups pull together, you'll have more helping hands to get the job done! It may also lead to a longer term connection and future volunteering.
   
• Harness contagious enthusiasm: Children are generally eager to help and learn - and tell you what they think! This creativity and instant feedback about what they like and don't like about the role can be a refreshing insight into what you are offering. Younger helpers come with plenty of infectious smiles and enthusiasm that might just encourage other volunteers to have fun and participate again - including the parents. Children can bring people joy just by being themselves.
   
• Become more Instagram-friendly: Families often love to share their experiences online and show friends and family what they've been doing and the difference they have made. Create mini marketing campaigns by offering social media-worthy photo opportunities and encourage sharing of your social media links.
   
• Prepare the next generation of volunteers: It has been said that two out of three children who volunteer become active adult volunteers later in life. Research also suggests that children whose grandparents and parents volunteer are more likely to become volunteering adults. Introducing children to volunteering means it's more likely that they will be part of a future generation of socially minded and civically engaged adults.

Benefits for families
When the whole family is welcomed, parents can both spend time with their loved ones and help the community to:

• Impart strong values: Children learn through observation and often model adults' behaviour. Volunteering with children teaches values like selflessness, empathy, responsibility, resilience, hard work, problem solving, and offers a wider view of the world.
   
• Lead healthier, happier lives: Volunteering offers lots of health benefits. It's one of the best ways to keep the family active, introduce children to different cultures and backgrounds, and help with socialisation. It can encourage more time outdoors and away from technology, or help create a sense of purpose and community - all supporting positive mental health.
   
• Spend meaningful time together: With working parents and other demands on family time, making intergenerational opportunities for being together can strengthen family communication and bonds and create shared memories that last a lifetime.
   
• Learn in a comfortable, safe space: It can offer families a chance to test the water, to maybe come out as a group, experience somewhere new, or try out a new skill within safe, encouraging parameters.
   
• Keep the kids occupied without spending a fortune: Family days out can be expensive, especially during school holidays, but this is a way to try something new and interest without having to, for example, pay ticket or entry costs - especially if you can include refreshments and possibly even help with travel expenses.

How to appeal to families
When it comes to recruiting volunteers, you might tend to think about roles in distinct age groups. Might your organisation therefore benefit from considering the following points:

• Developing family-friendly volunteer opportunities: Make opportunities engaging and accessible for all family members, from grandparents to small children. You may have to adapt some of your current activities or create new ones. Your family-friendly opportunities should still have real value and address needs in your organisation and/or community. Start by assessing the opportunities you already have:
  • What do you currently do that could involve activities that could allow for family participation?
  • How can you adapt some of your activities for children of all ages?
  • Can you adapt opportunities to accommodate groups?

The key is probably to simplify your opportunities by breaking them into manageable yet impactful tasks that children can accomplish with supervision. For example, if your objective is to prepare and serve fresh, home-cooked meals, you could accommodate families by creating stations where each group can accomplish an individual task, noting which tasks might be child-friendly (e.g., peeling vegetables or serving bread rolls). Make sure every station has at least one adult supervising the activity. Set realistic expectations and make sure everyone is engaged, especially the children, so that boredom doesn't set in.

• Minimise barriers and make it appealing
  • Simplify sign up: It takes a lot to get a family out of the door. The last thing parents want is drawn-out training and inductions that won't keep their children's attention. Create a brief, interactive session when families arrive on site. You could also send engaging digital orientation materials before the event. These materials should introduce your cause and set expectations, like a video or a brief quiz that families can work through together. Make it easy for families to locate opportunities and register by creating a section or filter on your website that displays the activities appropriate for children and families.
  • Offer flexible scheduling: School nights can get hectic. Offer activities on weekends or during school holidays when families have more time. Remember that young children probably won't be able to complete a full day's work, so break your volunteer activity into shorter staggered shifts. Consider where families can contribute to a specific project with a specified term of commitment.
  • What does 'family' mean and how can you be as inclusive as possible? The definition of 'family' can be broad. It could apply to any group of two or more people that considers itself to be a family. Families can also be blended, and are not always defined by biology or legal frameworks.
  • Consider facilities needed: Consider what is important to families - is it access to toilets, changing and hand washing facilities, or access for pushchairs, for example? Are tasks and facilities appropriate for different ages, education levels, languages, etc.?
  • Have effective safeguarding measures in place: Having younger volunteers needn't be scary. Consider when it is important to use DBS checks, ensure your safeguarding policy is fit for purpose, insurance and risk assessments are in place, and boundaries and expectations are clearly communicated to ensure everyone is safe and supported. Having responsible adults come with children means you can allocate staff more efficiently. Ensure you specify whether children need to be accompanied by an adult whilst volunteering, so children don't come unattended. It's family volunteering, not a children's holiday club!
  • Go virtual: Virtual/remote volunteering increases access for those who want to get involved but may not be able to participate in traditional in-person volunteering. Can any tasks be completed by families at home, like counting birds in the garden, making items for a fundraiser, designing a poster, or delivering leaflets for an event?
  • Keep it fun: Harness the energy and excitability of youth and let the kids shine. Allow them to participate fully and to be joyful and silly when appropriate. If your families enjoy their time, and it's not overly serious and demanding, the more likely you'll see these families again.
• Support learning and foster awareness for your cause: Volunteering provides valuable learning opportunities. It helps children, teenagers and adults to develop an awareness of the world around them. It's not just about providing tokenistic menial tasks, but encouraging learning and signposting to further information and resources. Helping at a bird sanctuary might just foster a further interest in ornithology, so offer additional opportunities to get involved. Children learn through conversation, observation and action. They are naturally curious, so spend some time discussing the volunteer activity and how it impacts the community. Share what your organisation does and the impact it (and therefore they) have. Ask meaningful, open-ended questions, and invite children to share their thoughts. Demonstrate a skill, then encourage the children to attempt the skill on their own. These kinds of learning opportunities enrich children's understanding of the challenges others face, and they'll develop confidence in their own abilities, and memorable moments of parental pride.
   
• Fill a gap in the market: There is a shortage of volunteer roles for 14+ year-olds, including Duke of Edinburgh students, and also for 16-18 year-olds looking for experience in the world of work to enhance their academic study, gain references, or decide whether it's a career choice they want. What can you offer as part of a family offer that might help with this? Could this also lead to a longer relationship with a school or college to create a regular source of support? However, be aware of expectations and the difference required between offering work experience and a volunteering opportunity.
   
• Highlight your events: Events are a great way to introduce families to your organisation because event volunteering also calls for large groups. Outdoor events are especially appealing for families who like plenty of space to be active and variety of activity for youthful attention spans.
   
• Consider your marketing strategy: You may need to adjust your marketing strategy depending on the types of volunteers you want to recruit
  • Tap into your existing volunteer pool: Your current supporters are some of your best assets for volunteer recruitment. Get the word out by letting your volunteer community know that families are welcome. Reach out to your volunteers, donors, and other stakeholders, and share the benefits of volunteering with family and friends. If you have an older volunteer demographic, can you arrange a way they can show what they do to their grandchildren or wider family? If you host corporate volunteer groups, can they be invited to bring a family member?
  • Appeal to parents and carers: If you'd like to get kids involved in volunteering, you'll need to appeal to their grown-ups, and your focus and terminology may need to change.
  • Consider where families interact online: There will be local parent groups on Facebook and other community fora where you can post about your family-friendly volunteer opportunities.
  • Engage local schools: Ask if they could distribute leaflets or can promote via their internal communication systems, like newsletters.
  • Freebies!: You could create a free gift bag of promotional gifts, treats and resources. E.g., include an invitation to a future paid-for event or discount code for entry or for your café, to encourage them to return another time.

Do you have any family-friendly volunteer tips we can share, or volunteer opportunities you'd like us to promote in Gateshead? Get in touch with Gateshead Volunteer Centre at volunteering@connectedvoice.org.uk and set up an account by registering on OurGateshead (https://ourgateshead.org/user/register) where you can advertise your volunteer opportunities, events and services free of charge to a wide audience.

Are you looking for volunteer opportunities? Head to Volunteering on OurGateshead (https://www.ourgateshead.org/ways-to-help) to search for ways to volunteer.