Vision for Volunteering

The Vision for Volunteers (shared 06/05/2022) is a project led by NAVCA, NCVO, Sport England, Volunteering Matters, and the Association of Volunteer Managers, as well as others.

It aims to establish a culture where volunteering is ingrained in the collective psyche, part of everyone’s life.

There are five key themes and aims by 2032 

  • awareness and appreciation
  • power  
  • equity and inclusion
  • collaboration
  • experimentation

Volunteering builds skills and experience for individuals, as well as benefitting the wider community and ensures services are high quality, person-centred and effective.

The Vision explains that 7 out of 10 UK adults have volunteered at least once in their life.

Volunteering is changing

The Vision states the Covid Pandemic as a ‘breakthrough’. Those volunteering for the first time reached 4.6m nationally. Changes include an increase in informal volunteering and digital tools around community response.

To identify the strengths of voluntary activity up to and beyond 2032 it needs to be determined what volunteers want and need based around their capacities and motivations.

Volunteering leads are often forced to choose the individual volunteer or the collective (hosting organisation) when justifying its purpose. To combat these tensions, the Vision holds volunteers as the starting point.

To process the findings from workshops and engagement The Vision for Volunteering project has created ‘three horizons’

  • Horizon 1 – Business as usual – need to identify what we want to retain and reinvent e.g., CSR volunteering, Civic core, the idea of ‘volunteer army’
  • Horizon 2 – Disruptive Innovation – how to use the moments of change rather than trying to control them. E.g., Covid rise in informal volunteering
  • Horizon 3 – The emerging future – What is coming and what can be done to get it into please e.g., decentralised power.

Vision for Volunteering is just in the beginning stages.  There is excitement around the conversations about how volunteering can navigate challenges ahead and continue to create positive change within communities. 

To turn the Vision into our reality there needs to be commitment and action from all partners and individuals.

Currently volunteers and organisations are asked to:

The next steps will be updated through the project once they start to take shape.  For now, the two actions that can be done are above.

In setting up and establishing the Gateshead Volunteer Centre, Connected Voice will be following and learning from a Vision for Volunteering.

Service Area