The link between volunteering and social exclusion, and the question of whether or not volunteering is ‘inclusive to all’, has been a key theme for the volunteering movement over the past few years. It is a question that has caught the attention of practitioners and policy-makers alike.
The Institute for Volunteering Research gained funding from the Community Fund to undertake a three-year research project to provide answers to this question by looking at what volunteering can do to reduce social exclusion, at some of the reasons why it hasn’t so far fulfilled its potential in this area, and at some of the attempts made to do so.
The research focused on the experience of volunteering among disabled people, people from Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, and ex-offenders. Of course, not all disabled people, ex-offenders, or people from BME groups are excluded, but people from these groups are more likely to suffer exclusion from certain areas of public life, including volunteering.
For example, previous studies of volunteering, in particular the 1997 National Survey of Volunteering, had suggested that, although nearly 22 million people were involved in formal volunteering in the UK each year, certain groups were under-represented. These included young people, unemployed people, older people, members of BME groups and disabled people. Research has since been undertaken on young people, older people and unemployed people. But we knew little about which barriers work against participation for people from BME groups, disabled people, and ex-offenders. What we did know, reinforced these initial findings:
Black and minority ethnic groups and volunteering:
• A study of volunteering in Luton by Foster and Mirza in 1997 found that 96% of volunteers in mainstream organisations were white.
• A study by the National Coalition of Black Volunteering in 2000 found that 41% of charities have no black volunteers, and 43% of charities have no black trustees.
• However, more recently the Home Office Citizenship Survey in 2001 found that 39% of white people took part in formal volunteering, compared to 42% of Black people and 35% of Asian people.
Disabled people and volunteering:
• A study by RSVP in 2000 found that out of 265 volunteer-involving organisations included in the study, less than two-thirds of those organisations involved volunteers with disabilities and very few involved disabled people as trustees. The same survey found that only 14% of the organisations targeted disabled people.
• In a report written in 1999 for Leonard Cheshire, Knight and Brent note that for some disabled people the barriers that exist to taking part in the labour market also exist to those wishing to take part in volunteering.
Ex-offenders and volunteering:
• There is scant evidence on the number of volunteers who have a record of offence, but some organisations place limits on the involvement of ex-offenders as volunteers.
• A report by the Prison Reform Trust in 2002 on volunteering and active citizenship among prisoners, found that 7% of prisoners participated in some form of activity that involved them helping other prisoners.
• A report by Edinburgh Volunteer Exchange in 2000 highlighted the benefits of volunteering to ex-offenders through increasing their job prospects and building up work skills and confidence, and by providing a reference.
There was, however, little information about why certain people were volunteering less and about what benefits they might derive if they did get involved.
