Volunteers in Youth and Community Work
Part of my role in Plymouth has been spending time community profiling in the area I'm working in, networking with others who work in the community. Second to working face to face with young people this networking is one of my favourite parts of the job, just because of the number of amazing people I meet.
I had a meeting on Monday evening at a local community centre. The centre is entirely voluntary, every member of staff is a volunteer apart from the bar staff (the bar raises the money for the community activities) and the cleaner. 30 years ago the community was nothing but a housing estate, so the residents decided they needed something and set it up. The centre was built by volunteers who'd come home from work, have their tea, then go out for the evening to (literally) build the community centre. The lady who is the secretary, now retired and struggling with arthritis so that she can barely walk was the secretary right from the beginning.
During my hour with the secretary and the youth worker I saw so much. There was passion in her eyes as she remembered the community which 30 years ago had built the centre. She could have been forgiven for more bitterness as she spoke of isolation as the community college whose grounds they are on, and the city council barely acknowledge their existence. And there was sadness that the committee and helpers and volunteers are the same as those who were in from the beginning- there are no younger residents now who will put themselves forward to sit on committees, work with young people, or organise events, although there are plenty to fill the bar and the social club. They felt that taking on a paid youth worker would take from the funding that could be used for the work, and be a disrespect to colleagues who had put in their time and energy freely over the years.
Evenings like this make me wonder why I should get paid to do what I do when others give so much of themselves for the community and expect nothing in return. They make me deeply appreciative and respectful of volunteers. Why is the community spirit which inspired people to give so much so freely to their communities dying? Is it because as people we simply don't see that we need one another any more? Is it because surviving at the pace of modern life takes up so much of our energy that we don't have any left for our communities? Is it that we simply don't give a fig for the needs of others any more? As community development workers who work for community co-hesion and capacity building within communities, can we ever recapture the simple human spirit that says, we're here together, we need one another, we care for one another, we'll give ourselves to one another?
I had a meeting on Monday evening at a local community centre. The centre is entirely voluntary, every member of staff is a volunteer apart from the bar staff (the bar raises the money for the community activities) and the cleaner. 30 years ago the community was nothing but a housing estate, so the residents decided they needed something and set it up. The centre was built by volunteers who'd come home from work, have their tea, then go out for the evening to (literally) build the community centre. The lady who is the secretary, now retired and struggling with arthritis so that she can barely walk was the secretary right from the beginning.
During my hour with the secretary and the youth worker I saw so much. There was passion in her eyes as she remembered the community which 30 years ago had built the centre. She could have been forgiven for more bitterness as she spoke of isolation as the community college whose grounds they are on, and the city council barely acknowledge their existence. And there was sadness that the committee and helpers and volunteers are the same as those who were in from the beginning- there are no younger residents now who will put themselves forward to sit on committees, work with young people, or organise events, although there are plenty to fill the bar and the social club. They felt that taking on a paid youth worker would take from the funding that could be used for the work, and be a disrespect to colleagues who had put in their time and energy freely over the years.
Evenings like this make me wonder why I should get paid to do what I do when others give so much of themselves for the community and expect nothing in return. They make me deeply appreciative and respectful of volunteers. Why is the community spirit which inspired people to give so much so freely to their communities dying? Is it because as people we simply don't see that we need one another any more? Is it because surviving at the pace of modern life takes up so much of our energy that we don't have any left for our communities? Is it that we simply don't give a fig for the needs of others any more? As community development workers who work for community co-hesion and capacity building within communities, can we ever recapture the simple human spirit that says, we're here together, we need one another, we care for one another, we'll give ourselves to one another?
posted by Nikki @ 10:32 am
2 Comments:
At 8:25 pm,
Caroline said…
i'll attempt to be diplomatic, but apologise in advance to anyone who might be offended...my experience of community work is that such a situation is virtually self destructive by its' very nature, not I hasten to add, because of any one's 'fault'. the immesne sense and (reality) of ownership when volunteers (or paid staff)are still in the same positions in a project 30 years later creates an enormous barrier to new people. However much people might think they are welcoming to new people thre is a inevitably a 'clan' which can be inpenetrable to a new newcomer. In a small community there is local politics, dynamics, lines of connectivity between fmailies and residents that can almost ensure the perpetuation of the status quo. New people come along, decide to get involved, are grossly outnumbered by the 'how we've always done it/ seen it/ understood it clan and end up walking away with a sense of despiar. that's not to say that it's being done wrong, or badly, just that if there has been no new process for a long time new people find it difficult to stick around long enough to inspire gradual change. Ok, yes, i personally have walked away after 10 months of being a volunteer at a place where another volunteer had been 'in charge' for over 15 years. I could not get my voice heard, I was not convinced that the status quo was acceptable (particularly in terms of staff management) and I did not have the necessary time or energy to invest in making it work. that probly sounds egotistic, but new eyes and new dynamics see things differently - those differences were not being acknoweledged.
the fact that people are all volunteers exacerbates the problem. I totally applaud volunteers - my agenda is not to 'diss them' - most of my life i have been a volunteer and/ or recruited and trained volunteers. but the sense of 'it's mine', 'it's part of me' and 'it owes me' and I've given my life and soul to this', means that new people face a nightmare. the role of the community worker here is not so much to work with those considered to be takers and disinterested people who won't give their time, it's to work with the existing workers to see that maybe it's them who need to move on. just thoughts.
At 10:24 am,
Nikki said…
Thank you. That's a good different perspective, and one which I hadn't thought about! And thinking about it I've seen it many many times, especially in churches.
N
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