Volunteering New Zealand Focus

Wednesday, 4 March 2009, 5:06 pm
Press Release: Volunteering New Zealand

VNZ Update February 2009

Volunteering New Zealand Focus

VNZ Board officers elected at first meeting for 2009
Alison Marshall has been re-elected as Chairperson of Volunteering at the first meeting of the VNZ Board for 2009. She continues in this leadership role which she has held since 2002. Alison is the National Manager Volunteer Services for the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. She is a former Board member and Chairperson of Volunteering Waikato

Elected as Vice-Chairperson was Olwen Taylor who was first elected to the Board in 2006. Previously she was a Board member and Chairperson of Volunteer Wellington. The new Secretary Treasurer of the Board is Lloyd Davies. He is Chairperson of Volunteering Western Bay of Plenty, in his paid work is part-time general manager of Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services Trust, and the owner of MediationPlus, a company providing disputes resolutions services. He is and has been actively involved in voluntary governance positions for a number of community organisations.

The other members of the VNZ Board are Heather Clark NZ Fire Service, Dianne Denny, Volunteering Auckland Chairperson and active in the Stroke Foundation, Gillian Peacock, a HR consultant working with non-profit organisations and Jane Poa from Pacific Health Services, Hawkes Bay.

Plans for youth volunteering strategy developed
An outline for an initial action plan for VNZ's focus on youth volunteering was agreed to by the Volunteering NZ Board at their first meeting for 2009. The overall strategic plan was also reviewed and endorsed.

In focusing on young people VNZ sees that they are potential volunteers both for today and into the future. Research evidence suggests that young people who volunteer are more likely to continue volunteering throughout their lives. They can achieve personal development through volunteering as well as contributing to their communities. For those who are alienated from their wider communities, volunteering can offer a means for them to see the value of joining or rejoining their communities and making a positive contribution.

VNZ recognises that if it is to develop an effective strategy for youth volunteering it will need to work in collaboration with other key agencies - community, government, and corporate. Achieving this will be important. The first stage of VNZ's plan will have three parts

Research -
to identify current programmes which encourage and enable youth volunteering and how they might contribute to a national campaign.
to identify and have initial discussions with potential partners that VNZ should work with.
To identify actions which VNZ might initiate itself.
Develop proposed actions plans for adoption by the VNZ Board.
Initial implementation of the action plans.
It is expected this will be undertaken over the 2009 year.
NEW ZEALAND NEWS
Social infrastructure just as important as roads and bridges
Tangata Whenua, and the Community and Voluntary Sector are challenging the Government to engage with them in managing impacts of the recession, and to involve them in following up action resulting from the Employment Summit.

Tim Burns of Volunteering NZ was one of about 70 representatives from across the community and voluntary sector, philanthropy, and government agencies who met in a Sector-initiated forum. They met to collect information about the impacts of economic recession on the community sector and develop strategies for managing the significant changes that are expected ahead. The Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Tariana Turia, who opened the forum, was the only parliamentary representative at the workshop.

Tina Reid from the Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations said workshop participants were clear about the need to link social and economic agendas. "This is about social infrastructure as well as physical infrastructure. Social service and other community organisations are at the front line of dealing with the fallout of the economic downturn.

"It impacts on all parts of our society, from the elderly whose retirement income has decreased with the lower interest rates, to the children living in families under financial pressure, to those in the workforce, including those middle managers being made redundant. It was time for the National-led Government to engage from a holistic perspective - not segregating social services from the economic and business perspective," she said.

The forum participants showed a clear willingness on behalf of the Community and Voluntary Sector to work in coordinated and cooperative way with Government and Business. The Jobs Summit was a major opportunity to get the Sector to the table and so it was very disappointing that only three social service organisations have been invited to the Summit. This showed a fundamental lack of understanding as to how community organisations contribute to New Zealand's economy.

"Community organisations are currently facing increasing demand, less funding because of the reduction in philanthropic and corporate sponsorship, and a void of information from the Government.

"It was vital that community organisations were not just tacked on to the end of the process - or worse just expected to adapt and pick up the pieces.

Internationally, business and corporate have working with Community and Voluntary and Philanthropic sectors to maintain their workforce through difficult times. Clever businesses were working with the Sector to make sure they retain capability and care for their workforces. To lay people off was a short term fix. We will come out of this recession. If we want to be healthy and wealthy country we need to focus on keeping our communities productive and future proofing our communities. Tim Burns of Volunteering NZ said one example of overseas companies that are doing things differently has been Caterpillar in the UK.

"They closed down one of their factories for a period of time and kept their staff on full pay while allowing them to do community work (ie volunteering) and training/ upskilling. It is this kind of innovative thinking that will help New Zealand be well positioned in the future. Internationally, organisations are recognising that volunteering opportunities provide valuable work skills and experiences for people while they are seeking paid employment as well as staying connected to the working environment."

The Government has an opportunity to show leadership here by thinking creatively and using all their resources. The Wellington workshop showed the Community and Voluntary Sector are absolutely ready for that conversation. But it won't work if Government and Business keep excluding the Sector from the table," he says.

Some of the key points to come out of the forum included:

In addition to funding physical infrastructure there is need to build social infrastructure - people need to have social services, sports clubs, environmental projects and a raft of support networks through community activities
At forum there were several examples of intervention by social workers and budget advisors to avoid mortgagee sales
Social services such as Salvation Army, budget advisors, Maori & Pacific social services are all reporting increased demand for services. These services will need additional support. There is a need to work with the sector to come up with innovative ways to develop additional services.
Voluntary organisations provide value for money and in tough times are talking about how to work together to ensure that money is spread as effectively as possible to ensure that services are delivered at ground level.
Community organisations are experienced at setting up and managing flexible work practices and have a lot to offer businesses in tough times if given the chance to work with them.
Volunteering has many useful roles:

Provides valuable work experience and skills for people who are in transition.
Assists with providing many community level services - but needs supporting and managing. Volunteer services do have a cost and this needs funding.
VOLUNTEERING PEOPLE
Former UNV Executive Coordinator dies
Hikmat Nabulsi, Executive Coordinator of UNV from 1977 to 1987, died earlier last month. The third person to take charge at UNV, Mr. Nabulsi joined the organization in the sixth year of its operations. It then had fewer than 400 volunteers in the field. Under his tenure, the number of UNV volunteers more than tripled, passing the 1,000 mark. Mr. Nabulsi was the first to appoint Programme Officers to oversee the work of country teams and represented UNV to partners at the country level. After retiring from UNV he was actively involved in promotion of volunteering in many countries across the globe and was one of the mayor advocates for IVD 2001.

VOLUNTEERING RECOGNITION AWARDS
New Awards for Central Otago's and Tararua's Young Volunteers
A new initiative has been launched in Central Otago and Tararua to recognise the contribution made to the community by young volunteers. The TrustPower Youth Community Spirit Award aims to recognise secondary school students' service to the school and the community. The new award is part of the existing TrustPower Community Awards programme and is jointly run by TrustPower and the regional District Councils. It will be introduced in other regions progressively.

Nominations are now being accepted for the Award, which is open to all year 13 students at Dunstan High School, Maniototo Area School, Roxburgh Area School and Cromwell College in Central Otago and Tararua College and Dannevirke High School in Tararua. Each school is being asked to recommend one year 13 student for the Award, with students, teachers and school staff eligible to nominate a student for recommendation. The recommended students from the four schools will then speak to a judging panel consisting of representatives from the District Council, the local community and TrustPower. That panel will then decide on the Award recipient.

To be considered for the TrustPower Youth Community Spirit Award students must have contributed widely as a student to their college/school; developed good relationships, treating others with respect and care; given service to school or community projects; and been a good ambassador for the college/school and the region. The winner of the Award will receive a framed certificate and $500 prize money, with $250 going to the student personally and $250 being given to a community group or organisation of the student's choice.

For more information please on Award in Central Otago contact Melanie Gray at melanie.gray[at]trustpower.co.nz or phone 03 433 0054 or 021 791 084 and for the Tararua award contact Teresa Partridge at teresa.partridge[at]trustpower.co.nz or 07 572 8381.

EVENTS
"Volunteering Unleashed" - the Volunteering New Zealand National Conference
28-29 October 2009
Wellington Town Hall
'Volunteering Unleashed', the title of the 2009 volunteering conference, reflects the even greater contribution volunteering can contribute to New Zealand if properly resourced and supported. The imperative that this happen is even greater in this challenging time of economic downturn. The conference will focus on how best to develop, resource and co-ordinate education and support for volunteer managers. Other themes and subjects likely to be covered include youth and baby boomer volunteering and ensuring and enabling full diversity in those who volunteer. The programme committee is working on a more detailed outline of the programme and plan to call for abstracts for breakout sessions quite soon. Further details will be announced on VNZ website and VNZ Updates.

Philanthropy NZ & Community Trusts conference: Passion, Pragmatism, Possibilities
18-19 March 2009
Te Papa Tongarewa
Wellington
This combined conference is a must for everyone working in the philanthropic sector in New Zealand. Over 300 people are expected to attend this premium event in the philanthropic calendar including: Family Foundations, Community Trusts, Individual donors, Statutory Grantmakers, Gaming Trusts, Corporate Citizens offering community support, and influencers in social policy.

The conference will provide a cutting edge discussion illustrated by exemplary practice throughout the philanthropic sector. All of the information incl. costs, speakers, accommodation and the registration form is available from www.giving.org.nz/conference.

yMedia NZ road tour
yMedia will be travelling around the country at the end of March this year to talk to students and community groups. They would like to organise a venue and time to present in each city to a group of not-for-profits about their opportunities to get involved with the yMedia Challenge 2009 and also to promote/help them understand Givealittle.co.nz as well as answer any questions they might have about yMedia or the internet in general.
Dates:
23 March Hamilton
24 - 25 March Christchurch
26-27 March Dunedin
30 March till 3 April Auckland

If you can help them organise this in any of the above places, or know the right person to GET IN TOUCH WITH then please contact Pamela Minnet at ymediagroup[at]gmail.com.

12th IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference
26-29 November 2009
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
"Volunteerism as a Lifestyle for Social Solidarity" is the theme of this regional IAVE conference hosted by IAVE Taiwan and Kaohsiung City Volunteer Association. The conference will be an opportunity of NGOs, governments, and the corporate sector to work together on the issues such as volunteer participation in large-scale international events and conferences, corporate social responsibility, application of ICT use in volunteer programs, diversity and community engagement: volunteering and immigration in the community, collective work of volunteer action and intercultural volunteering service. For further information and registration please visit www.iave.org.

NZ Bluelight Ventures conference
7 - 10 May 2009 Queenstown
This conference aims to provide information and training to the police service agencies and community groups dealing with 'at risk youth' and 'youth offenders' by bringing to the attention the variety of programmes used internationally with young people.

Topics covered: programme planning and risk management; team building; youth at risk projects; youth justice and community relationships; Blue Light programmes; sponsorship.

For further information and registration contact Jill Johnston at jill[at]bluelight.co.nz or visit www.bluelight.co.nz.

ConnectingUp: The Online future of the Nonprofits, Are we there yet?
11-13 May 2009 Brighton Novotel, Sydney
This is Australia's National Nonprofit Technology conference gathering variety of stakeholders to discuss the issues of ICT in voluntary sector. They are looking for great stories about how your organisation or community has used technology which would be presented in a workshop during the conference. Further details and expressions of interest at www.conectingup.org/conference or www.connectingup.org/blogdoug.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
2011 will be European Year of Volunteering
The European Commission has announced that 2011 (International Year of the Volunteer) will be the European Year of Volunteering. This announcement follows an intensive two and a half year campaign led by an alliance of nineteen European networks active in volunteering and coordinated by the European Volunteer Centre (CEV).

"We are delighted to see that the European Commission has taken up this civil society initiative", said Markus Held, CEV Director. "We believe that the decision to work towards 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering brings the Commission closer to the people of Europe and to their real concerns. It has responded to the voice of its citizens: over 100 million Europeans contribute to society as volunteers, putting into practice shared values of solidarity, social cohesion and active citizenship.

"Since volunteers contribute to so many EU policies, we welcome this move to acknowledge, celebrate and promote their engagement. We want the European Year of Volunteering 2011 to make an impact at every level and we are ready to support the Commission in its efforts to organise and deliver a meaningful and successful Year," he said.

A number of European bodies (the European Economic and Social Committee (2006); the Council of Education and Youth Ministers (2007); the Committee of the Regions (2008) and the European Parliament, with a Written Declaration adopted by 454 MEPs in 2008) have already declared their support for this Year.

Volunteering Australia response to the Victorian Bushfires
Volunteering Australia (VA) was approached by the Victorian Government to provide support in dealing with the extraordinary number of spontaneous volunteers wanting to help. This demand was almost immediate.

VA established a database accessed through govolunteer.com.au and began to collect registrations to be matched to volunteer needs. The registrations continued to grow as GoVolunteer (Australian equivalent to VNZ's VolunteerNow) became the reference point for media and government in their publicity and to date we have registered over 17,000 people who have put their hand up to help in the recovery process.

Of course this has created a new problem as the immediate need was small - how do we best meet the expectations of so many people who may not be needed in the short term? Volunteering Victoria has taken on a key role to match immediate needs and to then assist in the handling of ongoing volunteer matching. People not needed for the immediate response or recovery will be offered the opportunity to volunteer for a range of organisations so they can be inducted, trained and therefore ready to respond when the next major disaster affects us, as we all know it will in this unpredictable world in which we live.

HECS Discount for Volunteers
There has been much discussion in Australia regarding the Federal Government's interest in a "Youth Corp" programme that would allow students to reduce their HECS fee obligations (ie student loans) through their volunteering. The subject has already evoked considerable discussion and this is likely to be ongoing. You can read Volunteering Australia's paper submitted to the Federal Government at this link:
The reduction of HECS debt through Community Service PDF [54kb]

Corporate Giving in 2009 - a new study
Doing More With Less: How the Economic Downturn Will Impact Corporate Giving in 2009 is a new study from LBG Research Institute in the USA that shows how community involvement professionals perceive the challenges ahead for them in 2009.

In November 2008, LBG Research Institute fielded a survey via email to some 440 community involvement (CI) professionals at corporations across the USA. The respondents represent a cross-section of corporate and foundation giving budgets. Budgets range from less than $1 million to more than $50 million for foundations, and more than $100 million for corporations.

Half of the respondents with foundations say their foundation budgets will stay the same for 2009, but only 35 percent of corporation-giving budgets will stay the same. An analysis of the data at the individual level suggests that the decrease in corporate and foundation giving will be between 3 percent and 5 percent in 2009. In response to tighter budgets the survey found corporate giving professionals will be focusing on "doing more with less." Eighty one percent say they will be more strategic in their giving. In general, that means paying more attention to accountability from the Not for Profits, forming more partnerships with NFPs, and carefully aligning their giving with the company's strategic goals. In the verbatim comments, some community involvement professionals noted that they will give more dollars to fewer organisations in order to increase the impact of the giving. Respondents were asked how they will change the apportionment of their giving among the causes they support. The responses suggest that while environmental causes and basic needs charities will likely gain a larger share of the respondents' giving, arts and culture and civic organisations face a dismal outlook. The full report can be found at: www.lbgresearch.org/8.html.
Profile of the Practice 2008: Managing Corporate Citizenship
This report, which is based on survey data from 330 global corporations, most based in North America, confirms that managing a company's role in society is becoming a formal part of corporate structure and management practice, with many companies internalising the function into corporate departments and cross functional teams. In addition to organizational structure, the research focused on how companies manage multiple and sometimes conflicting responsibilities to its many stakeholders.

For further information please visit www.bcccc.net.

RESOURCES and EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
In the current time of economic downturn there is a great opportunity for volunteering to showcase its importance in increasing the employability of an individual. There are two dimensions to be taken into consideration - volunteering of job seekers and unemployed persons and volunteers that work for this target group supporting them in their way (back) to the labour market. Both were discussed in depth in the report on "Volunteering as a route (back) to employment" from the recent Conference of the European Volunteer Centre (CEV). The conclusions from the report are outlined in the article below.
The section also gives details of a new resource published by Volunteering Australia and a final reminder about volunteer management retreat in Australia.

Volunteering as a route (back) to employment
Extract from " Volunteering as a route (back) to employment" CEV final conference report***

The good practice examples indicate that volunteering clearly plays an important role to develop peoples' potential in general and that it contributes to the improvement of self-esteem, including a feeling of usefulness, less solitude, a reduction in family tensions and the restoring of identity. Volunteering helps the creation of a personal network of support and, thus, of social capital. Volunteers develop competences, and especially for young people, volunteering contributes in clarify their career orientation. All these positive results of a volunteering experience may raise the employability of the volunteer.

These positive benefits of volunteering seem to be more and more taken into account in social and employment policies as mean to support people to find their way (back) to employment - leading to co-operation between employment agencies and volunteer organisations. There is indeed potential for raising the employability and the personal potential of job seekers through volunteer assignments and it may be an added value of the efforts of the employment agencies to take into account the possibility of proposing volunteering for job seekers and unemployed.

However, volunteer centres could but must not become a replacement or appendix to employment agencies. The role of employment agencies is to bring people to the labour market - the role of volunteer centres to provide good quality volunteer placements. In some cases these two objectives match "accidentally". But volunteering must not be exploited as "alternative employment measure": If lines between the two missions become blurred, volunteering will lose out on its genuine value and volunteer centres will find themselves serving a purpose which diverts their efforts from their core business of the promotion of volunteering and all the positive effects it has. It should also be decided on a case-by-case basis whether volunteering can help a person to find its way (back) to employment. There must not be an automatism bringing job seekers to volunteer centres.

Where volunteer centres do engage with job seekers and unemployed people in order to raise skills and employability, the state sector needs to provide appropriate means and monetary support to do so. It cannot be taken for granted that volunteer centres just deliver additional work while temporary work agencies and sometimes even business structures do get substantial funding or monetary incentives to employ the most disadvantaged groups.

While acknowledging the positive effect of volunteering, it needs to be stated that it must remain a free choice, should not replace social measures to help the unemployed; and must not be an obligation to receive unemployment benefits. It must not be confused with other forms of work or (obligatory) community service. There seems to be still in many cases a gap between associations that promote social inclusion of unemployed and job seekers on the one side and volunteer centres on the other. As volunteering can contribute to social inclusion collaboration needs to be strong and directly sought.

Job seekers and long-term unemployed people face serious challenges in their lives amongst which, very often, stigmatisation. This will prevent many of them to volunteer, as they fear discrimination. Volunteer organisations that want to involve this target group have to find the right balance between developing a targeted recruitment strategy and positive discrimination on the one side and avoiding stigmatisation on the other.

In order to tap into the full potential of volunteering of and for unemployed persons to facilitate access to the labour market, further research is needed: Research on the reasons why job seekers and unemployed are still less involved in volunteering and an impact assessment of volunteer experiences for job seekers and unemployed.

Research and experience suggest that volunteering might actually be a "trap" with negative side effects: Long-term unemployed might indeed find volunteering more attractive than going (back) to employment, a world that they very often have experienced to be competitive and hostile. Solidarity, mutual trust, voluntary commitment and voluntary personal development are genuine values of volunteering. While this is positive in a way, volunteering might be victim of its own success and could become detrimental for some, a fact to bear in mind. Thus, volunteer organisations have a duty and responsibility to prevent job seekers of "installing themselves in volunteering", becoming full time volunteers and "forgetting" about or postponing their job search. One way of doing so is proposing tailored activities to unemployed and job seekers that are actually and primarily contributing to them raising their skills and competences according to a personal development plan.

Available research data suggests that people that have been involved in volunteering are less likely to be unemployed. Clearly a call for promoting volunteering as such - as it might be a way not back to employment but a way of avoiding unemployment.

A potential concern voiced by participants is that volunteering may be "used" to replace standard jobs - using "cheap" job seekers as replacement for paid workers, especially in the world of associations and organizations. This is also true in cases where companies attract volunteers offering free training and employment if the training is successful, a practice that can be named "hidden recruitment. In cases the state subsidizes voluntary engagement of job seekers, it might prevent at the same time "regular" jobs being created. There is no clear cut solution nor conclusion to this as on the other hand voluntary engagement has led in a lot of cases to paid employment of the volunteer.

At the same time, as volunteer organisations anticipate and react to social change and detect needs in society, they may be the initiator for the creation of new services thus contributing to the creation of new jobs.

Volunteering and what it has learned and experienced are still not necessarily recognised. Tools and instruments to identify skills and competences that volunteers gain through their engagement may be developed to give official recognition to non-formal and informal learning. Especially for social excluded groups and people outside formal education and training it may prove crucial that learning through volunteering gets a recognized status.

Good practice shows that employee volunteering within a CSR strategy can play a significant role: Employees that are committed as volunteers to mentor and advise unemployed people how to raise their skills and to find a job can make a significant difference, corporates can design specific volunteer programmes for their employees to allow them to involve in this kind of activities with their knowledge end expertise.

These different issues show that the way (back) to employment is yet another role volunteering can play - be it through targeted action or, very often, as a positive "side effect" of a volunteer assignment. Raising employability is often an added value of volunteering, but not necessarily the main reason for it. However, given the risks and pitfalls mentioned, this is an area where volunteer centres have to be alert and cautious and develop clear policies in order to indeed use all the potential volunteering has, but at the same time keeping its genuine value and reason to be.

To access the complete publication please visit www.cev.be/data/File/CEV-GAParisReport.pdf.

Dealing with conflict and grievances when managing volunteers
This new guide published by Volunteering Australia is designed to address issues that may lead to conflict with volunteers. The guide is downloadable for free from www.volunteeringaustralia.org.

FINAL REMINDER: Australasian 2009 Retreat: "COMMON GOALS, DIFFERENT ROLES: Finding our place in Volunteer Management"
11 - 13 March 2009
Binna Burra Retreat Centre, Gold Coast, Australia
This annual educational and professional development opportunity, for volunteer programme managers who feel they are past the 'basics' of their profession and are seeking new challenges, is organised by Martin J Cowling and his colleague Andy Fryar. They will together with DJ Cronin (Aus), Rob Jackson (UK) and Liz Scarfe (Aus) guide the Retreat.

Following are some of the issues that will be tackled during the event:

As volunteer managers how do we find our place in setting the agenda for volunteering?
Who decides what volunteering looks like?
How do we agree on what effective volunteer management is?
Who should be involved in this decision making process and how is it evaluated both now and in the future?
What role should government, peak bodies, volunteer resource centres, not-for-profits and training providers play?
What are the upcoming challenges in volunteer management and how will we be the voice in responding to them?
How will we ensure our organisations are ready for the future of volunteer management?
There are still few places available. Please visit www.vpmretreat.com.au or e-mail at retreat[at]vpmretreat.com.au or call (Aus) 1300 781 357 / (NZ) 04 889 2450.

Volunteer Management Education Books for Sale
Volunteering NZ has for sale copies of four books written by Linda Graff on developing policies and risk management for volunteering programmes. The titles and prices are:

Best of All - Quick reference Guide to Best Practice $46.00

Better Safe - Risk Management for Volunteer Programmes $46.00

Beyond Police Checks - Screening Guidebook $46.00

By Definition - Policies for Volunteer Programmes $36.00

We also have copies of Mary Woods' book

Volunteers, A guide for Volunteers and their Organisations $25.00

Postage and Handling
Up to 2 publications $5.50 3 or more publication $10.00
All the prices are GST inclusive.

Posters and other promotional suitable for general promotions and recruiting volunteers are available free from VNZ.

Orders for all may be faxed to 04 3843637 or emailed to office[at]volunteeringnz.org.nz.

Payment may be made by cheque or credit card. If wishing to pay by credit card we will send you documentation to complete and return.

You're receiving this newsletter because you signed up at CommunityCentral with the email address of watson.online@gmail.com.
CommunityCentral is an online space for people in tangata whenua, community and voluntary, public health and other organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand to work together, share and converse online. Find out more...
Please forward the VNZ Update to anyone you think might be interested.
ends

© Scoop Media

Volunteering New Zealand

Leaders of Volunteering

Volunteering New Zealand (VNZ) is an association of New Zealand organisations that have a commitment to volunteering, such as volunteer centres, national and other organisations.

Volunteering New Zealand's mission is to promote, support and advocate for volunteering.

Contact Volunteering New Zealand

• Website - volunteeringnz.org.nz
• Facebook
• Linkedin
• YouTube
• Phone - +64 4 470 6006
• Media Contact - office@volunteeringnz.org.nz
• Postal Address - PO Box 27302, Wellington 6141