A Third Sector article highlighted today that there has been an increase in volunteering this year of 7% amongst adults in Britain.
You would have thought we would have had a positive upbeat message for the actual article, but you can detect the aptly dour British spirit seeping through the paragraphs.

…and this stems from the interviews with charities (via NAVCA), where the findings found that 46 per cent of the organisations experienced no change in the public’s attitude towards volunteering and community engagement over the previous year.

The muffled strains of muted celebrations were captured with the quote: “However, while the trend for volunteering is travelling in the right direction, the type of volunteering is still predominantly focused on neighbourly goodwill gestures, even though charities are in greater need of more formal help.”

How can anyone put a negative spin on the 7% increase in volunteering this year being predominently focused on neighbourly goodwill gestures?

This increase might mean an extra 3 million people are taking the lead in their communities to help people out. If charities are unable to tap into this upsurge in community spirit, then they need to have a serious look to check how their volunteering strategy is failing to engage the spirit within the community.

An increase of hundreds of thousands of people helping their neighbours can only be good news! (for goodness sake!)

In 1948, AGL lves eloquently expressed the founding purpose, and prevailing culture of the voluntary hospitals as:
“ The desire to do something practical in relief of their fellow men and do it themselves, the readiness to accept responsibility rather than petition the King or corporation – this was the soil in which was to grow the voluntary hospital movement.”

I’m sure AGL Ives would be encouraged to hear that 65 years later, people up and down the land are ready to accept responsibility to help their neighbour, rather than petition the government to do it for them…(or petition the government to fund charities to do it for them).