JVN Blog

Leonie Lewis, JVN Director

Well, the good news is that more people aged 30-50 are volunteering than ever before, which has typically not been the case.  The bad news is that it’s often due to an increasing number of people – particularly in the public and charity sector – becoming unemployed.  We’re hearing this anecdotally from our friends in charities and Volunteer Centres across the UK, and research is starting to bear this out.

This throws up a curious dilemma.  On the one hand, more people are available to volunteer, many of them with huge professional skills and experience.  On the hand, the deep public spending cuts are forcing charities, particularly the small organisations, to majorly cut back on their services, programmes and professional staffing even as demand for their services rises ever higher.  Austerity also trickles down into increased competition for Trust and Foundation funding and less charitable giving at all levels.

As a result, we’re also seeing an increasing number of small charities now run only or nearly only by volunteers with no professional staff at all.  Grassroots volunteering for sure, but in the most precarious manner possible, even though the issues they are trying to address are some of the biggest we collectively face!  So it’s Big Society according to what they said on the tin – but is this a better society?  We know that some of the most amazing social impacts are made by teams of staff and volunteers working together for a common cause.  Pure people power alone, although absolutely amazing, cannot solve some of the really big issues – whether that’s the environment, economy or equality. Sometimes, it is about the funding.

JVN exists to connect Jewish people to volunteering.  People volunteer for different reasons in different circumstances.  During this  difficult time for both volunteers and for charities, we aim to do our best to bring them together to try to make a better society.  If you haven’t yet taken a look at the hundreds of charities in the JVN network – many of them grassroots or very small and needing even just that little bit of help to make a difference – do visit www.jvn.org.uk . There really is something for everyone: from one-off opportunities right the way up to Trustees and Lay leaders. And if you know someone who has recently been made redundant or just has more free time, make sure to tell them too.