Recruiting volunteers: Insights from Ageless Thanet

Natasha Hart, Ageless Thanet’s Active Citizen Supervisor, recently co-hosted a Helpforce Network webinar on working with older volunteers. Here she shares some insights into the volunteer recruitment process that she found worked best for her project.

Ageless Thanet is a National Lottery funded project to improve the lives of over 50s by reducing isolation and improving mental and physical health. Activities are run by volunteers, most of whom are over 50. The project has engaged around 200 volunteers throughout the project’s 7 years. Volunteers have worked on all aspects of the programme including: governance and decision-making, admin, as social group hosts, subject teachers in sewing, art, languages, mindfulness, board games and themed talks, walking group leaders, public engagement advocates and event stewards. Since the arrival of Covid volunteers transitioned online (alongside staff), reconnecting as social activity hosts, leading quizzes, lessons, coffee get-togethers and community think-tank sessions (to help focus energy on what they felt was needed locally). During the lockdowns volunteers started two new remote support schemes: telephone befriending and digital buddying (help with getting online). Volunteers also helped deliver essential medication, groceries and equipment to those in need locally.

Open to all ages

We initially wanted to recruit volunteers who are 50+, to match the age of activity participants. But we soon decided to include younger people who were keen to help us create or maintain activities for others. We found 18+ volunteers who were keen to support 50+ people. That was the most important thing.

Bespoke roles

Instead of advertising specific volunteer roles, we created personalised or bespoke opportunities. We wanted to use our volunteers’ existing skills and hobbies, to bring to life activities they would like to run or take part in, or link with existing community groups, to the benefit of local people over the age of 50. We feel this approach brought more enjoyment, satisfaction and benefits to both volunteers and the participants. We worked around their timetable, confidence and ability (even pairing people up if that was going to make it better all round). We encouraged people to fashion their own volunteering opportunity. We created something they were really going to enjoy and want to do. Our volunteers understood that the possibilities were endless and the benefits of being involved within the local community, priceless.

Flexibility

Flexible volunteering is absolutely key, even more so for older volunteers. Life changes, work changes, health changes, especially with the pandemic. So if you can plan in advance for that it really helps. We’ve worked with lots of volunteers with grandparent responsibilities or regular health care appointments, and letting them know that they're not going to be letting anybody down is really, really helpful. Being proactive as opposed to reactive, planning for what is likely to happen and having a backup ready really has eased everyone’s minds, including participants of activities, who were kept informed as to the plans.

Tasters, trials, ‘testing and learning’ have been the approaches taken with new activities. The flexibility works both ways, between volunteers and staff.

Inclusivity

We strongly believe that volunteering is for all. We think there's a volunteer opportunity for everyone regardless of their qualifications or experience. It's just a case of working out what the best option is for someone to give their time toward, and some careful planning to make sure that the idea works for everybody involved (co-production, doing ‘with’ as opposed ‘to’ people). Our key objectives are to make the experience as personal and as flexible as possible and to ensure maximum benefit and enjoyment for everybody.

Volunteering in later life

We’d like more people in later life to take up opportunities to contribute their proven skills, knowledge and experience to their communities, and for more voluntary organisations or businesses seeking volunteers to see the benefits of being age-friendly. We have a fantastic ageing workforce out there full of experience and ideas and a proven track record! We try to encourage people to look at recruitment from an entirely new perspective. What might motivate each individual older person to give time freely to their community? Also, what may hinder them? Some older volunteers said that bureaucracy, delays in starting, rigid role descriptions and lengthy and unrelated training that didn’t recognise their personal skills and experience, all created barriers to taking part. We met many people who are either retired or work less than they did when they were younger, but we also met highly motivated professionals who wanted to give back around their full-time work commitments, (some often squeezing in grandparent duties too). Volunteering can contribute significantly to wellbeing and social connections in later life and can be such a positive experience for all parties.

Transport

Accessibility can be a major barrier for people with health conditions – both in terms of accessible places to volunteer, as well as inaccessible/affordable transport to get there (we simply changed the time of one activity to enable those with 60+ bus passes to travel for free off-peak - suddenly the activity was packed!).

Face to face (and with a smile!)

Digital recruitment methods can create a barrier for some. We meet every volunteer face to face if we can, or where not possible due to Covid, we speak on the phone. We explain the objectives of the project so that they know what we're working towards and check that fits with what they want to be giving their time for. That means the individual knows they'll be valued and appreciated. During lockdown switched to online forms and we didn't get that really qualitative information that helped us link people to the right opportunities, in the same way a face-to-face chat does. Using online forms to swiftly recruit volunteers was invaluable during the lockdowns, especially for Covid-reactive action like ‘essentials deliveries’ and telephone/online volunteers. But we also followed up with a telephone or video call once they had signed up, to maintain that personal service.

Practical help

We help volunteers with the practical side of things such as booking venues or creating marketing materials, or an online booking system. We involve the volunteers every step of the way, to build their confidence and empower them when and wherever possible, rather than simply doing it for them.

Empowerment

We had a volunteer running a face to face quiz. When lockdown happened she still wanted to do it but had no computer skills. We taught her Zoom. She ran the quiz under our umbrella. As the project is winding down, we've helped her set up her own Eventbrite pages, and shown her how to advertise on local Facebook pages. We gave her the skills so she can run the quiz herself and teach others in turn. She has already informally recruited her own volunteer secretary and I believe she also has someone lined up to help her promote via social media soon too.

Don’t make assumptions

Don't prejudge what a 50+ volunteer will want to do. We've interviewed chefs who don’t want to volunteer in a kitchen. Equally there are some people who really miss using their work skills. So having that real deep discussion, although a little time-intensive, gives us a good profile of the volunteer’s interests and gets us off to the best start (avoiding any false ones). We discuss how skills can be transferable. Many people we met had worked in one vocational area for most of their career, and just couldn’t see how their personal skills might ever apply to something different. During these 1:1 discussions we covered an awful lot of self-exploration (even staff) which has both benefited the programme and rippled beyond into our local labour force too.

Listen

When we started out we didn’t have a shop we needed to run, or a garden we needed to manage. We listened to what local needs were and looked out for opportunities our older people might like to get involved in. If there wasn’t anything that appealed we supported people to start activities themselves. For example, a Spanish speaker wanted to start a Spanish conversation group. Others wanted to organise a quiz, a sewing group, or a social walking group. It all started with volunteers telling us what they wanted and us staff keeping ourselves informed about local activity.There’s no point recreating what’s already out there unless there’s an absolute need. Signposting volunteers to groups where they can help grow and develop opportunities or capacity, was just as valuable for our community. Likewise, we listened out for anything that needed changing, keeping the relationship and opportunities as comfortable and flexible as possible.