Volunteers need more employer support, says Girlguiding UK
Howard Lake | 30 May 2006 | News
A Girlguiding UK survey has revealed that 93% of the organisation’s voluntary youth leaders think their employers could make running the country’s Rainbow, Brownie and Guide units easier by supporting them in their volunteering.
The Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) survey revealed that only 16% of the organisation’s adult membership currently received active encouragement from their employers when it came to their community leadership roles.
As a result Girlguiding UK is calling on the business community to show more commitment to ESV schemes.
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With 600,000 members, including 80,000 volunteers, Girlguiding UK is the country’s largest voluntary organisation for girls and young women.
The survey’s findings have been released at the beginning of Volunteer’s Week to highlight the need for more employers to actively support their employee volunteers. According to a 2003 Home Office Report, only 18% of employers currently do so.
Due to a lack of adult volunteers, Girlguiding UK currently has a joining list of 50,000 girls and young women. The shortage of volunteers is so acute in some areas that parents are putting daughters’ names down at birth to ensure a place in their local Rainbow or Brownie unit.
Girlguiding UK believes that ESV schemes are crucial in helping to encourage over 8,000 more adults to volunteer some time to help run units and reduce the joining list.
Girlguiding UK, head of project 50K, Liz Smith, who is responsible for volunteer recruitment and retention said: “Businesses are missing a big trick. There are many employees who want to volunteer but don’t feel they can fit it around their working life. To many employees ESV is a valuable perk and if implemented well, will not only pay for itself but contribute to the skills and well being of staff.”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.