What if everyone stops volunteering?

Don’t worry they are not about to, but what if they did?

I am very pleased that I (Works4U) am launching the ‘What if everyone stops volunteering?’ UK Report today!

This is available to download at Works4U’s website: https://www.works-4u.com/what-if

This report is yet another example of me giving myself extra work when I think I have had a ‘good idea’! It was not intended to be a report initially, just a blog post as a follow on from my volunteering cake analogy (that volunteering is not a nice to have like the icing on the cake, it is key ingredient of the cake itself) which states without volunteering society would crumble. I thought it would be interesting to look into further just what would happen if everyone stopped volunteering?

What if everyone stopped volunteering is a BIG question that a blog post would not do sufficient justice to. Also, I realised that just me answering this question would not be sufficient, so I called on my contacts and made lots of new ones to get 33 expert stakeholders to also answer the question based on their organisation and/or their experience.

I also realised to give a full comprehensive answer to this question would be hugely difficult but thought focusing on areas that people do not always associate volunteering playing an important role would help those who may not have considered the importance of volunteering, just how vital it is to the everyday functioning of UK society. As one example, the chapter on law and justice may surprise some, even those who work in the voluntary and community sector, with fantastic contributions from the Police, LawWorks and Law Centres Network.

Other sections include Democracy, the Environment, Young people, Health & care, Communities, Emergency Response. Each individual section illustrates just how devastating an impact it would be if all volunteers stopped. When you add all the sections together, which is not meant to be an exhaustive response to the question, you have the inescapable conclusion that supporting volunteering is essential for the smooth running of the UK.

If everyone stopped volunteering and no corrective action was taken then UK society would quickly descend into a dystopian state. This is no exaggeration when you consider the consequences outlined in the report: increase in social isolation, reduced health and wellbeing of the population, decreased social cohesion, lower community resilience, more unequal and unjust society, increase in social disorder, support and education of young people would drop significantly, end of or heavily weakened democracy and productivity of the nation would fall and its descent would quicken.

The aim of the report is not to advocate for more or less reliance on volunteering in the future, although a worthy and useful discussion, the aim is to create awareness of the level or reliance we have right now and the multiplier effects of reduced levels of volunteering. The realisation that the UK is so reliant on the free choice of its citizens giving up their time may be an uncomfortable reality for some, but this perceived vulnerability is also a strength when volunteering is properly supported.

To avoid any of the negative and costly impacts outlined in the report, it argues it essential to support and develop volunteering across the UK. To achieve this, implementing the 36 practical and strategic recommendations of the ‘London Vision for Volunteering’ report would be a great way to start as together these offer a blueprint for developing volunteering for the UK.

The conclusion of the report is to ask for more investment in volunteering at a time of great economic challenges, but given the by far greater financial consequences outlined within it, it’s not a question of whether the country can afford to support volunteering more, but can the country afford not to?

I would like to give a huge thank you to the 33 independent expert stakeholders who gave up their time to provide written contributions to this big question.

The report can be downloaded here.