This resource is the result of conversations between delegates from: Alive Activities, Bristol Disability Equality Forum, Bristol Horn Youth Concern, Bristol Refugee Rights, Centre for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Trans Pride Bristol, Diversity Trust, Mothers for Mothers and Voscur.

It is intended to provide some good practice recommendations for organisations who want to make their volunteer programmes are as welcoming, inclusive and equitable as possible. It is not an exhaustive list, nor is it representative of all the potential wants or needs of individual volunteers. Rather, it is a summary of top tips and things to remember thanks to the generous sharing of knowledge, both learnt and lived, by a range of key people involved in volunteer management and equalities led organisations. 

Whilst volunteers aren’t covered by the Equality Act 2010 in the same way that paid employees are, VCSE organisations tend to find it helpful to act as if they do to meet their moral obligations. Volunteers, as people, are covered by the Equality Act 2010 to the extent that any individual is.  

If you would like to discuss anything in this document, or arrange a 1to1 conversation about this topic, please email info@voscur.org and we’d be happy to have a conversation with you. 

Barriers to involvement – what we need to consider 

There are many barriers that can get in the way of people’s ability to volunteer, or to volunteer at your specific organisation. Some of these include: 

• Resources  

Volunteering requires a person to have ‘free’ time, or rather time that they can choose to give for free. Not everyone in life has the same amount of this. Some disabled people, neurodivergent people, Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, people living with mental or physical health conditions including those that fluctuate, people who are parents or carers, and some people from the Global Majority may have less of this. This can be for a whole range of societal reasons around who in society has the most money, and can therefore do the least paid work (outside of family and other life commitments). Volunteering can in fact cost a person resources beyond the time volunteering, for example if they must pay to travel to volunteer, have to pay for childcare, or must take further time to ‘recover’ from volunteering. 

• Representation 

If a volunteer doesn’t ‘see’ themselves in your current volunteers, or wider organisation’s team, they may not feel the opportunity is for them. They may not feel that they will be safe, welcome, supported and amongst like-minded people. They may fear discrimination, abuse, microaggressions and/or being misunderstood. 

•  Self-confidence and self-esteem 

Levels of self-confidence and self-esteem are very personal and very variable, and do not always relate to someone’s actual skills and ability! How confident someone can be due to upbringing and experiences – and the messages someone has been told throughout their life. Some younger people may be less confident than older people, and people who have been out of employment, education or training may be less confident than those in this – but this isn’t guaranteed. Challenges with feeling confident and cable to do a volunteer role can be compounded if a volunteer role description isn’t clear, or there isn’t one at all – as a potential volunteer can’t make an informed judgement on if they are a good fit for a role, and may be more likely to assume they aren’t.  

Designing volunteering with equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in mind 

Below are some things to remember and top tips. However, the main thing to remember is keep talking and keep learning! Your prospective and current volunteers, and people with specific experiences of the world, know their needs best. Open, respectful dialogue is powerful, and every individual is unique and deserves to be seen and understood. 

Giving a warm welcome  – how we build a positive experience from the start 

• View each volunteer as an individual. Each person has different skills, perspectives, experiences and have the potential to create meaningful impact for themselves, the organisation, it’s beneficiaries and the wider community.  

• It’s ok to specify that you are keen to welcome people with a specific lived experience for a role, if you communicate clearly why this is and make it clear you are open to having a conversation about people’s needs. See ACAS’s page on ‘positive action’ (written about paid roles, but relevant to voluntary roles) for more information about how to do this well. 

• If your organisation has achieved specific accreditations for it’s work to improve equity, inclusion and diversity mention these in role adverts. Articulate your organisations values where these are relevant to EDI. 

• Consider being proactive in your recruitment processes – go to groups of potential volunteers who face barriers. 

• Consider offering taster days, trial shifts and longer induction periods. 

• Consider buddying and mentoring schemes. 

• Consider providing key info in Easy Read format, or in different languages commonly used by your potential volunteers. 

• Remember, Refugees and Asylum Seekers are allowed to volunteer. 

• View your recruitment process through the lens of people with specific protected characteristics. Look for examples of good practice – for example: 

• ACAS has advice about recruitment of people who are neurodivergent 

• NACRO has advice about recruitment of people with offending backgrounds 

• The Government has advice about recruitment of people with Disabilities, recruitment of people from the global majority or minority ethnicities and improving gender equality, that whilst employment focussed much of it is also applicable to volunteer recruitment 

• Stonewall has a guide to recruitment of LGBTQ+ volunteers 

• The Royal National Institute for Deaf People has advice around recruitment of Deaf people 

• Ask people about the pronouns they would like you to use. 

• If you aren’t sure how to pronounce someone’s name ask about this. 

• Ask for feedback on your recruitment process (whether from a volunteer or someone else) so that you can make improvements. 

Accommodating needs – how we find out what these are, and support them 

• Consider how and when you will ask people about things you can do to make their volunteering safe and enjoyable. 

• Remember that people may need to build trust with you before sharing personal information with you. Asking someone on an application, or at interview, might be too soon for some people. Ask up front, but explain people can tell you at a later point and there is no pressure to share anything they aren’t comfortable with (unless there are safeguarding or safety implications where people may need to share something with you to be allowed to do a role). Some people may prefer to share something ‘in writing’ and others will prefer to use their voice, Sign Language, or an interpreter to tell you. 

• Consider how you and your organisation can build confidence and awareness around people’s lived experiences of things that may affect communication. Could you take steps be Deaf aware, dementia aware, autism aware, and/or learning disability aware. As well as reading resources, is there any specific training or accreditation that you could pursue? 

• It’s ok to check in with people again to see if anything has changed or, if, now they know you, there is anything else they’d like to share. 

• Nobody is expected to be an expert in all needs and adjustments, so ask for advice as you need to – whether from a specialist organisation or the potential volunteer themselves. This said, be mindful of putting labour onto the prospective volunteer, do your bit as well to be informed. 

• Unfortunately, there is less government support for people to volunteer (the Access to Work scheme only covers the cost of accommodations to enable paid work, for example). However, lots of VCSE funders are keen to support inclusion, and can be approached about making your volunteer programmes, wider organisation or buildings, more inclusive. 

• Make sure you understand and can explain how volunteering could affect benefits claims, and encourage people to discuss their volunteering with their Work Coach as applicable.  

• Be flexible in the opportunities you offer, and open to making adaptations. Consider if tasks can be done in pairs or groups, if someone volunteer with their support worker, if a role can be done remotely or split out into different tasks more suited to different people, or if you can offer a form of ‘micro volunteering’.  

• Where possible accommodate volunteers who may need to take breaks from their volunteering to care for children – for example during school holidays, or to go do the school run. 

Continued support – remembering support may need to be ongoing 

• Recognise asking for what we need can be daunting and scary. You may have a volunteer who is not asking for what they need – give all volunteers lots of opportunities to share with you what might help them. Or we risk prioritising those with more confidence to self-advocate or ‘speak up’. 

• Consider giving volunteers access to all the same support resources as staff – whether this is equipment, supervisions, a break room. 

• Avoid making last minute changes to plans, this can be unhelpful for neurodivergent volunteers or volunteers who experience anxiety in-particular. 

• Regularly check in with people both individually and as a group e.g ‘how’s the lighting in here everyone’ as well as ‘how are you finding volunteering with us’. 

• Consider if and how you can allow a volunteer to ‘pause’ their volunteering, and ‘restart’ it. How could you make this as smooth as possible. If you’re able to offer this, explain options around this at the recruitment stage. 

• Appropriately signpost people to further support if needed, and welcomed/wanted. Know where your responsibilities, expertise and abilities start and end. 

• Protect people as much as possible from being retraumatised or experiencing vicarious trauma – have additional support mechanisms in place such as training, clinical supervision, reflective practice, wellbeing offers etc. Consider if someone’s lived experience may put them more at risk of this. Offer ‘trauma informed’ volunteering. 

• Remember we all have a shared responsibility to safeguard everyone in society, and specific duties to safeguard children and adults ‘at risk’. This extends to volunteers, who should be covered in your safeguarding policies and procedures. 

• If your venue is safe for children is any scope to provide a creche at a volunteering opportunity/volunteer day, or if the opportunity is safe for this – to allow families to volunteer with their children? 

Avoiding othering – how we create unity 

• When asking for equalities data avoid literally using ‘other’ as an option on a form!  

• Allow people to define themselves in multiple ways, and in their own words. Avoid only letting people tick one box, and where possible consider open questions and free text answers. 

• Design volunteering programmes, and how you work within them, with ‘known things’ that make volunteering possible and enjoyable for people with specific needs (associated with protected characteristics) built in – so people don’t have to even ask you for them! 

• Avoid linking an individual to a tweak in practice publicly – they may not want to tell everyone about what they need, why they need it, or be made to look ‘special’. Don’t announce ‘we’re doing this for so and so’. 

• Use language thoughtfully, remember people use different words and remember it’s ok to ask so you get it right for them. Whether this is how to pronounce someone’s name, which pronouns they would like you to use, or something else entirely.  

• Tackle inappropriate hierarchies, ‘cliques’ and unhelpful dynamics within volunteer cohorts, as they crop up. 

• When giving volunteer ‘shout outs’ make sure you are not only praising volunteers who can give the most time. 

Making it meaningful – how we avoid ‘tokenism’ 

• Value the lived experience of people with protected characteristics, and/or who experience marginalisation, and make this explicit and clear both in role adverts – and in how you work with volunteers once someone is in post. 

• Don’t assume what someone’s skills and experience are, and which of these they want to use within volunteering. Don’t assume someone who has a particular lived experience only wants to do something to do with it within their volunteering! 

• Avoid giving a volunteer ‘busy work’, an ‘easier task’, or designing a volunteer role or task that isn’t something your organisation genuinely needs. This is very patronising, and not helpful for anyone. 

• Consider someone’s motivations for volunteering, and their journey through your organisation – is this into a paid role, within your organisation or elsewhere? 

• Be careful not to exploit people, however one person’s feeling exploited could be another’s meaningful opportunity. Be curious about and mindful of different cultural interpretations of volunteering. Be aware that people who have experienced modern day slavery may interpret and experience volunteering in a different way to someone who hasn’t. Be aware that some people find it harder to say ‘no’ to things they don’t want to do. Be mindful that some people are more at risk of burn out than others. 

• Think ‘stretch not push’ when supporting people in roles to grow their knowledge, skills, abilities and confidence. 

• Own what you can and can’t do as an organisation. Volunteering strategies should cover how you will meet as many needs of potential volunteers as possible, where your strengths are as an organisation and where you are more or less able to offer different forms of support.   

Supporting diverse viewpoints – how we do this safely and appropriately 

• Make sure all your volunteers have a basic understanding of EDI principles, as well as what this means at your organisation – share your EDI policy with them. 

• Consider having a volunteer agreement, code of conduct and/or sharing your organisations values with all volunteers. Seek their understanding and confirmation they are happy with your expectations. 

• Communicate clearly that your organisation doesn’t tolerate bullying, (verbal) abuse, harassment or hate speech. Be supportive if a volunteer may wish to report an experience of hate crime (consider signposting to SARI for support with this). 

• Have clearly communicated consequences for unacceptable behaviour up to and including dismissing a volunteer.  

• Model appropriate and respectful conversations – it’s ok for people to disagree on a topic but it is important to be mindful of how our opinions may make others feel. 

• Remember not all volunteers have to have the same political opinion as each other, or you, as-long-as their opinion doesn’t contradict the aims and values of your organisation and its mission. 

• Some organisations choose to have certain topics ‘off the table’ whilst others will be more flexible and manage situations as they crop up. You may decide this approach jointly with your volunteers. 

• Be sure to ‘call in or out’ language that is problematic, harmful or not ok. 

Checking ourselves – how we address biases and avoid exclusion 

• Be mindful that we often only know what we know, and we may unconsciously prioritise people who remind us of ourselves or whose lived experience we can relate to in some way. Who might we be ‘leaving out’ of our planning? 

• Be mindful that we may hold unconscious biases. Be aware of where you might hold these views as a volunteer manager and ‘check yourself’ when making decisions. 

• Good monitoring data on who is represented within your volunteer cohort may highlight some of the people who are not reaching with your volunteering opportunities. For some tips on how to approach capturing and monitoring EDI data about volunteers have a look at: 

• EDI governance and leadership – Academy of Social Sciences 

• Sector Focus: EDI reporting- what, how, why? 

• Monitoring forms and surveys – Equality, diversity and inclusion – Acas 

• Good data on who leaves your volunteering, when and for what reasons, may highlight who you may not be supporting to volunteer adequately. Tracking volunteer ‘length of service’, ‘exits’ and reasons for leaving can be helpful – consider doing exit interviews where possible. 

A final word… 

The above tips and suggestions can seem a lot, especially for smaller VCSE organisations or VCSE organisations and managers who are newer to this topic. We at Voscur can support you to make positive changes in a manageable way. You can email info@voscur.org for support. 

It is important to be realistic, and upfront, about the resources you have for supporting volunteers – both internally to leaders of your organisation, and to prospective volunteers. Volunteer managers have finite capacity, and may need to prioritise some of this capacity to support volunteer inclusion effectively. For example you may need to diarise time needed to support others in 1to1s, to go complete specific training, to take time to write a specific document etc.  

Disclaimer

We make every effort to ensure that our information is correct at the time of publication. 

This is only intended as a brief summary of relevant issues and information. Legal advice should be sought where appropriate. The inclusion of other organisations in this information does not imply any endorsement of independent bodies, they are just for signposting purposes.

Voscur is unable to accept liability for any loss or damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of the use of this information.