Volunteering in LTH Organisations: Towards healthy and sustainable regions
Volunteerism is one of the pillars a civil society is based upon and acknowledge how important this has become at different levels, locally within LTH organisations and at a higher level within regions. At both levels, striving for a sustainable and healthy ‘ecosystem’ is essential when dealing with human capital issues and finding an appropriate balance between paid and non-paid staff. In this sense, volunteerism can be seen as part of the human capital problem (and solution), and not purely because volunteers can be employed by companies to help alleviate labour shortages. Volunteerism is essential because of the skills a volunteer brings and develops, and the competencies that can be acquired by volunteering and that can become valuable for example when looking for employment.
Mainly in the LTH sector that depends on subsidies, we see that volunteers are most needed. Not just for meeting and greeting people at the door, providing directions and leading tours, but also, and more importantly, to share the competencies and knowledge that they have acquired during their whole professional career in, for example, training younger people. Therefore, an issue that must be considered is finding the right balance in terms of numbers, profiles and responsibilities between paid and unpaid staff in the same organisation. Additionally, LTH organisations need to become “a great place to work”, that is a place where people want to volunteer. This implies that the organisations recognise the intrinsic value of their volunteers and make them motivated and involved staff members.
Objective
This project aims to identify how volunteering in the LTH sectors in Dutch regions (Brabant, Friesland) can be shaped in a sustainable way for both volunteers and organisations. To achieve this, the following aspects are being investigated:
- To explain why organisations in different LTH sectors and regions had, have or need volunteers how they interact with these volunteers, and the consequences (benefits and challenges) of volunteerism for these organisations.
- To determine how to find the right balance between paid and unpaid staff within the same organisation, considering the LTH sector and region they belong to, to create a healthy ecosystem within.
- To understand the perspectives, motives, and expectations of why people (decide to) volunteer how they interact with the organisation (management, paid staff) during volunteering to interest them, recruit them, make use of them and retain them. In addition, it is also our aim to explain the benefits and challenges for people to volunteer.
Besides the aims as outlined before, a more specific goal of this project is to provide recommendations for a sustainable business model for organisations to embrace volunteerism without affecting the structure of employees. In close cooperation with different LTH organisations, we will develop interventions as policy-making instruments. We will also elaborate on how we would like to collaborate with organisations to achieve this goal of sketching and designing interventions. Our goal is to foster the wellbeing of the volunteers, paid staff and organisations and overall to contribute to social sustainability within Brabant and Friesland.
In this study, we will use an integrated approach, which implies that we aren’t only interested in the people or organisation-side of volunteering. We will also focus on the interactions between volunteers, paid staff and organisation during volunteering in a certain LTH organisation, sector and region in the Netherlands.
Approach
In this project, we distinguish three Work Packages (WPs). In WP1 we set the stage with a preliminary literature study on the situation in the LTH sectors. Each academic partner will collect data in their region. In WP2 we will start with a workshop with managers of the selected LTH organisations to determine how they see volunteering in general and for them specifically, how they deal with volunteerism now, what they would need as an outcome of this research and which steps needs to be defined towards an intervention or product related to volunteerism. Based on the workshops and literature study, an item list for further interviews or focus groups with volunteers at those organisations will be developed. We will organise also an interactive workshop with managers and volunteers of the participating organisations in which the results collected are shared and discussed. The main goal of this workshop is to determine which instrument will be developed to make the findings practical and context-specific resulting in a meaningful intervention and a more sustainable business model or strategy for organisations. Based on these collective decisions we will work on the instrument(s) needed. To conclude the project in WP3, a final workshop will be organised in which the co-created products of the project will be presented and evaluated with the participating organisations.
Partners
- Breda University of Applied Sciences
- NHL Stenden
- Alliantie Zuiderwaterlinie
- Oorlogsmuseum Kamp Vught
- Van Gogh Village Museum
- Stichting Wildlife, Safaripark Beekse Bergen (Libema)
- Het Markiezenhof
- MOOIWERK Breda
- Stichting Oude Friese Kerken
- VVV Waterland
- Aqua Zoo Leeuwarden
- Fries Museum
- Woudagemaal Lemmer
Projectteam
- Licia Calvi (BUas)
- Bertine Bargeman (BUas)
- Frederike van Ouwerkerk (BUas)
- Rodney Westerlaken (NHL Stenden)
- Geesje Duursma (NHL Stenden)
Planning
March 2024 – March 2025
Status
Ongoing