Volunteers in the Centre : involving volunteers in Emmaus South Lambeth
Volunteers in the Centre : involving volunteers in Emmaus South Lambeth
Samenvatting
Emmaus South Lambeth (ESL) is a charity that tries to help homeless people in South London. ESL is building a
Community that can house up to 25 companions (ex-homeless people). In return these people will work for Emmaus
in the Community. The residential area should be finished in 2007 and the complete Community in 2008.
Presently ESL has two Community shops completely run by volunteers. The first shop opened in November 2004 and
the second shop in April 2006. Because of the opening of the second shop ESL needs more volunteers. However the
current ESL volunteers are unhappy in the volunteering environment so it is important to improve this before starting
volunteer recruitment.
The central question: In what way can internal communication help to improve the volunteering environment within
ESL?
The goal: To improve the volunteering environment within ESL by having a better understanding between the
volunteers and the management.
To answer this question I used desk research, conducted interviews, used observation, held informal chats and
organised a session party based on the Spiderweb method by Bernstein (Bernstein, 1986, in: van Riel, 2003:54).
During this research the governing principles of voluntary work within ESL were chosen. The results of this research
are the governing principles action plan and further recommendations to improve the volunteering environment.
Desk research provided me with the following definition for governing principles of voluntary work: Collectively
chosen basic attributes of voluntary work within the organisation that have a determining influence on the
volunteering environment.
In a session the ESL volunteers and the management choose the governing principles of voluntary work within ESL:
- Appreciation
- Teamwork
- Respect
- Commitment
- Positivity
- Challenge / Creativity
- Internal Communication
These governing principles are used to improve the volunteering environment within ESL. Basic guidelines on how
this can be done are provided in the governing principles action plan. This plan describes the situation and provides
advice and action points on what needs to be improved per principle. At the end of the plan the budget, time
planning and evaluation methods are described. The rest of what needs to be done to improve the governing
principles in the organisation should be decided with involvement of the volunteers. The governing principles action
plan is all about volunteer involvement.
Organisatie | Fontys |
Afdeling | Fontys Hogeschool Communicatie |
Partner | Emmaus South Lambeth |
Jaar | 2006 |
Type | Bachelor |
Taal | Engels |