Notes from Common Ground Meetings
June 2003
The Common Ground Meetings in February and March 2003 took place in Aberdeen, Castle Douglas, Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, and Inverness, along with a teleconference involving projects from Shetland, Orkney and Cupar. The meetings involved 47 staff from 34 projects.
Each meeting provided the opportunity for befriending project staff to discuss: ‘Advertising for Befrienders’ and ‘Lone Working – Issues for Staff and Volunteers’. These notes represent the main discussion points and conclusions drawn from the meetings.
Advertising for Befrienders
1. What do you believe are the motivations/reasons behind your current volunteers coming forward to be befrienders?
“It’s the first question we ask at interview but I can’t think what the responses are”
Although many projects ask this question at interview it appeared that few recorded the answer in any systematic way. This meant that befriending projects did not necessarily have a definite idea of what made their volunteers get involved. However projects tended to think that befrienders were involved for the following reasons:
ü Pleasure in doing something worthwhile / ‘job satisfaction’ / feelgood factor / get a buzz / emotional reward
ü A link to a change in career / to current study / as a career stepping-stone - gaining experience in the care sector / working with specific client group
ü Genuine interest in the client group e.g. young people
ü Personal experience from the past – desire to give something back to others whose situation they understand e.g. mental ill-health
ü Related experience - an understanding of the client group or the issues faced by them because of experience of family or friends e.g. disability, dementia
ü A chance to make a visible impact in one person’s life
ü Filling spare time when retired, unemployed or recovering from ill-health
“30% of our current 55 volunteers are with us to gain experience” (childrens project)
“30-40% of our volunteers have had problems themselves” (mental health project)
“Some people seem to have endless capacity to help others”
“It can depend on age – I find that older volunteers are looking for things to fill day, while younger people are looking for experience and career advancement.”
“The busiest volunteers are often the best”
“People’s standard response is that they want to give something back but there’s usually more self-gain involved than that would suggest.”
“The concept of befriending appeals – the flexibility and sociability. People can imagine themselves in the role.”
“It fits with people’s circumstances – our distance befriending project where people can volunteer from home has attracted people who would have struggled to get child care for normal 1:1 befriending.”
“If all of our befrienders have something common it’s that they see the value of what they do as befrienders.”
2. What messages are projects currently using to attract volunteers to become befrienders?
Projects described the messages that they currently use to attract volunteers as being:
§ The chance to do something good locally
§ Asking if people have time to spare
§ The social element that befriending has to it
§ Explaining why befriending is of benefit and what the project offers
§ The fact that befriending is about a relationship
“Make a difference, gain experience, you have lots to offer”
“Considering changing career?” and “If you have spare time, we can fill it”
“We avoid the word “volunteer” - we don’t think that’s attractive to many people”
It was agreed that it was difficult to encapsulate befriending in a short way and that often people don’t understand what it is until you can engage them in conversation.
Very few projects said that the messages that they used depended on who they were aimed at. It seems therefore that most projects use only one main message in their recruitment and many acknowledged that this did not reflect the fact that volunteer befrienders were at their projects for many different reasons. Only a small number of projects had specifically tried to take a variety of messages to a range of places.
“We’ve tried to match messages to places – “it’s not a hair raising experience” at the hairdressers, “It’s not as scary as the dentist” – this hasn’t worked but we tried!”
“We currently have a laminated poster on the local bin lorries – the message is “Don’t throw your spare time away.””
“We take specific information to attract students on related courses.”
It was agreed that whilst a new location or a new message was unlikely to unlock large numbers of befrienders, that it was good to try as many locations as possible with messages that might attract a range of motivations.
It was also acknowledged by many that advertising and recruitment was a part of the job that they found difficult:
“We’re not advertising consultants!”
“Having been in the job for a while I do believe that it is harder now than it was 4 years ago. I think that there is more competition and potential volunteers are busier.”
3. What message do projects feel have been most effective for them to date?
Projects felt that the messages that had worked best for them to date had been:
ü A chance to work with young people in their local community
ü Explaining what befrienders will be doing
ü Explaining what will be the benefit for the befrienedee
ü Highlighting that befriending is activity-based
ü Highlighting that training and expenses are part of the package
ü Playing on people’s interests / hobbies – highlighting the fact that they can enable others to do them too
“It depends on the message – some will respond to “training available” some to “the chance to work with young people””
“Our advert that had a checklist with 5 tick boxes was eye catching. Many people said that they had seen it.”
“No special ability required – patience, a sense of humour and we’ll do the rest”
“The message that proved most successful for us was “Lonely / Bored?” – whilst this did bring in some volunteers who were unsuitable we also got ones who went on to befriend (8 out of 13 enquirers). The down side was that our current volunteers weren’t happy with being labelled as ‘lonely and bored’.”
“Our most successful message has been a very targeted one – looking for volunteers with computing experience to pass on to people with disabilities. However we should also have said that they needed endless patience”
One meeting agreed that the main success from local press had come from using recruitment sections
“People looking in this section are looking for change – they are specifically looking here. In other parts of the paper you are just hoping to be found.”
Many felt that posters and adverts had a limited effect and other approaches were better:
“Posters / messages are a kickstart to people coming in but often they don’t work too well.”
“At an Open Day I just went up to people and talked to them. None of the other stalls were doing that. Once you’re talking to people it’s easier to get them interested and it worked for me.”
“Your first sentence and your first smile even over the phone is what makes people get involved”
“What is most effective? Spending quality time with volunteers and making them feel welcome.”
The quote above was echoed by a few projects, and it was agreed therefore that initial advertising had to entice/encourage people to at least respond and call a project, thereby opening up the channels of communication.
4. How are projects currently advertising their volunteering opportunities?
From a look in the BN(S) library of project documentation it appears that the adverts, posters and fliers produced by befriending projects all use similar messages which fall broadly into these categories:
i) Questions e.g.
· Would you like to…
· Do you have time to…
· Do you want to….
· Can you help….
· Why not….
ii) What we’re looking for / What it involves e.g.
· We want people who are…..
· Being a befriender involves….
iii) Statements / Images e.g.
· Be a Sweety (picture of sweets)
· Not Just Another Day – You Could Make it Special (picture of diary page)
· Bring a Smile to Someone’s Face – Become a Befriender (picture of 8 sad faces and 1 smiley one)
What we offer e.g.
Training, support, expenses
At the Common Ground Meetings, participants looked at specific examples from the library and gave comment. Examples they looked at included:
1. Male and Female Volunteers Urgently Required
2. What’s your New Year’s Resolution?
3. Can you be a friend to a young person. All it costs is your time. Interested?
4. Can you help?
6. Are you a good listener?
7. Could you spare two to three hours a week?
8. Concerned about homelessness? Enjoy meeting young people? Time to spare?
9. Can you spare a few hours a week to do a social activity with someone who has become isolated through stress, anxiety, depression or other mental health problems?
10. If you have time in your life to offer companionship to someone who feels socially isolated then why not become a volunteer befriender?
11. Not Just Another Day – You Could Make it Special (picture of diary page)
12. Bring a Smile to Someone’s Face – Become a Befriender (picture of 8 sad faces and 1 smiley one)
It was noted that many of the messages used are about ‘giving back’.
It was debated whether questions (as shown in 1-10) on posters were effective or not. It was agreed that many people might just switch off from a question and answer ‘no’ and not read any further.
Others felt that it was important not to sound too desperate and avoid the ‘urgently required’ type of message. Other areas of agreement were to avoid messages that were too wordy.
Participants disagreed more about how much detail to mention at this advertising stage about the issues the project would deal with e.g. Number 9: “Can you support someone experiencing depression, stress or anxiety”. Some projects felt that as an initial message this might be off-putting but other projects reported that they had volunteers who had responded to exactly that message. This difference of opinion reinforced the fact that different people respond to different messages.
“I’m aware of how many places are looking for volunteers. A lot of them will use messages like “Can you help?” or “Time to Spare?””
People must switch off from some of these messages like “Can you help?” and
“Volunteer with us”. It’s everywhere – it’s like a mother moaning at their child who doesn’t listen any more”
Generally it was felt that advertising about befriending should reflect the positives (what volunteers will get / why they would be interested) not the negatives (what some might perceive as difficulties in the work).
5. Advertising as Profile Raising
Another advantage of advertising in a range of places was felt to be more general profile raising for a project.
Even if a particular poster/postcard/advert campaign doesn’t bring in many responses it might increase people’s awareness of a project for the next time around. Many projects reported volunteers coming to them saying “I’ve seen your information around for a while and now’s the time to do something about it.” This led projects to discuss how you encouraged volunteers to realise that it is the ‘right time’ for them to volunteer.
“Some of our volunteers say they have been thinking about it for a while and the latest advert was the one when they finally got round to calling.”
6. ‘Word of Mouth’ Advertising
Many projects described word of mouth as being the best recruitment tool. However it was acknowledged that this:
× Works better for established projects
× Can result in a very homogenous volunteer group as volunteers talk to similar friends
× Does not provide for an equal way of advertising for volunteers
7. Public Speaking Advertising
Some projects were about to embark on lengthy list of speaking engagements – others felt that this had been unsuccessful for them, and that those planning to spend time on this should not expect a high response. It was felt by some that the main thing that talks were good for was maintaining a higher profile within the community than would otherwise happen.
“Talks are there to help in our projects’ role of challenging prejudice and stigma. If you expect to get lots of volunteers from them you’ll be disappointed.”
8. Tips/Suggestions Arising from the Meetings
i) Targeting people in part time work:
Work part time? Want to fill some gaps?
ii) Targeting people in work:
Tired of the 9 to 5 work? Try the 7pm to 9pm befriending
iii) Suggested lines at meetings:
“It’s not rocket science”
“You don’t have to be big, you don’t have to be clever, just be a befriender”
iv) Some universities and colleges have Volunteer Centres / Community Link Societies. Check www.vds.org.uk/svs
v) Involve current volunteers in looking at publicity – what made them come forward to volunteer. What local places do they suggest targeting? What messages do they consider others would respond to?
vi) “From someone who used to put fliers on cars as a job, the tip is to put them face down on the passenger side”
vii) “We’ve had some volunteers by advertising on www.S1 jobs.com”
viii) Leafleting parents at the school gate as they drop kids off at school
ix) “We’ve got approval from the local school to give a leaflet to every child to take home. We’ve not decided on the message yet although may go for one that is about gaining experience and getting work experience. (mental health befriending project)
x) Go back to previous enquirers. Some projects noted that they had a large group of names who had once enquired at the project but never followed through with their application. If it’s true that there is a “right time and right place” for people to volunteer and that the “drip drip” of messages about a project works, then it might prove good value for projects to build up a mailing list of previous enquirers.