The week before last, and as part of the "Building Future London" project, I went back to school to discuss the Built Environment with a group of 11 year olds.
I was meant to be one of three volunteers. The plan being that we would move between the same number of classrooms in order to keep the groups small and encourage participation .
However, despite the efforts made by the organisers, only I showed up .... and because of it, 60 of the children had to carry their chairs across the corridor to the largest classroom and I ended up presenting to group of 90 children (in a very crowded room) .
I wish I could say volunteer no-shows are a rare occurrence, but I would be lying.
The thing is, all year round, we read about the kind of initiatives the industry should get behind to increase diversity, engage the younger generations and address the leaky pipeline.
- Furthermore, we are aware of how significant the impact of having access to "role models" is for children to plan their educational goals, specially in socio economical contexts where such access may be more restricted.
And yet, when it comes to taking action, very few do so, leaving organisers no margin for error or emergencies. In order to illustrate, allow me to share some illuminating numbers related to this event :
- The school needed 3 volunteers.
- 70 people (registered as volunteers for this specific project) were invited to participate.
- Less than 10 people responded
- Only 3 agreed to volunteer
Why?
A recurring explanation I have come across is that events at schools take place during working hours and many employers within the Build Environment in particular, don't support such outings. Given that there was a time, when I had to use my holidays to volunteer, I know this to be true.
So, how can you -decision makers- change this?
- By finding a way to facilitate your company's contribution to programmes of educational outreach.
I know (because I have been there) some employers will have questions... so here are some of the answers I propose to the questions I regularly encountered while employed:
- But what if everyone wants to volunteer at the same time? Our office would be empty! Some companies within the industry already have a rotating system whereby employees are given a chance to be part of the volunteering group for a given period of time or a certain number of hours a year.
- We cannot afford to have people away from the office for a whole day! Platforms such as Inspiring the Future , for example, allow individuals to volunteer for as little as one hour a year and doing so collectively could make a big difference. They do this by giving you a chance to identify your preferred catchment area (around your home or work) minimising the need for commuting... And there are also the platforms that provide remote/online based opportunities .
- Only senior members go to events during the day because the junior members of the team should be at the office! Offices demand certain milestones from employees to advance their careers and yet they cannot always provide opportunities to develop the skills required to hit those milestones. Volunteering can provide access to complementary skills to the more technical ones developed while performing a role at the office/ on site.
If you have questions or need ideas/suggestions, feel free to reach out. After 9 years of continuous volunteering across many platforms I might be able to help.
If you want to know more about the project I mentioned at the start:
- The Building Future London collaboration between the GLA’s London Infrastructure Group (LIG), the Workforce Integration Network (WIN) and Inspiring the future is already up and running LINK and they need volunteers... as the story above illustrates.
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