Getting the job done – Volunteers taking charge

This week Hope had the great pleasure of meeting with Andreas Flohr, a volunteer at the Young People in the Arts (YPIA) organisation. This is an organisation that has taken matters in to their own hands to make things happen for themselves. In a cutthroat world, such as the arts industry, networking and meeting people is essential to give yourself the edge and eventually the job. What the creators of YPIA are doing, is organising networking events for young people or people who are in the early stages of their arts career (White, no date). This is all being done alongside their working careers and they do not get paid for their efforts. We have focused very much on how to survive in the volunteer jungle and getting yourself employed; but if confident enough, a volunteer can take charge, and with enough dedication, getting the experience they might need for themselves.

The government have put a lot of effort (and a whopping £39 million!) to encourage communities to start up their own voluntary organisations since 2010 (HM Government, 2012) and Volunteering England are pushing for further work to be done. They're helping by creating further awareness on how to volunteer, as well as helping to negotiate schemes that makes it easier for volunteers to start up organisations (Volunteering England, 2012). To learn more of how to set up a volunteer organisations, the voluntary arts week is an event run for volunteers and people who are interested in setting up their own voluntary organisation specifically for the arts.  http://www.voluntaryartsweek.org/

Taking your own initiative to set up and run a voluntary or non-profit organisation can take a lot of effort and time but can also be extremely rewarding in terms of skills, as Andreas will talk to Hope about in her interview later this week.

References

HM Government (2012) Making it easier to set up and run a charity, social enterprise or voluntary organization. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61390/9164-TSO-HMG-Make-it-easier-Charity-Progress_ACCESSIBLE.PDF Accessed: 26/04/13

Volunteering England (2012) Volunteering England: making it easier to run a voluntary organisations [Online] Available at: http://www.volunteering.org.uk/aboutus/news-releases/2345-volunteering-england-making-it-easier-to-run-a-voluntary-organisation Accessed: 26/04/13

White, H (no date) Get connected, classical music magazine [Online] Available at: http://www.ypia.co.uk/assets/pdf/get_connected.pdf Accessed: 26/04/13

http://www.voluntaryworks.org.uk/cvsmidandnorthbeds/DevelopingYourOrganisation.asp