'Volunteering really can change people’s lives. It has the potential to improve our quality of life and make our society a better place to live. We now need to release this potential'
Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Director General of the National Trust, in response to a report that highlights how volunteering can improve the quality of life of everyone in England.
© National Trust
The 'Manifesto for Change' report by the Commission on the Future of Volunteering launched today sets out a vision for the future when volunteering is part of the DNA of our society and gives recommendations on how to make this a reality. Fiona continues:
'The vision paints a picture of a nation where our actions have real meaning. Where volunteering will become very much a part of everybody’s lives and everybody will be able to make a valued contribution. Now we need to act to make this happen.
'At the National Trust we couldn’t survive without our volunteers. We are grateful for their contribution in terms of time and commitment. We also see that our staff could make the same contribution to other organisations. That’s why we have introduced an employee volunteering policy supporting our staff to spend up to the equivalent of one week paid volunteering outside of the Trust.
'Looking at it from the other way round, we already welcome thousands of employees from the biggest financial firms to small local companies who come to volunteer with us, but we want to welcome more. We want more employers to recognise the value of volunteering for their staff in terms of development, motivation and experience. We want to see more companies putting in place policies to make volunteering possible for their staff.
'We also welcome the commitment to breaking down barriers to bring diversity to volunteering. Our society needs to be a place where everybody has something to give. Across the National Trust we have projects working with young people, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups, but this is not universal. What these projects are doing is helping us to understand how we need to change as an organisation to make this the norm and not the exception.
'The vision could really make a difference to how we see volunteering in England. What we need now is a commitment from business, organisations that offer volunteering opportunities and the government to make this vision come alive.'
© National Trust
The National Trust has one of the largest volunteer forces in the country. In 2006-07 over 49,000 people gave an incredible 2,983,954 hours of their time, equivalent to £21.3m.
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