06 February 2004

Statistics from a newly published national document have revealed that an increased number of people are giving time to volunteering in the towns of North Lanarkshire and across Scotland.

The national figures were compiled by Volunteer Development Scotland, in conjunction with agencies like the Volunteer Centre North Lanarkshire, with one of the most interesting points showing that informal volunteering is increasing amongst a large proportion of the population.

The term informal volunteering refers to people who give time to volunteering work by helping friends, family members or other people with a particular cause, as opposed to formal volunteering, which describes people who give time to working with a structured group or organisation.

Examples of informal volunteering include parents who help out with school / youth activities because their child is involved, or people who do shopping for an elderly or sick neighbour. People who assist with this type of activity are often referred to as "hidden" volunteers because their work generally goes unrecognised or unrecorded.

Figures show that 81 per cent of adults in Scotland informally volunteered during 2003. This equates to some 3.32 million individuals -- an incredible number of individuals who have helped out with a worthwhile local cause. Local statistics illustrate similar results, with four out of five people in North Lanarkshire able classed as hidden volunteers during the calendar year.

Of the activities this proportion of hidden volunteers took part in, the most common were visiting an elderly or sick person (37% of the total population), doing shopping for someone (32%) or babysitting or caring for children (35%) -- over a quarter of the population have done each of these types of volunteering. Others included giving advice about something or helping with letters or form filling (31%) and transporting/escorting (31%).

The outcomes also show that more and more young people are taking part in volunteering activities, with 5% more females than males giving their time to worthwhile causes.

Craig Russell, Information & Research worker at the Volunteer Centre North Lanarkshire, said "I think these results only go to show that there are so many people that volunteer who aren’t recognised and probably wouldn’t even class themselves as volunteers".

"It’s this group of people that we at the Volunteer Centre regard as invaluable, and it is important for us to be able to try and show some recognition to people we would class as 'hidden' volunteers.

The organization hopes to recognize informal volunteers at the Volunteer Centre’s Celebration Volunteering Awards Dinner, scheduled to take place during Volunteers Week in June. Volunteers Week provides an opportunity for ordinary people can be nominated to win awards for the volunteering work they have taken part in.

"In the meantime, we would encourage everyone who gives time to any volunteering causes, however large or small it might seem, to engage with the Volunteer Centre -- there are so many other doors we can help open for you," Russel adds.