1. Proudest achievements
   1. Increased demand
      1. overwhelmed with volunteers
      2. unanticipated challenge for technological infrastructure i.e databases and systems
   2. Resilience Readiness
      1. Grenfell, power of the community in times of crisis
   3. Neighbourliness
      1. renewed community spirit
   4. Adaptability
      1. ability to adapt provision in light of rapid change
      2. teamwork despite remote working
      3. additional hours/overtime
      4. new digital and remote provisions
         1. "we've been offering weekly 55 minutes exercise via zoom, 12 lots of taster sessions from yoga and Pilates to Zumba!"
      5. taking on new duties outside of the norm
   5. Collaborative working
      1. improved relationship with statutory partners
         1. an opportunity to break into new territories and spaces, previously uninhabited by the volunteer center
         2. facilitative partnerships
      2. engaging with and supporting mutual aid groups
      3. co-production with the community
         1. mutualism
      4. engaging corporates
         1. unequal distribution of social capital*
2. Greatest challenges
   1. Transition to remote working
      1. having the technological resources to work from home
      2. digital exclusion - some volunteers and/or vulnerable people did not have the resources and/or skills to provide remote provisions
   2. Managing new volunteers
      1. Diversity of skills being offered
      2. exploitation of volunteers as substitute for labour and/or furloughed staff
      3. Placement
         1. supply and demand
      4. Expectation Management
      5. Internal capacity issues
   3. Safeguarding
      1. Health and Safety
         1. PPE
         2. Verification of identity and DBS checks
         3. hyper-rigorous checks from statutory partners and frontline organisations
   4. Volunteer Retention
      1. retaining volunteers as people return to work
      2. ensuring that initial enthusiasm isn't lost by lack of co-ordination
   5. Burnout
      1. balancing family and care commitments with social duties
      2. working many additional hours, shift patterns outside of the norm
      3. isolation- especially as a single person
   6. Co-ordination and duplication
      1. navigating informal volunteering groups to avoid duplication, providing coordination
         1. emergent need for administrative support
            1. "we asked the local authority for project management time, the voluntary sector has hardly any social capital around administration. corporate and statutory take project management for granted"
      2. online hubs created by statutory partners causing duplication issues
      3. GoodSAM App
3. What has changed about volunteering?
   1. Antiquity of "traditional" models
      1. rise of informal volunteering
         1. mutual aid groups
         2. micro-volunteering opportunities
      2. shift towards mutualism
         1. "usual suspects" and hierarchies have been usurped
         2. more co-production and needs based approaches
   2. Changes to the perception of volunteering
      1. renewed utility to statutory partners
      2. associated more with altruism and neighborliness - "community spirit"
      3. micro-volunteering and increased flexibility
      4. emergent new demographic, volunteering has become more accessible and inclusive- for everybody, not just the elderly!
   3. Emergent Demographic
      1. more younger and middle aged people are getting involved
      2. elderly volunteering population potentially "left behind" by shift
      3. anticipated increased demand/"second wave" from young people who will be affected most by the recovering economy
         1. i.e 2008/9 crisis
   4. Hyperlocalism
      1. restrictions on movement
         1. renewal of "the local"
         2. increased community cohesion
      2. changes to London volunteering in particular, which often sees an influx of international volunteers
   5. Digitalisation
      1. Digital Exclusion
         1. Skills gap
         2. Access to equipment and resources
      2. Spatial disruption
         1. some in-person services have been incommensurable with the digital shift, leaving some service users without provision
         2. challenge of how to readapt some services for remote provision
   6. Mental Health
      1. increase in loneliness
         1. befriending services highly popular
         2. demographic change observed in service users
      2. exacerbation of domestic violence during lockdown
4. What would you like to see going forward?
   1. Revised/renewed discourse around volunteering
      1. shift away from traditional branding and marketing
         1. antiquated
            1. "I’m not convinced about "the volunteer bureau" brand as a thing, I'd like to see it dropped, it feels a bit Victorian."
         2. restrictive- appeals to a very particular demographic
            1. become more inclusive of other groups i.e BAME, young people
         3. institutionalized
      2. deliver more ad hoc provisions and informal opportunities
   2. More collaborative working
      1. improved relationships with statutory partners
      2. building of facilitative relationships
      3. co-ordination of MAGs and other ad hoc groups
      4. co-production and mutualism
      5. realisation within national and local government of volunteering's utility and community agility
   3. Sustaining volunteering beyond lockdown
      1. more funding available for sustaining and developing provisions
      2. new ways to engage volunteers as lockdown is lifted and many return to work
      3. ensuring that things do not recede back into "business as usual"
      4. Creating a legacy similar to that of the London Olympics 2012 to commemorate the sector's efforts
   4. Navigating the "new" normal
      1. view that things cannot recede back into how they were before, too many changes to society and working life
         1. exposed social inequalities, has given voiceless groups the chance to empower themselves
            1. mutualism
            2. autonomy and agility
            3. community spirit
         2. shift to digital provisions and remote working
            1. overcoming digital exclusion
            2. "traditional volunteers are also more likely to be digitally excluded, how do we engage them?"
         3. £ value and resilience of the voluntary sector
            1. "Voluntary sector has always been very unsecure funding wise, but covid has demonstrated our importance"
         4. "an opportunity has arisen to significantly reset the expectations of the power relationship in boroughs"
      2. social distancing, the economy- sustained period of uncertainty following lockdown
         1. fears of mass unemployment and an economic crisis
      3. efforts must be made to ensure that the new volunteering movement is not institutionalized
         1. skepticism of technocrats in statutory positions
         2. asymmetrical relationship between the voluntary sector and statutory sector
      4. Hyperlocalism
         1. "local is more important now and has had a greater impact than national level initiatives"
         2. Lockdown has restricted movement of people
            1. Community boundaries have come to the fore as they have become less permeable- especially in the London context
      5. Demise of established frontline organisations
         1. concern that a lack of funding/agility from funders could cause some frontline organisations to permanently close
            1. "there is a real risk that organisations will go to the wall. And someone needs to step in quite quickly and do something about that. Because if the funding doesn't come for another two, three months, you'll be too late. And then next time around, if there is a need to respond to something else like this, we won't be here."
            2. "Many ealing voluntary organisations cannot go back because they now can’t afford to pay rent"
5. Biggest reflection about working through lockdown
   1. Hidden utility of flexible working
      1. Mixture of in-person and digital provisions as highly effective
         1. More attendees at online events than previously at in-person events
            1. " more people sign up to virtual events (60-70 people signed up) than previously in-person, our sign up rate has doubled over lockdown"
      2. cost effectiveness of remote provision, especially in terms of expenses/running costs
   2. A Second Wave
      1. renewed importance of resilience planning
         1. "We spoke to council about emergency response planning after the London riots, nothing happened initially but has now COVID has left a legacy"
   3. Community power
      1. latent strength
      2. ability and willingness to respond to immediate crises where statutory bodies and the government were slow to act and/or exacerbated matters
      3. "Our volunteers have become our friends, especially our long serving ones"
      4. importance of co-production and mutualism
         1. significance of grassroots
   4. Exposure/Exacerbation of extant inequalities
      1. loneliness and isolation
         1. unintended provision of a befriending scheme, ad hoc
            1. befriending service was totally new, a surplus of volunteers - initially just to check in, but these became long conversations
         2. changing user demographic around befriending provisions
            1. service users as young as 19
         3. digital exclusion
            1. shift to remote working risks isolating elderly volunteering community
            2. "Our volunteers have become our friends, especially our long serving ones"
         4. emergence of false enquiries out of loneliness and/or boredom
            1. "We're struggling to manage our client base, so many people ask for assistance and then we discover they don't actually need it"
            2. "a lot of people who asked for help didn't want help, they just wanted somebody to talk to"
   5. Collaborative Working
      1. facilitative relationship with statutory partners
      2. agile funders have been a critical in supporting the sector
         1. "the local authority's funding position helps us with other funders, we can be more strategic"
   6. transmogrification of the voluntary sector
      1. demonstrated the value of volunteering to statutory partners and govt
         1. "the pandemic has given us a chance to really shine, to prove ourselves - we didn't want this kind of opportunity, but we're grateful for it"
         2. changes within the local "balance of power"
         3. "we have saved Havering an estimated £128,000+"
      2. organisational learning
         1. "our team have learned so much over the past few months"
      3. remote working
         1. negative impact on wellbeing
            1. saturation of work technologies into personal life
            2. "I'm concerned about the growing flexibility of work boundaries and my capacity as a result of this "
         2. negative organisational impact
            1. breakdown of team relationships
            2. lack of control over attendees at events
            3. "The absence of non verbal communication has made it hard to chair meetings and engage attendees"
            4. breakdown of client relationships
            5. "in our sector in person contact is important, community outreach is what we're paid to do"
            6. access to equipment
            7. digital divide/computer literacy gap within the community
      4. renewal of public interest in volunteering
         1. adapting provisions to serve evolving volunteer needs
            1. "due to the clear interest in volunteering by the public there are great opportunities if we can harness them. We need to do more to develop and coordinate informal volunteering (micro, ad hoc, task-based, one off, etc.)"
      5. reduced capacity as lockdown eases
         1. "if we don't do it, it’s not because we aren't good, but because we are stretched"