Advocacy
Revisited: The Professional Responsibility to Have and Share Opinions
In this issue, Voices revisits two favorite Volunteering Engagement “voices” with a
repost of a thought-provoking January 2017 column by the late Susan J. Ellis and Rob
Jackson. In this previously published column, Ellis (the Founder and former Editor of
this online journal) and Jackson (today’s Editor-in-Chief) profess that they are not trying
to exhort Volunteer Managers or instill guilt (well, maybe a tiny bit). Rather, these two
volunteerism vanguards explain why and how their profession must advocate for its
Election Year and Volunteer Engagement: There’s a Lot at Stake
What does the volunteering movement want from politicians in an election year? What efforts should Volunteer Leaders make to try and influence political outcomes and government? What important issues should the sector rally around and why is advocacy in the political arena so difficult for Volunteer Engagement professionals? And last but not least, what exactly is this notion of “tragically hip” and “terminal uniqueness”?
Mental Health Matters: My Experience With Postnatal Anxiety and Depression
In this powerful first-person story, volunteer manager Megan Cassar reveals her traumatic experience with postnatal anxiety and depression following the birth of her first child, an illness that went undiagnosed for 18 months. Her struggle to successfully recover led Cassar to not only work as a volunteer to help break down the stigma of postnatal depression but to also rethink her role as a leader of volunteers who confront mental illness in the workplace. Cassar’s poignant insights into why and how volunteer managers can support those who are suffering will help all volunteer leaders set an example in the workplace.
“As leaders of volunteers, we have a duty of care to a diverse range of people,” Cassar writes. “We may not directly manage every volunteer in our organisation but, as the leader of those volunteers, we have a responsibility for them. We are their advocates. We want to ensure that our volunteers feel supported to be open and honest about their volunteer experience as well as any other experiences outside of the workplace.”
Unleashing the Untapped Power of Volunteers as Advocates
The last few years have been challenging for non-profits. Fundraising and safeguarding scandals, accusations of excessive executive pay, concerns over political bias – the list of controversies has grown, negatively impacting the public’s trust and confidence in good causes. Solutions and responses have been proposed, most geared at educating the public and media about the modern realities of running nonprofits. But almost none of these responses and solutions have involved volunteers. Why is that? Are we failing to make the most of what should be some of our most passionate advocates?
In this Points of View, Rob Jackson and Erin R. Spink debate this issue and review how this untapped power of volunteers as advocates can be realized. It’s not rocket science, they conclude, and the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks.
Volunteers Protecting Civil Rights
Freedom of speech and of movement, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of religious worship. . . All are taken for granted by many and they are, of course, fundamental to volunteerism as an associative activity within the civil society space. These rights and freedoms became enshrined in laws over centuries in democratic countries, often after having been hard fought and won in the first place. But they can just as easily be removed or revoked.
Volunteers around the world are monitoring civil rights. They often also take action to defend rights where there is a risk of them being eroded, or if governments need to be challenged where rights are being abused. This issue of Along the Web looks at examples of where and how volunteers are protecting fellow citizens from unequal treatment. These examples show that volunteers often work alongside professionals such as lawyers, and in some communities even place themselves at personal risk in the course of defending or promoting extension of rights.