email: support@southern-impact.org.uk 

Best Practice

Southern-Impact is a program to investigate and facilitate opportunities for the Australian, New Zealand, South African, Canadian and black and ethnic minority communities of West London and Greater London to provide support for voluntary and community groups in their area. We hope we've provided the answers to your questions here but please email us if you need further advice.

Q. How do I volunteer?
Q. What restrictions are there?
Q. How much time do I need to give?
Q. Do I have to give up work time?
Q. What kind of volunteering can be done remotely?
Q. Do I have to be an expert?
Q. What sort of jobs might I be asked to do?
Q. What if I haven't got exactly the right skills?
Q. What happens if something goes wrong?
Q. What happens if they don't like my work?
Q. Am I insured for volunteering?
Q. Can I be paid to cover my expenses?
Q. Does my current employer support volunteers?
Q. Any other questions?

How do I volunteer?

There are two routes to working with a voluntary or community group. You can contact them directly (try the phone book or local newspaper) or you can find opportunities via a brokerage agency like Professionals in the Community (a partner of Southern-Impact). The route you take is up to you.

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What restrictions are there?

Providing you have a work permit, you should be able to perform voluntary work with no restrictions (apart from those described below). UK immigration law for non-EU nationals is clear that "any work, paid or unpaid," requires a work permit although working holiday makers are allowed to volunteer. If you have a British passport you probably don't have a problem.

You might find there are restrictions on working with children and other 'vulnerable' groups. This restriction applies to everyone in the UK and its usually a question of the voluntary group checking you out and making sure you're not a risk. This isn't a personal attack on your character, its the law, and its designed to protect childrens groups from strangers who might do them harm. There may be specific restrictions relating to your passport but the voluntary group should be able to clarify that. If not, email us and we'll take up general issues with the Immigration Department.

If you don't have a work permit, get in touch with us by emailing your details (your nationality, country of passport and reason for stay in UK) and we'll look into it. Alternatively, contact your Consulate/Embassy or visit the website of the National Centre for Volunteering.

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How much time do I need to give?

How much time you are willing to volunteer for. Some volunteering might only be a day of work with an organisation to help them begin to develop an IT strategy. You might develop a relationship which involves you emailing advice which takes you 20 minutes a week. You might spend an evening with a group helping them discover what benefits the Internet could bring to their organisation. If you sit on a management committee you might need to attend monthly or quarterly meetings. If you are training people, you might do this on a weekly or monthly basis for a fixed period of time. People being trained will need time to practise between sessions and you'll need to time your visits to make sure the people you are working with will be there. Work out with the organisation you are helping how you can best help them in the time available and arrange times to suit you both.

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Do I have to give up work time?

Not necessarily. Some companies give a set amount of time off work for volunteering - you'll need to check with your community affairs manager (if you have one) if this is the case. If you work on flexible contracts which give you time off between contracts, you could volunteer during that time. You might only be free to volunteer in the evenings. Helping voluntary organisations to use ICT effectively may involve meetings with management committees that include volunteers and take place in the evenings. Many voluntary organisations employ people who work during office hours and volunteering can therefore only take place in working hours. If the organisation you're volunteering with is located near your office it might be possible for you to carry out training or meetings in your lunch hour. You might be able to help via email as long as you come to an agreement on how often they may contact you. Community groups may meet in the day or evenings, during the week or at weekends, you will need to work out with the group what kind of times suit you both best. Remote volunteering is possible via email or the Internet and this makes your volunteering flexible, great if you have to travel frequently in your job.

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What kind of volunteering can be done remotely?

Mentoring support in the use of ICT can be done by e-mail, you'll be "hand-holding" people getting to grips with computers or might be mentoring more highly skilled people. It helps if you've met each other first and this can then provide support. They might ask you technical questions, or they might be working on a website which they want your opinions or help with. If you are carrying out some research for a group or organisation, you could do this remotely, posting or emailing them the findings. Mentoring via e-mail is being developed in the USA, and is in its early stages in the UK. If you go ahead with a virtual volunteering project please let us know how you get on and we'll post the advice on this site.

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Do I have to be an expert?

Anyone who uses a computer on a regular basis will be able to help. Secretaries and administrators who use Word and Excel in their everyday jobs are experts at using these systems, will be able to help people to use these systems. IT help desk staff will be particularly valuable in helping organisations to solve hardware and software problems IT consultants working on management consultancy projects will be valuable in assisting community groups and voluntary organisations management committees in developing an IT strategy. Companies developing e-commerce will be able to help voluntary organisations look at how to provide an on-line service to their users. Many of the issues faced by business in using technology will be the same issues faced by community and voluntary organisations… so you can certainly share your skills.

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What sort of jobs might I be asked to do?

It will involve the use of your ICT skills and experience. The information in each volunteering opportunity should state as clearly as possible what the group wants from their volunteer, so that you can see what you might be asked to do. Some groups might not know exactly what they need, so you might be asked to help them analyse their ICT support requirements. You will probably have particular ICT skills, but your management and people skills together with your business experience will be just as important. Much of the impact acheived by employee volunteers is due to the business skills of the volunteers. There is a wide range of skills that can be shared with community groups and voluntary organisations. Being a member of a management committee, you'll be asked for your expertise in planning an ICT strategy for an organisation and to come up with a plan for implementation. You might be asked to assist with a specification for computer equipment and a draw up a budget to enable the organisation to locate funding. The organisation might already have funds for ICT consultancy and now needs help in drawing up a contract or specification for the work to be done. They might also need help in recruiting or managing the consultant. You might be working with a group to raise their awareness of the impact of the Internet on society and their work. You'll need to organise a session on the subjects they're interested in and brainstorm with them ideas on how the Internet can help improve their service to clients. If you are working with people who are new to computers, you might be asked to help them get to grips with wordprocessing or spreadsheet packages. You might need to show them how Windows Explorer works, how to access a CD-rom, or open files on a disk.

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What if I haven't got exactly the right skills?

Discuss the requirement with the group you're helping. When you start a project, draw up a simple project plan with the group you're helping. This will help both sides to be clear about expectations and will help you to work out what skills are needed. You might embark on a project where you find that you don't have the right technical skills to finish the job. You might then be able to find a friend or collegue with those skills and they might be willing to help and to become a volunteer. Alternatively you can work with the organisation you're helping to draw up a project brief that oulines the extra skill requirements. It is common for a project to start without it being clear which skills will be needed or available at every stage. It is better to recognise this and ask for help.

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What happens if something goes wrong?

You are not under any obligation to keep volunteering. If you are not happy with your volunteering assignment and you feel that things are not progressing well, or if you don't like the place where you're volunteering, you are not under any obligation to continue. The volunteering opportunity has to be of mutual satisfaction for you and the organisation. It is important, however, to talk to either your volunteer coordinator or the person within the organisation to whom you are reporting or to a responsible person within that organisation. Sometimes things can be put right and handled better, but at least the organisation has a chance to learn how to do it well next time. You might want to talk to other volunteers and there might be a Volunteers' Council where the problem can be discussed and action recommended.

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What happens if they don't like my work?

Clarify expectations at the start of the project. When you volunteer, it is a good idea to draw up a project plan with the voluntary organisation or community group to outline what they expect to achieve from your input. You could draw up a volunteer agreement (see Resources section of this web site). At this time you'll be able to manage their expectations if they are hoping to achieve too much. If the organisation is not happy with the way the project is going or with what you are suggesting, you'll need to talk to the volunteer coordinator or the person responsible for managing your work. It might be that they expected faster progress than is realistic or misunderstood what would happen by when. By going over the plan and what has been achieved, you can clarify why they are not happy and identify what needs to be improved. Remember, the more precisely you document and agree the content of the project at the start, the more likely the organisation is to be happy at the end. The more checkpoints at which you agree progress with the organisation during the project, the less work you will have done before realising they are not happy.

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Am I insured for volunteering?

You need to check with the organisation concerned. Like most companies, community groups and voluntary organisations have public liability insurance to cover accidents that happen on their site. This insurance covers you if you get injured in the course of your volunteering. If you are visiting someone in their own home as a part of your volunteering for such an organisation, then you should be covered by this insurance. You can check whether an organisation has this cover in the information about the organisation on this web site. Any company providing free professional advice is liable for this under their company indemnity insurance. Some companies sign agreements that cover such issues with organisations to whom they provide free professional advice. Individuals are not insured for volunteering. Sometimes a voluntary organisation is insured for actions of volunteers. This would, for example, cover them for the cost of recovering a database damaged by a volunteer. Not many organisations have this insurance. Some IT professionals have expressed concern about liability for voluntary work - however, you can always set up a basic written agreement with the group before you start. This helps to manage expectations and also demonstrates the good intentions of the volunteer. According to the National Centre for Volunteering, only about six cases have ever gone to court in the history of volunteering. Usually this has concerned whether the volunteer is to be considered as an employee of the organisation. It is highly unlikely that a case of a voluntary organisation taking action against an ICT volunteer would ever happen.

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Can I be paid to cover my expenses?

Check with the organisation first. Many voluntary organisations cover volunteers' travel costs and some cover meals while volunteerng. Unfortunately, other smaller groups may not be able to afford to do so. You should check with the organisation before starting your assignment if this is an issue for you.

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Does my current employer support volunteers?

You need to speak to your Community Affairs manager (if your company has one) or your own line manager to find out in what way your company might support you. It is possible that your volunteering project might be recognised as a personal development opportunity for appraisal purposes. If you are joined by colleagues in the volunteering, then this is sometimes seen as a team-building opportunity.

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Anything else?

IT4Communities have a great online toolkit which covers most of the key issues around IT volunteering and also provides some sample projects.

Why not email us with any other queries and we'll see what we can do.

Southern-Impact - Australian, New Zealand, South African, Canadian and BME professionals
supporting West London volunteering

Southern-Impact is aiming to recruit Australian, Kiwi, South African, Canadian and black and minority ethnic IT and marketing people to work for nothing plus benefits in West and Central London. Supported and funded by Omega Alpha Limited and the preponderate network, Southern-Impact offers IT and marketing professionals benefits including networking opportunities, skills-building and having fun in exchange for a few hours (or less) unpaid IT work with a local community or voluntary group in London.

Supported by Omega Alpha Ltd
16 Percival Street, Accrington, Lancashire, BB5 0BE.

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