£400,000 can change the world
Real people proving the real value of ‘Civil Society’
Putting the new wave of ‘civil society politics’ to one side, to me civil society is simple. It’s about real people taking time from their lives to help someone, or a community of people, that needs it most. We can all do that. Every single one of us has the capability of making a difference in this world we live in.
But the civil society agenda seems to have focused around structures and infrastructures and divisions, leading to questions like how can we get businesses involved – should this really be the focal point of this debate? In my mind it’s nothing about businesses. It’s about people – and that’s as much about the people who are running and working in businesses as it is about the person in the street. They’re all part of a community and have as much ability as the next man or woman to make a difference, if they choose to do so.
The economics
If you’re interested in the economics of civil society, in our case the economic value of the time our volunteers donate to us is worth £400,000 a year. Every day an amazing team of volunteers freely give us their time, skills and commitment to selflessly support the work of Citizens Advice Gateshead. Their contributions make a huge difference to our clients, and in turn that adds value to our communities, to our economy and to our civic society.
In 2017/18 Citizens Advice Gateshead worked with almost 13,000 local people, and we think that’s a huge achievement for a local independent charity. We couldn’t possibly have achieved that without our volunteers. We actually dealt with 80,000 advice issues, averaging 6 or more problems for each person we helped; evidence, if we ever needed it, of the complexity of the issues facing our communities as austerity and welfare reform continue to bite deep.
Back to the economics, with our team of staff and volunteers we got £7.2m directly into the pockets of the people we helped. They received tribunal awards, additional benefits, charitable assistance to buy essential items like a fridge to keep medication cool or a washing machine for a carer struggling to provide clean bedding for their loved one, and we challenged debts that no longer need to be repaid, persuading creditors to write-off the debt on the grounds of client vulnerability or because they were unfairly acquired as a result of indiscriminate creditors actions.
We could probably come up with a fancy social return equation to make that figure of £7.2m even bigger, but we don’t need to because we think an average of £554 gained for every person we have supported is tangible proof enough that civil society is making an economic difference.
The ripple effect
If we’re trying to encourage people to engage, we just need to remember that helping others has a direct impact on the person doing the helping as much as on the person or community being helped. 4 in 5 of our volunteers say they have grown in confidence as a result of their voluntary contributions. 9 in 10 say they have an increased sense of purpose and self-esteem. Over half say they are less socially isolated. That has a ripple effect.
When we talk about our volunteers we’re talking about everyone from retired professionals to under-graduates to people with no formal qualifications at all but who have lots of life experience to share, so the spin-out from this is wide, varied and significant. I’ve just been chatting to one of our volunteers who recently completed a degree course – they have conducted their first client interview today and believe their confidence levels were sky high because of their experience as a volunteer. 8 out of 10 of our volunteers tell us that they are overcoming barriers to employment through volunteering with us. 9 out of 10 say they are learning new skills. Volunteering is an established route to employment and employment is known to improve personal and economic wellbeing; by helping others we help ourselves too.
So that £400,000 of time donated by our volunteers has limitless potential impact. If we all did our bit can you imagine how much we could change this world? So maybe we who are in the know should cascade the message – about the economics and the ripple effect, and that it’s about you, you and you as much as it’s about me and the wonderful Carol, ably demonstrating the difference she makes to our service, our clients and to civil society.