‘Volunteer workers are the unsung heroes helping borough’s poorest’

Published: 26 March, 2010
by PETER GRUNER

THEY are Islington’s unsung heroes – giving up free time without pay to help out in the poorest communities.

The borough’s growing army of volunteers was celebrated this week in a major new report commissioned by the EC1-based Cripplegate Foundation. The charity provides £2million in donations to local voluntary organisations. 

Islington, the eighth most deprived borough in the country, is blessed with a staggering 1,800 volunteer groups, almost three times the national average per capita.

More than one in every five people in the borough volunteers at least once a month, and many more on a less regular basis, according to the report, “Unlocking the Potential”, by the Institute of Volunteering Research. In 2008, for example, almost 2,600 volunteers registered with the Islington Volunteer Centre.

Cripplegate’s chief executive Kristina Glenn said: “Islington people are giving their time and their talents to support their communities and each other.

“Volunteers are local people who are running youth groups, running cricket, football, boxing clubs, supporting pensioners, running advice services, opening up gardens and transforming their estates.”

Ms Glenn added that rather than coming from outside, the borough volunteers are found within local communities, often themselves among the poorest. 

“Volunteers can be helping each other as neighbours,” Ms Glenn said. 

“They can be unemployed, in ill health, retired, or people new to the country who want to get to understand British culture. 

“Or they are local people who volunteer because family or friends need them to help. 

“Volunteering has the biggest impact on the people who are most vulnerable.”

According to the report:

• Almost £2m has been invested in Islington’s small voluntary groups since 2006.
• Over 250 organisations have had grants ranging from £500 to £5,000 a year.
• 5,400 volunteers have been involved in these groups – this is worth almost £9.5m
• Over 146,000 Islington residents have benefited from these projects.

Ms Glenn said that the bottom up approach works: “Small groups reach people in ways that large organisations like the council can’t do.”

Lucy Watt, deputy leader of Islington Council said: “There is more that can be done, especially to recruit new volunteers who would not think that volunteering is for them.

“We need to reach businesses in and around Islington, who do not have Islington on their map for volunteering, and show them the opportunities we have.”

Councillor Watt said the council will be investing in recruiting 500 new volunteers over the next 12 months.

She added: “We’ll be doing this with Cripplegate Foundation, Voluntary Action Islington and Islington Giving, the fundraising campaign for Islington. I look forward to seeing many more active volunteers in the borough.”

Last year Cripplegate published Invisible Islington: Living in Poverty in Inner London, which looked at poverty in the borough to explore the factors that make it so entrenched – including ill health, debt, isolation and lack of opportunity – and to rethink the actions needed to tackle it. 

That report found 42 per cent of children live in poverty and the borough has the highest suicide rate for men in England.

Kristina Glenn said one of the most startling findings of last year’s study was the level of isolation that the poorest people suffered. “Some of our interviewees were seeing only one or two people a week,” she added. “One woman told us that she never went out at the weekend and neither did her children.”

• Cripplegate Foundation is an independent grant-giving trust set up in 1500 which aims to tackle poverty and inequality. It gives grants of almost £2m a year in Islington. It aims to influence local and national policy and highlights the needs of Islington. Contact 76, Central Street, EC1V 8AG, or 0207 566 3130.