This booklet seeks the answers to two key questions: Why don't unemployed people volunteer as much as they could? And how can volunteering be made more attractive to them? Advocating that volunteering can be a key factor to social inclusion, chapters realistically explore who and where are the jobless volunteers, and the issues and barriers to their participation. Deals with the need for equal access and solid support. Written for a British audience, but universal in its message.

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Unemployment can breed apathy. The longer a person has been without a job, the narrower their world becomes and the harder it becomes for them to stir themselves to do something new. If organisations are to succeed in recruiting jobless people, they must try to overcome this apathy by reaching out and offering work that is genuinely appealing...

Unemployed people may well be sceptical about trying yet another well-meaning route towards employment or social reintegration. So in order to recruit them as volunteers, organisations will have to deliver what they promise.

But it will be worthwhile for organisations to make the effort, as jobless people have a lot to offer:

• Time. Most unemployed people have, through no fault of their own, a great deal of time on their hands.
• Skills. Jobless people have a variety of skills that can be made immediately available to help tackle problems such as homelessness, poverty and isolation
• Motivation. If they can be convinced that volunteering will reduce their isolation and perhaps even help them towards paid work, unemployed people have nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving it a try.

Table of Contents