About volunteer

Linda Cairns has worked with volunteers for the last 20 years, in sport, publishing and education. She has managed teams of volunteers in the UK and abroad and knows firsthand what it is like to be a volunteer.

The lives in a day of a GoodGym Operations Volunteer

Posted on 14/07/2023 by volunteer

During the pandemic GoodGym’s Operation Team recruited volunteers to keep up with the flood of new requests for help. I was one of these volunteers and wrote this piece describing a day in our lives and the lives of those that the GoodGym community supports.

In March 2020, the number of requests for help to GoodGym increased forty-fold, and one of my GoodGym friends told me about the advert for Operations Volunteers. The application deadline was that evening and I met it and was interviewed, trained and started shifts within a week. Here is a glimpse into my day. Get your tissues ready and read on to find out what I’ve been doing while I’ve not been blogging.

My story below led me to collaborate with Alicia Canter at the Guardian to produce this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/26/its-given-me-faith-back-in-humanity-the-lockdown-volunteers-a-photo-essay Image credit The Guardian

09.45 Supporting Mr J and his brother

We’ve had a request to support Mr J and I’m on the phone to him now. He calmly tells me how his younger brother died last week, and that his own cancer is worsening such that he is no longer strong enough to look after his middle brother. “To help you carry his suitcases and a TV downstairs and out to the taxi” – I check, trying to keep my voice calm and stop it cracking. My screen has blurred. “Our volunteers can certainly do that for you” I reassure him. “And be there with you when you say goodbye to your only living relative ” I say in my head.

“my brothers in arms”

I press the end of call button and slide off my glasses to dry my eyes. Take a deep breath and start to write the confirmation message to prepare the runners for meeting Mr J and helping his brother move into a care home.

“you did not desert me”

10.30 cup of tea

I’m on a Operations Shift and I’m helping to turn the requests GoodGym receives from “Referrers” into Missions for runners. Missions always come into GoodGym from trusted partners such as AgeUK, The British Red Cross and various NHS Departments. My challenge is to check the details, phone the elderly or vulnerable beneficiary that we are supporting, and collaborate with the referrer to get all the information we need. I am trying to make sure the GoodGym volunteer can complete their mission without a hitch. I also have to ensure that the task we do meets the brief of the referrer and most importantly, that we safely and sensitively support the person who needs help. Oh and I have to be careful that everything I organise meets current Covid-19 restrictions for the area in which the mission is happening.

11.00 Hospital bed, new mission request

My Mission Coordinator Dashboard (which shows me – in order of urgency – all the new requests, all the missions that have runners signed up, and all the completed missions) is showing me a new referral request. But all it tells me is “Please clear furniture from bedroom to make room for hospital bed. Due to be delivered in 2 days’ time and Mrs T discharged same day. Huh, this one could be hard work, but I know how overstretched the discharge teams are at the moment. Here is what I say: “Hello NHS Discharge team, to help me list this request please can you provide some more information: What furniture needs to be moved? Where is it to be stored? Does the move involve stairs? Who will provide access to the property? And will there be tools available for our volunteers to use if needed to dismantle any large items? Thank you for a prompt reply to help us find local volunteers in time.” I’m trying to make sure our runners aren’t in for a nasty surprise. I wait for a reply, and move on.

I’ve watched all your suffering

11.30 Medicines by bike

My dashboard is showing me a mission that has a runner and is ready to confirm. My e-mail to the runner says: “Hi Hilary, Prescription collection 4 of 4, bumper day today! Medicines collection for Mrs C. Please collect from Pharmacy (details here) and deliver to Mrs C. details are here: DOB, address, no payment required. This and the previous 3 prescriptions are all ready to collect so as usual it’s ok to pick them up together and head off on your bike to deliver. Thank you, stay safe, all the best.” This makes me feel efficient as it’s such a simple solution – an organised pharmacy, a happy GoodGymmer on a bike who’s able and willing to do four missions on the same day for different beneficiaries and lots of vulnerable people keeping safe at home.

11.40 Hospital bed, continued

We’ve had an e-mail back from the NHS Discharge Team and they”ve given me a contact to call. I phone them, it’s an Occupational Therapist “Hello Emma, it’s about clearing space in Mrs T’s house so she can be discharged. I’ve got some questions; can you spare a minute?” Emma is on it! She’s got everything sorted……. Mrs T’s neighbour has keys, here’s her name and phone no, she’ll let you in, she’s already emptied the cupboards so you can move them into the lounge which is down one flight of stairs. Emma has even booked the council to collect a single bed and mattress from outside the property. Oh brilliant, I think to myself, if only every discharge team had an Emma.

12.00 Emergency food shop

I’ve just been speaking to Ms Y who is isolating with a positive Covid test. Despite being indoors with young children on her own and with one with a disability she was just so grateful for GoodGym’s help. Wow, some people are so resilient. I have to warn the runner about doing a Covid-safe shopping drop – but I add that “I’m sure she would like to see you at the gate and give you a wave.”

“so many different worlds”

12.30 Hospital bed, continued

2 runners sign up just minutes before this task expires. It jumps in at the top of my confirmation queue and I dash off a detailed message to the runners. I later hear that the mission is successful. I’m glad Mrs T is back home and mega-pleased that we’ve helped free up a hospital bed. I could sense the urgency from the Hospital Discharge Team.

“and we have just one world”

A couple of days later: Supporting Mr J and his brother continued

Mission complete. The run report is a fitting tribute to Mr J: https://www.goodgym.org/reports/brothers-in-arms. More tears when I read it.

“let me bid you farewell”

The above is just taste of one shift during Covid-19 GoodGym Mission Operations. Volunteers have been helping like this since March 2020, and are continuing to do so to ensure GoodGymmers all around the country can provide their amazing support for so many different people.

*”Brothers In Arms” lyrics by Mark Knopfler

I’ve discovered GoodGym

Posted on 04/09/2019 by volunteer

I recently wrote a pretty ordinary blog post Volunteers vs Beneficiaries about a couple of extraordinary organisations . One of these was GoodGym. After I clicked “publish” something made search to see if I had a local GoodGym. I did, and I registered there and then for Monday night’s run. It was the next day so there was no time to change my mind.

I started to have a bit of a wobble on the way – was I too old? Would I keep up? Was I wearing the right things? Would they all be weird? Would they think I was weird? I reached peak nerves when I arrived at the cafe and couldn’t see anyone else in running kit.

I tried to tell myself the reassuring words that I would say to a new parkrunner. I checked the confirmation e-mail again to be sure I was in the right place and then I went up to the bar to ask. And as I did, I spotted the gaggle of runners in red and black GoodGym t-shirts.

On the way home, as I synced my run to Strava, I reflected on what an unexpected evening it had been. I had chatted for the entire time and had become engrossed in conversations with runners with similar professional interests. I’d met parkrunners and talked about starting a junior parkrun. And I’d put the world to rights with a new friend who shared my volunteering philosophy and irritation with the expression “giving up your time to volunteer“. And somehow I’d managed to do all this while running in my red zone! Everyone was accepting, welcoming, interested and interesting. In the middle of the run we cleared some Sustrans walking and cycling paths, we did some yoga stretches and we ended with a beer.

You can read the run report here: Highly Functioning Cyclepaths

Volunteers vs Beneficiaries

Posted on 01/09/2019 by volunteer

I have just listened to the Reasons to be Cheerful Podcast No 98. “SMELLS LIKE COMMUNITY SPIRIT: bridging the inter-generational divide” in which the two inspiring interviewees have, I believe, redesigned how volunteering organisations can work. I’d already known of Ivo Gormley, who started GoodGym do good, get fit, and he was joined by Alex Smith From the Cares Family, which sets up networks of young professional and older neighbours.

Both organisations work with “volunteers” and are breaking down divides in communities and tackling loneliness. It’s easy to prejudge who are the volunteers and who are the beneficiaries in a relationship. But when you listen to the passionate and articulate pair you realise we are often wrong because it can be very empowering to be the person who provides the help. As Ivo Gormley says “we are are all only a tiny moment away from being the beneficiary”.

You can listen to this podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reasons-to-be-cheerful-with-ed-miliband-and-geoff-lloyd/id1287081706?i=1000446128921

#ParentsInSportWeek and I’m remembering my dad

Posted on 06/10/2017 by volunteer

This #ParentsInSportWeek has made me think of my dad. It’s made me think of the effect he had on me and my early experiences of sport.

These days, all my thoughts about parents in sport usually revolve around organising activities and competitions for children – and seeing how their parents relate to their children in the heat of the event. Do the parents encourage, empathise and just enjoy the experience? Or do they push, pressurise and humiliate? Those of us regularly involved in youth sport will have seen pushy parent behaviour that is bordering on bullying.

So, I’m remembering my dad. And I’m remembering sailing with him when I was about 8 years old. We were sailing in a graduate dinghy on a gravel pit. And I was learning to helm – to steer the boat. I was nervous, and this was a big thing for me. I could manage to helm in a straight line and get all the way across the lake. But then you had to “tack” to change direction. This was a scary manoeuvre for me at the time. It must have been a big block because, even now, I can visualise the bank looming up and time running out to push the tiller away, cross the boat, swap tiller and main-sheet hands and head off in the new direction. Week after week I would lose my nerve. I would try my hardest but at the last minute, I would bottle out and swap places with my dad, and he would tack the boat. Then we would swap back again.

What I’m realizing now, and what I never noticed at the time, was his patience. He just let me helm, swap, tack, helm again. I don’t know how many weeks we did this. He never criticised me or pushed me beyond my limit. He very slowly let me build up my confidence. And eventually I must have learnt to tack that boat.

From learning to tack, my skills improved and my confidence in my ability grew. I was hooked and sailing became a huge part of my world. My confidence in myself grew too and I made lots of friends through the sport. I subsequently went on to compete at National level and was invited to join the Women’s Olympic training squad.

In #ParentsInSportWeek week, I am thinking of my dad. And thinking how differently things could have turned out. How easily he could have run out of patience, pushed me to tack before I was ready and put me off. He could so easily have turned me away from sailing for ever.

Thanks Dad. You’ll never read these words. You’ll not know that you instilled values in me that I hold dear and that I am now trying to use to support parents and children in sport. You won’t know what I am achieving now. But I hope that you did know what effect your patience had on my emerging confidence and my love of sailing all those years ago.

Government strategy and funding for sport volunteers

Posted on 28/09/2017 by volunteer

At the end of 2015, the UK Government published Sporting Future: A new strategy for an active nation. This strategy marked the biggest shift in Government policy on sport in more than a decade, and it actually mentions sport volunteering. It recognises that volunteering enriches the life of the volunteer and not just the participants whose sport activity is facilitated – “the double benefit of sport volunteering”. The Government wants to encourage sport and physical activity volunteering for its own sake and the strategy includes a case study on volunteering at parkrun, recognising that …..

parkrun has established a new model for community sport volunteering which puts the volunteer centre stage.

This case study makes me punch the air because it fits with what I have been getting excited about for years, see It’s an honour to volunteer for parkrun and parkrun volunteers get cold fingers and toes and a warm feeling inside.

The strategy also recognises the importance of recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers who are representative of the entire population. It mentions a better online system for brokering sport volunteering opportunities (Consortium takes over Join In) and I am optimistic that it also means more recognition of the skills needed for volunteer management.

In response to Sporting Future, Sport England published its Volunteering Strategy in December 2016: Volunteering in an active nation. I had an opportunity to contribute ideas to this strategy and this is what I said:

My ideas on what works well for managing volunteers:

Focus on positives and benefits that volunteers gain by their actions; avoid talking about volunteering in terms of “giving up”, “making sacrifices” etc
Look after them as real people and manage them professionally
Simplify and standardise the processes for people to offer to volunteer – parkrun is great example
Value volunteer management and help people do it well
Celebrate the achievements of volunteers
Break traditional volunteer roles into chunks; encourage job-sharing

My ideas on volunteering by under-represented groups and young people

Nationally lots of youth organisations are focussing on mental health and there is big opportunity to improve wellbeing and raise aspirations through volunteering and/or youth social action
Effective work with under-represented groups needs partners on the ground who have prior relationships with the target volunteers
Activities need to be done with young people not done to young people
Best to offer a mix of activities, and to locate the volunteering in the communities as lack of transport is a barrier
To focus on physical activities rather than sport coaching we need people who empathise with beginners rather than coaches who want to develop elite players – need more organisers and activators
Empower and incentivise younger officials/club organisers. Help clubs welcome young energy and ideas that are often obstructed by an ageing, dogmatic workforce (easy to say, hard to do)

Where are we now?

Sport England has two funds supporting volunteering: The Opportunity Fund (targets people, aged 20+, from economically disadvantaged communities) and The Potentials Fund (targets children and young people aged 10 to 20, with a particular focus on 10-14 year-olds, who are interested in doing something to benefit their community, through social action.) Expressions of interest in the first round of these funds are now closed. See Volunteer Funding Investment Guide for more information. Sport England is making up to £26 million over 4 years available to support implementation of their Volunteering in an active nation strategy.
You can find a volunteering opportunity or post your volunteering opportunities on Join In
Sport England gives some very useful advice for volunteer managers here: Volunteering explained
The first Annual Report on Sporting Future was published in February this year.

The first Annual Report on Sporting Future

This 40-page report has a succinct and positive message for the future of sport volunteering. Copied below.

“Volunteering

4.32 Sporting Future takes a new approach to volunteering, recognising the positive impact it has on volunteers themselves as well as the benefits to sports and the importance of recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers who are representative of the entire population.

A new volunteering strategy

4.33. Sport England published its new volunteering strategy on 1 December 2016. The strategy’s objectives are to:

ensure better quality, meaningful volunteering experiences
increase the diversity of those who volunteer in sport and activity
increase the number of volunteers in sport and activity

Sport England is making up to £26 million over 4 years available to support implementation of this strategy.

Information about volunteering opportunities

4.34 In its volunteering strategy Sport England recognises and promotes the crucial role that digital communications can play as an enabler to increase the number and diversity of sport volunteers. As this strategy is implemented in 2017 and beyond Sport England will consider how it can best support the use of digital technology in sport volunteering.

Employee volunteering

4.35 Sport England will work with other agencies to increase the number of sport and physical activity volunteering opportunities that can be taken up by employees.

Rewards for volunteers

4.36 A joint Sport England/UK Sport review shows that national governing bodies generally engage regular volunteers from the grassroots as volunteers at major events they are hosting. UK Sport will encourage this practice to continue through its application and award process for major events funding. Support for national governing bodies on this is covered in Sport England’s volunteering strategy and both UK Sport and Sport England will be sharing best practice.”

The future

I am waiting with interest to see the outcome of the first Sport England Funding round and to see what types of projects were funded and which partners Sport England chose to work with. This will help us all understand funding priorities for subsequent rounds.

I am also eagerly awaiting developments with the new Join In Consortium under the Sport and Recreation Alliance and I really hope that we get good volunteer brokering functionality that really does “make sport and recreation volunteering more representative and accessible”. The parkrun volunteer system works, and has worked well for years. It is simple and enables participants to put their hand up for a specific job on a specific day and for local teams to manage their own volunteer roster. If you are not familiar with parkrun, you can see how it works here: volunteer at Guildford junior parkrun.

From Runner to Run Director – a Volunteer’s Journey

Posted on 01/11/2016 by volunteer

The school field is an ocean of bodies, bobbing and stretching. Weathered sinewy adults and bouncy excited children. Is this what 750 people look like? I’m as nervous as they are. More nervous. I’m the reason they are all here. The sun is shining and it is the Saturday before the London Marathon in April 2007.

Two years earlier, the High Street was closed and we were all standing in the middle of the road. My tummy was fluttering and my limbs were chilly. “I’ll start near the back of the pack as I’ve never done this before.” I told myself that no-one was looking at me in that crowd. Me, in my unfashionably baggy shorts – all the other ladies seemed to be wearing lycra. The smell all around of deep heat had cleared my nose and was now nauseating me. We started to squash forward in anticipation even thought nothing had happened. And then muffled words spewed out of a megaphone and we were off.

The ocean of people is lapping round me and asking me questions “Where’s the start?” “When’s the briefing?” I’m drowning! I seem to be the only fluorescent bib on the field and they are closing in on me. And my marshals, nervous too, are phoning me in relays to tell me they are ready out on the course. I glance at my watch and scan my plan, pages going crinkly in my sweaty hand. I need to get out to the start area. The start is prepared and here comes the flood of bodies, warmed up, briefed and raring to go.

“Start slow,” was my mantra. And I did. Before long there was just me and a couple of old biddies wearing running club vests and they were having a good chat about their holidays. A high-vis marshal at the first big junction stopped the traffic for me “Well done love, keep going and you’ll get a personal best today!”

“Three, two, one, go” and the 10k runners surge past in a long stream and the 4k runners drift up to the line. Keen teenagers, a sea of blue race t-shirts, in the front row; unfit mums and dads, running for the cause, linger at the back.

The lady in front of me had flapping laces; she stopped to tie them and I overtook her. After about 8k I felt a bit wobbly and walked a few paces but that felt worse. The marshals all smiled and cheered me on. They knew I was one of the last and I needed encouraging. And they knew they had nearly finished their jobs and could go home soon.

I feel relief as the starts pass without incident or drama. But in less than 20 minutes the 4k runners will be finishing and I need to make sure it’s all set up. The funnel of red and white tape leads the runners past computer timing to medals, a bonanza of goody bags and a forest of bananas. Another flight of marshals is standing by ready for the tidal wave of finishers. Meanwhile, the younger children’s fun runs are rolling along on the running track. I can hear the PA system echoing around the field as the little athletes collect their prizes.

My final 500m felt good although I had to push my way past early finishers walking home. I felt tearfully euphoric as a finishing marshal urged me across the line before the clock ticked on another minute. Someone thrust a bottle of sports drink in my hand and I downed it in one.

It’s high tide on the school field again. My ocean of faces is smiling now. They are finding their friends and family, comparing their times and telling their stories. Waves of clapping are crashing all around me and I’m beginning to rise on the positive vibes. The marshals are drifting back, and I’m hugged and hand-shaken. They tell tales of grateful runners and a morning well spent. They bring back the luminous flotsam of signs and bibs, netted with red and white tape.

I’d done my first 10k. I hadn’t trained for it – I didn’t even know about training. My result was a triumph of determination over preparation. It hurt for 9.5k but I wanted to do another one. I also knew that the marshals had done more than show me the way – they had got me round.

My marshal’s pile of flotsam grows as the runners and helpers disappear – quickly like the tide ebbing over a flat sandy beach. Six months of risk assessments and planning meetings, e-mails and talks with the aristocratic landowner to set this up: and the races were all over in a splash. It’s just two years since I’d run my first race, and today I’d organised one – a 10k, a 4k and a fun run. I’d brought together a team of 75 to make it work – and 750 people had gone home having had a good time. I was running on top of the world.

Consortium takes over Join In

Posted on 05/10/2016 by volunteer

Join in, the Olympic legacy volunteering project is in new hands. I’m interested, and excited to see that the consortium led by the Sport and Recreation Alliance includes the Do-it Trust – the recently revamped volunteer matching site, Volunteering Matters, Jump and VolunteerKinetic – a web-based volunteer management system. Having worked with several of these organisations I am quite optimistic for the future of sport volunteering.

For more information see ivo article.

Two great toolkits to copy

Posted on 28/09/2016 by volunteer

Here are some really useful resources that will help anyone managing volunteers for a club, an organisation or an event. They have been produced by large, reputable bodies and are freely available. So take a look, and start editing and adapting what helps you.

Adult Volunteer Management Toolkit from the DofE

The Duke of Edinburgh Award is the phenomenally successful scheme that challenges young people to learn skills, volunteer and embark on an expedition. The charity, which is celebrating it’s diamond anniversary this year, has transformed the lives of 2 million young people since it started 60 years ago.

Graphic showing 2 million young people have achieved their DofE

2016 is Diamond Challenge year https://dofediamondchallenge.org/

This toolkit is for adult volunteers who support organisations that are delivering DofE awards – not to be confused with guidelines that are given to young people taking the award. The toolkit is mega! It has every template you could ever need, it’s downloadable and it’s just been updated. So if you are looking for good practice to copy – applications forms, interview questions, induction checklists plus guidelines to help you write your volunteer policy and handbook – it is all here. In fact it has 23 document templates that you might need for managing volunteers. It is a gem. Thank you DofE for doing such a great job.

Download the toolkit here: http://www.dofe.info/go/adultvolunteers/

Volunteer toolkit from England Athletics

Image of booklets that make up the toolkit

England Athletics Volunteer toolkit is aimed at clubs

This helpful resource separates into sections focusing on recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers in a club environment. It also has a useful list of volunteer role descriptions and some editable posters to advertise volunteer opportunities.

Download the toolkit here: http://www.englandathletics.org/volunteer/volunteer-toolkit

How do you manage a mix of volunteers?

Posted on 21/02/2016 by volunteer

So you’ve worked hard recruiting volunteers for your big sports event. You’ve got local people engaged, maybe some volunteers who have helped at other big events, and you’ve got the regular bunch of helpers who know your sport inside out. How do you throw all of these people at an event and make sure it works? How do you manage a mix of volunteers with different backgrounds and experiences? This is how we did it at the World Orienteering Championships held in Scotland in 2015.

We appointed Team Leaders to manage specific functions. Some of these Leaders were sport specialists and others had specific technical skills. Each of these “Functional Team Leaders” managed a strand of the event delivery. They knew their function in detail and they were supported by the Volunteer Management Team who took care of all generic volunteer administration and communications. Here is how the Volunteer Management Team confirmed the process and responsibilities with the Functional Team Leaders:

Proud

Posted on 16/02/2016 by volunteer

Last weekend, we celebrated my 100th run at Guildford parkrun. And somebody hummed this tune.

The build up to my 100 started with She’s the girl!!!!. And in the briefing, the Event Director informed 320 runners that they were all shivering in Stoke Park on a bitterly cold February day because of me. Because four years ago I helped set up Guildford parkrun. He joked that it had taken me four whole years to reach my century milestone – and hinted at my lack of commitment, and then revealed that it had taken so long because I had volunteered nearly 100 times too.

I’m pleased that I’ve earned a coveted black 100 T-shirt. Although plenty of runners have done it before me. In fact, at the time of writing, there are 13526 other runners in the parkrun “100 club“.

I’m far more proud of my volunteering T-shirt and the part I have played in Guildford parkrun. Nothing beats the feeling that we’ve started something that will carry on – every week – free – and organised by volunteers.

And I know the current Event Directors are proud of our event and our parkrun community. Even the Council are proud of our parkrun. It made the front cover of the Guildford Sport Development Strategy.

This weekend I found out just how many people are proud of our 5k run in the park.

For all the volunteers, the core team and especially the present Event Directors, this is for us. Hum a little tune.

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