Keeping Volunteers Safe: Restarting your Volunteer Programme

3.3. Activity 1 Feedback

One of the issues for volunteer practitioners is that while we all share the experience of supporting volunteers, the way they are supported varies between and within contexts. For example, many charities operate shops often staffed by volunteers who will fall under retail guidance. The BBC reports on the concerns within the sector about what happens as shops re-open; of course in some places retail charity has been open for some time. This article in the Guardian follows the experience of one shop in London, from sorting through the piles of donated clothes from people at home having a clear-out to thinking through how customers might move around cramped spaces.

However, other parts of the operations may fall under different categories like personal care. It is crucial to look carefully at the different roles volunteers perform in the group or organisation to ensure you can develop appropriate structures or processes to support volunteer activity to return.