VOLUNTEER HUB Kaya Gromocki Volunteering and Engagement Officer
Since Covid-19 hit, the way that many of us work, study, travel and socialise has changed enormously. All of this upheaval means that volunteering at The Vegan Society has had a makeover too. It looks like many of the adjustments we have made over the course of the pandemic are here to stay, and that’s why in this issue I wanted to shine a light on what the volunteer programme looks like in our current climate.
What has it been like to keep the volunteer programme running over the course of the pandemic? At first the outlook seemed a little bleak. How can volunteering continue when we’re all stuck at home in a lockdown? It turns out that the first step to solving our problem was the same one that millions of other people around the world were taking – making a Zoom account! Volunteer interviews, inductions and catch-ups could all be done online. Like staff, most volunteers could carry out their roles from home. We also adjusted some of our roles to make them more flexible, which helped a wider range of people to participate.
What is it like now?
Community Network Organiser Saoirse at the National Animal Rights March 32 | The Vegan Issue 4 2021
Because they are supporting staff members with their work in areas such as research, proofreading, fundraising, PR and web development, many of our volunteers come from professional or academic backgrounds. When they are not directly supporting The Vegan Society, our expert volunteers are editors, professors, students, attorneys, teachers, software testers, translators and business owners, to name a few. Many aspects of global and remote volunteering which might be seen as a hurdle have actually been beneficial to the programme. For example, many volunteers now work on an ad-hoc basis. This means that they are always available to have a task pitched to them but there is no expectation for them to accept it. Currently we have 33 volunteers working alongside staff, and 260 volunteers in our Community Network, and this number is continuing to grow.
