Major project-volunteer

Get Involved!

Micro-volunteer Today !

Xue Yin 2014 MDes Service Design Innovation

Acknowledgements With many thanks to Dr. Alison Prendiville , Cordula Friedlander and Paul Sims for their exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement.

I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to Southwark Council, especially community engagement division.

Thanks Helen laker, Nele Glang, Embrose for their cordial suport, valuable information and guidance, which helped me in completing this task through various stages.

I am grateful to my classmates from 2014 MDes Service Design Innovationm and my friends in China for the valuable information provided by them in their repective fields.

Lastly, I thank almighty, my parents and friends for their constant encouragement without which this project would not be possible.

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Contents 4

Summary Introduction 1.1 Personal premise 1.2 Theoretical framework 1.3 Empirical review 1.4 Area of research.

1.5 Aim of research Research Methods 2.1 About service design 2.2 Double Diamonds Methodology

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12

Design Process 3.1Discover 3.1.1 Secondary research 3.1.2 Ethnography research 3.1.3 Co-discovery workshop

13 15 19 25

3.2 Define-Research finding and analysis 3.2.1 Insights from co-discovery workshop 3.2.2 Personas 3.2.3 User journey map 3.2.4 The opportunities of intervention: 3.2.5 Case study 3.2.6 Brief

28 29 31 33 35 36 38

3.3 Develop-Concept Development 3.3.1. First Ideation-Independent website and storyboard 3.3.2. Idea Testing-Paper Prototype 3.3.3 Second Ideation -Make a good use of existing digital method 3.3.4. Idea-Testing- Co-develop workshop 3.3.5. Outcomes from Co-develop workshop

39 39 43 46 49 55

3.4 Deliver 3.4.1 User Persona 3.4.2 Scenario-Service description 3.4.3 Service Blueprint 3.4.4 Stakeholders Map 3.4.5 Prototype and Feedback

57 57 59 63 65 66

4.0 Conclusion

68

5.0 Appendix 6.0 References

71 77

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Get Involved! Micro-volunteer Today!

Summary

Summary

The idea for the project stemmed from two reasons, firstly each year a substantial number of Chinese students come to the United Kingdom to pursue advanced education. During the academic year of 2011-2012 there were 78, 715 Chinese students studying in the United Kingdom (UKCISA 2014).

However, at the early stage, it is the challenge for new comers to host a new environment. In order for them to adapt to this new environment, it is helpful if they understand local culture and improve their language skills so that they can better integrate with the wider community. This is normally a priority for new comers.

Secondly, in terms of history of volunteering in the UK, it has a longer and more established history than China with greater importance being attached to volunteering. Combining my

Make it easy

personal experiences of volunteering in both China and the United Kingdom, I also believe that in becoming a volunteer the students’ horizons are broadened and there is potential for them to network and make local friends.

'Get involved! Micro-volunteer Today’ is a service design project that looks beneath the surface and tries to better understand target group needs around barriers to volunteering.

The goal of this project is to optimize microvolunteer service through user centered design method. By volunteering in their local community provides Chinese students with a smooth transition to a new environment.

Moreover, it is also significant to help them to gain and enhance an awareness of volunteering through using exiting social network communication Apps that users are used to.

Get them involved

To achieve this goal, I used ‘codesign’ with Chinese students, local authority (Southwark Council), local volunteer organization (Volunteer Centre Southwark) and facilitated two ‘codesign’ workshops to get the insights from users. The design process presents the conceptualization and development

Benefits to individuals and communities

process by the use of design methods such as Double Diamond Methodology to generate new ideas.

In short, this micro-service volunteering offer was received positively raising awareness of the benefits of volunteering within Southwark.

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Introduction

1.0 Introduction

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1.1 Personal Premise The initial project proposal was formed from my interest in volunteering in both China and the United Kingdom.

There is no doubt that volunteers play an increasingly significant role in communities. Compared to Britain, generally speaking, volunteering in China is still developing with the need to provide formal structures to support its development. This means that volunteering is not generally highly valued by society or companies. As a result, Chinese people, especially students, have much less awareness of volunteering and of opportunities to help communities as well.

According to research on volunteering in the UK, it has a longer and more established history than in China.

However, each year a substantial number of Chinese students come to the UK to pursue advanced education.

During the academic year of 20112012 there were 78, 715 Chinese students studying in the United Kingdom (UKCISA 2014).

Moreover, the number of full-time postgraduate students from China studying in England last year in 2013 was 28,390 - up nine per cent on the year before. Out of all students doing full-time taught masters degrees at an English university, 23 per cent were Chinese, compared to 26 per cent who were from the UK. In order for Chinese students to adapt to this new environment, it is helpful if they understand local culture and improve their language skills etc. This is often a priority for new comers. In addition, normally it will take new Chinese students half a year to get in new society, some even longer. Thus, it is the intention of this project to highlight that volunteering in the local UK community might help Chinese students to overcome their adjustment issues. I also believe that in becoming a volunteer the students’ horizons are broadened and there is potential for them to network and make local friends.

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Introduction

1.2 Theoretical Framework

This section begins with an introduction of the theoretical framework for this study, such astheories on uncertainty reduction and cross-cultural adaptation.

At the early stage, when Chinese students move to the United Kingdom for educational advancement, they encounter a completely new milieu.

Most of them are not sure of how to speak and behave appropriately.

Under this circumstance, Chinese students had to find ways to reduce their uncertainty in order to make a smooth transition to the new environment. According to Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) uncertainty reduction theory, when individuals experiences uncertainty, they are motivated to seek information in order to reduce the ambiguity or “increase predictability about the behavior of both themselves and others in the interaction” (Calabrese 1975, p100). In particular, communication can help people accomplish these

goals. Based on Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) work, Gudykunst (1988) proposed an anxiety/uncertainty management theory. He assumed that during intergroup or intercultural communication there are always in-group and out-group members (strangers). At the initial stage of interaction strangers will experience both anxiety (feeling insecure) and uncertainty (not knowing how to behave), they are hyperaware of differences. When the cultural gap becomes wider, the stranger will experience a higher level of anxiety and uncertainty. In particular, moderate levels of anxiety and uncertainty could motivate people to better adjust to the host environment, but excessive anxiety and uncertainty will lead to failure in adjustment or communication (Gudykunst, 2005). Gudykunst (2005) also identified some factors related to uncertainty/anxiety management, including self-concept, motivation to interact, reactions to hosts, social categorization of hosts, situational processes, connections with hosts, ethical interactions and conditions in a host culture (Gudykunst 2005, p419).

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1.3 Empirical review 1.3.1 Volunteer in Beijing

1.3.2 Volunteer in London

I have been volunteering since 2010, when I was a sophomore in the university based in Beijing. During the final three years in university, the voluntary activity includes working as a supporting teacher in poor communities, first aid volunteer, autism trainer volunteer, as well as Creation Expo volunteer and Marathon volunteer. From my perspective of volunteering, I believe volunteering is an inner window to give an opportunity to listen, to see, to tell a variety of inspiringly narrative stories.

Like the most of Chinese students who study overseas at the first time, curiosity and surprise is my first impression of London. Both the language barrier and the cultural shock were quite challenging to me.

However, I would like to obtain knowledge about the city, a new culture, as well as build relationships with locals. For my case, one of the reasons why I participated in community volunteering allowed me to improve my English language skills, as well as develop a relationship with locals, So far I have been volunteering as a community volunteer in Southwark area for more than half a year.

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Introduction

Over

8000

The 2011 Census shows Southwark’s Chinese population is relatively high– over 8000 people (8074) or nearly 3% of the population by ethnicity (ONS 2011).

1.4 Area of research.

I chose the London Borough of Southwark and Southwark Council for a number of reasons.

1.4.1 Why I chose Southwark Borough?

Southwark as a diverse London borough has residents from all over the world. The 2011 Census shows Southwark’s Chinese population is relatively high–over 8000 people (8074) or nearly 3% of the population by ethnicity (ONS 2011). Southwark Borough has the largest population of Chinese in Inner London. Eventually, in comparisons to other boroughs, Southwark is largely possibility to get Chinese people involved in voluntary.

1.4.2 Why I chose Southwark Council?

There is a lot of community volunteering activity in the Southwark area: annual firework festival, a thriving weekend market and a variety of events with hundreds of performers from professional, community and amateur backgrounds taking part. Different departments of Southwark Council, including the Community Engagement and Event Development division, support these activities.

I am not only one of volunteers in community engagement division of Southwark Council, but also live in Southwark area and have a good connection in this area, which facilitated a short study.

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1.5 Aim of Research The goal of this project is to optimize micro-volunteer services through a user-centered design method. Volunteering in their local community allows Chinese students to make a smooth transition to a new environment.

Moreover, it is also significant to help them to gain and enhance an awareness of volunteering through using existing social network communication Apps or websites that users are used to.

-Make it easy.

-Get them involved -Benefits to individuals and communities.

Make it easy

Get them involved

Benefits to individuals and communities

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Research Methods

2.0 Research Methods To improve the current service, it is significant to understand the needs and expectations of ‘users’ and ‘suppliers’. Therefore, to design a great service, Design Council suggested it is important to have service users in mind: are they staff, suppliers or customers? Using design tools and methods can deliver an in-depth understanding of user behaviors, their likes and their needs, which can enable new solutions to be developed.

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2.1 About service design Service design is all about making the services we use usable, easy and desirable. Services are all around us - buses, shops, libraries, dentists, restaurants and post office help us get to work, get our food, or keep in contact with each other. A service happens over time and is made up of touch-points-the people, information, products and spaces that we encounter.

Service design is the process of creating these touch-points and defining how they interact with each other and with the user.

Service design can be used to re-design an existing service to make it work better for users, or it can be used to create an entirely new service (Design Council 2013).

For instance a menu, a chair or a waitress are all touch-points that make up a restaurant service.

2.2 Double Diamonds Methodology The Design Council has developed the ‘Double Diamond’ model to illustrate this

Discover

Define

Develop

Deliver

Divided into four distinct phases: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver, it maps how the design process passes from points where thinking and possibilities are as broad as possible to situations where they are deliberately narrowed down and focused on distinct objectives (Design Council 2013).

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Design Process

3.0 Design Process 3.1Discover 3.2Define 3.3 Develop 3.4 Deliver

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Design Process-Discover

3.1Discover 3.1.1 Secondary Research Definitions of Volunteering.

The origin of the voluntary service lays in the early nineteenth century religious charitable services in Western countries. In order to coordinate the various charity organizations, the UK government and folk activities established in London the ‘Charity Organization Society’. And volunteer activities are gradually moving towards the institutionalized, organization.

However, there is often much confusion about what volunteering actually is. As a result, I chose three different organizations to highlight the basic elements that constitute volunteering.

Volunteering England As a part of the National Council for Voluntary Organizations (NCVO), Volunteering England (NCVO 2013), defines volunteering as any activity that involves － Spending time, － Unpaid, － Doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) even close relatives.

Central to this definition is the fact that volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual.

This can include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organizations, as well as informal community participation.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines volunteering as: (ILO, pp.10 – 10) ‘Unpaid, non-compulsory work; that is, time individuals give without pay to activities performed either through an organization or directly for others outside their own household’.

Within this, there is formal and informal volunteering. The former is done through groups, clubs or organizations and is typically easier to measure; the latter can be through any arrangement and so is often much harder to capture.

Southwark Council Based on Southwark Council’s 2013-2018 Volunteering Strategy, the council adopted the following definition of volunteering in the 2012 volunteering strategy, therefore endorsing the work of the London Stakeholders Volunteering Forum’s originally formulated definition. (Community) Volunteering is something that (Southwark Council 2013): -Is mutually beneficial (to individuals and organizations) -Is independently chosen and freely given -Is enabling and flexible wherever possible -Has a community or social benefit -Offered to not for profit activities.

For this project, the volunteer role focus on community volunteering, which supports local communities, rather than other volunteering type like volunteerism.

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The Value of Volunteering Based on the research from Southwark Council (Southwark Council 2013), we can see there is a huge amount of evidence showing both the value of volunteering and benefits that it brings to people. The power volunteering has is immense, as well as the immediate benefit that is brought to the community and groups whom the volunteers are supporting volunteers themselves also gain.

Every volunteer has different motivations, but generally people tend to volunteer for three main types of reason:

Personal benefits:

Career development:

Altruistic reasons:

This could include -Meeting new friends -Getting some structure in their life -Improving mental or physical health -Increasing confidence -Experiencing different communities -Improving English -Just having fun.

-Volunteering to gain new skills -To gain work experience -Students needing volunteering placements as part of their studies -Somebody wishing to expand upon their existing management or strategic experience, -Volunteer wishing to simply get some current experience and a reference.

This is where people volunteer to ‘give something back; this may be for a cause they believe in, a group that has helped them, or something that has directly affected them.

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Design Process-Discover

The Barriers to volunteering and to keeping volunteers.

In March 2013 Volunteer Centre Southwark, as one of partnership of Southwark Council, carried out a survey looking to identify the key barriers to volunteering and involving volunteers, and give a snapshot of volunteering in Southwark (Southwark Council 2013).

The survey was sent out through www.surveymonkey.com and promoted via the Volunteer Centre’s networks, Community Action Southwark and Peckham Voluntary Sector Forum, and was for any group in Southwark that involves or is looking to involve volunteers. This includes charities,

community groups, tenants and residents networks and statutory groups. 48 groups responded to the survey, representing a response rate of around 11 per cent.

Overall, the short term nature of some peoples’ volunteering evidently remains something which is difficult for groups to manage, with 44.7 per cent identifying having problems with the high turnover of unemployed volunteers leaving to find paid work and 40.4 per cent identifying the difficulty of student volunteers having limited time.

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25%

mismatch of expectations between volunteers and organizations

Another significant factor to emerge, however, was the mismatch of expectations between volunteers and organizations, with 25 per cent of groups reporting the fact that volunteering opportunities were ‘not what people had expected’ as a reason for volunteers leaving.

After identifying these barriers, significantly, 47 per cent of respondents also identified information/training on ‘developing volunteers’ skills’ as something that would be useful to them in involving volunteers and as such there seems to be scope for further development of volunteer training opportunities and support to groups in accessing these.

One of the biggest barriers was around lack of confidence.

It's exacerbated for individuals who've experienced exclusion in other areas of life, and when volunteering took place in unfamiliar environments.

Conversely, their evidence shows again and again that volunteering can improve confidence (not to mention health, employability and self-esteem).

40.4% identifying the difficulty of student volunteers having limited time.

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Design Process-Discover

3.1.2 Ethnography Research Observational Research of Target group

The purpose of this research is to observe: -What is the difference for newly arrived Chinese students studying and living in between China and the UK respectively?

-Identify their needs and difficulties in a new area.

-Exploring possibilities of engaging them in community volunteering.

Notes, photographs and videos are media used to record their behaviors.

Semi-structured Interview: This interview focuses on the following questions and, each interview is being conducted through different modes: social network communication App like Wechat, QQ, mobile message, face to face, which are chosen for the high density of Chinese students are used to.

-How long have you lived in London?

-What were your needs when you came here at the early stage?

-What is the difference of studying and living in China and the UK?

What I found from interviewees is their needs to focus on necessaries like basic necessities and practical information for example looking for housing etc.

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In conclusion, there are many problems that overseas students have to face. They have to solve their own physical and emotional problems. The major problems of language barrier, cultural differences and different studying styles between China and the UK are not easy to go through (Xie 2013).

“

“

“

“

Personally, I find the greatest difficulties are the language barrier, cultural differences and different learning styles between the UK and home. ” -Yujia

I do not want to limit my social circle, but my friends are mainly other Chinese students in my department because they are the only people I see often. ” -Wang

I once asked questions in class a few times, but I had to prepare very well before asking questions. Actually, our English is not that bad, but we feel it is bad.”

-Zhou

The eating style surprised me in the first couple of months when I lived in the UK because in China people always have hot food like noodles or rice for lunch and have a long lunch time, but it is totally different in the UK. The lunch break is short and the time is only enough for having a sandwich.”

-Pengran

“

“ “

“

When they were talking about what kind of coffee is good, or whose girlfriend is pretty, I didn’t know what to say."

-Wu

When I was with British people, it seemed that we knew each other well, but I really didn’t know much about them. They were polite, but I didn’t know what they were really thinking. " -Zhou

I feel intimidated on some occasions, and I cannot behave as comfortably as I did in China. I can ask Chinese people questions without hesitation, but I always feel hesitant to ask the British questions or say hello to them.”

-Li

The language barrier is a main problem for me to study abroad and in fact I had never been to a foreign country before.

Therefore, before I came to the UK, I worried that I might not understand other people, or I would express myself in a way that would put me in an embarrassing situation or I might say something rude to others. ” -Fangyu

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Design Process-Discover

ds? s) e e n eir ssitie Nece re th

ut) ta ing, Wha ation (Rent and hang o

ns estio u g m r q n i o t r f ) t hei -In hat ds (C nagemen answer t omething n e i r s o a -F re-m people t w to buy e m i o d -T e and h rienc -Expe me where ent m l to tel n environ ig -Fore ‌‌

TARGET GROUP

one

some (need

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User Shadowing & User Journey map

In order to understand the whole process of volunteering service, including understanding the different parts of a service and gathering information about real user needs.

I used the 'user Shadowing' to gain insights from one of volunteering services in Southwark Council.

And Map a user’s progress through the service, beginning with when they first become aware of the service through to when they leave.

Touchpoints

Aware

Join

Use

Leave

Poster Local Library (Canada Water Library) Sign in/ Apply for

Southwark website homepage Reply

Thanks note/ Forthcoming Events

Email from Southwark Council

Volunteering

Volunteering activities

Party

Meeting

Feedback

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Design Process-Discover

Interview of Volunteering Organizations

In order to gather additional insights about volunteering, I interviewed two people who are working at the Volunteer Centre Southwark and Southwark Council, respectively.

-Volunteer Centre Southwark, as one of the largest centres in the country carrying out innovative work to support volunteering and active citizenship in Southwark (VCS n.d.)

Are there any special requirements for Chinese students to be engaged in volunteering?

Are there any services to help them in volunteering, for example, by matching their interests?

Possible barriers: In positions where volunteers work with vulnerable individuals (children, teenagers, physically and disabled people) a CRB check is required, but will be paid by the organization (CRB= Criminal Record Bureau) (Sladen 2014).

-Southwark Council Why volunteering?

“

For my case, I think the reason lots of people would like to be volunteer here is different in different area, Sometimes it's because people aren't working, are lonely, or bored or see it as a way into work. When I worked in a wealthier area it was newly retired it also depends on the type of volunteering.

Experienced professionals often volunteer in roles which mean they give their expertise to a charity — like a lawyer may be a trustee people who wanted to keep doing something to keep their brain active, meet people etc.” (Cundy 2014) Helen Cundy Events Development Officer

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Are there any special requirements for Chinese students to be engaged in volunteering?

Are there any services to help them in volunteering, for example, by matching their interests?

Chinese students are more than welcome to drop in at the center Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10am-4pm -Information can be found on internet, but that huge amount of information may be overwhelming; -VCS offers one to one conversations to find the right volunteering job for each person -Volunteers need to be aware of what they want, what they would like to volunteer in and what their ambitions are.

-Basic English language skills are required.

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Design Process-Discover

3.1.3 Co-discovery Workshop The purpose of this workshop was to gain a detailed understanding of Chinese students’ academic, social and cultural experiences in the United Kingdom and also improve the community engagement of Chinese students in volunteering in their local community.

Hence, I mainly relied on in-depth discussion in workshop to collect data. This method is “well suited to understand the social actor’s experience and perspectives” (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002, p. 173). It gives participants an opportunity to thoroughly explain their behavior and express their viewpoints. In addition, I used gamification observation, which helped me to collect information that may not be obtained through interviews.

We designed a final questionnaire containing eight basic questions, which are going to be a guidance for this workshop. Based on these questions, we also grouped three different aspects:

-Understanding Chinese student’s life in Southwark area.

-Understanding Provided services from their community.

-Developing approachable relation between each other by volunteering.

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Name: Co-discovery Workshop Time: August 26th 2014 Place: Southwark Council Attendees: 6 Chinese Students Topics: Two topics including barriers of being community volunteers and benefits they expect to gain from volunteering.

Design Tools -Questionnaire -Game Cards -Brainstorming

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Design Process-Define

3.2 Define-Research Finding and Analysis

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Design Process-Define

3.2.1 Insights from co-discovery workshop The seven key insights were summarized from Co-discovery workshop.

What are the barriers for them to become community volunteers?

1.The language barrier is the first challenge for Chinese overseas students. That is, the consideration of the fact that they are non native speakers of English.

This has two aspects to it. Firstly, there is a minimum language requirement for entry for all overseas students.

What’s more, when they arrived in London, no matter how high score of IELTS Examination they got, most of them need time to adapt to new language atmosphere more or less and overcome linguistic barriers. And secondly, even if students have more than met this entry requirement they may not be familiar with technical terminology for a specialist subject area.

2.Channel of Information.

In terms of volunteering information, there are increasing website about volunteering like Volunteer Centre Southwark, Do it, CSV and so on.

However, living in the informative age, huge amount of information may be overwhelming, in other words, it is not easy for Chinese students, especially those who have no prior experiences in volunteering, to choose to get the appropriate information.

Thus, it is a grey area for them to gain awarenesses of volunteering. They do not know how, where to get the information and what information they should get.

3.Lack Communications and Confidence.

As one of citizen in the community, there is always lack of communication between residents and local community. However, knowing their local community may represent a good starting point for Chinese students to begin their transition in a new environment.

Although their college staff will assist them to know the new area with seminars and brochures, it is better for Chinese students to put themselves into local activities to know their community and help themselves as well. Sometimes, when they get in trouble, they even do not know what right action they should take.

4.Distinct needs.

Normally, Master programmes in the UK are 12 months long. The main purpose for Chinese students to move to London is to pursue an advanced education within this short term. As a result, the needs for the students to priorities and to focus are very distinct. Compared with other volunteering activities, Chinese students prefer to select an activity which is related to their major or interests.

5.Career motivation.

All of them are eager to gain skills connected to their career, especially Master students.

Eventually, on the one hand, it is possible for them to get overseas working experiences.

On the other hand, it is most likely to get them involved in volunteering.

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Insights

1.Language barrier

2.Channel of Information.

7. Intensive Timetable

3.Lack Communications and Confidence

6.Cultural Identity.

5.Career motivation.

6 Cultural Identity.

This identity was something people simply ‘had’ as an undisturbed existential possession, an inheritance, a benefit of traditional long dwelling, of continuity with the past. Identity, then, like language, was not just a description of cultural belonging; it was a sort of collective treasure of local communities (Tomlinson 2003).

For Chinese overseas students, their own cultural identity is strong, and is something they would like to share with the new community they live in. A number

4.Distinct needs

of them are fond of culture values. And they would like to organize their own country festival either.

7.Intensive Timetable.

As international students, most of them make concentrates on their studying and spend their valuable holiday in traveling. It is hard for them to make a regular commitment to volunteer, but we found from random research they get little time, like half a day, a couple of hours per week.

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Design Process-Define

3.2.2 Personas In order to make the problem cover different social groups, it is better not to concentrate on one type of personality and instead create multiple Personas. Thus I created three different personas.

-New comers (less than 6 months);

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-Live in London for almost 1 year;

-Live in London for over 2 years;

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Design Process-Define

3.2.3 User Journey Map

According to different personas, I gathered their hand-drawing user journey maps by face-to-face interview.

New comers (less than 6 months)

Live in London for almost 1 year;

Live in London for over 2 years;

Flexible China Town Oxford Street British Museum ‌‌

Routine time Art museums College library local library China Town Chinese Supermarket

Pub College library Gym

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What I found:

It is most likely to engage newly Chinese students in community volunteering, as they have flexible time and are willing to experience all kinds of activities. In this way they bring into full play the initiative.

Comparing paper marketing tools like leaflets and posters with digital tools, Chinese students prefer to use the one which they are used to using.

Many Chinese students use the social networkmessaging App called Wechat everyday, and the main way for them to obtain latest information including forthcoming events, exhibitions is from the website named Red Scarf, which is the most popular and trusted UK lifestyle website in Chinese targets at young mainland Chinese people who live in the UK (Red Scarf 2010).

Moreover, Red Scarf updates their information packaging every week by Wechat.

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Design Process-Define

3.2.4 The opportunities of intervention:

Soon, I found the three opportunities of intervention for newly arrived Chinese students –Micro-volunteering (Micro-time) minimum amount of time to volunteer at least 2 hours –Career Motivation –Rewards

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3.2.5 Case Study Micro-volunteering: a new way to engage people with a little time to spare

From the Guardian 2012, Microvolunteering – participating in small increments of time – is not necessarily new itself and it can arguably exist on a face-to-face basis. Advancements in technology, however, have led to a recent interest in using computers and smartphones to develop more convenient and mobile forms of micro-volunteering (Paylor 2012).

In its 2011 Giving white paper (Department for Culture, Media & Sport 2012). the government

expressed a keen interest in micro-volunteering and the role of technology and innovation in raising levels of giving time and money. Such sentiments are echoed by practitioners who view micro-volunteering and internetconnected devices as a potential way to engage those who are less likely to volunteer in a more traditional manner.

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Design Process-Define

Career Motivation-Case study This example is thought of by one of volunteering organizations named Manchester Cathedral, its key output from the volunteering service is workplace opportunities.

It suggests that the ideal way to engage increasing young people in volunteering is combining their skills and training together so that it is benefit to individuals and society.

Organization: Manchester &Cathedral Big Idea: Cathedrals as iconic places to stimulate social change -Employment as a primary outcome -Integrity-volunteering very distinct from conditionality and mandated activity -Personal-no goodbyes (Manchester Cathedral, 2014)

(Manchester Cathedral, 2014)

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3.2.6 Brief Combines of micro-volunteer, career motivation as well as rewards incentives.

That is, -To spend your minimum amount of time to do public good,; -To feel good when you do a favor for your local community; -Recognition of your contribution; -Optimized the “thanks you� scheme.

M-Minimum amount of time I-Inner satisfaction C-Career Motivation R-Rewards O-Optimization

Micro-volunteer

Career Motivation

Rewards Incentives

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Design Process-Develop

3.3 Develop-Concept Development 3.3.1 First Ideation -Independent website and storyboard

Independent website The first idea was to develop an independent website which supports users by recording record their volunteer stories and volunteering time, as well as to evaluate volunteering quality by commenting from managers.

There were seven main pages in the website, and divided into four parts: -Welcome page -Ex-volunteers stories -Users Profiles -Shared platform

Website Paper prototype

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How does it work?

Users have access to the welcome page to make sense what micro volunteer scheme is. And they will gain awareness of benefits of volunteering from the collected stories. When they decided to sign in, the basic information which is similar to other volunteering websites need to be completed.

Having filled in the interests form before, the appropriate volunteering opportunities will come to users by email. After volunteering, uploading a photo to their profiles and finishing the volunteer project form including the place and time. Then they are able to send it to their managers by email. And managers might give comments and recommendations in users’ profile page.

Finally volunteering project and hours will be recorded in the profile. In shared platform, they can send and share the results to their network and encourage others to engage in volunteering.

As basic information from users was recorded in the profile, in terms of special festival like birthday, they would receive the video gifts which collected upload photos.

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Design Process-Develop

Storyboard

When it comes to pre-service, the volunteering storyboard was the window to tell people benefits from micro-volunteering.

Thus I had two similar ideas about off-line volunteering service but different types.

with QR code 1. Storyboard (QR code links to the website)

Leaflet package 2. Postcard (Sharing your volunteer experiences with your friends)

Storyboard Paper prototype

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2.

Postcard leaflet package is another way to engage new Chinese students in volunteering and help them to get smooth transition to the new environment.

There are a postcard, a borough map and some vouchers from Chinese shops in the postcard leaflet package. For example, when a Chinese student moves to Southwark area, he can swop a postcard and get new one from different Chinese restaurants or shops in the borough of Southwark.

The postcard is an off-line sharing platform to do public good by delivering volunteering experiences so that people will get awareness from it. However, other stakeholders like shopkeepers are able to get benefit like attracting more people from this scheme.

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Design Process-Develop

3.3.2 Idea Testing-Paper prototype

In order to test my idea about this website, I made the paper prototype to get some feedbacks from my target group and stakeholders.

In conclusion, although I got positive feedbacks about the contents of volunteering stories and users like the idea of volunteering recording, it is hard to get them involved in this service.

In another words, how do they get awareness of volunteering? How do they know this website?

As I mentioned before, this pre-service will start from the storyboard or postcard leaflet package. However, they asked me whether it could be somewhere they know them well, for example Apps or existing websites.

Moreover, Helen, one of volunteer managers, said, "comparing writing with clicking, I prefer to click a button or icon."

And Yujia, one of users said," I do not wanna register it (new website) again, I worried about safety of my private information and do not wanna get lots of junk emails."

Lilian said, "when I search volunteering information online, that huge amount of information is really overwhelming, what if something can help me to choose or make it as simple as possible to give me limitate choices."

Joy hopes the process of application could be simple and easy.

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3.3.3 Second Ideation-Make a good use of existing digital method What if using the App or network we know them well and users are really familiar with it?

Social Network Communication App- WeChat It is not uncommon to see that Chinese people use the social network-messaging App called Wechat everywhere, especially Chinese students-my target group.

And people use it to make friends, share their life including interesting website links, photos even videos. Moreover, they are also interested in some new functions from Wechat, like shaking. In other words, people are able to look for new friends by shaking their phones.

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Design Process-Develop

What is WeChat?

WeChat (weixin in Chinese) began as an instant messenger for mobile devices and has developed into a multi-function mobile communications and social networking platform.

Have a close look at all of its different features.

Here’s a quick review: Users have a profile with a picture,

The lease date of Wechat: January 2011

-Can post 'moments' to their timeline through a feature similar to that offered by Instagram,

How many people use Wechat: 438 million active users (last updated 08/13/14)

-Can connect with their friends through short voice messages (walkie talkie style), video chat (Skype style), or IMs (WhatsApp style).

Wechat Friends' share of total Chinese social sharing in 2013: 25.6%

-They can search for new friends through various mechanisms, from the random 'shake,' which connects you with other users shaking their phone to make new friends, to the integration of your phone contacts with the WeChat platform (O’Brien, 2013).

WeChat Moment's share of total Chinese social sharing in 2013: 23.4% Number of WeChat messages that were processed in a single minute on Lunar New Year's Eve: 10 million messages (C. Smith, 2014).

(How many people use Wechat)

438 Last updated 08/13/14

active Users

million

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(Google 2013)

The World's Largest Professional Network- LinkedIn LinkedIn as the world's largest professional network, is also popular in Chinese community.

As Jeff who is the CEO at LinkedIn said, with more than four million members, China has quickly become one of the fastest growing countries for LinkedIn (Weiner, 2014).

Why using Linkedin Here’s some compelling research from LinkedIn (Linkedin, 2013): 41% of LinkedIn members surveyed consider volunteer work equally as valuable as paid work experience when evaluating candidates.

1 of 5 hiring managers in the U.S. agree they have hired a candidate because of their volunteer work experience, based on a survey of LinkedIn members.

Volunteering can increase a person’s social connections and professional contacts (social capital) and skills and experiences (human capital), both of which are extremely important in our careers.

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Design Process-Develop

3.3.4. Idea-Testing Co-develop workshop

Name: Co-develop Workshop Time: Oct 28th 2014 Place: Southwark Council Attendees: 9 Chinese people including 7 postgraduate students and 2 residents

Contents:

1. Value mapping (Identifying core values at the individual and organizational level that can bring a much wanted change in the way the whole system operates.)

2. Developing and testing second idea based on insights from Co-discovery workshop.

3.Exploring how my target group would like the service to work or which part I need to make a progress.

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Tool Used: 1.Creative Workshop plan 2.Value mapping 3. Experience Map

(Working together to generate possible solutions at a workshop)

This workshop lasted one hour and a half , it separated into two sessions -Value Mapping, -Collecting feedbacks of Micro Volunteer Service from attendees.

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Design Process-Develop

Value Mapping In this section, we got them involved and separated into two groups for discussion of what different levels of importance as a community volunteer according to three following questions:

What did you like to receive in turn?

What was your purpose of becoming a volunteer?

How did you know about the volunteer?

1.Always Important (AI)

2.Sometimes Important (SI)

3.Rarely Important (RI)

4.Never Important (NI)

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A Snapshot of the value mapping tool filled out with Helen (Event officer in Southwark Council)

(There are two sections in this value mapping form, organization and individual one, the organization part was done.)

A Snapshot of the value mapping tool filled out with one of groups

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Design Process-Develop

Test volunteering service scheme.

Key Point: -Micro-time; -Career Motivation; -Rewards;

The New Volunteering service combined the above three key words, and presented by paper slides. What’s more, it covered pre-service, post service.

Paper prototype by paper slides

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Design Process-Develop

3.3.5. Outcomes from Co-develop workshop

What was 1.Value your purpose of becoming a volunteer?

Mapping

From Chinese people ‘s perspective, to be community volunteers:

Always Important

Sometimes Important

Rarely Important

-Career development; -Know more about the community -Expend social network -Happiness

-Show off -Make a new friend

Never Important Money

Results using the tool In conclusion, benefits of volunteering play a significant role in the whole volunteer service. We identified core values at the individual level that, such as do public good, self-improvement, simplified process of application are always important. But in reality, they all overlap both the individual and organization level. After the exercise the outputs were shared with the volunteering division in Southwark Council (who I work very closely with) and we are initiating a buy in from their side.

-Training session; -Do well for community; -Gain new knowledge and skills; -Communications (Language); -Process of application; -Self-reection -Meaningful & Recognition from society

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2. Test volunteering service scheme.

Pre-service: Group advertising How do they know volunteering information?

Lots of them raise an awareness of volunteering by words of mouth from their friends, rather than websites. They are cautious of risks including safety and privacy, thus, when they start to volunteer events, they prefer to volunteer with their friends together.

Post-service: Thanks giving Generally, the majority of volunteering organizations thank volunteers by the way of general emails, that is, group to group. However, in this part, I try to find the way to make volunteers feel good even after volunteering.

For example, if someone is really good at specially skills.

It is possible for volunteering organizations to endorse his skills by clicking from LinkedIn or give commends as well. In the long term, his network in LinkedIn also gains awareness of volunteering.

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Design Process-Deliver

3.4 Deliver (outcome) 3.4.1 Personas

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Design Process-Deliver

3.4.2. Scenario-Service description

What if using function of Wechat to find volunteering opportunities nearby?

People shake their phones to find volunteer activities around them, and if they are interested in the event, they can get details covering organization profile, activity introduction, requirement and so on by clicking from Wechat to their Linked in website.

When customers decided to apply, the same operation as click. And the data of users would connect to the data of this event and organization either.

During volunteering, users feel free to use any sharing Apps like Instagram to share photos, videos to their network, which new users would raise an awareness of volunteering and it would also attract more users to join.

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Service Concept of Micro-Volunteer Service Scheme.

After volunteering, customers need to upload one of the photos to your personal volunteering event page on LinkedIn, which would be regarded as one of sharing evidences to confirm volunteering quality. And finish a short form to record where, what and when you volunteered, use micro-sentence to describe your feeling, like help other people helps me.

When users finished, they can send it to their managers by click the button on linked in. And your manager will come back to see your profile and also give your skill endorsement or comment as another method to express thank you. Moreover, you are also able to give skill endorsement to this event or manager.

As notification of linkedIn, the information of volunteering hours and your skills endorsement will spread out to your network in LinkedIn. In this stage, new users would raise their awareness of volunteering.

Last but not least, users are also able to share the link to 'moment' via WeChat.

In sum, the whole eco-system service journey is from Wechat to WeChat.

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Design Process-Deliver

People shake their phones to find volunteer activities around them, and if they are interested in the event, they can get details covering organization profile, activity introduction, requirement and so on by clicking from Wechat to their Linked in website.

When customers decided to apply, the same operation as click. And the data of users would connect to the data of this event and organization either.

61/62 In sum, the whole eco-system service journey is from Wechat to WeChat.

As notification of linkedIn, the information of volunteering hours and your skills endorsement will spread out to your network in LinkedIn. In this stage, new users would raise their awareness of volunteering.

Last but not least, users are also able to share the link to 'moment' via WeChat.

When users finished, they can send it to their managers by click the button on linked in. And your manager will come back to see your profile and also give your skill endorsement or comment as another method to express thank you. Moreover, you are also able to give skill endorsement to this event or manager.

After volunteering, customers need to upload one of the photos to your personal volunteering event page on LinkedIn, which would be regarded as one of sharing evidences to confirm volunteering quality. And finish a short form to record where, what and when you volunteered, use micro-sentence to describe your feeling, like help other people helps me.

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Design Process-Deliver

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3.4.3 Service Blueprint

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Design Process-Deliver

3.4.4 Stakeholders Map

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3.4.5. Prototype and Feedback

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Design Process-Deliver

"The endorsement system is easy to use, I have found it is a useful tool for updating volunteer's CVs." -Helen (volunteer manager)

"I like the shaking way to find volunteering opportunities nearby Trendy , interesting and easy!"

-Pei (Chinese student)

Prototype

Prototype

Presentation in 2014 UX Camp Brighton (Got positive feedback from audience)

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4.0 Conclusion

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Conclusion

Through the research process I explored developed test a new micro-volunteer service.

The service provides users with a pleasant volunteering experience and it is important to make it easy and tangible to start. On the other hand, when Chinese students start to gain awarenesses of volunteering from working prototype they may react to the real story from their friends by Wechat they are familiar with rather than the abstract concept.

The new service is not only a new business module to reach more potential Chinese volunteers, but also sustain and attract more volunteer organization to cooperate with Microvolunteer service scheme within existing digital resources.

Connecting to the local authority volunteering part is the great way to reach more potential Chinese volunteers even other local volunteer champion in the community. I would like to say volunteering is sharing rather than one-line donating. This project is building up the great network with four directions:

-Chinese to Chinese (students); -Chinese to locals, -Chinese to volunteering organizations -Chinese to local Communities.

However, in terms of launching this service, we use the GPS to detect the location of both users and volunteering activities. Although the shaking function has already accomplished in Wechat which are largely used in Chinese Community to look for friends nearby, the data of volunteering activities need to be put into GPS as well.

Ultimately, the new service is accompanied by a powerful social impact, such as enhancing awareness of volunteering, developing a deep friendship with their locals, braking down barriers of trust and enabling better understanding of local culture. In the long term, these social impacts display corporate responsibility but also build up a sustainable and innovative volunteering world.

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5.0 Appendix:

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Appendix A

Comparing the results to the 2011 survey Comparison of the 2011 and 2013 surveys shows that very little has changed, with most results being consistent across both. However there was a noticeable change in the emphasis placed on the importance of ‘training on issues around volunteer management’, which rose from 31 per cent in 2011 to 44 per cent in 2013, and ‘ad hoc advice’ which similarly rose from 21 per cent to 31 per cent.

Addressing the need; key areas for further development Volunteer Centre Southwark currently delivers a range of advice and support around volunteer management including ‘health checks’, training, action learning sets and the volunteer management forum, a chance for volunteer managers to develop their skills, network and learn from each others. The results show a clear need for these services to be sustained and further developed to meet local need in Southwark. Additional learning to be taken from the survey includes: 1. Support with recruiting volunteers / increased promotion of volunteering Aside from funding (and the related issue of insufficient space/inadequate premises), one of the key responses to the question of what prevents organisations from involving more volunteers was the problem of not having the right people come forward. This coupled with 25 per cent of groups which identified volunteering opportunities ‘not meeting volunteers’ expectations’ as being instrumental in them leaving, and the 63 per cent of groups that expressed an interest in opportunities for joint outreach/ recruitment events, suggests that there is significant scope for the centre enhancing support for groups with the initial stages of volunteer recruitment. This could be through development of volunteering roles, targeted recruitment/outreach/ interviewing and selection processes, as well as development of promotional events and case studies.

2. Support with managing time limited/shorter term volunteers Another key trend emerging from the survey was the difficulty experienced by groups in managing volunteers only wanting or able to commit to shorter term volunteering. 44.7 per cent of survey respondents identified ‘unemployed people leaving to take up paid work’ as a problem they faced in keeping volunteers, while a similar percentage, when asked what type of volunteers they found hardest to involve identified ‘people wanting one off opportunities’.

While people leaving to take up paid work is, of course something to celebrate, there is, nevertheless, a clear need for providing increased support to groups in the development of strategies for better managing the high turnover of volunteers and thinking more creatively around how volunteers are engaged on a shorter term basis. This might be done through greater support for groups, as indicated above, in role development and recruitment skills, but also potentially, through the development of a bank of volunteers/one off volunteering opportunities rendering both volunteers and groups more accessible to each other.

3. Continued provision/development of training, opportunities to network/collaborate When asked ‘what would help your group to get more out of volunteering’, 48.9 per cent of groups identified ‘training on issues around volunteer management’. 35 per cent of groups said ‘the chance to meet and learn from others who manage volunteers’. Moreover, 63 per cent of respondents identified the opportunity to collaborate with other groups on outreach and volunteer recruitment events as something they would enhance their volunteer programme.

Appendix B

Principles of volunteering Greater London Volunteering has developed the Volunteer Management Charter which helps define what good practice in volunteer management is. The charter has been endorsed by the London Stakeholders Volunteering Forum, the Association of Volunteer Managers and The Mayor of London. Volunteer Centre Southwark has been promoting the charter locally, which this strategy looks to endorse. The main points in the charter are explained in the box below: Equality and Diversity: Volunteering is open to all; volunteers are treated with fairness.

Expenses: Travel, and any other agreed out of pocket expenses, are reimbursed.

Induction: Volunteers are introduced to the work and ethos of the organisation.

Organisational Involvement: Volunteers have influence and an informed voice on organisational issues.

Personal Development: Identified needs are met by relevant training and development opportunities.

Recruitment process: Recruitment procedures are fair, efficient and consistent.

Resolving difficulties: Volunteers are aware of how to raise a concern, and how it will be handled.

Reward and Recognition: The organisation expresses its appreciation of the volunteers’ contribution.

Safe Volunteering Environment: The physical and emotional risks of volunteering are identified, minimised, and covered by adequate insurance.

Support: A named supervisor ensures ongoing support appropriate to need. email, agenda, tools.etc.

Definitions of volunteering There is often much confusion between what is volunteering, what is an apprenticeship, being an intern, an active citizen, or being in an unpaid role, and so we have provided some clarity below.

Apprenticeships are paid jobs provided to people new to a profession, and so wages are at entry level and training is an integral part of an apprenticeship. The expectation is that the apprentice will learn the skills they need to become a fully established member of the profession in question. An example of a successful apprenticeship scheme is Southwark Council’s, which to date has provided 154 apprenticeships to Southwark residents. The council describe their apprenticeship scheme as the “development of talents for the future”.

Internships are unpaid work experience placements, and most often associated with graduates needing to gain an entry into their profession. As they mainly take place within profit making companies, they would not be viewed as volunteering. Almost all organisations, however, cover reasonable travel and lunch expenses.

Interns are sometime paid wages, in which case they become a sub set of the concept of an apprenticeship.

Active citizenship is a broad concept that embraces formal and informal volunteering. The Active Citizens Hub at Volunteer Centre Southwark defined six different types of active citizen, all of which could be viewed as volunteers. These include: • View Giver: such as someone turning up to a community council to give views about local health • Good Neighbour: such as helping neighbours fill in a form • Community Group member: such as being a member of a friends of a park • Community Activist: such as those people who set up a campaigning group in response to a specific issue • Governor: people who get involved in governance or become trustees • Formal Volunteering: such as being a befriender with Age Concern The Active Citizens Hub was established at Volunteer Centre Southwark in order to support the thousands of people who each year want to get actively involved in community life, and it has specialised in supporting citizens who want to change things for the better through engagement with public services. The Active Citizens Hub has proved to be a great success, and continues to provide

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Appendix C

Appendix D

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Appendix E

In order to engage more people to come the co-develop workshop, I made a blog which links to the Eventbrite. https://codevelopcommunity.wordpress.com/ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/co-develop-community-workshop-tickets-13764424765

6.0 Reference

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