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 Black
and Minority Ethnic Communities
Disabled
people
Offenders/Ex-offenders
Black and Minority Ethnic communities
- A study of volunteering in Luton by Foster and Mirza
in 1997 found that 96% of volunteers in mainstream organisations
were white.
- A study by the National Coalition of Black Volunteering
in 2000 found that 41% of charities have no black volunteers,
and 43% of charities have no black trustees.
- However, more recently
the Home Office Citizenship Survey in 2001 found that 39% of
white people took part in formal volunteering, compared to
42% of Black people and 35% of Asian people.
Disabled people
- A study by RSVP in 2000 found that out of 265 volunteer-involving
organisations included in the study, less than two-thirds of
those organisations involved volunteers with disabilities and
very few involved disabled people as trustees. The same survey
found that only 14% of the organisations targeted disabled people.
- In a report written in 1999 for Leonard Cheshire, Knight and
Brent note that for some disabled people the barriers that
exist to taking part in the labour market also exist to those
wishing to take part in volunteering.
Offenders and ex-offenders
- There is scant evidence on the number of volunteers who
have a record of offence, but some organisations place limits
on the involvement of ex-offenders as volunteers.
- A report by the Prison Reform Trust in 2002 on volunteering
and active citizenship among prisoners, found that 7% of prisoners
participated in some form of activity that involved them helping
other prisoners.
- A report by Edinburgh Volunteer Exchange in 2000 highlighted
the benefits of volunteering to ex-offenders through increasing
their job prospects and building up work skills and confidence,
and by providing a reference.
There was, however, little information about why certain people
were volunteering less and about what benefits they might derive
if they did get involved.
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