Latest post of the previous page:
Well, Nick, I obviously don't know what the situation is in your neck of the woods but here in Glorious Gloster there have been a lot of organisation screaming for volunteers for a long time. And this includes the big, well funded, ones like Oxfam, BHF etc. etc.It is to make it easier to volunteer, to increase the wellbeing of society by enhancing the small things in life, which are very often not funded now.
Maybe we are still suffering from Thatcherism, "There is no such things as society"; look after your own, and beggar (changed from something else!) your neighbour, or whatever. Even if that is not what Maggie meant an awful lot of people seem to have interpreted it that way. Why should people suddenly want to spend hours every week supporting total starngers when their own families are suffering financially?
Most of the volunteers I know are retired people, needing to use their spare time (if they cannot afford to go off on cruises, skiing holidays etc.) and, especially if they have no great family ties (like me) gaining a sense of being of use - like I was at work. Others range from those with educational difficulties to chronically out of work. At the moment I know of none who are "filling in" between jobs or volunteering in addition to working. Except a few on the village magazine committee maybe, but I am no longer active on that.
From which sector of the population are all these new people coming from?