Column: Sheep with five legs

The city thrives and bustles thanks to the efforts of volunteers who are active in resident initiatives, volunteer organizations, and social organizations.

The Volunteer Center Amsterdam admires all those coordinators who provide a place for this diverse group of volunteers in their organization, manage expectations, and keep volunteer work on the agenda with their management. There is no commercial company where the group of employees is as diverse as in a volunteer organization. It would be exciting to have a manager of a large company switch roles for a day with the volunteer coordinator of a large care institution. It would make great television and also highlight even more sharply the dilemmas that these coordinators deal with on a daily basis.

Dilemma: Vulnerable Volunteers

Today we presented a dilemma to the civil servants and officials of the municipality of Amsterdam. They deal with the subsidy applications of volunteer organizations in their work and develop social policies for the city.

Organizations achieve their goals through the dedication of volunteers. They connect volunteers with lonely elderly people, cook for the neighborhood, work against domestic violence, provide legal advice, read aloud, and organize homework assistance for children and young people. Many volunteer organizations support vulnerable residents of Amsterdam.

The participatory society encourages vulnerable residents of Amsterdam to engage in volunteer work. Reintegration agencies, mental health care institutions, social work, and general practitioners consider volunteer work a great way to work on reintegration, recovery, or loneliness. And it’s true. Volunteer work contributes to your sense of self-worth, feeling valued, having something to offer, and being able to look at yourself with pride.

How do you ensure that it stays in balance?

Back to the volunteer coordinators we admire. They are unicorns with big hearts. They know that vulnerable Amsterdammers benefit from a role in their organization. Yet, they also feel they can’t work miracles. How do you maintain balance, provide good guidance and support, ensure other volunteers and professionals give a warm welcome, taking into account the limitations of these new volunteers? Where do you find the time and space to offer the vulnerable volunteer a successful experience? And all this without losing sight of your organization’s goals. Because yes, what is your core business, to stick with the business world for a moment. And how and with whom can you achieve that?

Officials and policymakers are now aware of this dilemma and understand the need to focus on preventing vulnerable organizations.Nettie Sterrenburg
Organizational Consultant Volunteer Center Amsterdam
January 18, 2019

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