Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice 13 October 2009

Voluntary work by the civil society is a vital supplement to the work carried out by the public and private sectors in Denmark, and the voluntary sector should play a larger role in public welfare and social policy in particular, a survey carried out for the centre-left thinktank Cevea shows. Voluntary work has great potential for integration. Cevea has published 22 recommendations that politicians can implement today make greater use of and give greater recognition to civil society’s voluntary work.

There will always be a need for voluntary work - the third sector - and volunteers often do a better job than the public and private sectors, a survey conducted for the centre-left thinktank Cevea shows.

According to the survey, which was carried out by Interresearch in collaboration with Frivilligt Forum, an umbrella organisation for groups involved in volunteer work, and the Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF), 46% of the people polled believe that volunteers do a better job than the public and private sectors; 15.9% disagree. 77.8% say there will always be a need for voluntary work.

Cevea agrees with the people polled that voluntary work is a vital supplement to the work carried out by the public and private sectors - and volunteers should be used where they can supplement and support the other sectors where they can develop solutions to concrete challenges.

According to the thinktank, volunteers have involvement in and responsibility for their work; they have insight into the tasks performed and proximity to the people receiving their services; they are flexible and full of ideas for doing the work; and they enjoy respect and mutual recognition in social communities.

“These values in particular have a potential in the renewal of public welfare and social policy,” Cevea says. Here, civil society in the form of the voluntary sector should play a much larger role. This also applies to the broader voluntary work carried out in other areas - such as sports clubs, housing associations and hobby organisations - where democracy and the feeling of togetherness in society are developed.

Voluntary work has great potential for integration - the children of immigrants can be involved in sports, where each game has rules, and through this involvement can get a stronger attachment to and understanding for society in a broader context.

But Danish politicians do not give the third sector the same degree of recognition that it receives in other countries, Cevea says.

“In Washington DC, President Barack Obama moved the civil society into the White House when he moved in, while former British Prime Minister Tony Blair opened an ambitious ‘Office for the Third Sector’ in 2002,” the thinktank says. “At the same time, both Norway and Sweden have adopted ambitious national action plans for developing and supporting civil society and for realising the potentials of voluntary work.”

According to Cevea, if unpaid voluntary work in Denmark had the same value as it does in Sweden, it would employ 130,000 people and have a value of about DKr 56 billion a year, equalling about 3.9% of gross national product.

In a report, ‘Borgerens inddragelse - afdækning af det frivilliges potentiale (Involving the people - the potential of voluntary work)’, Cevea has published 22 recommendations that politicians can implement immediately to make greater use of and give greater recognition to civil society’s voluntary work.

• A new national holiday should be introduced to draw attention to the work of the civil society.
• It should be possible for conscripts to do service in a voluntary organisation.
• Popular sports with a broad base should be strengthened nationally and locally, and tasks that sports organisations carry out for authorities should be financed by the authorities.
• University students should receive merits for work experience jobs in voluntary organisations.
• Middle-level managers in voluntary organisations should be trained at a new academy.
• The government should create a ministry for voluntary work.
• The government should develop a national action plan that promotes the potential of voluntary work.
• All legislation about voluntary work should be collated in one voluntary work law.
• The existing jungle of funding sources should be replaced fewer, transparent sources that are part of the annual state budget.
• Voluntary initiatives should be financed by funding aimed at the start-up, development and stabilisation phases.
• There should be a separate funding source for documentation and evaluation of voluntary work.
• A national knowledge centre for voluntary work should be created.
• A ‘voluntary work town of the year’ should be named annually.
• Centres for voluntary work should be the local anchorage for the broad-based voluntary work.
• Voluntary work centres should have more resources that are earmarked so they can meet their extra responsibilities.
• The voluntary work centres must develop local strategies for targeted information campaigns about voluntary work.
• The state and local authorities should introduce a policy of buying products and services from the voluntary sector.
• All local authorities should encourage their service institutions such as nursing homes to collaborate with voluntary work centres in creating associations of relatives to people in the service institutions.
• There should more non-profit institutions with greater autonomy.
• Agreements between public authorities and voluntary organisations should include trade unions to for demarcations between the work of volunteers and professional staff.
• Unused funds for voluntary work in one local authority should be transferred to local authorities that have used too much on voluntary work.
• Funds should be earmarked for voluntary projects aimed at increasing integration of immigrants.