A time for intervention?
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 8:34 am
Wellbeing benefits of volunteering were found regardless of where people live
Whilst previous studies have shown that volunteering engagement rates are generally higher in safer, more accessible and less deprived neighbourhoods, we found that where people live does not influence the association between volunteering and mental health and wellbeing. This finding may reflect a more equal number of voluntary australia rcs data organisations in the least and most deprived areas and a growth of place-based funding streams that encourage residents in deprived neighbourhoods to take part in voluntary and community work, such as through creating safer neighbourhoods, ensuring well-maintained voluntary organisations and providing wide ranging voluntary activities with flexible hours.
However, there are other potential explanations too. It is possible that there was just simply a small neighbourhood effect on the likelihood of volunteering once individual characteristics had been accounted for. It is also plausible that there may be small main effects of area deprivation on people’s mental health and wellbeing. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that volunteering could potentially have benefits for all individuals if it can be introduced to different areas equally.
The UK government has recently published the Levelling Up White Paper, which includes a commitment to improving wellbeing and pride in place. Meanwhile, the NHS Long term plan promises to support social prescribing (with volunteering being one of the activities) in primary care and to have at least 900,000 people referred to social prescribing by 2023/24.
Whilst previous studies have shown that volunteering engagement rates are generally higher in safer, more accessible and less deprived neighbourhoods, we found that where people live does not influence the association between volunteering and mental health and wellbeing. This finding may reflect a more equal number of voluntary australia rcs data organisations in the least and most deprived areas and a growth of place-based funding streams that encourage residents in deprived neighbourhoods to take part in voluntary and community work, such as through creating safer neighbourhoods, ensuring well-maintained voluntary organisations and providing wide ranging voluntary activities with flexible hours.
However, there are other potential explanations too. It is possible that there was just simply a small neighbourhood effect on the likelihood of volunteering once individual characteristics had been accounted for. It is also plausible that there may be small main effects of area deprivation on people’s mental health and wellbeing. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that volunteering could potentially have benefits for all individuals if it can be introduced to different areas equally.
The UK government has recently published the Levelling Up White Paper, which includes a commitment to improving wellbeing and pride in place. Meanwhile, the NHS Long term plan promises to support social prescribing (with volunteering being one of the activities) in primary care and to have at least 900,000 people referred to social prescribing by 2023/24.