Activity volunteers

When she is asked how long she will continue in URK she answers:

”Maybe for another six months. Otherwise I’ll become too much of a dinosaur.”

Conclusion on organisational volunteers

The organisational volunteers have gained professional competencies and built a social network. They are very explicit about the difference URK makes to children and volunteers even though they are not directly involved in the activities. Both mention an age limit for volunteering.

6.2.2 Activity volunteers

then everyone clapped the URK-clap and then you could see who the other URK’ers were. That’s community!”

“URK has changed me so much. On a personal level I think it has given me more than my studies. I felt that I could do something besides school. You felt that you could give something. It has given me a lot, socially, and it has increased my confidence. That I could manage the tasks I was given. I became more responsi-ble and gained faith in the fact that I could do things.”

”I have learnt many practical skills like presenting things, writing things, at-tending meetings, arguing one’s case. That’s what you do at the national board and at activity level; you learn how to manage a group of children, manage an activity and being something for these children.”

From the quotes it is evident how the respondent has gained professional and practical competences and values such as community, confidence and responsibility. She believes that she as a volunteer has made a difference for the children and this can be considered an altruistic value:

“Of cause I hope that the children achieve some skills at the home work café but to a large extent I also hope we can contribute with some confidence. That they leave with the feeling that someone has seen them, that we want the best for them and that someone believes in them so much that they want to help and listen without getting paid.”

”Because we are volunteers and we meet the children in a way that they are not used to from the experiences of therapists and social workers where they are put in an office and asked to talk. What we can, is offering them a week with other people where we ask nothing from them. We don’t ask them to tell us anything. We just ask them to be there and enjoy it and then all of a sudden they tell us things. I have experienced that several times and it makes an impression – that we were able to do that.”

The respondent compares how URK was when she started and now:

“I see URK as far more professional today. There is a greater focus on the im-portance of an effect of what you are doing and it is important that you com-municate that we (URK) actually expects something from the volunteers. You didn’t do that at all before. Then you were just happy and grateful if somebody wanted to do something. It didn’t mean much what people wanted to do.”

“URK urges towards certain activities. It used to be easier to start new things up and maybe think a little out of the box. You didn’t get it all served from above.

That can be a consequence of URK being more streamlined.”

Respondent 10

The respondent has volunteered since 2011. She has been engaged in holiday camps and weekend camps, been a leader of a non-profit café, Zusammen, and is now engaged in the start-up of anew Greenland group. She is 24 years old and studies law.

Her first meeting with URK was at a formal information meeting:

“I came to an information meeting for new holiday volunteers where I heard about the principles, the structure of the organisation and the difference bet-ween Red Cross and URK and then an introduction to which situations you could be in during holiday camps, when you meet these vulnerable children and young people and how you handle them correctly and incorrectly.”

The respondent describes the output of being a volunteer in URK:

“I’ve gained a lot. I’ve got to know myself better. When the challenges are really big and you disagree on things I’ve learnt to believe what is the right thing to do. I’ve learnt to choose my battles and I’ve learnt that it doesn’t help to get angry.”

“I consider going in a different direction than law school – a direction where I either develop people or projects, innovation at the work place or something about collaboration. URK has opened up for many things, different courses where you meet different people.”

“It is very much that it has to sound so good and make a difference, but it’s actu-ally rarely what it is about. It’s about people liking what they do and, to some, it may be a prolonging of their CV and to others it is just as much doing something different than their everyday life. It’s rarely because they have to appear as good human beings, it’s a really big wish to be with other co-volunteers but also with the children and young people.”

From volunteering she has developed personally and she has gained values, which has made her reconsider her studies. She believes URK makes a difference:

“I think the children get an image of how the world can also be. The role model that they (URK) say we want to be. I think the children are positively surprised.

At holiday camps you say that the children become easier to handle if they have been there before, because then they know the rules and what it is all about.”

Respondent 13

The respondent is 35 years old and has been a volunteer for eight-nine years. She has been a volunteer at an asylum centre, PR, VIPS (children’s show) and the national board. Today she is a conflict supervisor in URK. She has a master of science and works as a mayor’s secretary. Her first encounter with URK was at an information meeting.

She describes her first meeting with URK:

“Someone was explaining about asylum and someone was explaining about PR, someone spoke of HR, someone spoke of homework cafés… so it was relatively organised really, I was presented with a wide range of activities and was told what the frame was and then I could ‘shop’ around as a volunteer.”

She recalls the difficulties as new in the organisation:

“Figuring out the organisation was clearly the most difficult thing. It was dif-ficult to find out who did what and why, and where you had to report if you had to have something done, and what you were allowed to do. It was relatively chaotic. It was difficult to navigate but it wasn’t difficult to find enthusiasm.”

The respondent describes what she has gained from URK:

“As an academic from a home of academics I have learnt that there is a need for us all to stand together and help the vulnerable groups. There are so many children and young people who have difficult conditions and that need help.

They have the same right, if not more right to be helped as everyone else. That consciousness I always have with me and it’s definitely something I have from URK.”

“Even though I’m not that active anymore, URK has a strong presence in my mind set. It is a really big part of my identity. Much of my network is from URK.

I would dare say that my job comes from URK because it is one of the things I was hired on. So, it is a huge part of me.”

”You must be able to tolerate people because many different kinds of people volunteer. Not necessarily those you would choose as friends.”

“I use my experiences really often actually – at work especially. I work in politics and I really often refer to the experiences I’ve gained in URK. Both in relation to what I think voluntary organisations have to contribute with and what they shouldn’t contribute with. The fundamental thought about community and hel-ping, I use all the time.”

It is clear that she has developed competencies she can use professionally and values of tolerance, altruism and built social network. When it comes to the difference she has made to the children’s life, she says:

”I believe the children were given a free-space. They had parents, with post-trau-matic stress. The children were not allowed to make noise at the asylum centre, because that would disturb the weak adults but they needed to make noise.

We came and totally got that you could play with balloons for four hours and cut out the burgers in the shape of goats or whatever and all that energy that wasn’t present at home, that mattered to them. They were given something out-side the system – they were young people having fun. So they benefitted from the energy, intimacy and voluntary relation. Being relieved from the harsh rea-lity made a difference to these children. They were allowed to be children when we were together.”

The respondent is asked if she believes URK has changed from when she first started volunteering, and she answers:

“Yes, enormously. It has grown huge now, it was big when I started, but it has grown explosively and the board has had a very conscious politic about that, when I was in the board, but it has become more top down. That worries me a little. I don’t hope you lose the nerve that I had when I entered URK, which was taking an active part instantly and quickly getting involved in a lot of activities because you saw a need but also the opportunity to make and change a lot.”

“I hope you find an extremely smart way of supporting the desire to engage.

How do you support the grassroots while controlling your organisation at the same time, so you reach most possible vulnerable children and young people which are our aim.”

When she is asked how long she will stay in URK she answers:

“I’m 35 and every year at the national congress Mads (President) laughs at me and says that it has to stop but at the same time he tries to persuade me to run for the national board. I don’t know when I’ll stop. I hope it never happens.”

Respondent 14

This respondent is 21 years old and studies HA. (kom) at CBS. He has only volunteered in URK since 2012. He is volunteering at holiday camps and has as well volunteered at a homework café. He describes his first experiences with URK:

“I had been recommended a homework café at Blågårds Plads and I wrote

to the previous activity coordinator and we agreed that I should visit one day where the home work café was open. […] I got a brief introduction to the crimi-nal record involving offences against children (børneattest) and how it had to be sent and all the practicalities concerning the homework café with keys, ope-ning hours, and so on. And then I received two pamphlets; one concerope-ning how to be active in a home work café with good advise on assisting with homework, pedagogical advise, and so on. And the other pamphlet was about interaction policy (samværspolitik) – that you couldn’t be alone with the children and so on. And then I went home and read them and then it started from there.”

The respondent highlights what he has gained from being in URK:

”I think the most import thing I have gained as a volunteer is the good experien-ces that I can think about in my everyday life and that makes me happy.”

”I have certainly gained a greater security in what I’m doing. I’m not scared of asking a child if it needs help or saying no. I have learnt to handle most things.”

“You get an understanding for why some children act as they do. If you see them in a public space or people complain about something that has happened, then I’m able to see it from a different perspective than previously.”

Experiences, tolerance and confidence on how to interact with the children are what he has gained as a volunteer. He describes what the children gain from URK:

“The greatest wake up call for me was really Blågårds Plads and how much there is going on out there, which idols or role models the children have. One of the first times I was there I remember that all of a sudden two guys come run-ning by the window and then three cops came runrun-ning after him and then the children jumped up and said »wolla! That’s your big brother! He is the coolest!«

That’s when I realised that these children really look up to their bigger brothers who are young criminals and that is a slippery slope to become a part of… That confirms me in URK’s work and as I later heard Rie, responsible of home work cafés, say: »Well many of the children want to go out and do ‘business’ (petty crimes) and when they say ‘business’ it’s making money out of nothing« and that is sometimes our role in the homework cafés; to clarify to the children that you can do business but it is also hard work and you can make money from it, but it requires an effort from you…in education but also afterwards.”

”The homework café calls for a long-term development. We help them with their education and the general formation. The moral that they bring and the knowledge they carry on in life is important and hopefully that makes them capable of acquiring even more knowledge and manage better in life. At holi-day camps we give them a free space where they release reactions and get the opportunity to get a fantastic week in their holiday, which they wouldn’t other-wise have experienced.”

Conclusion on activity volunteers

Many of the activity volunteers have started doing activity work and then continued at organisational level. Further many of them describe a professionalisation of URK. All the activity volunteers articulate altruistic values and agree on the difference that URK has on vulnerable children. Further many of them point out competences that they can use in their professional life.