Voluntary Action LeicesterShire's Economic Inclusion Forum Launch was a huge success thanks in large part to speakers like Vanessa Beck. The forum focuses on giving the VCS a voice in economic development across Leicester and Leicestershire. To learn more about the Economic Inclusion Forum and all of VAL's forums, visit us online at www.valonline.org.uk.

1. VCS
Economic Forum Launch
Dr Vanessa Beck
Dr Daniela Rudloff
University of Leicester
23 October 2013

2. Coping strategies
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How do people respond to stress?
◦ Problem focused coping
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Active coping
Planning
Suppression of competing activities
Restraint coping
Seeking of instrumental social support
◦ Emotion focused coping
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Seeking of emotional social support
Positive reinterpretation
Acceptance
Denial
Turning to religion
◦ Less constructive ways of coping
– Venting of emotions
– Behavioural disengagement
– Mental disengagement
(Carver et al., 1989)

3. Individualism vs. collectivism
—
Increased individualism in society and requirement for
individual responsibility (e.g. welfare, employability, etc.)
◦ Risk Society (Beck, 1992) and second or reflexive
modernity (Beck et al.,1994)
◦ Individualisation constitutes “unspoken ideological
foundations” (Dean, 2004, p. 12)
—
“[T]he individualistic nature of contemporary culture
serve[s] to discourage a sense of responsibility for
others” (Ellis and Rogers, 2004, p. 93).
—
Examples from project on unemployed women’s coping
strategies:
◦ Self help / support group (phone lists, activities from
everyday to cultural)
◦ Conversations (interviews) act as ‘therapy’

4. Volunteering and volunteer
wellbeing
— Increased
wellbeing observed and
self-reported by volunteers
◦ Lower mortality rates
◦ More likely to be happier, less likely to
suffer from depression
◦ Report higher levels of life satisfaction
◦ Lower risk factors for stress-related
illness, e.g. heart disease

5. Volunteering and happiness
Strong correlation between mental and
physical wellbeing and volunteering – but is
there a causal link?
— How does volunteering improve volunteer
happiness?
—
◦ Trains empathy
◦ Provides social comparison, lowers concern for
status
◦ Socially integrated
◦ Better (perceived) coping skills
◦ More active lifestyle
—
All these factors can be linked to improved
mood -> less stress -> better health

6. ‘Reasonable altruism’
— However,
this is true only where
volunteering does not ‘overwhelm’ the
volunteer, causing compassion fatigue
— Burn-out due to intense emotions, often
combined with lack of training
— Most likely to occur after significant time
of experience when idealism and
enthusiasm likely to be replaced with
realism and cynicism
— Volunteering requires „self-renewal“: new
roles, self-reflection, time off

7. Emotional labour
— This
refers to the effort, planning and
control that is required to express
desired emotions (Karabanow 1999).
— The establishment of a personal and
trusting relationship is in itself an
emotional and intense process
— Examples
of different relationships
from project of learning providers
working with NEETs

8. Homology (I am like you: empathy, acceptance, role
model)
They see that, that’s explained, that’s what you can do.
She’s come from where you are.
—
Mother (not father?) figure: nurture, support, caring
… we make them toast in the morning and you know clear
up after them.
[T]he problem for me as a male, is that they’re trying to
compute in their head who’s “Ben”, who is he, what is this
role model, is he my dad, is he my granddad, most of
them have a step dad who they don’t seem to like very
much, they haven't had a male role model and that’s vital.
—

9. The police / keeping it real
I think the providers that deal with the problems a bit more
successfully are (…) just real with them and say look this is
reality, this is what’s going to happen and then that’s it.
—
Sales strategies: create demand, responsive, listen
[O]ne of the most valuable things I ever learnt in sales, which I
employ religiously with working with young people, is get to
know your end user and don’t make a product that you yourself
wouldn’t want to buy.
—
The soldier: challenge
I just don’t believe in pampering people too much. I believe,
alright you’ve had a bad background, you’ve had a bad start,
what you going to do, sit there crying or are you going to stand
up and fight?
—

10. References
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Beck, U., 1990. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.
Beck, U., Giddens, A. and Lash, S. (1994) Reflexive Modernization. Politics, Tradition and
Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Borgonovi, F. (2008). Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal
volunteering and self-reported health and happiness. Social Science and Medicine, 66,
2321-2334.
Carver, C., Scheier, M. and Weintraub, J. (1989) Assessing Coping Strategies: A
Theoretically Based Approach, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(2):
267-283.
Dean, H. (2004) Human Rights and welfare rights: contextualising dependency and
responsibility. In: H. Dean (ed.) The Ethics of Welfare, Human rights, dependency and
responsibility. Bristol: Policy Press, 7-28.
Ellis, K. and Rogers, R. (2004) Fostering a human rights discourse in the provision of
social care for adults. In: H. Dean (ed.) The Ethics of Welfare, Human rights, dependency
and responsibility. Bristol: Policy Press, 89-109.
Haski-Leventhal, D., and Bargal, D. (2008). The volunteer stages and transitions model:
Organisational socialisation of volunteers. Human Relations, 61: 67.
Karabanow, J., 1999. When Caring Is Not Enough: Emotional Labor and Youth Shelter
Workers. Social Service Review, 73 (3), 340-357.
Post, S. (2005). Altruism, Happiness and Health: It’s Good to Be Good. International
Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 12(2), 66-77.