The Cambridge Dictionary defines volunteering as âto offer to do something that you do not have to do, often without being paid.â That feels straightforward enough but in reality we probably all hold slightly different ideas when we talk about volunteering.
I find a useful way to think about it is as a volunteering spectrum or ecosystem. At one end are the small, everyday acts of kindness we do for each other. If you pick up groceries for your grandmother, it might just feel like family life, but doing the same for a neighbour can feel closer to volunteering. In this way, part of how we understand volunteering is relational who we are helping may shape how we describe it. Moving along the spectrum are informal community efforts, such as neighbours organising a litter-pick, sharing dog-walking or running a WhatsApp group to swap help. Then there are approaches like Community Connectors, where anyone can attend a brief workshop to be shown what support exists locally and, if they wish, pass that information on to others with no obligation or expectation.
Further along come champion or ambassador type models, often associated with active citizens who deliberately nudge, promote or encourage others to take up opportunities. At the far end are the formal volunteering roles coordinated by charities or statutory bodies, such as befrienders, helpline volunteers or trustees. These roles carry clearer responsibilities and, under English law, organisations have a duty to support volunteers with safeguarding, role descriptions, training and reimbursement of expenses.
When I set up Health Connections Mendip well over a decade ago, our small team of what would later be called social prescribers, health coaches, and community development workers had built a website directory of local support and opportunities. Yet people would often say, âIf only there was a directory of everything going on in our community.â The reality was that it did exist but people didnât know about it.
Here was our quandary how do we let the community know about the website directory and thus all the support and opportunities available to them? If people donât know about these opportunities, they basically donât exist to them.
We wanted to support citizens to pass on information about the existence of the website directory but we didnât have the infrastructure, the funding or the staff to create and manage a team of volunteers who could promote all this support. We couldnât employ a volunteer coordinator and we couldnât sustain a structured volunteering programme. So we had to think differently.
That is when, in 2013, the Community Connectors programme was born. Anyone and everyone can attend a Community Connector workshop. They donât commit to hours, follow a rota, or take on responsibility for others. There is no expectation to build relationships, offer active listening, nudge or influence anyone. Instead, their role is as simple as passing on an information card when it feels natural.
At its heart, the approach is about democratising information. Communities have always thrived on word of mouth: neighbours telling neighbours, friends passing on tips, taxi drivers sharing local knowledge. Community Connectors give this tradition a little structure, ensuring that accurate and up-to-date information about local support is more widely shared.
Over the years, this idea has spread across the UK and abroad with areas adapting it to their place and needs, with names such as 'Friendly Connector' or 'Local Connectors'.
Community Connectors are just one point on the Volunteering Spectrum. They show how even the lightest-touch form of helping by simply passing on information when the moment arises can make a real difference. But they are only part of what we might call the volunteering spectrum.
From everyday acts of kindness, through informal neighbourly efforts, to champions, ambassadors, and the most structured forms of volunteering, the whole spectrum matters. Together, it is this range of activity that makes communities stronger.
Two trained Community Connectors who run a popular community cafe in Victoria Park, Frome.
A question I wonder is: how can we communicate this â Volunteering Spectrumâ so that wherever people sit on it, they can recognise their own contribution and feel part of something bigger? Framing it this way makes volunteering feel more inclusive, showing that everyone has a place within it. It also helps people see that there can be movement along the spectrum - sometimes stepping into more formal roles, other times contributing in smaller, everyday ways and that all of it counts.
Health Connections Mendip is a pioneering and long-running social prescribing service covering the Mendip area. The model that Jenny established is part of the Frome Model of Enhanced Primary Care - which has been widely featured in national and international press and is the leading example of a 'whole-system' approach to social prescribing.
You can also find NASP's toolkit about how to set up a Social Prescribing Connectors programme:
