A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

Abstract

In activation worksupporting jobless people to perform activities that are supposed to lead them back to paid worka personalised approach is deemed crucial. What a personalised approach entails, however, remains unclear. In this article, we try to further develop the notion of a personalised approach in activation work, by analysing Dutch workfare volunteers' experiences with activation. Our interviews show that a personalised approach appears as a process with three stages. In the first stage, personalised means paying attention to welfare clients' personal histories, particularly their 'violated life story'. In the second stage, personalised means being sensitive to the new reality of them being volunteers. In the third stage, personalised means paying attention to the future, especially to the prospect of paid work. Our findings contribute to the theorisation of a personalised approach in activation work to which time turns out to be a crucial dimension. SAMENVATTING Bij activeringswerkhet ondersteunen van werklozen om activiteiten uit te voeren die hen zouden moeten leiden naar betaald werkwordt een gepersonaliseerde benadering cruciaal geacht. Wat een gepersonaliseerde aanpak inhoudt, blijft echter onduidelijk. In dit artikel proberen we de notie van een gepersonaliseerde benadering in activeringswerk verder te ontwikkelen door de ervaringen van Nederlandse geleide vrijwilligers met activering te analyseren. Onze interviews laten zien dat een gepersonaliseerde benadering te begrijpen is als een proces met drie fasen. Gepersonaliseerd betekent dat in de eerste fase aandacht wordt geschonken aan de persoonlijke geschiedenis van bijstandscliënten, met name aan hun 'geschonden levensverhaal'. In de tweede fase betekent gepersonaliseerd dat activeringswerkers gevoelig zijn voor de nieuwe realiteit van vrijwilliger-zijn. In de derde fase betekent gepersonaliseerd aandacht schenken aan de toekomst, vooral met het oog op betaald werk. Onze bevindingen dragen bij aan theorie over een gepersonaliseerde benadering in activeringswerk, waarin tijd een cruciale dimensie blijkt te zijn.

“I’m Not Worthless, I Do Help Society”: Exploring the Lived Experience of Community Placement in Activation Schemes

“…Research into the lived experience of workfare volunteerism has reported improved subjective well-being and 'soft gains', that is, relational and affective dimensions, as the most relevant for participants. Studies have reported lessening the effects of unemployment on well-being and employability by providing participants with opportunities for social interaction, access to self-respect, feeling appreciated, and displaying skills (Kampen et al, 2013;Slootjes and Kampen, 2017;De Waele and Hustinx, 2019;Kampen and Tonkens, 2019;Penny and Finnegan, 2019;Kampen, 2020). Nevertheless, research has shown that participants feel misrecognised for doing unpaid work while their regained self-respect can be short-lived and threatened by the limits of their obligatory tasks (Kampen et al, 2013).…”

A Research Agenda for Civil Society

“…Third-party volunteering can apply mandatory pressures to have their constituency serve as volunteers. For instance, de Waele and Hustinx (2019) find that the "voluntary" property of volunteering is strongly violated in workfare volunteering as non-participation means losing welfare benefits (Kampen & Tonkens, 2019a). When service-learning is part of the curriculum, students are forced into volunteering to earn their study credits (Dienhart et al, 2016); when corporations engage in corporate volunteering, corporations must make a conscious choice between voluntary participation or mandatory pressures.…”

“…Corporate volunteering, for instance, is often done during paid hours (Haski-Leventhal et al, 2010). In addition, the volunteers in workfare volun-teering are -indirectly -paid as the volunteer work enables the welfare recipients to keep their welfare benefits (Kampen & Tonkens, 2019a). Likewise, in service-learning, students receive study credits for their volunteer work.…”

“…"Voluntary dedication is an important factor in motivating people to participate in public life, and when you make something mandatory, you lose or undermine the feeling" (Sobus, 1995, p. 153). Thus, coercing volunteer participation can be counterproductive and ineffective (Kampen & Tonkens, 2019a). Furthermore, mandatory programmes will make volunteers feel unhappy, controlled and dependent, decreasing intrinsic motivation to volunteer (Kampen & Tonkens, 2019b).…”

“…Furthermore, the volunteer is not allowed to opt out. Thus, when they do not see the possibility of participating actively, they feel pressured (Sheel & Vohra, 2015), which makes one unhappy (Kampen & Tonkens, 2019a), and negatively affects mental health. Perhaps, even more importantly when volunteers are forced, they not only will not learn anything from the experience, but they could bring harm to the beneficiaries (Chan et al, 2020).…”