
The Community Volunteering hub offers information and support for hospices about launching and improving their community volunteer programmes.

What is Community Volunteering?
The last few years have seen some very significant changes in hospice volunteering as volunteers have become increasingly involved in the direct support of people with palliative and end of life care (PEOLC) needs in the community, along with their families and carers.
This resource hub is informed by evidence gathered from a survey of hospice community volunteering undertaken by Hospice UK.
For the purposes of the resource, community volunteering is defined as "volunteering, undertaken out with the hospice building, directly supporting people with palliative and end of life care needs in their homes."
Benefits of Community Volunteering
Findings in the Analysis Report suggest that community volunteering has many benefits to people with PEOLC needs, families and carers, staff, organisations and volunteers.
People with PEOLC needs: - Reduction in isolation through |
Families/carers: - Respite from caring. |
Volunteers: - Personal development/ experience for |
Staff and organisations: |
Create a Community Volunteering programme

Read the Analysis Report
The aims of the project were to:
- Map the extent of community volunteering activity in hospice
organisations.
- Gather information about the services already in place and
identify any barriers to developing such services.
- Create an electronic resource to help the development of
voluntary support in this context.
Language and terminology
Throughout the project, we have been very aware of language and the influence that words can have on the relationship between people.
In many of the community volunteering programmes the emphasis is on 'doing with' rather than 'doing to', and the principle underpinning this resource is that volunteers, people with end of life care needs, families and carers are partners in the relationship, each meeting and responding to one another as individuals.
For this reason, the resource intentionally does not use the term 'patient' but talks about 'a person/people with palliative and end of life care (PEOLC) needs.'
The word 'patient' only appears when used in quotes or case studies.

Further resources
- The development of Neighbourhood Network in Palliative
Care.
(Kerala) Paleri, A., Sallnow, L. (2018)
Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care in India
In Scott R, Howlett S, editors.
The changing face of volunteering in hospice and palliative
care: an international perspective (pp157-169).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- The development of Compassionate Neighbours
Sallnow. L., Richardson, H. (2018) and Community
In: Scott R, Howlett S, editors.
The changing face of volunteering in hospice and palliative
care: an international perspective (pp157-169).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Exploring experiences of compassionate communities.
Wegleitner, K., Heimerl, K., Kellehear, A. (2016)
Compassionate Communities Case studies
from Britain and Europe. Abingdon: Routledge
- An overview of the development of compassionate
communities in England.
- Volunteering and community development.
Volunteering Now (2011) The Role of Volunteering as an
Integral Part of Community Development in Northern Ireland.