Welcome to the
Volunteering Research Hub
Developing a theory-led and practice-orientated evidence-base for volunteering, in order to help build sustainable volunteering communities.
What we do
What we do
We are a team of psychologists with a common interest in the social dimensions of volunteering - particularly how our sense of belonging to social groups and communities is important for understanding volunteering motivations, behaviour and experiences.
Our work is always ‘theory-led’ in that we draw on social psychological theories about the importance of social groups to try to address key and critical questions about the sustainability of volunteering: how to increase the number of people volunteering, how to improve retention of volunteers, and how to boost the benefits of volunteering for volunteers and communities alike.
Our work is also always 'practice-oriented' and we work closely with partners in the voluntary and community sector and in local government to co-produce research that is useful for, and used by, government, volunteering organisations and volunteers.
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All outputs and insights from our research and consultancy, including tool-kits, summaries and briefing papers are posted in the Projects and Resources page of our website. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with our research, news and events.
Featured Resource
Communities Tackling Loneliness Through Transport
Written by Debra Gray
Communities Tackling Loneliness with Sustainable Transport (CTLwT) was awarded funding from the Department for Transport’s Tackling Loneliness with Tr...
Building Sustainable Volunteering Communities: A Toolkit
Written by Debra Gray
Based on the findings from a series of research studies on volunteer motivations and experiences. This toolkit is for people who are interested in wha...
Volunteering During COVID-19 - Initial Report Findings
Written by Debra Gray
In June 2020, we collaborated with Hampshire County Council and Community First Wessex on a research study looking at volunteers' motivations, experie...
