Exploratory research on the contribution of long-term volunteering to the wellbeing of town councillors in England

The role of volunteering in enhancing individual wellbeing has been recognized in government and academic studies. In 2010, the British government’s programme of policies in support of its ‘big society’ concept enhanced the prominence of the relation between wellbeing and volunteering. By 2013, when it was reported that almost four in ten Britons volunteer, the context was no longer one of ‘big society’ but rather one of austerity. In the years to follow, cuts in local government budgets resulted in increased reliance on volunteers to provide essential services to vulnerable members of their communities. More recently, during the Covid-19 pandemic, volunteers helped community groups through their toughest years. This article focuses on the wellbeing of some of the individuals comprising these groups of volunteers. Volunteering is addressed as a contextualized social process involving different aspects of wellbeing. This process is examined in a pilot study of town councillors who have been long-term volunteers. In semi-structured interviews, councillors reflect on their volunteering at a time of declining local government service provision. The results point to how processes of volunteering make salient to volunteers a broad range of wellbeing factors which they weigh against the risks of burnout posed by the social context in which they work.