Imagination to Impact

Voluntary organizations provide essential support to communities where the public and private sectors may lack incentives or resources to. Although they often have to find creative ways to aid their communities, little is known about creativity in this context.

Our project utilizes data from 35 interviews with local volunteers and voluntary sector leaders to uncover the barriers and facilitators of creativity in volunteering to produce evidence-based support for volunteers. We will deliver that in several project outputs - A short report of study findings, an award for local volunteers who have demonstrated creativity, a workshop, and a training video. More details are included below.

Creativity in Volunteering

"Volunteers play such a vital role in our communities and we know they have to regularly solve problems in creative ways to address the needs of those they serve. This project draws on research interviews with local volunteers, as well as existing research on creativity and volunteering, to better understand the creative power of volunteers, support them in sharing their creative best practices, and provide them with evidence-based techniques for boosting their creative problem-solving even more."

Tamara FriedrichLink opens in a new window - Research Lead

Creativity in Volunteering Short Report

Our central focus is to understand the unique barriers faced by volunteers and voluntary organizations in unlocking their creative potential. Based on a qualitative analysis of over 35 in-depth interviews with volunteers and volunteer support professionals, we will create a short, user-friendly report. This report will summarise our findings and make recommendations for volunteers and those in roles supporting or leading volunteers on how they can foster more creativity in their work.

More detailed findings will be shared on this website as the analysis progresses and a PDF of the report will be made available.

Creativity in Volunteering Award

Volunteers are essential to our community and we know they have to be creative in so many ways - having to do a lot, often with not very much. This award was established to celebrate volunteers in the Coventry and Warwickshire area who have found new and creative ways to do their voluntary work and better serve their community.

Sixteen nominations were submitted and a panel of experts in creativity, social impact, and volunteering selected winners in three categories - Individual, Group, and Student. The awards will be presented to the winners along with a prize at the Creativity in Volunteering Workshop event on 25th June. More details on the winners and their work will be shared here following the event.