This piece from the Funders Collaborative Hub states some hard hitting stats:

Our evidence shows that the mental health of front-line voluntary and community sector (VCS) workers is declining rapidly while, at the same time, 97% of VCS organisations report that they are handling mental crises as a major part of their work. 82% said they are concerned about burnout of their staff - double the amount from the previous year. Through five survey waves (2020-22) we now know that grassroots VCS organisations feel they lack the support and training to deal with the everyday trauma they are facing.

As the ACEVO state

Working in the voluntary sector can be enormously demanding and requires deep resilience; for all sorts of reasons, the work can be emotional and distressing. And yet it is a huge privilege to serve causes and communities and witness the passion, dedication and skills within charity teams. To ensure all staff, volunteers and leaders get the support they deserve, charity CEOs should recognise how they can use their power to shift working cultures and support greater workforce wellbeing – as well as boards taking responsibility for ensuring leaders can access support networks for themselves. Now more than ever, leaders need to pay close attention to their own mental health if they are to thrive in the charity sector environment and model safe behaviours.

So, what can we do to support ourselves and our staff?

Here at Nova, we are building a Workforce Wellbeing Toolkit to support positive working cultures and showcase some wellbeing best practices happening right here in Wakefield District.

Some of these might be useful for your organisation now, and some might be part of your organisations longer term planning.

For all of us, it's important that we recognise the signs of burnout, that we acknowledge the emotional and physical toll the work can have on our staff and volunteers. Importantly what do we or can we provide to support our workforce and maximise workplace wellbeing practices.

As we work towards the West Yorkshire goal of becoming a Trauma Informed System by 2030, knowing how we fit into this system is also vital.

Recognising everyone has trauma, that some of us will have had greater trauma in our lives than others but also that we need to support our workforce, so we do not re-traumatise or add additional trauma.

For many Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations, we have lived experience without our teams. It is that passion to give back, to offer support that might have been missing in our own experiences that draws people to our sector. It is our responsibility to provide our workforces a safe and supportive environment.

As part of our toolkit, we’ll also have information about current support opportunities available in Wakefield such as the West Yorkshire Staff Wellbeing Hub.

So, watch this space for more information and resources as we build the Workplace Wellbeing Toolkit for Wakefield District together.

If you have any best practice examples, useful documents or guides that you’ve used in your organisation please send them through and we can see where they fit into the toolkit. You can email Rachel, Lead Mental Health Community Builder at Nova, at rachel.hale@nova-wd.org.uk

We look forward to updating you on this work.

Sources

Supporting the mental health of grassroots VCS workers by Funders Collaborative Hub

Workforce wellbeing in charities by ACEVO

West Yorkshire Trauma Informed Charter