RockCorps
Sure, I'd heard of RockCorps, But how much did I really know about them? Meeting chief exec Stephen Greene in London last week was a chance to find out more.
Me: So, first off, what's the current state of play for RockCorps in the UK?
SG: We launched Orange RockCorps in the UK in May 2008 so we've not been going long. But things are growing and we'll soon be launching our calendar for 2010.
We'll be expanding the programme, taking it to more places in the country and, through our Orange RockCorps Collective – in partnership with Youthnet – giving young people the chance to get involved wherever they are in the country and whether or not there is a concert in their city.
We've got a fantastic partnership with our brand partner, Orange, and I think we've reached the point where people know what RockCorps is about. Now we want to make it available to all young people.
Some people say that RockCorps is about marketing for Orange and putting on free concerts – the volunteering is just tokenistic. What's your response to that?
We're about getting people engaged in the community and volunteering is one of the easiest ways to do that. We offer people an incentive. When people talk about 'token volunteering' – I don't really know what that is. If a show at the Royal Albert Hall leads to 5,000 people doing 4 hours volunteering each for the benefit of community organisations, we just think that's a good thing.
Most people agree that they'd like to get more people involved in volunteering. And there's a huge gap between those who say volunteering is a good thing and those actually doing it. Why is that? We tend to think t it's because it's not always that obvious or easy to find a way to volunteer. We've chosen music as a way to make a connection and offer an incentive for young people to get involved.
I quite like hearing that people think we're splashy because that means we're hitting the mark.
The important thing for us is that when you participate in Orange RockCorps you get the chance to see the mechanic of volunteering. We use the music to introduce people to that – to make contact with organisations they might not even know exist. It helps change people's perceptions even in that small amount of time.
Brands – and Orange in particular – are obviously very important to you.
Our philosophy starts with the recognition that somewhere around 70-75% of our economy is controlled by the private sector. If those of us concerned with social issues ignore that sector then I don't think we'll achieve what we want to get done.
Coming out of the recent financial crisis lots of brands are looking for new ways to communicate and connect – but, of course, they are private companies looking to sell more products and services. Orange wants to talk to the youth audience in a way that's new and fresh. They realise that young people really do give a damn about the issues of today. All brands want to know how to participate in what their customers care about. Things like music fashion, sport...and social issues.
Do you ever worry about being compromised?
When I ran a community project in America funding came through a traditional community relations programme and I had to report back once or twice a year. With Orange RockCorps we're held to much closer scrutiny – about things like how many people are involved and the quality of volunteering – on a weekly basis. That can only be a good thing.
We always have to be careful about balancing the commercial messages with our 'social' message. We don't force young people to buy anything, but we do present them with offers from Orange. However, the shocking thing for many of us in the third sector is the fact that young people are excited about having brands involved in this kind if activity. They can single out brands doing bad things and those doing good and they get excited about brands participating in solutions. It's not about brands good or bad, but where does the brand fit in my life.
I suppose the potential for compromise exists, but I think it's up to us and the people running the community projects we partner not to let that happen.
Is it a challenge getting enough four-hour volunteering opportunities?
We run the opportunities for our partners. We do everything – all the organising, and running on the day. So it's a pretty easy ask for our third sector partners. At the beginning in any country we go to it takes a bit of explaining but now we very blessed in that pretty much every partner returns for me and we now have partners chasing us to participate.
It's a big undertaking. In the UK we do 50 or 60 of projects over about 7 weeks and have about 30 project staff working on that.
I hadn't realised you ran the opportunities - or that you have that many staff.
There's this misconception, especially from government, that the problem with volunteering is demand not supply. In fact it's the opposite. The problem is not whether young people want to volunteer – 80 or 90% do – but there have to be opportunities that fit in with their lifestyle.
This is the most engaged generation ever and the onus is on us to provide volunteering opportunities that they can actually do.
Going back a bit, where did the whole idea for RockCorps come from?
Two of the founders, Grady Lee and Toby Garrett, were concert promoters. Every promoter would give put free tickets to local people in return for helping out, and they had this idea in the 1990s of doing the whole concert this way – tickets in return for community work. They ran that as a charity for a while and that was the root of the idea. Then in 2001 in LA a group of us became very frustrated that after 9/11 President Bush was saying go back to normal life, carry on shopping and we felt this was a missed opportunity. We went back to Grady and Toby's idea and, eventually, made the crucial realisation about the potential for brands to enable us to access a whole new source of money.
We did the first concert in New York in September 2005 and straight away had the conviction that there was a universal longing from this generation to do something positive and be entertained at the same time. We didn't see any reason to be confined to America. So I came to London and started knocking on doors...
Was the response here different from in the US?
We were welcomed. Although people were curious because it was so different and we've had more criticism of the incentive model here than anywhere else we've been. There's a way of doing volunteering in this country that's pretty well established and that's fair enough. But we've already got 60,00 people young people in our Orange RockCorps database and 150 community organisations as partners, so it's working out pretty well.
And you're ambitious to grow more?
The Orange RockCorps Collective really important to us - opening up access to young people across the country. And we have a vision of doing a concert one day in Wembley stadium: 70,00 young people, having done 250,000 hours of volunteering. We want Orange RockCorps to be like a driving test – part of growing up. And we want to be doing these thing all around the world
We've talked all this time without touching on one crucial element: the musicians and singers. How much effort goes into getting them involved?
A lot! Though we get a lot of help and once the artist has played one concert they're almost always keen come back – the energy is great and they love it. So it gets easier as time goes on. But the music industry is not for the faint-hearted.
Finally, do you consider yourselves part of the volunteering infrastructure of this country or more as outsiders?
That's not something we really worry about. We call ourselves pro-social production company – no one really knows what that is and we kinda like that. Some people say we're a splashy ad campaign for Orange. And yes, we are that. Some say we're an army of 60,000 young people getting involved in community work, and we're that too.
Chris, my business partner says 'One kid, one show, one city at a time' and it's really no more complicated than that.
Great comments here.Thanks @jax for the RockCorps stats, 35% is indeed a good conversion rate and echoes other conversion rates for short term volunteering, Make a Difference Day to name but one. I recall way back in the Russell Commission there was a big focus on short term volunteering as many young people were asking for it but charities were reluctant to organise them as they could not see the benefit for them. If we want to engage those less inclined to volunteer or who simply are unable to commit to longer term volunteering we need to be flexible and have a range of different opportunities to fit. @HelpFromHome is a great example of this, and along with RockCorps, are simply responding to the needs of an evolving market place which can only be a good thing.
I think the volunteering community needs to finally realise that
not everyone wants to selflessly dedicate themselves to endless
hours of service over a long period of time. Short term or short
duration volunteering isn't a bad thing, it is a different thing.
Quote from @robjackson74 which I totally agree with.
RockCorps is incentivizing the volunteer market and if that's a route that engages people to volunteer, then it seems tickety-boo by me. You never know where a volunteer assignment might lead to, but for me doing something for 4 hours to help others is way much better than trying to find something to do, purely for the sake of trying to find something to do - which I feel most youth are prone to do.
In those 4 hours, something can be achieved, just as much as something can be achieved in 4 minutes. Watching telly or playing pc games achieves something, but not as much as volunteering does in the same time span. Of course, that's all relative according to the priorities / interests you have in life.
JamieT touched on the term of micro volunteering and if the attention span of youth today is small (or so we're lead to believe) then volunteering in bite sized chunks is a path that voluntary bodies need to explore and engage in, if they're to address this issue.
RockCorps are doing their bit, which with all the other iniatives out there engaging in micro volunteering activities, I believe will eventually lead to a realisation and recognition that 4 hours or 4 minutes worth of volunteering is just that - volunteering.
It should have the same credibility that traditional volunteering holds and I believe, eventually one day this will happen.
Please see quote from http://orangerockcorps.co.uk/2010/01/15/collective-catchup-olivia-at-the-john-mayer-gig/
"Olivia joined the Collective after she gave her 4 hours to Gladesmore Community School where she mentored children aged 12-15 with learning difficulties: ‘It’s a great experience – you’re making a difference to your community. It showed me the benefit that volunteering has on society.’ "
How is it possible for Olivia to have done this without a CRB check? Or did she go through the rigmorole of the lengthy CRB check just to do her 4 hours of volunteering?
Let's hope that Olivia was already a volunteer for the school, or that she was supervised for the duration of her 4 hours whilst working with vulnerable young people!
In this instance Olivia would definately be one of the 35% to continue assuming she had gone to all the trouble and time of getting her Criminal Records Disclosure.
{Just playing Devil's Advocate.... or am I?!?! LOL!}
I do actually agree with most of what @robjackson74 says. I've certainly no problem with short term volunteering be it four hours or four minutes. My concern is what appears to be the disproportionate level of reward for what could be (and apparently in 65% of cases is) a very brief commitment.
The fact that RockCorp was advertised nationwide yet only available (as @EmilyJBurnell points out) to young volunteers in three cities meant that many outside of these areas saw it as about advertising Orange rather than any genuine attempt to engage with young volunteers. If RockCorp is rolled out across the country and does inspire the 70,000 young volunteers that Stephen Greene is aiming for to genuinely become involved with volunteering then I’ll be the first to post congratulations on i-volunteer but until that happens I’ll reserve judgement.
Answer: In a previous interview Stephen has stated that 'Thirty-five per cent of participants involved with RockCorps concerts have gone on to volunteer again within six to 12 months of the initial event.' Now to me, that sounds like a pretty good hit rate. And if they are getting the ageing youth then they are certainly succeeding where very few large scale projects have succeeded before. Loving your smuttiness JamieT. And joy of joys it looks like these guys may not be one nighters.
I'm not 100% sure about RockCorp v any other form of volunteering...what I do know is that opportunities for volunteering need to be as flexible as possible, that 4 hours or 4 minutes - if it contributes to making a difference - is as valid as longer term volunteering. The motivators for being involved can be the same as any other volunteering: being part of a wider community, contributing, having fun, identifying with a cause are all there too. Our reality is that volunteering opportunities need to be as wide and varied as the people (and lifestyles) that will fulfill those roles. Seth Godin in his book 'Tribes' talks about leadership, the need to be ahead of change and take the risk of doing it 'wrong'. Volunteer leadership needs to do the same.
ok so that's 20,000 hours of community benefit! Great! That is a big collective community impact which shouldn't be knocked.
However, at least 1/2 hr of the 4 hours should be an induction to the volunteering opportunity - then there's comfort breaks, and possibly donning appropriate clothing - so how much of the 4 hours is actually taken up with volunteering?! Hmmm?
Question: how many of the Orange RockCorps volunteers actually carried on with the volunteering after the concert? that would be testament to the experience!
I wonder why so much money was spent advertising this in the SW last year when there were no opportunities for people in the SW to get involved in a specific RockCorps project? It seems a shame.
I do think engaging for however much time is a well-needed start - what I think the long term aim could be is for a sustained volunteering culture amongst as many people as possible. Maybe we should be tapping into brands and letting YP follow the lead, maybe we can build on the efforts of the RockCorps movement and make it much bigger and with a larger impact for as many people as possible in further flung corners of the UK!!!!
Totally agree with @robjackson74 and without wanting to sound smutty, the size of your contribution really does not matter, it's what you do with it that counts...if we think that four hours of volunteering is not enough time to have an impact then what about micro volunteering - surely it's about having a range of opportunities that suit different people's time and motivation rather than a prescriptive one size fits all approach...
I respectfully disagree with Nick. The duration of volunteering opportunities isn't an issue. Why can people not do something meaningful for their community in four hours? Why should the fact that someone has to do 50 or 100 hours make their contribution more worthwhile? Surely they could be sitting around doing nothing of any real value for that time just as much as people could for four hours? In fact, I'd argue that is even more of a waste of people's effort an energy.
The real point is about design of volunteer opportunities. Has the volunteer involving organisation developed something meaningful that can be done in four hours, fifty hours, a hundred hours etc? If so, great - let's get to work. If not, then something needs doing to address that.
I think the volunteering community needs to finally realise that not everyone wants to selflessly dedicate themselves to endless hours of service over a long period of time. Short term or short duration volunteering isn't a bad thing, it is a different thing. There is a real skill in developing meaningful short term/short duration volunteering opportunities and we need to practice and celebrate our ability to do it, not run and hide behind outdated views that people who give more time make more of a difference.
@nick : I shared some of your reservations before meeting Stephen Greene, but he makes a powerful case for the need to meet young people's demand for 'bite size' volunteering opps.
The fact is that they are pioneering a new model that is bringing in new money - their community partners certainly seem happy with it. And, what's more, they're seeking to extend their offering through their new RockCorps Collective.
I have no connection to them and no personal interest but I was genuinely impressed by what I heard.
And, of course, there's no reason why orgs like v, CSV and BTCV can't do their own things in their own way. There's room for all.