Why do so few people volunteer now?

Thank you for your positive comments NotSpaghetti. I’m dispirited by the number of people with nothing but moans and criticism

I volunteer two mornings a week in a food bank and one afternoon in a charity shop. It’s as and when I can make it, only filled in one form for each and showed passport for Id purposes. Ideal and I love it. Not required to take on any courses or commit to anything which would mean not doing either.

@poppyred I think it depends on the area as foodbanks need references and commitment here.

Iam64 I did spend, in my day job, a lot of time with local teams - but this was the county heads of services (and in some case area heads).

Ideally they would have liked more leeway to help each other out in mutual interest but as the budget ring-fencing became tighter, and ironically, more "transparent", the government rules meant that they often had their hands tied and had to be super creative to achieve the best outcome.
Lots of overlapping needs but no overlapping funding.

I was volunteer treasurer of a local society which eventually closed down from lack of volunteers to join the committee. I chaired a national charitable trust for nearly 10 years until moving house made for travel problems so I gave up. I did a stint on the parish council which I found pretty boring.

I have some spare time and have considered volunteering.

My prior experience of charity shops is that they are run by elderly versions of the mean clique of girls in the playground at junior school.

I will not go through endless "diversity" training or be told which pronouns to use.

I will not be treated as an uneducated idiot.

So, back to litter picking and washing algae off the local road signs it is.