Unit 1 – Understanding Place

Explore the connections you have locally through your volunteering and consider ways to expand the diversity of your volunteers.

Unit 1.1: Local Data

Local data is vital for understanding your area. This unit helps you source the most relevant data for your area.

Unit 2 – Bonding, Bridging, and Linking

Find out more about the benefits of building social capital connected to volunteering.

Unit 2.1: Bonding

This section describes the connections within a group or community. It discusses how this can be really good for building connections between people, but also has dangers for social cohesion.

Unit 2.2: Bridging

The Bridging section explores the connections between communities which are separated by divisions such as race, class, or religion. Is also discusses how this helps individuals gain social mobility, power, and new opportunities.

Unit 2.3: Linking

Find out more about how linking capital is critical to the development of communities. Through the connections made by linking with local authorities, health, police and other service providers it makes communities more resilient and safer.

Unit 3: Strengthening Social Cohesion

See which principles may support your volunteering and build social cohesion at the same time.

Unit 3.1: Removing Barriers to Engagement

Read about how expenses, time and feeling you belong can reduce the number of volunteers that you have and how long they stay.

Unit 3.2: Conditions for Social Mixing

This section describes the positive experiences people can have from meeting people they would not otherwise meet. Where this happens and how it is supported are really important.

Unit 3.3: Managing Rivalrous Cohesion

This section describes what is both good and bad for social cohesion when people strongly identify with one group and what you can do about it.

Unit 3.4: Local people in the driving seat

Working together with local people can help build a sense of democratic processes working for everyone’s benefit. Find out more about the importance of co-design and co-production

Unit 3.5: Connecting in all directions

If you are actively involved in bonding, bridging and linking, then that sense of connection grows. Read this section to find out more.

Unit 3.6: Increasing Voice and Agency

Ever felt too shy or too angry to say something? This section talks about the importance of volunteers getting involved in decision-making and influencing.

Unit 1.2: Services

Discover a range of places where people can mix and develop sustained contact.

Unit 1.3: Physical Geography, History and Culture

Find out more about the importance of understanding historical local context.

Unit 1.4: Social Hubs

Understanding social hubs can give your projects the best chance of reaching across community lines.

Unit 4: Choosing Social Cohesion Outcomes

Select the outcomes that fit with the type of volunteering you are engaged in. Remember that every group/organisation is unique.

Unit 4.1: Trust in Institutions

Trust in institutions like the council, health services, and police is important for many organisations supporting people to connect with services around them. This section also contains a warning where there is no trust in key institutions.

Unit 4.2: Trust in Other Groups

If you are signposting people to other groups delivering services, you will want to know they can be trusted to treat people with respect and support their individual needs. This section contains information about how to build that trust.

Unit 4.4: Sense of Belonging

Volunteering is a great way to feel a sense of belonging to something that is making a positive contribution. Building social cohesion targets into your activities can ensure those benefits are available to everyone.

Unit 4.3: Trust in Others Around You

More connected communities are safer for everyone, particularly children and vulnerable adults. Find out more about how this works and how important it is to know where to go if you are uncomfortable with anyone’s behaviour.

Unit 4.5: Valuing the Future

Building bridges across differences can be part of what makes people feel more hopeful as we live in an increasingly diverse society. Respecting people’s different memories and hopes for future generations is key to feeling connected to the past, present and future.

Unit 4.6: Social Exchange

Being rewarded with respect, prestige, or possibly an action that helps the volunteer, such as alerting someone to a job vacancy can all be part of the social exchange that comes with volunteering.

Unit 4.7: Increase in Volunteering

Thinking about social cohesion brings additional benefits of more volunteers, strengthened neighbourhoods, healthier and more resilient communities.

Unit 4.8: Wider Outcomes

From improvements to mental health to reduced vulnerability to social media bubbles and conspiracy theories, volunteering with people who bring different perspectives is good for everyone.

Unit 5: Making an Action Plan

This is your opportunity to put your learning into action and apply what you have learnt from each unit.

Getting Started

It’s time to explore The Power of Connection. View this introduction for an overview of volunteering.

Test Toolkit

My Action Plan

It’s time to explore The Power of Connection. View this introduction for an overview of volunteering.