The Idun-award recently presented by Aarhus municipality aims to honor volunteering that is actively making a difference to help vulnerable groups. This year’s theme is “The mental well-being of children and young people”. The winner gets 25.000 dkk. However, the local volunteers find that this is the wrong approach.
By Cecilie Bjerre Hemmingsen, Hannah Rose Straily and Theis Klausen Nielsen
On Nørre Allé in the heart of Aarhus, a small thrift store named Røde Kors is located. It’s a store run by volunteers, who aim to help vulnerable groups of people through the money that the store earns. The reason behind the work varies from volunteer to volunteer, but the main common denominator among the volunteers in Røde Kors is; none of them do it for the money:
“You kind of get to know a group of people. It’s fulfilling. And you get to be a part of this strong community”, says Cathleen Collins, volunteering in Røde Kors, Aarhus.
According to Cathleen this is also the reason why the new Idun-award presented by councilor, Anders Winnerskjold (S), is not gonna have the desired impact:
“It’s kind of knocking the wrong doors as far as incentivizing volunteering”, she says.
Not only Cathleen finds this to be the wrong approach when it comes to getting more people to volunteer. Marie Angela Christensen, who’s also volunteering at Røde Kors, Aarhus, has an idea to an alternative – and according to her – more sustainable solution:
“Maybe I’d be more for making an article about them in the newspaper (…) of course it’s nice that people get credit for the work they’re doing, but I don’t think it necessarily has to be money.”
We’ve presented our critique to Anders Winnerskjold, but weren’t able to get a response.