Background to the Research

• The VDA were interested in exploring the linkage between social capital and volunteering at a local level. To this end the author was asked to carry out a qualitative survey of the various community development and voluntary organisations operating within East Belfast.
  

Research Approach

• In-depth interview were carried out with academics, representatives from the voluntary and statutory sectors and community activists involved in a range of projects and organisations in East Belfast.
  

Main Findings

• Participants agreed that a great deal of volunteer work was going on in East Belfast; however it appeared to be a minority of people who participated and the same volunteers seemed to be involved in many types of volunteering activities.
• Those involved in volunteer groups felt that it was a reciprocal activity in which they got back as much as they gave, in terms of knowledge, involvement in the community and a sense of purpose.
• Trust, in terms of people's willingness to engage with volunteers, appears to be an essential component of volunteering.
• There appeared to be little volunteering work being carried out across the Protestant and Catholic communities. Participants reported that the cessation or slowing down of cross-community work was due to increased tension and problems on the interface between Short Strand and the rest of East Belfast.
• Whilst self-sufficiency within communities was viewed as positive in terms of greater bonding between members of a community, it had the potential to inhibit cross-community co-operation across the interfaces.
• The influence of paramilitary groups remains strong in East Belfast, especially in Inner East. There tends to be a high degree of interaction between paramilitary groups and community groups.
• Participants reported that government funding of community organisations was essential to the development of social capital, although some respondents expressed concerns in relation to the social capital indicators used by government in the allocation of funds.
• The research would indicate that a great deal of volunteering is going on in East Belfast, albeit by a minority of people in the area. Nevertheless, this work is developing new relationships, networks and unlocking much previously untapped social capital.