MEANWHILE...
WE’RE HAVING FUN!
‘725,000 of HE students, volunteer for an average of
44 hours
per year
with over 60% of students volunteering at least once a week. This is the equivalent to the UK economy of:
£175,000,000.’ Student Volunteering Landscape, 2014
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87%
of employers think that volunteering can have a generally positive effect on career progression for people aged 16-25.
Highlighting that communities and charities benefit from student volunteering Karen Sparkes, Head of Volunteering, Barnardo’s said: “Our student volunteers provide an essential service to the charity. Volunteering gives students the opportunity to develop skills, gain work experience and give something back to their community. (NUS Connect, 2014) National Union of Students states that ‘statistics suggest that there were on average 48 graduates applying for every job opening last year, making it more important than ever to stand out of the crowd.’ (NUS, 2009)
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THE
BENEFITS
97%
‘A sense of satisfaction from seeing the results’
96%
88%
86%
83%
‘I really enjoy it’
‘It gives me a sense of personal achievement.’
‘Meet people and make friends.’
‘Gives me a chance to do things I’m good at.’
As given by volunteers. Institute of Volunteering Research, 2014
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There are multiple benefits to volunteering, and while at UWE there are plenty of opportunities out there for students. It is a good opportunity to develop skills in your chosen area of study and get experience to put on your CV for future employers. You may also gain insights in particular organisations that you are interested in. Depending on the type of volunteering chosen such skills like, time management, organisational, communication, teamwork, leadership could be gained. It is also a good confidence booster and gets you meeting new people. Not to mention having fun! You could even start up your own project for the local community, just fill out an online form telling the university about your idea.
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CHANGE YOUR LIFE BY CHANGING SOMEONE ELSE’S Student Volunteering Week, 2014
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RUBY 2nd Year Geography Student K: Why do you like volunteering? R: For a number of reasons, I think that for university being somewhere for three years and not getting involved in the things that are being offered to you is a waste, I think, were being offered all these opportunities and I think its good to get involved in them. K: What do you enjoy most about volunteering? R: I’ve met some really nice people, through doing it, erm, the perks, you get to go to quite fun events and be actually involved in it rather than just watching it. So I did the thing with Temwa, which we got to go to a night and we waitressed there and then and we got a free ticket to the night and that was really fun and felt really involved, and actually met some people through that set up a charity which I want to be involved in even more, its called Fareshare and it’s about foods, like sustainability which links in with my course and is a really good thing to do before I sort of get a career. K: That’s good, so you found out more by volunteering then. R: Yeah it’s linked me into even more opportunities.
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There is a range of volunteering opportunities out there to suit you, depending on what you enjoy and what you would like to get out of the experience. On these pages is just a few of the different opportunities, there are many more!
ART
CHAR
ITY W ORK
URE & CULT
ANIMALS
OFFENDERS & EX-OFFENDERS
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ENVIR
ONME
NT
HOMELESSNESS
WORK WITH CHILDREN
MUSI
C
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INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERING
I really want to do an internship in Berlin to help me with my course and CV, but I have a lack of funds!
Well, you can apply for a bursary of up to £500 to help you, it’s called the UWE Go Global Bursary.
Volunteering internationally opens up opportunities to explore different cultures and get involved in their way of life. For some people it can help make clear what they want their future career goals to be. Think about what you would like to do, do you want to work within the community? Or would you like to work with conservation and the animals? There is plenty out there, but do your research. Some companies may not be as good as you may first think and some can be very pricey. You can apply for a bursary through UWE if you have not yet reached your final year and are going overseas for a placement, volunteering opportunity, work experience or an internship. It is called the UWE Go Global Bursary, for more information and the application form go to UWE website. . Another bursary for 17-24 year old’s is the Raleigh Graduate Bursary Award for Volunteering Overseas offers those that may not be able to afford it to have the experience. The Raleigh Expedition is challenging and rewarding.
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RALEIGH INTERNATIONAL ‘Employers also value overseas volunteering. In fact new research by Raleigh involving leading graduate recruiters such as BT, Cap Gemini, Costain, IBM and UBS, reveals that employers rated a Raleigh expedition as the second most constructive use of an applicant’s time’ (NUS, 2009) Raleigh expeditions contribute to sustainable development projects in Borneo, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Tanzania. Raleigh International Citizen Service (ICS) is a UK government funded program that brings together young people to help in the poorest countries. They ask volunteers and team leaders to raise a minimum of £800 to go towards the 7,000 UK volunteers working with the 7,000 in country volunteers to fight poverty. This will be the only financial contribution, your travel, accommodation and immunisations are covered by Raleigh ICS. To find out more visit http://www.raleighinternational.org/
‘Raleigh gives you the chance to do things that you would never get to try at any other time in your life. I feel like I now have a global network. The memories that I will return with aren’t just a photo album, it is what I have learnt and developed as a person.’ Dougie, took part in the Raleigh Expedition to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
‘Raleigh ICS has definitely changed what I plan to pursue in the remaining months of my gap year. I think this programme improved my self confidence and ability to integrate with new with people. I hope now to spend a few months travelling alone, something I would have been nervous, rather than excited about before my experiences on ICS. Having more responsibilities than I have at home has helped to become more independent.’ Jishnu, volunteered in India.
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ACTION DAYS ‘It’s great being able to take part in these activities and not be committed to something long term.’
UWE organises one off days of volunteering, within the community. A group of student volunteers to go out and help the local area. These range from beach cleans, gardening to going and serving Christmas lunch at a homeless shelter. UWE volunteering asks students what they would like to volunteer for and try and organise such events. They are open to ideas so if there is something that you would like to do go and speak to one of the team. Opportunities to take part in these action days are posted on the student union page, http://www.uwesu.org/activities/volunteer/ actiondays/ and by logging into InfoHub.
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Photographs taken at the City Farm, UWE volunteers making the space suitable for children to come along and learning about gardening and vegetables. Windmill Hill City Farm would not be where it is today if it was not for all the volunteers who garden, run community projects, look after the animals and generally keep the place going.
‘It was a good excuse to get outside.’
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SMALL IDEAS CAN HAVE A HUGE IMPACT Student Volunteering Week, 2014
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ZARYA, AGE 23, 2nd Year Fashion Student I volunteered for My Fest in Bristol last year as an usher so that I could get involved in more things Bristol has to offer, to meet more creative people and I got free tickets for helping out to some great live art performances in the festival. I enjoyed getting involved in the creative community and being part of a large scale project. I also enjoyed meeting new people.
CHARLOTTE, AGE 19, 2nd Year Photography Student I volunteer because I like helping others and also to gain experience. I volunteered to invigilate at a photography exhibition because the photographer desperately needed someone to do it. I also thought that it would be useful for me to experience as I hope to be able to exhibit my work in the future. It would also be helpful to put on my CV and the photographer said that he will write me a good reference for helping.
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SILVER SURFERS ‘I decided to chose to volunteer for Silver Surfers to do something to help the community and be able to put something down on my CV that shows volunteering experience.’
UWE Silver Surfers Project aim is to break down the digital divide and help the older generation with anything they want to learn on the computer. All you need is the basic computer skills to make a difference in their lives. It give good experience in teaching and training. Each student volunteer is paired up with an older person to tutor them for 6 weeks with I.T skills. It develops communication skills and is a rewarding experience, the people are grateful for the skills. The tutoring lasts for around an hour a week with then tea, coffee and biscuits at the end for a bit of a chat and socialising. There are lots of opportunities for volunteering tutors and then there are 4 spaces for volunteering project leaders in each 6 week block. The project leaders help develop the project and there for any questions from the volunteer tutors.
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NATALIE PURDING Project Leader, March 2014
Why did you choose to volunteer for Silver Surfers? N. Well I heard about the project through one of my course friends, she did it last year and was a project leader and she really raved about the experience and had a good time, really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it, so I thought it’s worth looking into because I hadn’t volunteered before so as I’m now in my third year I thought it’s maybe one of the last opportunities for me to do that through uni and I also read about it on Jobshop so I then did an application and was successful so I’m glad to be taking part. Yeah it’s good I wish I had signed up because I saw it last year, but I didn’t think I’d be that good at it. N. Me too, I did think if I had been a tutor it would be too tough but actually now I’m here I realise that even my skills is enough to tutor because a lot of them just want the basic skills, for example email, internet. They’re so grateful as well... N. Yeah their really really happy to be here they enjoy the social aspect of it, yeah it’s just a good project to be involved with, I’m really glad to of done it. And last one, what do you enjoy most about it? N. I think its seeing everyone enjoying it, even the volunteers seem really happy with the project and the silver surfers each week seem really excited to come and their all so thankful so it’s nice to be a part of that and it’s just something different and I think everyone’s getting something out of it, so yeah I’ve enjoyed seeing the same faces each week and it’s a shame it’s the last week now really, it’s gone really quick, 6 weeks flown by.
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R.A.G Raise and Give Student Societies (RAG). It exists across most universities in the UK and is a society that focuses on fundraising for selected charities. It supports national and international charities. The society creates events that people can enjoy as well as raising money for the charity. They hold raffles, bar crawls, speed dating as well as taking part in collections in town and supermarkets. UWE are launching a brand new R.A.G committee for September 2014. Fundraising training from the student union is offered to those involved along with gaining project leadership skills being part of the society is beneficial. As well as having fun doing activities and attending events. To get involved email volunteers@uwe.ac.uk or drop in to the Community and Representation office on level 5 of F block at Frenchay. First steps will be to get to know socially the others involved and discuss ideas for what the UWE R.A.G will be. Come September together you will run a stall at the Freshers Fair to recruit lots of new RAGGERS. http://www.uwesu.org/activities/fundraising/rag/
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REFERENCES NUS, 2009. http://www.nus.org.uk/en/advice/volunteering/volunteering-overseas/ NUS Connect, 2014. http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/38400/The-StudentVolunteering-Landscape/ IVR, 2014. http://www.ivr.org.uk/ivr-volunteering-stats Holdsworth,C 2010. www.ivr.org.uk/component/ivr/student-volunteers-a-national-profile Student Volunteering Week, 2014. http://www.studentvolunteeringweek.org.uk/ UWE, 2014. www.uwe.ac.uk/students/careersandemployability/volunteering UWE RAG, 2014. http://www.uwesu.org/activities/fundraising/rag/ UWE Volunteering Facebook, 2014. https://www.facebook.com/uwevolunteering
OTHER USEFUL LINKS www.info-hub.uwe.ac.uk www.do-it.org.uk/ www.gvi.co.uk/volunteer-abroad www.nus.org.uk/en/advice/volunteering/ www.volunteering.org.uk
OR just pop into UWE Volunteering in the Community Hub at Frenchay for advice.
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Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth. Muhammad Ali
Katie Mitchell Š 2014 www.katiemitchelldesigns.co.uk