Celebrating volunteers week 1-7 June
I can’t actually remember the first time I volunteered – it was probably at a fun-run or community festival. I’ve been volunteering for as long as I can remember. But I really got stuck in at 16, when I started attending a peer support group for LGBTQ* young people, and soon found myself volunteering to be on the leadership committee. This led to all sort of other volunteering roles, such as an anti-homophobia peer educator at a project which did peer to peer workshops in schools, as a camp counsellor at a summer camp for LGBTQ* families and also as a reading coach/mentor at a local public school. Fast-forward a couple of decades and I’m still at it! More recently, volunteering at a community fridge and vaccination sites during the pandemic helped me keep my head above water amidst great uncertainty. I’m about to move house and one of the first things I did was look up any local volunteer opportunities – and was thrilled to find a community kitchen nearby in need of volunteers!
I love volunteering, and it’s brought so much to my life.
This Volunteers Week, I wanted to share a few of the benefits I’ve experienced as a volunteer:
Developing new skills
Volunteer roles have been a great way for me to develop my skills and experience. I’ve received all sorts of interesting and useful training and mentorship, from facilitation training to food hygiene and everything in between. On a ‘spring break’ service learning trip with Habitat for Humanity, I learned the pure joy of operating the ‘staple hammer’ – the closest I’ve ever come to using power tools! One of my current volunteer roles is as Trustee for a young person’s charity – doing this role alongside my CEO position at Action Hampshire has been hugely helpful and has enhanced my skills in charity finance, business development and all sorts of other things.
An outlet for my niche interests
I grew up in Canada but would visit my family in Lincolnshire several times a year. A highlight was always a visit to a local hedgehog rescue centre – they became one of my favourite animals. Moving to England in 2011, one of my favourite things has been the delight of finding out where my hedgehog neighbours live. So it was an absolute dream come true to volunteer at a hedgehog rescue and get to know these incredible creatures up close. I was even able to release two hedgehogs back into the wild via my back garden – an experience I’ll never forget. I’ve also had several volunteer roles supporting young people with reading – something that has always been a passion of mine. Volunteering has been a way to explore these interests alongside my career.
Staple hammer service learning
Creating the community/support network I needed
I’m not sure what coming out as a queer young person would have been like if I didn’t find the youth group I eventually co-ran – I just can’t imagine my life without it. It was volunteering for this group which made me realise the importance of user/peer/community-led groups, something I’m proud is a priority for us at Action Hampshire. Volunteering at the youth group, and also at the LGBT Youth Line in Toronto, gave me the opportunity to create the community and support network I needed as a young queer person figuring myself out. When going through a divorce a couple of years ago, one of the most useful things I did was find a couple of volunteer roles which would help me get out of the house and around people a couple of times a week.
Making new friends
I’ve met lots of incredible people volunteering, including my two best friends, one of whom I co-ran the youth group with for 2 years. When moving to a new place, volunteering has helped me meet new people. By choosing volunteer roles that relate to my values, interests and identity, I’ve found like-minded people, as well as unlikely friends who have had very different life experiences to my own, and whom I wouldn’t likely have gotten to know otherwise. As an introvert and as someone who has anxiety, volunteering roles have provided a way to meet people in a structured, less pressurised way. Volunteering roles involve training, schedules, shifts, etc which remove barriers for me and make it easier to interact with new people.
Career development
Several of my volunteer roles have resulted in employment opportunities. This is in fact how I ended up working in the VCSE sector (or in non-profits, as we say in Canada). Volunteering at Inside Out film festival one year led to a paid position I held yearly until moving to England. Volunteering on the LGBT Youth Line phone lines led to a paid Outreach worker role, which I did alongside continuing to volunteer on fundraising and grantmaking committees. And a volunteer student placement at the Stephen Lewis Foundation led to a summer job working on an incredible campaign. None of these were opportunities I would have known about or been able to apply for if I had not been volunteering. These days, I’m thinking about how volunteering could support my career development goals and looking for a trustee role at a grantmaking foundation to build skills and experience in that field.
Putting my values into purposeful action
I started work at 13 and spent over a decade in retail and service roles. Volunteer provided a way to add purpose and meaning to my life at a time where my work and passions weren’t yet aligned. Volunteering has also been a way to take action on things that matter to me – joining letter-writing campaigns with Amnesty International, various roles at organisations who support refugees and asylum seekers (‘newcomers’ in Canada), and more recently at community food projects. These opportunities have allowed me to put my values into action, and to support people and movements that matter to me.
To my fellow volunteers and volunteer managers, thank you for all you do to support Hampshire’s VCSE sector.
Volunteers Week is all about celebrating you – we see you, you’re wonderful, thank you! And to anyone thinking about volunteering, do give it a try! There are unlimited possibilities out there – from working with animals to supporting a young person, to doing some paperwork, to attending incredible events. Enjoy!
