As Aesop once said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted”. Doing something for others involves giving your time, energy, skills and attributes to others without expecting anything in return. In our final week of Feel Good work this term (which coincides beautifully with Student Volunteering Week) we’re focusing on how helping others can also help yourself.
Included are a smatter of volunteering opportunities (even one you can do on your computer from home), and also details of how you can literally give (parts of) yourself to others – after the success of the blood drive last term, we’ve organised a session so you can register as a bone marrow donor here on campus, and we’ve listed places in the local area where you can give blood this week. Oh, and a link to register as an organ donor too. Winner.
BIG CHALLENGE
In celebration of Student Volunteering week, Warwick Volunteers -in conjunction with Horizon Volunteering at Coventry University- annually hold a one-day volunteering event entitled the ‘Big Challenge’ which involves over 90 students from both universities. This year the Big Challenge will be taking place on February 27th and will host three projects across Coventry. The largest project will work to re-decorate an after-school club based at Wyken Croft Primary School, making it more vibrant and engaging for the children. Murals designed by children from the school will be painted, with one incorporating the school emblem and another, painted in the toilets to encourage the children to practice good hand hygiene. The other two projects which will involve conservation work are taking place at Stoke Floods Nature Reserve and a Scout Activity Centre. At the former, Warwick Volunteers will be working in conjunction with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to conduct general clearance work as well as footpath and habitat improvement. At the Scout Activity Centre, volunteers will help construct a paddock style fence and plant trees.
The day provides a chance for volunteers to meet like-minded people, make a very immediate impact and see the diversity student volunteering can offer.
For more info, contact Kirstie Osborne (the Project Assistant) on 024 7657 3066.
vision2015
The theme for 2010, ‘Inspiring futures; connecting communities’, highlights the personal and professional benefit of student volunteering to the individual, along side the value of volunteering to the wider community. Warwick's Vision 2015 strategy celebrates the involvement of the 2000 students involved with Warwick Volunteers for the valuable service they provide to the local and regional community.
Our recently-launched Community Strategy highlights the importance of volunteering for connecting students with the communities in which they live. This connection is vital both for ensuring that local neighbourhoods recognise students as a positive addition to their community, and for optimising the experience of students during their time at Warwick.
To explore these themes further, Warwick Volunteers has partnered with the Reinvention Centre and the Students’ Union to participate in the national vinspired students research project, which aims to push the boundaries of student volunteering. Through working collaboratively with local community groups, our aim is to develop a new model for student volunteering that delivers tangible outcomes for the local community and adds measurable value to the volunteers’ experience. Further information on the vinspired students programme is available here.
For more info, contact Peter Rose (the Warwick Volunteers manager) on 024 7657 2821.
Kidz Kamp
Kidz Kamp is a Warwick Volunteers project that offers local school children aged between nine and ten the chance to go away on a residential trip and get involved in activities they may not have had the opportunity to participate in before.
The activities are very interactive and fun, however they have an educational tone to make sure the children learn from the activities. This also gives the children a chance to interact with their fellow classmates in order to gain experiences and memories. Furthermore, the trip helps the children to build life skills by getting them to work with different people in their class they may not otherwise work with. The trip lasts for four days during the Easter vacation and this year will take twenty children, ten volunteers and two teaching staff to an idyllic setting in the Peak District.
The project is run by a number of volunteers, who are responsible for organising the trip, finding a venue, fundraising for every aspect of the trip including accommodation and food, organising activities for the children to get involved in, attending the relevant training required, and actually running the trip when away. For the first time this year, the children have been involved with planning the menus and activities for the holiday, and have visited campus to get to know the volunteers before the residential.
Kidz Kamp is an amazing project to be a part of; it does require a lot of time and dedication, however the rewards are amazing and you gain so much from it. “It truly is a life changing experience”.
For more info, contact Gus Sagoo and Peter Coppenhall (the Kidz Kamp Project Leaders) at kidzkamp_2010@hotmail.co.uk.
Mentoring
Mentoring brings together teenagers and University students, to help teenagers realise their full potential. In weekly group activities they go through important information about higher education, careers and explore their individual talents, and so contributes to Widening Participation objectives. These teenagers have the opportunity to start thinking about their futures with people closer to their age and the relationships formed make a real difference. But there is more to mentoring than just giving. Take it from current Mentors:
It gives me a chance to work in a team with other amazing students across an array of years and courses that I never would have met otherwise. Best of all, I get to leave the bubble of campus, go out into the real world and start to make a difference.
(Joe Knock)
Mentoring is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences I have ever had in my university life; you see the value in yourself when you see other people benefit.. As an international student, it gives me an immiscible chance to explore another new aspect of British culture.
(Ruiqi Zhang)
Mentoring develops your communication skills, time management and creativity. Mentoring brings satisfaction when you become the bridge for the mentees to a world they know so little about. Personal experience is more convincing than just facts and figures. You might just be the turning point someone’s life!
(Andrew Lam)
Relating and chatting to the mentees was so much more natural, and was met with more enthusiasm, than I thought it would be. I am so keen to see them develop more of a love for things they didn't even know they really wanted to achieve. I love all the mentors’ as well, and have made some great friends out of it!
(Rachel Mayhew)
For more info, contact Anjani Amlani (the Mentoring Project Leader) at Anjani.Amlani@warwick.ac.uk.
BLOOD DONATION
As was shown by the turn-out at the blood donation session in the Copper Rooms last term, Warwick students are really into blood-letting for a good cause. We've found some sessions just off-campus for people to get back involved with...
LEAMINGTON SPA
Location: ROYAL SPA CENTRE, NEWBOLD TERRACE, LEAMINGTON SPA, WARWICKSHIRE, CV32 4HN (
view in Google Maps)
Date: Thursday week 7 (25 Feb 2010)
Time: 13:30 to 15:30 and 16:30 to 19:30
Register on the give blood website.
COVENTRY
Location: THE CENTRAL HALL, WARWICK LANE, COVENTRY, WEST MIDLANDS, CV1 2HA (
view in Google Maps)
Date: Friday week 7 (26 Feb 2010)
Time: 10:30 to 13:30 and 15:00 to 17:30
Register on the give blood website.
BE A BONE MARROW DONOR
Warwick Marrow (a joint project between Medical School students and Anthony Nolan Trust) are coming down to main campus this week to try and get as many people signed up onto a bone marrow register as possible.
How it will work
After checking you meet their criteria, they'll make you complete a questionnaire and then hopefully take a blood sample from you. You'll then be put onto the Anthony Nolan Register, and may at some point be contacted asking for your bone marrow. Lovely! Learn more on the Anthony Nolan website.
Other info
As matches for transplants are most likely to be found within an individual’s ethnic group, ethnic minorities are specifically encouraged to attend. See you there!
N.B.: if you're already on one of the bone marrow registers, you don't need to sign up to this one too! You only need to be on one.
Date: Wednesday week 7 (24th February)
Time: 10:00-15:00
Location: Copper Rooms 2 in the Students’ Union
BE AN ORGAN DONOR
Only 27% of people in the UK have joined the Organ Donor Register. At present 10,000 people in the UK currently need a transplant, and of these, 1000 will die while waiting for an organ.
If you support organ donation but have never got around to registering, please do so today. We've got a few tasks you can do to really help promote the message.
- Join the Organ Donor Register, if you haven't already. You can do so by FOLLOWING THIS LINK – it should only take a few minutes! Alternatively, register the next time you visit your GP.
- The register doesn't just need one more sign-up, it needs thousands. Join the Facebook group, "Become and Organ Donor", and invite all your friends to join the group and join the register.
- Sign the petition on the Number 10 website to make organ donation opt-out rather than opt-in. E-mail your MP asking him to raise this as a question in Prime Minister's Questions.
FANCY VOLUNTEERING FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN PC?
Beatbullying is the UK’s leading bullying prevention charity, empowering young people to lead bullying prevention campaigns in their schools and local communities. CyberMentors are young people who help, assist and support their peers in an online virtual community, as well as on mobiles, helping to safeguard themselves and act as mentors and guides to young people they meet online.
Over 1 million young people get bullied every week in the UK, and giving them 2 hours of your time every week will make a huge difference to their lives. Warwick Volunteers is supporting CyberMentors, and will be arranging a training session on campus later this term. E-mail volunteers@warwick.ac.uk to register your interest.