Student Volunteering Week is an annual event that celebrates student volunteering in all its glory!
We recently hosted lots of exciting events for this year's Student Volunteering Week which took place in February 2023. These events included volunteering initiatives giving you the chance to volunteer, as well as a range of information sessions to enable you to find out more about specific volunteering. To give you an idea of the events and initiatives that took place, please see below.
Please do not worry if you missed out on Student Volunteering Week this year but are still interested in getting involved in volunteering as we organise a range of Volunteer Days throughout the academic year, as well as information events for you to find out more.
If you have any questions about volunteering, please email us via volunteers@manchester.ac.uk.
Get Into Volunteering is a space where you can discover a variety of volunteering opportunities available to you. You’ll get to chat with the leaders of volunteering projects and ask any questions you may have, chat to staff about your Stellify award and find out about fundraising events happening this year too!
From children's mentoring to night-time safety, sustainability initiatives to working with people with experience of homelessness, there's a project for everyone interested in volunteering. Whether you're going for your Stellify award, working on your CV, wanting to meet people or to make a difference, come to the Get Into Volunteering event to find out about all the ways you could get involved.
Tickets are free, and you can book ahead here to avoid missing out!
If you have any questions, please email volunteering.su@manchester.ac.uk
Have you got any questions about Stellify? Are you thinking about achieving the Stellify Award but you're not sure where to begin? You may have a question about volunteering to achieve the Stellify Award, and/or have a question about the other aspects of Stellify (Step Up and Lead and Understanding the Issues That Matter).
If so, drop by and meet our dedicated Stellify team who will be able to assist you with any Stellify queries that you have.
If you can't make it to the Drop In but have a Stellify question, email stellify@manchester.ac.uk with your queries. A member of the team will get back to you.
The Homeless Outreach Project is dedicating Student Volunteering Week to new prospective members. Typical sessions include meeting at the Students' Union and handing out hot chocolate, tea, and coffee around Manchester City Centre for around two hours.
Contact project leaders Madeline and Adalberto at homeless.outreach2@outlook.com for any questions.
The Homeless Outreach Project is dedicating Student Volunteering Week to new prospective members. Typical sessions include meeting at the Students' Union and handing out hot chocolate, tea, and coffee around Manchester City Centre for around two hours.
Contact project leaders Madeline and Adalberto at homeless.outreach2@outlook.com for any questions.
Although this event is taking place from 11am to 3pm on the day, the Volunteering Team will be there from 12 noon to 2pm to answer any of your volunteering queries.
Pop along to the sweet shop on the ground floor of University Place to find more about volunteering as well as a range of other options including:
• Student Experience Internships
• Manchester Graduate Talent (final year students only)
• Work experience
• Part-time jobs
You can also travel back in time and grab some Pick 'n' Mix sweets whilst you are there and go back to the present to enter a competition to win a £50 Amazon voucher.
No need to book. Just come along on the day - we look forward to meeting you!
As part of Student Volunteering Week, the Volunteering Team invites you to take part in Post Pals' mission to make a 'card, a letter or even a gift and give a poorly child's face a much needed lift', by coming along to The School of Creativity in the Whitworth Art Gallery on Valentine's Day, Tuesday 14 February between 1pm and 3pm. Here, you will have the chance to relax and unwind after an arduous exam season by making cards and writing letters to the post pals!
Arts and craft materials will be provided by the University so all you need is yourself and a can-do attitude!
As the event will take place in a gallery space, hot drinks and food of any kind are strictly prohibited. However, the gallery café is open until 5pm where you can buy refreshments.
Please note: This event is now full. Everyone who has applied has received a confirmation email with further details.
Drop into the Atrium on 1st floor of University Place and enjoy free hot drinks and breakfast items on us between 8.30am – 10:00am, until stocks last. Get warm and comfy in our cosy campus soft seating, settle down and enjoy a free breakfast.
What better way to start your day if you are planning to go along and get involved in Big Volunteer Day...
Big Volunteer Day is back for Student Volunteering Week 2023! With your help we’ll be working with Ardwick Climate Change to make a positive impact on the local Ardwick community and environment, which is located directly behind our University campus (so its only a five minute walk away).
You can join us anytime in the day between 10am-3pm. Why not invite your course mates, housemates or society to join in the fun?
As a team we will be hedge planting, greening up community spaces and building bird and bat boxes, as well as lots of other activities. Together we will be helping combat air polution in the local area, as well as improving the area for local residents, wildlife and for everyone passing by!
We’ll be joining forces with local residents, but we need as many volunteers as possible so that we can complete all the tasks we have planned! You can see what’s in store for you in this video.
To sign up go to Big Volunteer Day on Volunteer Hub.
The Homeless Outreach Project is dedicating Student Volunteering Week to new prospective members. Typical sessions include meeting at the Students' Union and handing out hot chocolate, tea, and coffee around Manchester City Centre for around two hours.
Contact project leaders Madeline and Adalberto at homeless.outreach2@outlook.com for any questions.
Whitworth Park on Oxford Road is close to the University campus and the location of Whitworth Art Gallery, one of Manchester's greatest cultural assets. In recent years the gallery has reconnected with Whitworth Park, providing communal gardens and outdoor programmes.
For this Volunteer Day we will be working with the Friends of Whitworth Park to help maintain the Ken Shone Centre Circle for the community to use.
This is an ideal opportunity if you have an interest in art and nature and enjoy getting outside in the fresh air!
Please note: This event is now full. Everyone who has applied has received a confirmation email with further details.
Our international volunteering projects are launching for summer 2023! Find out about overseas volunteering opportunities and how you can get involved.
The session will outline this year’s international volunteering programme including Team Rwanda and our Trusted Partners. We will discuss things to consider when volunteering overseas and funding available this year.
Come along to this online Zoom session to find out more!
To access the session go to: https://zoom.us/j/93209370951 at 12 noon until 1pm on Thursday 16 February.
The Homeless Outreach Project is dedicating Student Volunteering Week to new prospective members. Typical sessions include meeting at the Students' Union and handing out hot chocolate, tea, and coffee around Manchester City Centre for around two hours.
Contact project leaders Madeline and Adalberto at homeless.outreach2@outlook.com for any questions.
Once a Month is an initiative that aims to tackle period poverty in our community by donating bags with period and hygiene products to different charities across Manchester.
Everyone is welcome to join us in our packing sessions where we pack bags while talking and listening to music.
You can book your place at this session here.
It’s 2023 and many people in Manchester and the rest of the UK are struggling to afford the basic essentials. To us this feels completely wrong.
Join the Zoom on Thursday 23rd February to meet staff from the Fallowfield and Withington Foodbank and find out how to get involved in our new partnership project - Foodbank Champions – a team of student volunteers who will work on projects to support and empower people who are having to make difficult choices between heating and eating due to the cost-of-living crisis.
We have moved this session online and will be hosting it next week.
To access the session go to: https://zoom.us/j/96722785785 at 3:00pm on Thursday 23rd February.
If you can't attend this event but are interested in becoming a Foodbank Champion, you can sign up via Volunteer Hub here.
One Manchester is a local housing association that manages 12,500 homes in central, south and east Manchester. It is commited to working to improve the community for all, especially in the neighbourhoods it manages homes.
As part of Student Volunteering Week, One Manchester has organised a Community Clean Up in Hulme on Friday 17 February from 10am - 1pm, and is inviting you to get involved. Volunteers are needed to help door knock on customers doors and help take household items to the skip. It is also looking for people who can litter pick. All equipment will be provided.
For more details and sign up to this event go to the Hulme Community Clean Up event on Volunteer Hub.
The Homeless Outreach Project is dedicating Student Volunteering Week to new prospective members. Typical sessions include meeting at the Students' Union and handing out hot chocolate, tea, and coffee around Manchester City Centre for around two hours.
Contact project leaders Madeline and Adalberto at homeless.outreach2@outlook.com for any questions.
Join us for a volunteering session to support Community Mapping by mapping remote settlements in Uganda to make it easier for healthcare and prosthetic limbs to be delivered.
Community Mapping is an organisation based in the School of Environment, Education and Development at The University of Manchester. Its goal is to create maps of previously un-mapped areas of the world, in order to help address chronic humanitarian crises. These free maps have been used for all sorts of purposes, including the installation of internet connections, medical programmes and the creation of new water supplies across the region.
You can sign up to take part in the session on Volunteer Hub here.
Want Not Waste is a student-run, not-for-profit zero waste shop operating out of Academy 1 at the Students' Union. It aims to make sustainable living accessible to all, by providing dried goods, cleaning products, and lifestyle products from local and student-run businesses at a low price.
It also runs recycling schemes through Terracycle, a successful blog, and sustainability talks and workshops!
As young people, most of us are aware of sustainability. Many of us do what we can to be a more sustainable individual. We consume less, recycle more, reuse what we have etc. But how can we influence the lives around us to create a more sustainable world? Through thissustainability talk, Want Not Waste hopes to give advice on how to have a sustainable impact on others at a personal level, a team level, and a company-wide level. By the end, you should take away at least one thing you can implement in at least one aspect of your life.
Incredible Edible is a student-led group that aims to raise awareness of environmental issues, food justice and sustainability by cultivating organic vegetables and herbs around for the local community to use free of charge.
Fancy learning a little about bringing new plant life into the world? In this workshop we'll guide you through the process of producing plants from both cuttings and seeds. As an attendee, you will get to take home a planted pot to grow on your own windowsill!
Location: We'll be meeting at our greenhouse behind the lakeside centre in Platt Fields Park. Enter through the black metal gate beside the kid's playground but you MUST have a free ticket to attend. You can access your ticket here.
For contact info and more information: https://linktr.ee/IncredibleEdibleUoM
As volunteers you are all brilliant, donating your free time to give to the community to help the environment or other people locally, nationally or on the other side of the world. Our community partners and University colleagues want to say a special thank you to you all.