Student Volunteering Week

Monday 12 - Sunday 18 February 2024

Student Volunteering Week is an annual event celebrating student volunteering in all its glory! We host lots of exciting events throughout the week, which is taking place this year from Monday 12 to Sunday 18 February. 

See the programme below. Please note, we are updating the programme with further events and initiatives as they are finalised. If you need information about accessibility for any of the events below, please email volunteers@manchester.ac.uk or visit our accessibility pages.

Monday 12 February

The Get Into Volunteering Fair 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! All accessibility info can be found here: https://manchesterstudentsunion.com/accessibility 

If you have any questions, please email volunteering.su@manchester.ac.uk

Have you got any questions about Stellify? 

If so, drop by and meet our dedicated Stellify team who will be able to assist you with any Stellify queries that you have. 

stellify@manchester.ac.uk 

Barnardo's works across all Greater Manchester, supporting young people with autism and/or a learning disability. The charity is looking for Volunteer Befrienders with a passion for making a difference in young people’s lives. Volunteering with a young person on a one-to-one basis, the role will involve offering practical assistance and emotional support, to build the young people's self-confidence, coping mechanisms and positive relationships. The work could be focused on a particular need, such as confidence building, or it could be more focused around supporting the young person to access local community groups.

To find out more about this exciting role, including the training and support available to Volunteer Befrienders, Barnardo's is delivering an information session for you. Come along to the session and meet Rhiannon Booth from Barnardo's who is managing this exciting volunteer initiative. 

You can also find out more about this volunteer role on Volunteer Hub

Tuesday 13 February

Our international volunteering projects are launching for summer 2024! 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.

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. 

For more details and sign up to this volunteer session, go to the Community Mapping opportunity on Volunteer Hub

Wednesday 14 February

Big Volunteer Day is back for Student Volunteering Week 2024! We’ll be working with Manchester City Council, Manchester Student Homes and the Braemar and Brailsford Road Residents Association to make a positive impact on the local community and environment in Fallowfield.

You can join us anytime in the day between 10am-3pm.

As a team we will be sprucing up the alleyways and green spaces in Fallowfield to improve the local area for residents! Join us and get stuck in, painting pallets, weeding, planting and decorating the alleyways! Take a look at what students have got up to in a previous Big Volunteer Day in this video.

To find out more and get involved go to Volunteer Hub

Thursday 15 February

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 Garden Room in the Whitworth Art Gallery on Thursday 16 February between 11am and 1pm. 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.

Join us at St. Pauls Church to help set up for the opening of their Baby Bank. The Baby Bank is being set up to help provide low-income families in Withington with daily essentials. The afternoon will involve sorting through donations of clothes, food, toys and preparing the room for families to visit. 

Please note that this event is now full, but if you are keen to be involved and want to be placed on our waiting list, please email volunteers@manchester.ac.uk to request this. Please put the title of the event and date in the subject of your email.

Join us at Burnage Community Centre to help set up and serve lunch, as well as make teas and coffees. There will also be an indoor planting activity where you can help the attendees plant something green to take home with them.

Please note that this event is now full, but if you are keen to be involved and want to be placed on our waiting list, please email volunteers@manchester.ac.uk to request this. Please put the title of the event and date in the subject of your email.

Friday 16 February

If you are part of the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) and the School of Social Sciences (SoSS), your Schools are holding a joint Post Pals session for you, giving you the chance to volunteer alongside your course mates as you make a difference to a child's life.

You can 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 Common Room in the Arthur Lewis building and get involved.

Arts and craft materials will be provided by the University so all you need is yourself and a can-do attitude!

To find out more and get involved go to Volunteer Hub

If your academic school is the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC), you can volunteer in a Post Pals session that SALC is hosting. Taking place in the Student Hub on the ground floor of the Samuel Alexander Building, you can volunteer alongside your course mates to make a card, write a letter or even make a gift to help give a child that's ill in hospital some happiness. 

Arts and craft materials will be provided by the University so all you need is yourself and a can-do attitude!

For more details and sign up, go to Volunteer Hub

IntoUniversity will be coming on to campus on Friday 16 February and they would love to meet you!

This amazing charity works to support the education of children and young people from underprivileged backgrounds by connecting them with student mentors.

Pop along to the IntoUniversity stall in the Students' Union to learn more about the amazing work they do with children and young people and see whether you would be a good fit as a student mentor

Thank you to all our student volunteers

Our community partners and University colleagues want to say a special thank you to you all.