As part of London Student Volunteering Week, LSE Volunteering Ambassador Kirin shares with her you experience of volunteering for charityTalking Spaces.
Hi all, my name is Kiran and I am a PhD student at LSE. As its London Student Volunteering Week, I thought I would write a small piece to illustrate how much of an impact volunteering can make in terms of personal development. I did my first real stint of volunteering a few years ago over the summer. It was with a charity local to my hometown in Harrogate, called Talking Spaces. They provide a range of services to the local community including counselling and support groups. The town is quite wealthy and often people facing struggles call fall through the gaps and it is these people that really benefit from having a service like this.
During my few months at the charity I spent most of my time writing fundraising bids which was quite challenging, as it is crucial that the data is accurate and meets the potential funder’s requirements. Writing these bids is time consuming but is so important for the charity to be able to carry out its incredible work. As part of this I also got to attend some of the support groups to get a feel for the services and how they make a difference in people’s lives. This really opened my eyes to what goes on in the grassroots level of my community.
I learned so much about myself volunteering for this charity. It helped me to open my eyes and not take things for granted. Since this experience I try to volunteer where possible as I can honestly say that there is nothing quite like seeing people’s faces when you have contributed to making a difference.
If you’re inspired by Kiran’s blog and would like to tell your volunteering story, please email us your blog to volunteer@lse.ac.uk and we would be love to share it!
