Taking a look back over the decade

Here at the LSE Volunteer Centre we’ve been taking a look back, not only at the last year, but at the last decade! Over the years we’ve celebrated eight LSE Volunteer Awards, where we recognised the amazing work that LSE students have done through volunteering. Read about our most recent awards in our blog covering the events of the evening. We also introduced our LSE Volunteers brochure, which celebrates the student volunteering and fundraising throughout the academic year. You can read our past eight annual brochures on our website.

The decade has seen us working with hundreds of different charity partners across London, the UK and internationally, and connecting them with passionate LSE student volunteers. We’ve always had positive feedback from our partners, something which we are proud of. But this year we introduced our first ever LSE Volunteering Launch! Our charity partners and the LSE community came together to help kick-start the 2019/20 academic year’s volunteering and we were even joined by LSE Director, Dame Minouche Shafik.

Looking into 2020

It’s time for the cheesy ‘new year, new me’ lines. So we’ll all be signing up to the gym, eating greens and taking up a new hobby… for about a week. Studies show that less than 25% of those who set a resolution every year actually stick to them after 30 days and only 8% accomplish them. But what about choosing a new year’s resolution that will last and make an impact on someone else? At the LSE Volunteer Centre we believe this is a great motivation to get involved in volunteering.

There are so many brilliant benefits of volunteering, including settling into London, positive impacts on student wellbeing and learning new skills! So, where can you find all of these volunteering opportunities? Our charity partners upload their volunteering opportunities onto CareerHub for you to access and we have over 180 at any given time. However, we have picked out our top 5:

1. Advocacy and Support Volunteer for Detention Action
2. Community Group Volunteer with the Helen Bamber Foundation
3. Homework Club volunteer for Salusbury World
4. Legal, Casework & Advocacy Volunteer with Body & Soul
5. Exercise at Home Volunteer with Age UK Kensington & Chelsea

You can also book a one-to-one appointment with Volunteer Centre Manager, David Coles, or come along to our LSE Volunteering Fair 2020 to meet over 25 different charities recruiting volunteers. It’s a great chance to have a chat with the charities, face-to-face about their causes and opportunities available. You also have 15 amazing Student Volunteering Ambassadors who are passionate about volunteering and happy for a chat: check them out here!

We hope that 2020 is a fantastic year for you and that you find a cause that you’re passionate about.