Student Volunteering Hours Top 250 at Newcastle

Student volunteers at Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU) have been working hard this week to promote and celebrate the national campaign for Student Volunteering Week. Alongside other educational institutions in the UK, students at Newcastle have been giving their time through NUSU’S Go Volunteer programme to help local charities and provide support to many organisations including the Salvation Army and the Nunsmoor Centre. Louise Henry, Project Development Worker for Go Volunteer, said: “The students who have been volunteering alongside ourselves have now given 250 hours of time this week to some great causes, and it’s an important part of NUSU’s services to provide our students the opportunities to work alongside the community whilst at Newcastle. “Not only that but a lot of our students really enjoy volunteering with us as it’s a great social exercise for them, where they can learn brand new skills they might not have, as well as meet and make new friends.” Activities in the week have varied from community projects to workshops to build up the employability skills of Newcastle students. Popular programmes include the ‘English Conversation Group’ at the Nunsmoor Centre in Fenham, with students giving their time to help local refugees, asylum seekers and non-native English speakers improve their reading, speaking and writing as well as the ‘Steps to Employability’ workshop, with students finding out how volunteering can provide them with graduate skills that employers are looking for. Katie Blundell, Volunteering Manager at NUSU, said: “Go Volunteer is a very popular programme at NUSU, and I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to work alongside the national Student Volunteering Week to give our students great projects to involve themselves in. “Be it Beekeeping, litter-picking in Newcastle or helping international students develop their English speaking skills, students have shown such generosity with the hours that they’ve given to helping out and I know that our partner organisations will have benefited from the support the volunteers have given them.” Louise continued: “Due to a popular demand from eager students, we’ve added an additional date to our English conversation group, which has allowed us to help so many more people in need. It’s one thing to see refugees in the media, but another to sit alongside people who despite experiencing such horrific circumstances, still have an eagerness to learn. “Yesterday we taught five Syrian refugees, and each of our volunteers left the centre with a huge sense of achievement and a whole new understanding of the crisis in Syria”. For more information on Student Volunteering Week please visit www.studentvolunteeringweek.org