Student Volunteering in the UK Before and After COVID-19
The volunteering sector has been through a challenging period in the past few years, and student volunteering in the UK has been no different. Volunteering services at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) dealt with a specific set of challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, forced to adapt to and think creatively about developing new programmes and to explore how to address a very real need to support different communities.
So what has changed? How has student volunteering in the UK been affected by COVID-19? In this Voices, representatives from 14 Higher Education Institutions in the UK share their experiences with author Mariana Vieira da Rocha. Together, they initiate a conversation that Engage hopes will reach other HEI volunteering centres across the globe.
Lindsay Marston, Volunteer Manager, Chester Zoo. UK
Sat, 03/25/2023The Volunteering and Mentoring Team at the University of Chester provide various opportunities for students to volunteer with them or in their local communities. Clearly, they have a really effective way of engaging students; this makes it easy for local organisations like ours when we have volunteering opportunities available. It probably comes as no surprise to hear we also have much better student engagement since we started to offer greater flexibility with our roles, micro-volunteering and opportunities in the local community.