Student Volunteering Week – February 8-14

Student Volunteering Week is now in its 20th year in the UK.

On the event’s website, we find out that “student volunteering and social action in the UK have a long history, from university settlements and missions in the nineteenth century to work camps for the unemployed in the interwar period to CND protesting and Student Community Action after the Second World War and throughout the later part of the 20th Century. Students are often at the forefront of promoting different social issues and interests, like the sustainability agenda and social entrepreneurship.”

Who volunteers

According to the government, while the proportion of individuals volunteering over the past 12 months has increased, the average time spent on that activity has dropped. “Between 2000 and 2015, participation rates increased from 39% to 41% for men and from 39% to 42% for women but the average time spent volunteering decreased from 12.3 to 11.3 minutes for men and 16.3 to 15.7 minutes for women,” according to the ONS. However, students are not only more likely to volunteer, but they will also spend more time doing so. “In 2015, 58% of students volunteered over the year for an average of 16.3 minutes per day, compared with 42% of those in paid work who volunteered for an average of 9.6 minutes per day.”

 

According to YouGov, 6% of people in the UK have volunteering and charity work as their 2020 ney year’s resolutions. Having said that, a pain point for those who want to spend their time doing good is – many times – the fact that they can’t quite identify the right cause to support. As such, several of them just give up on their plans. However, there are ways around that predicament.

For ways to volunteer, you can visit the KindLink Marketplace and find an initiative or charity to support.

Download the KindLink Global Philanthropy Calendar and plan your year around doing (and being!) good.