Volunteers are in crisis across Britain. This weekend, two pieces of the analysis revealed that the pandemic had a long-term impact on people’s willingness to come forward: the number of people participating in fundraising or sponsored events has dropped by 48% since 2018, and 52% organized or organized or organized or helped to manage activity.
Nearly 1.6 million fewer people volunteered last year than five years earlier.
But volunteering has had a huge, positive impact: 75% of people surveyed agreed it had improved their mental health and well-being and given them more confidence, Whereas 62% of 18- to 24-year-olds agreed it improved their employment prospects.
There are so many great examples across the country of extraordinary, everyday people taking social action to make their communities a better place. Here are just some of them:
At just ten years old, Heather Bryson has been volunteering for over half her life. Her mother, Deborah, said: “It is impossible to condense Heather’s achievements into one short summer.” However, here goes:
Heather started selling homemade crafts for five-year-old dementia services. She faced difficulties during the lockdown but eventually decided to assist others, which has now become a source of comfort for her.”
Together with Alzheimer’s Scotland and NHS physiotherapists, Heather and her father have co-hosted live chair exercises and online sessions for disabled people. In 2021, more than 160 care homes participated. During a fundraising session, one person raised over £2,000.
Heather is a caring individual who visits vulnerable individuals and cares homes and is certified. I am a member of RLSS UK as a rookie lifeguard and a cadet of St. Andrew’s First Aid. He received several awards, and even the Scottish Government passed a resolution praising his work.
Heather is the only person under 30 invited to Downing Street as one of Scotland’s finest. “It’s nice to know I did something good every day,” she said.
Another 10-year-old, Milan Kumar, spends hours daily helping youngsters find a safe place to call home.
“One-fifth of youth are homeless,” he said. “It’s wrong, and we must make a difference in our cities.”
A #iwill Young Ambassador, Milan has raised thousands of pounds for the charity. He slept outside to bring attention to homelessness and dropped 58ft from the Bolton Wanderers football stadium.
He recently went to Poland to deliver books and stationery to Ukrainian children donated by organizations convinced to get involved. The Consulate General of Ukraine there thanked him personally.
Adam Maynard, a person with a learning disability, has volunteered six days a week at a Sense day centre in Birmingham for the past 25 years, sometimes working 12-hour days.
“I just like to help people,” he said. But its deputy manager, Emily Cork, has blown her trumpet for him. “Adam is a completely unselfish person,” she said. “I can’t imagine how we’d run our service without him.”
He says all our customers adore Adam, even those we struggle to connect with.
Cork said Maynard never showed up for work – once walking through the snow and ice when the buses weren’t running.
“I grew up with people telling me I’d never achieve anything,” he said. “But the best thing I achieve daily is making people happy.”
Christina Way, Dayer Cabin, Pembrokeshire, Wales
In 2014, Christina Way’s 14-year-old son committed suicide at school, prompting her to create a service to help other youths.
“It was helping prevent others from doing what Derek did that saved me from my death,” she said.
It hasn’t been easy as a person with dyslexia and someone with OCD, as well as a person who has faced domestic abuse and traumatic hardships in the past.
His company, Dezza’s Cabin, now runs three secondhand emporiums and has a community centre in one of Wales’ most deprived communities. In its first year, the charity collected £250,000.
Vicky Møller, the founder of the Grŵp Resilience charity, said Wray was “a tower of strength, rushing to help in all sorts of crises. He stopped a lot of suicides.
Stopping people from killing themselves is what gives Wray his purpose. “We will help everyone who comes in contact with us,” he said. “All of them.”
Leanne Levers & Roshan Roberts, Dope Black Women, London
Leanne Levers and Roshan Roberts have built a community of more than 30,000 Black women worldwide by creating a robust and supportive online community.
Dope Black Women collaborates with the Metropolitan Police, NHS, companies, and schools. The organization provides financial literacy workshops, therapy, and mentoring services to black women professionals and empowers black women-owned businesses.
Dope Black Women, a project fueled by Roberts and Lever’s passion, aims to expand to a physical location. Lever explained the project’s goal as empowering black women who are often disregarded and held at the bottom of society’s hierarchy. Their mission is to assist these women in living their best life.
EG Polhampton, A Band of Brothers, Falmouth
Easy Polhampton does more to help his community than almost anyone else.
Her mother committed suicide when she was 15, leaving her with an alcoholic, abusive father. Suffering from severe anxiety and depression, plagued by mental disorders and addictions, Polhampton’s life was self-destruction.
However, when he discovered A Band of Brothers, he worked hard to deal with his demons. He decided to give back by donating to a charity says he is now a “guru mentor”, responsible for transforming 15 young people from challenging backgrounds, most suffering from mental health problems and many imprisoned.
“Many of these young men have fathers, and I have broken the chain of abuse by working with them,” says Paul Hampton. “Every mentee I’ve worked with has been able to break that chain. That’s quite a feeling for me to carry with me.”
Abby died in 2017 at the age of 15 from cancer. By providing gifts, grants and free holidays at Abby’s Sparkle Lodge, a holiday home in Cairngorm National Park, Abby’s Sparkle Foundation has raised £630,000 and supported 1,363 children.
“While grieving Abby, my mom has been the right-hand woman in my life,” said Abby’s mother, Tammy Main. “He adds that extra sparkle to everything we do.”
Cameron has done a sponsored abseil and sponsored walk, worked full-time in a pop-up shop, and attended. She attended coffee mornings and was recently standing on her feet for a while—the first hour of a fundraiser at Abby’s Sparkle Ceilidh.
She packs the gift bags given to each child receiving cancer treatment at hospitals in the Highlands, Grampians and Tayside, Glasgow and Edinburgh and delivers them herself to locals.
Cameron stated that he supports his daughter, who recently lost her daughter. He mentioned that he does whatever is necessary to help her.
