It’s Volunteers Week 2024 ( 3 – 9 June )celebrating its 40th year and looking to inspire more people to make a difference.
This year the week leads up to The Big Help Out, from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 June, where people across the UK will get the chance to experience a range of volunteer taster sessions.
As well as volunteering being good for host organisations studies have shown that volunteering is good for your mental health, reducing stress and making someone generally happier, but it goes beyond this. Volunteering can lower chronic inflammation and cholesterol by boosting your mood and empathy and even help you lose weight. Volunteers with the most increased empathy and reduced negativity saw the biggest inflammation reduction. A four year study of older people with normal blood pressure, identified that those who volunteered for four hours a week were 40% less likely to have developed high blood pressure by the end of the four years. However volunteering to help yourself or feel better doesn’t work, you need to be doing it to help others to get the impact. Bold claims but don’t forget volunteering can be fun as well as giving a sense of purpose!
This year we are particularly looking for volunteers to help out and join us in expanding our disability network as we reach across the city to engage with and involve more disabled people. It’s an exciting time at Disability Sheffield and we want you to be part of it! If you’d like more information or want to express your interest, feel free to get in touch by emailing paul.ntulila@disabilitysheffield.org.uk . Feel free to share this opportunity with any other disabled people or groups who may have an interested audience. View Poster
We like to think we’re pretty good at saying ‘thank you’ on a regular basis to our volunteers and we especially want to say an official massive THANK YOU this week to all our volunteers in our services and projects. We value and appreciate all your support. Sheffield Voices celebrated with a special thank you lunch for the “amazing Volunteers that support our small team” saying “We would not be able to run Sheffield Voices without our Volunteers support. Our volunteers help with our weekly groups, our creative projects, filming projects and website, and the Big Voice events. We want to thank our Volunteers for all their hard work!
