Student Volunteering Week is a success

Mid-Elections-madness, has seen a team for Student Volunteering Week pair up with SUSU’s Community Action team to celebrate the positive impact that students can and do have in their community. It kicked off on Monday with Good Deed Day and #SotonGoodDeeds, getting people to spread a little kindness around campus and beyond. Current VP DCI David Martin was given the task of smiling at a stranger and Union President David Gilani was given the task of RAG fundraising… with a bucket! Students were sent picking up stray litter, donating to the food bank in Sainsbury’s and calling their mums. To catch up with all the Good Deed Day action, check out the Storify here.

Until Friday there are activities on the Concourse for students to try quick 5-10 minute volunteering, from potting a flower for a neighbour, knitting a square to help make a blanket for someone vulnerable or making a get-well card for a patient in hospital! It’s not your conventional volunteering but the ethos is the same – students giving up spare time to do something positive for the community.

There are also number of off-campus volunteering projects, with eleven students painting two rooms at the nearby Heartbeat House, a residential facility for families of patients at the local Cardiac Centre. The guests loved seeing students working hard at painting and kept popping in for a quick natter!

Community Action have also been running some volunteering taster sessions, taking students to the local Chapter1 shelter on Tuesday afternoon, to chat about skills workshops they might like to run, and to the Little Common on Wednesday for some conservation work.

To round off the week we’ve got a couple of celebration-type events, including a talk from an organisation called The Kindness Offensive (TKO). TKO have a mission to have fun and spread happiness into the lives of as many people as possible, with all sorts of projects from giving out free pancakes in Leicester Square to granting wishes of the general public (including giving an elderly lady a new fridge!).

David Goodman – one of TKO’s founders – will be speaking in Southampton, and has been added to The Independent’s ‘Happy List’ of people who make the world a more smiley place. The talk will take place at 6pm Thursday, Building 5, room 2015. There is also a celebratory event on Saturday evening for everyone that got involved!

To keep up with plans for the rest of the week, like Southampton Hub on Facebook, follow them on Twitter @Southamptonhub and join the event. You can find out about opportunities in Southampton at Southamptonhub.org. If you want to find out more about how you could lead a Community Project, or want to get more involved with one of those launched this week, email [email protected].