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Luen’s blog: Volunteers Week

Volunteering is important, not just because as a volunteer you’re helping others but volunteering has been shown to improve your wellbeing too. Because it’s human nature to feel good after helping someone out. Volunteering can also help you gain valuable new skills and experiences, and boost your confidence. 

Here at Forget Me Not we have 2.5 volunteers for every paid member of staff, that’s over 300 volunteers and the number is growing all of the time. Their contribution is equal to around £400,000, and that’s not all. In addition, our volunteers contribute skills, expertise, friendship, connections and act as ambassadors telling lots more people about the amazing work of Forget Me Not. In a recent survey, 88% of those volunteers who responded told us they felt very safe working alongside Forget Me Not despite the pandemic.

We are so proud of the incredible work we do for local children and families and we simply couldn’t do this without the amazing and unconditional support of our volunteers. Thank you for every hour of your very precious time. We will continue to use this wisely.

If you’re interested in volunteering why not contact us here at Forget Me Not. We have lots of opportunities from managing our garden, to supporting our shops, to sorting donated stock in our warehouse to manning our reception desk to helping out with fundraising, bag packing in supermarkets, running events and managing community collection boxes. Sometimes we also need volunteers to help deliver our care too, especially around some of the fun activities we host for our families. Our trustees and directors of our trading company are all volunteers who give up a good deal of time to help steer the success of the charity. There really is something for everyone.

And you won’t be on your own because:

  • In 2018/19, 19.4 million (36%) people volunteered through a group at least once a year and over 11.9 million (22%) of people did so at least once a month. Forget Me Not has several groups you might be able to join.
  • The most common reason overall for volunteering is wanting to improve things or help people (42%). 
  • In 2019/20, there were around 163,000 voluntary organisations in the UK, most of which rely on volunteers. Forget Me Not is just one of these local voluntary organisations who rely on volunteers for their success.
  • In 2017/18, the voluntary sector contributed £18.2bn to the UK economy. This is equivalent to about 0.9% of GDP.
  • 67% of volunteers give their time to charities and community groups, but many others also volunteer in the public and private sectors.

For all our current volunteering opportunities and much more besides, please click here.