Volunteering is in crisis across Britain. Two separate pieces of analysis this weekend have revealed the long-term impact the pandemic has had on people’s willingness to come forward: with the number raising money or taking part in sponsored events falling by 48% since 2018; and the number organising or helping to run an activity down by 52%.
In total, about 1.6 million fewer people volunteered last year, compared with five years ago.
But volunteering has a huge, positive impact: 75% of people surveyed agreed it improved their mental health and wellbeing, and gave them more confidence; while 62% of 18- to 24-year-olds agreed it improved their employment prospects.
There are many fantastic examples of extraordinary, everyday individuals taking social action across the country to make their communities a better place. Here are just a few of them:
Heather Bryson, Robroyston, Scotland
Aged just 10, Heather Bryson has been volunteering for more than half her life. Her mother, Deborah, said: “It’s impossible to condense Heather’s achievements into a brief summery.” But here goes:
Heather began selling homemade crafts for dementia services aged five. When lockdown hit, she struggled. “But then,” she said, “I decided it would help me to help others.”
With Alzheimer Scotland and NHS Physiotherapists, Heather and her father co-hosted live chair-exercise, online sessions for people living with disabilities. In 2021, more than 160 care homes took part in a fundraising session, with one raising more than £2,000.
Heather visits vulnerable people and care homes, is a qualified RLSS UK rookie lifeguard and a St Andrew’s first aid cadet. She has received a slew of awards, the Scottish government even passed a motion applauding her work.
Heather was the only person aged under 30 invited to Downing Street as one of The Best Of Scotland. “It’s good to know I’ve done something good each day,” she said.
Milan Kumar, Bolton, Greater Manchester
Another 10-year-old, Milan Kumar devotes hour after hour, day after day to help young people have a safe place to call home.
“One-fifth of young people are homeless,” he said. “This is wrong. We need to make a difference in our home towns.”
An #iwill Young Ambassador, Milan has raised thousands of pounds for charity. He has slept outside to raise awareness of homelessness and abseiled 58ft down the Bolton Wanderers football stadium.
He recently travelled to Poland to give books and stationery to Ukrainian children, donated by companies he persuaded to get involved. There he was thanked personally by the general consulate of Ukraine.
Adam Maynard, Smethwick, West Midlands
Adam Maynard, who has a learning disability, has volunteered for six days a week at a Sense day centre in Birmingham for the last 25 years, sometimes working 12-hour days.
“I just like helping people,” he said. But Emily Cork, its deputy manager, blew his trumpet for him. “Adam is a totally selfless person,” she said. “I can’t imagine how we would run our service without him.”
“Every single one of our service users love Adam, even those the rest of us can’t reach,” she added.
Maynard, Cork said, has never not turned up to work – once walking through snow and ice when the buses were not running.
“I grew up with people telling me I would never achieve anything,” he said. “But I achieve the best thing every day: I make people happy.”
Kristina Wray, Dezza’s Cabin, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Five weeks after her 14-year-old son killed himself at school in 2014, Kristina Wray set up a service to help other young people.
“It was helping to prevent others doing what Derek did that saved me from dying myself,” she said.
Dyslexic, with OCD and struggling against a background of domestic abuse and traumatic hardships, it was not easy. But Wray soldiered on.
Her organisation, Dezza’s Cabin, now runs three secondhand emporiums and has a community centre in the most deprived community in Wales. In their first year, the charity raised £250,000.
Wray is, said Vicky Moller, the founder of the Grŵp Resilience charity, “a tower of strength, rushing out to help crises of all kinds. She has stopped many suicides.”
Stopping people killing themselves is what gives Wray her purpose. “We will help everyone who contacts us,” she said. “Everyone.”
Leanne Levers and Roshan Roberts, Dope Black Women, London
Dr Leanne Levers and Roshan Roberts have created a massive digital community where more than 30,000 black women from across the world build strong, supportive networks.
Dope Black Women works with the Metropolitan police, the NHS, companies and schools. The charity offers financial literacy workshops, therapy, mentoring to black female professionals and the amplification of businesses owned byblack women.
Now looking to expand into a physical space, Dope Black Women is a passion project for both Roberts and Levers. “Black women are often placed at the bottom of life’s ladder,” said Levers. “We want to help them live their best lives.”
Izzi Polehampton, A Band Of Brothers, Falmouth
Izzi Polehampton does more to help his community than almost anyone else.
His mother killed herself when he was 15, leaving him with an alcoholic, abusive father. Suffering acute anxiety and depression, compounded by mental disorders and addiction, Polehampton’s life was one of self-destruction.
When he discovered A Band of Brothers, however, he worked hard to confront his demons. Then he decided to give back: the charity said he was now “the mentor’s mentor”, responsible for the transformation of 15 young men from tough backgrounds, most with mental health problems and many of whom had been to prison.
“Lots of these young men are fathers and I work with them break the chain of abuse,” said Polehampton. “Every mentee I’ve worked with has managed to break that chain. That’s quite some feeling for me to carry with me.”
Jennie Cameron, Abbie’s Sparkle Foundation, Moray, Scotland
Jennie Cameron is 85 years old but works tirelessly to support the charity set up in the name of her granddaughter Abbie.
Abbie died from cancer in 2017 aged 15. To date, Abbie’s Sparkle Foundation set up by her mother and grandmother has raised £630,000 and supported 1,363 children through gifts, grants and free holidays at Abbie’s Sparkle Lodge, a holiday home in the Cairngorms national park.
“While grieving Abbie, my mum has been the right-hand women in my life,” said Tammy Main, Abbie’s mother. “She adds extra sparkle to everything we do.”
Cameron has done a sponsored abseil, sponsored walks, worked full-time in a popup shop, held coffee mornings and was recently on her feet until the early hours at a fundraising Abbie’s Sparkle Ceilidh.
She personally packs the gift bags given to every child in treatment for cancer in Highland, Grampian and Tayside and those in hospital in Glasgow and Edinburgh, delivering the local ones herself.
“I’m just trying to support my daughter, who lost her daughter,” Cameron said. “I do what is needed.”
