Shining a light on Richmond’s volunteer community

This Volunteers’ Week (1 to 7 June), Richmond CVS is sharing insights from their recent Volunteer Fair. Read on for their reflections and to discover how you can get involved. 

Our Volunteer Fair last month brought together an inspiring mix of local causes, each offering rewarding ways to get involved.

This year was a bumper year for both charity stallholders and visitors and was opened by the newly appointed Mayor of Richmond, Cllr Nancy Baldwin – who we know has a strong personal interest and is an ardent advocate for voluntary and community activity. Early figures from the event indicate around 420 potential volunteers came along to meet over 50 charities on the day.

We were lucky enough to chat to lots of active, enthusiastic and inspiring volunteers over the afternoon, as they assisted at or ran many of the stalls that were present.

Amongst the conversations we had and the range of reasons given for why people began volunteering, we commonly heard the words “giving back”, “meeting people” and “community” - as well as more personal motivations such as “building my confidence up” and “I love making bonds between the families”.

When asked what the best thing about volunteering is, we had some wonderful responses and heard lots about “making a difference”, “helping” and “hope”. A couple that really sum up a lot for us were “the humanity, fun, joy mixing with everyone” and the “satisfaction on seeing happy faces”.

We met so many fantastic individuals and are always so impressed with all they do in our local community. Saying ‘thank you’ to everyone who gives their time and support is a very small show of our appreciation, but it truly is from the heart.

You can find out more about the fair.

Did you miss this year’s Volunteer Fair? 

The Volunteer Service team at Richmond CVS is here all year round to help anyone who would like to find a new local volunteering role. 

You can find out how to get involved.

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