Do you want to learn new skills, share your experience and become more socially conscious? Then volunteering may be for you. You’ll get to work with people from diverse backgrounds and give back to the community, as well as having the opportunity to develop your career.

Gain skills while you look for work

If you are between jobs, volunteering can help you to gain skills while you look for work. It is always a good idea to add any voluntary work to your CV, as many businesses promote corporate and social responsibility these days and seek these values in their employees.

Share your experience and become more socially conscious

You can be creative and become resourceful

Volunteering gives you the chance to use your abilities to help others, and it often provides exposure to creative working. As most charities and non-profit organisations tend to have limited funding, they often need to find inventive ways to implement their strategies and provide services on a low budget, which means employees and volunteers are encouraged to be resourceful.

Get started with Do.it.org

If you’ve never volunteered before and you’re unsure to how get started my advice is to check out the fantastic Do It Org website. Do It Org lists volunteering opportunities available across the UK and you can narrow down your search by the skills you want to gain or wish to share as part of your volunteer placements. When I was looking for places to volunteer I searched the Do It Org site for opportunities related to marketing, communications, creative skills and design, which helped me to find the roles I currently volunteer at in Birmingham.

I found the right roles for me

I volunteer at a couple of places in Birmingham. The first place is a Family Support Centre as their Communications and Publicity Volunteer, where I do a variety of marketing ranging from desktop publishing, content management, design, publicity and social media management. It’s a really interesting role and not only am I able to help this great organisation promote their services to the local community, I’ve also got the chance to brush up on skills that I haven’t used for a while.
I am also a Film Club volunteer at a housing charity, which helps the homeless and those in need of housing, such as young people and refugees. It’s a creative company with a digital hub in Birmingham and my role is to host and promote their monthly community Film Club. It’s a pretty dynamic place to work and I’ve always been a big fan of film, so this was a perfect for me.

You’ll feel rewarded

Something else to remember when you’re volunteering – you’re helping people and it’s appreciated. The places I’ve volunteered for have always been really grateful for any time and effort you can give them, and it’s rewarding to see how you can make a real impact on your local community.

I’ll be posting a guide to getting started with volunteering soon, but if you would like to find out more information for now, you can visit http://www.Do-it.org