Student Volunteering Week
Student Volunteering Week Grant Winner Case Study Project Oxford Good Deed Day which worked with Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Hub and Brookes Hub
What happened? We brought 120 students together in Oxford Town centre, wearing bright orange ‘student volunteer’ t-shirts, to fulfil good deeds submitted by community members in a flash mob of student volunteering. The event was followed by a social, where free tea and cake was provided for ‘good deeders’. This provided an opportunity for experienced volunteers to mingle with new volunteers, share their experiences and offer opportunities for new volunteers to engage with long term volunteering in Oxford. Of the 120 student volunteers we estimate only around 50 had volunteered in the city before, meaning we had a great number of new students with a taste for volunteering. Our event had fantastic impact, with a number of community members getting in contact in the following week with comments of thanks to the student volunteers who took part. The very visible presence of student volunteers in the city centre, and involvement of community members in the selection of deeds, undoubtedly helped to bridge the very apparent divide between permanent residents of the city and students of its two universities. The most enjoyable part of the event was welcoming over 100 students into the centre of Oxford who were all there to give up their time for the benefit of a stranger. The logistics of the event were quite straight-forward, but the immediate impact of 120 selfless good deeds was brilliant to experience.
Raising the profile The event was a great opportunity for first time volunteers, of which we had around 70, as each good deed was straight-forward, enjoyable and
took no more than 30-45 minutes. As a number of the recipients of good deeds were students themselves the event clearly helped to spread the notion of student volunteering among students and shed it in a very positive light.
Challenges The main challenge of the event was securing attendance. Although an eventbrite was used to issue tickets and predict attendance a number of attendees simply arrived on the day. Whilst this didn’t have a huge impact on the activities we did, it meant that it was harder to know full details for the social after the event and t-shirt numbers. Not insurmountable but you always worry about not getting enough people! We were very lucky with the weather on the day as, despite the cold, it was sunny all day. Given rain the number of volunteers present would no doubt have been reduced, which will be something to consider for future events.
Final thoughts I would advise anyone planning an SVW event for 2014 to aim to make student volunteering as enjoyable as possible. Activities should be made as social as possible, for example, creating teams and introducing competitive elements to make more mundane tasks enjoyable. Events should also have a dual purpose; they should aim to give an immediate positive experience of student volunteering and also provide opportunities for long term, or repeat, volunteering in the near future. For instance, Good Deed Day gave people real volunteering experience, allowed students to act as living adverts for student volunteering and the following social gave new volunteers access to a huge range of volunteering opportunities.
What happened? We brought 120 students together in Oxford Town centre, wearing bright orange ‘student volunteer’ t-shirts, to fulfil good deeds submitted by community members in a flash mob of student volunteering. The event was followed by a social, where free tea and cake was provided for ‘good deeders’. This provided an opportunity for experienced volunteers to mingle with new volunteers, share their experiences and offer opportunities for new volunteers to engage with long term volunteering in Oxford. Of the 120 student volunteers we estimate only around 50 had volunteered in the city before, meaning we had a great number of new students with a taste for volunteering. Our event had fantastic impact, with a number of community members getting in contact in the following week with comments of thanks to the student volunteers who took part. The very visible presence of student volunteers in the city centre, and involvement of community members in the selection of deeds, undoubtedly helped to bridge the very apparent divide between permanent residents of the city and students of its two universities. The most enjoyable part of the event was welcoming over 100 students into the centre of Oxford who were all there to give up their time for the benefit of a stranger. The logistics of the event were quite straight-forward, but the immediate impact of 120 selfless good deeds was brilliant to experience.
Raising the profile The event was a great opportunity for first time volunteers, of which we had around 70, as each good deed was straight-forward, enjoyable and
took no more than 30-45 minutes. As a number of the recipients of good deeds were students themselves the event clearly helped to spread the notion of student volunteering among students and shed it in a very positive light.
Challenges The main challenge of the event was securing attendance. Although an eventbrite was used to issue tickets and predict attendance a number of attendees simply arrived on the day. Whilst this didn’t have a huge impact on the activities we did, it meant that it was harder to know full details for the social after the event and t-shirt numbers. Not insurmountable but you always worry about not getting enough people! We were very lucky with the weather on the day as, despite the cold, it was sunny all day. Given rain the number of volunteers present would no doubt have been reduced, which will be something to consider for future events.
Final thoughts I would advise anyone planning an SVW event for 2014 to aim to make student volunteering as enjoyable as possible. Activities should be made as social as possible, for example, creating teams and introducing competitive elements to make more mundane tasks enjoyable. Events should also have a dual purpose; they should aim to give an immediate positive experience of student volunteering and also provide opportunities for long term, or repeat, volunteering in the near future. For instance, Good Deed Day gave people real volunteering experience, allowed students to act as living adverts for student volunteering and the following social gave new volunteers access to a huge range of volunteering opportunities.
