Benefits of Volunteering

Why Volunteer?

Improve your overall university experience
Give back to the local areal
Improve your communication skills
Improve your mental and physical health and wellbeing
Boost and develop your skills
Advance your career by improving your job prospects
Boost your self-esteem and confidence
Gain knowledge and understanding of other ways of life
Build a sense of community
Meet new people and friends for life

At Durham University we encourage you to volunteer during your time here for various different reasons (mainly listed above). For most of you, you are now living in an entirely new community with new people, and volunteering is the perfect way to get involved and meet a wide range of people. By actively getting involved with local people and charities, you are in a better position to give back to the community which you are now part of.

As well as integrating into the community, volunteering gives you the change to gain, develop or strengthen existing skills to add to your CV and support your career development.

Volunteering at Durham is an experience like no other. Our volunteering projects have been established by students for the community and are entirely student-led. This way you can meet likeminded people and make friends for life, so whether you are an environmentalist, passionate about inclusive education or a campaigner for fundamental human rights, we have something for everyone!

What Support Can I Get?

All students interested in starting their volunteer journey will have access to appropriate training. As a standard, all students will complete the mandatory volunteer induction – included is the DBS process, GDPR, claiming expenses, basic safeguarding training and more. Further to this, students will need to complete training specific to the project they wish to volunteer with – examples of these training sessions include adult safeguarding, food hygiene, behaviour management and more.

We have a full-time team of staff to assist you with your volunteering goals. In addition, all of our volunteering opportunities fall under a project leader or Exec member who is trained to support you, whether that be identifying skills you are developing to strengthen your CV or to support your ideas for the project/session. The DUSVO team members are also willing to supply reference letters for volunteers looking to improve their CV.

What Next?

Every year we recruit our project leaders and Exec members. Once you have started volunteering, you might feel like you want to take a leadership role within the organization. These roles are excellent for career development and for those who actively want to develop their projects or volunteering opportunities and support the community partners. You can find more information on our leadership roles here.

Volunteering opens doors to careers you might not have considered, and according to research conducted by Deloitte ‘82% of hiring managers are more likely to choose a candidate with volunteering experience.’

So, what are you waiting for? Start volunteering with DUVO now!

For any questions or concerns about DUSVO email [email protected]

Student Volunteering Staff Volunteering