Ahead of Volunteers' Week (Monday 3rd-Sunday 9th June 2024) we’ve taken some time to reflect on the amazing contribution from our volunteers.
The number of people that volunteer for us across our region continues to increase, with over 900 people in the last year regularly giving up their time to help us in our work. People from a wide range of backgrounds, communities and different age ranges volunteer with us. They bring with them a vast array of knowledge, skills, experiences and passion.
Ragwort pulling at Lunt Meadows
Recently chatting with some volunteers at our Lunt Meadows site, we got some great feedback: “I really like that when I volunteer here, I get to work alongside different people who I get to chat with, and it’s great that it’s so intergenerational. It feels very inclusive and welcoming here. We feel our ideas are listened to and we are really valued,”, one volunteer told me.
The social dimension is a really important part of the volunteer experience. In all our volunteer roles you will get the opportunity to meet our staff and other volunteers - we know this is important.
Fun at the Witton Park Greenhouses
Some people have volunteered with us for decades, and we are constantly presenting our Long Service badges as acknowledgement of this (presented after five, 10 and 20 years of volunteering). Others have only just started their volunteer journey with us.
The fact that so many people stay volunteering with us for so long is hopefully a strong indication of the satisfaction and enjoyment volunteering brings them. Many of our staff started off as volunteers, proving that volunteering is a great way to start a career in our sector.
The range of different volunteer roles here at LWT is incredible. Currently there are over 60 different volunteer roles you can undertake with us, and the range of opportunities keeps growing. Did you know you can volunteer as a Livestock Checker or an Office Volunteer? How about Archaeology Volunteer or Pram Walk Volunteer?
The Cutacre conservation gang
Some recent popular new roles have included Willow Tit surveying and helping plant Sphagnum Moss on our precious peatlands. From Mystery Shoppers to being on our Youth Council, the range of volunteering opportunities is impressive and broad.
It’s important to stop and consider the impact and contributions of all our volunteers. Over the last year volunteers have collectively given 44,815 of volunteer hours. That is truly astounding!
As the work of LWT has expanded out beyond our nature reserves, so has the impacts of our volunteers, whether that’s helping people on our Nature and Wellbeing programme, assisting on our incredible marine conservation work on our coast, helping to restore precious ecosystems such as peatlands and mosslands, supporting our Education Team teach the next generation about the importance of the environment and much more.
Our Youth Council members getting stuck in
Every day and every hour our volunteers are helping to restore nature and connect people with it. It’s the contribution of our volunteers that has made us the trusted and award-winning organisation in delivering benefits to nature and people that we have become.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of our incredible volunteers, and also to thank and flag the Volunteer Team who work behind the scenes helping support all the volunteers.
We are currently introducing some big changes to our volunteering recruitment we feel will make it easier and simpler for even more people to volunteer with us and offer more opportunities to our existing volunteers, which we are excited about.
