4 ways you can benefit from volunteering

We spoke with Goldsmiths alumna Tamara White, 2012/13 Welfare and Diversity Officer at Goldsmiths SU and currently Team Manager for the Hestia Hackney refuge service, about her time volunteering with AFRIL’s Rainbow Club – a supplementary school for children from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. Here she reflects on her experience and offers four ways you can benefit from volunteering.

1. Enhance your student experience

“As a student new to London, you can wonder what you’re doing that is ‘useful’ asides from bettering yourself through education. Volunteering gave me the opportunity to find out more about the local community, learn lots of new things about Lewisham and London, and have something completely different to do, which was really good for my own psychological wellbeing as it helped me manage the stresses and worries or being a student. 

“Volunteering is so beneficial for you and for the people you work with, or the organisation you work for. It’s a good way to learn and an excellent supplement to your academic studies. To give something back to the community where your university is based is a great thing to do – there’s so much going on in Lewisham, so there are also many different ways you can get involved.”

2. Develop your skills

“I’ve developed so many skills during my time at AFRIL, mainly around working with children in terms of supporting them in education (the role is essentially a voluntary teaching assistant role). It’s also helped me improve my communication skills as I’ve been required to work with children and parents who have very limited English. Working with children, many of whom are living in poverty and many who have come from really horrific situations, has also made me aware of the importance of listening and tailoring how I communicate.

“Also planning and organisation; planning your own time and your own studies is very different to organising timetables, lessons, trips, and helping out with risk assessments – all of those sorts of things that I didn’t immediately think I would learn when I started! I was also able to access other really useful opportunities, like completing first aid training and safeguarding training, which I found was a huge plus when I was applying for jobs later on.”

3. Learn what you enjoy (and don’t enjoy!) doing

“Volunteering with AFRIL definitely helped me realise that I wanted to work with children and families, and my experience as an officer in the SU, which involved campaigning around domestic and sexual violence, was also something I was passionate about. Those things actually make up a large part of the job I do now, so it definitely helped me realise what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. On the other hand, I also did some voluntary events work and knew it wasn’t for me!”

4. Gain practical experience for your career

“I currently manage a domestic violence/refuge service for Hestia. While my degree in Anthropology was fantastic and gave me lots of knowledge, the skills I needed for my career came from the practicalities of working with children and young people during my voluntary work as a student. A good thing about with working with AFRIL particularly, but I think also for lots of different organisations, is that they are really flexible and will offer you other opportunities if you want them. For example, I helped on a befriending scheme and visited a woman who was incredibly isolated once every fortnight.”

Fnd out more or see the voluntary opportunities available to you.