JCI Sheffield is very excited to be working with the Sheffield Volunteer Centre and Voluntary Action Sheffield on a forthcoming new volunteer ambassador project as part of our community program.

Volunteering has loads of amazing benefits to people who give their time freely…from making new friends, the feel good factor of making a difference and doing something worthwhile, through to learning and developing new and existing skills, positive impact on health and wellbeing, developing confidence, trying something that you wouldn't usually do…the list could go on and on!

Now imagine members of the community who might relish such benefits but have never given the idea of volunteering a thought at all, or perhaps disregarded it because they didn't think they had the time, or the skills, or that they aren't good enough to help in some way.  We can't let them carry on without knowing what they are missing out on!

The Volunteer Centre are looking to recruit a team of enthusiastic and inspirational volunteer ambassadors (cue JCI!!!) to raise the profile of volunteering across Sheffield.  This can be via a variety of different ways from giving out information on community stalls, giving talks to a range of different audiences about the benefits of volunteering and the different opportunities available by a whole host of organisations in Sheffield or in other ways such as on social media etc.

JCI's mission is to 'provide development opportunities to empower young people to make positive change' and this project fits like a glove with this aim as it provides such a wide scope to get involved.  Having spoken to some of our members who years ago would have never even considered volunteering and now get involved with so many of our different projects and in so many different ways, we want to make sure we spread some of the positive message about what a fantastic opportunity volunteering is and something not to be missed out on!

A couple of roles that the Volunteer Centre are looking for immediately are Volunteer Ambassadors, people who would be willing to attend events or give talks to inspire people to volunteer and a coordination role who would be able to liaise with organisations and venues to confirm event details and match them to suitable and available ambassadors. They could also identify different organisations and groups who would like a talk on volunteering or events where a stall could be set up.

We know that volunteering may not be right for everyone but ultimately, this project is all about raising awareness about volunteering so the community can make an informed choice.

For more information about this project, please contact Mark Smith, 2014 Deputy President: mark.smith@jcisheffield.org.uk