Cardiff Volunteering Annual Impact Report 2017-18

ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT 2017-18 Helping you to help others

CONTENTS 3. Foreword by Chair of Cardiff Volunteering

Board of Trustees 4. Introduction 6. Trustees and Staff 7. Partners 22. A Year in the Life 26. Our Projects 30. Statistics 31. Funders and Sponsors

FOREWORD I am very proud and privileged to have been the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Cardiff Volunteering during the 2017/18 academic year.

Our commitment to volunteers and volunteering remains our priority and we have worked hard again this year to engage with new and existing partners to create some incredible opportunities for our students that will transform lives and inspire local communities.

This has been Cardiff Volunteering’s third year of operation and has seen us go from strength to strength as an organisation. Our portfolio of projects has increased this year, providing even more incredible volunteering opportunities for our students as well as bringing enormous benefit to the local community.

We have again this year focused on six pillars of voluntary activity – Children, Young People, Environment, Community, Sports & Recreation, and Welfare- delivering more than 70 regular weekly projects across these categories.

We understand that students choose to volunteer for many different reasons, and the expansion of our project portfolio this year reflects our desire to encompass this and ensure that there is something for everyone on offer!

Over the past year, Cardiff Volunteering has engaged with over 1,600 students who between them have volunteered over 14,000 hours on various on-going and one-off projects. This is an amazing achievement that has contributed directly to the delivery of some life-changing projects across Cardiff. Our student volunteers are not only incredible ambassadors for us at Cardiff Volunteering, but also for Cardiff University, the Students’ Union and the student community as a whole – we are very proud of them all!

provides them with opportunities to learn and develop. It can help them settle into university life, broaden their horizons and provide opportunities for leadership and skills development.

This year over 60 students took up the opportunity of becoming a Lead Volunteer – gaining a Certificate of Personal Development and other accredited training and skills along the way. Many of them have gone on to complete the Diploma of Professional Development in Leadership, and I am sure will go on to be leaders in their chosen fields beyond University!

During the 2017/18 academic year the Board of Trustees ran at full complement of eight Trustees, including student trustees, representatives of the Students’ Union and University, and external representatives. During this year we have recruited one new member to the Board, Alex Hicks from the Welsh Assembly, who will help us build for the future.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the Board of Trustee members for their on-going commitment and support. My sincere thanks also go to the staff of Cardiff Volunteering, Cardiff University Students’ Union, Cardiff University, our funders and community partners and above all our amazing student volunteers for helping us to achieve yet another incredible year.

Thank you all!

Hollie Cooke Chair of Board of Trustees 2017-18

Volunteering is a valuable part of the student experience at Cardiff University. It connects students with the wider community, and Cardiff Volunteering

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I NTRODUCTION Cardiff Volunteering was created by Cardiff University Students’ Union in August 2015 to provide a comprehensive volunteering service for Cardiff University students. It works closely with a variety of third sector organisations and partners to offer a broad selection of one off opportunities and regular projects that directly benefit Cardiff and the surrounding areas.

Its charitable object is the advancement of education of students at Cardiff University for the public benefit by: • Creating and supporting volunteering opportunities for Cardiff University students that provide benefit to Cardiff University students and the local community in Cardiff and the surrounding areas; • Working with other charities and community organisations to maximise the positive impact that Cardiff University students make on the local community in Cardiff and the surrounding areas; • Working with Cardiff University to embed student volunteering within the curriculum; • Promoting any charitable purposes for the benefit of Cardiff University students and the community in Cardiff and the surrounding areas; and • Promoting student and life-long community service among Cardiff University students by providing guidance, opportunities for personal development, skills development and participation in wide aspects of voluntary community involvement.

Vision To work in partnership with Cardiff University Students’ Union to ensure that all Cardiff University Students maximise their personal development and make a sustained and valued contribution to society through positive engagement in volunteering.

Mission Statement To promote a culture of volunteering at Cardiff University enabling students to engage with rewarding opportunities, facilitating their personal development whilst contributing to their local community.

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Cardiff Volunteering

Aims Cardiff Volunteering has 12 core aims:

Aim 10: Work with Cardiff University to embed volunteering within the curriculum.

Aim 1: Inspire Cardiff University Students about volunteering and the positive effect it can have on their careers and other areas of life.

Aim 11: Ensure that at least 25% of Cardiff University students engage in some form of volunteering activity during their time at University.

Aim 2: Inform Cardiff University students about volunteering and ensure they know where information and support can be found.

Aim 12: Stay at the forefront of knowledge regarding volunteering.

Aim 3: Work in partnership with other bodies and organisations across the sector.

Aim 4: Develop and maintain a diverse and inclusive range of volunteering opportunities both within Cardiff University itself and from a broad range of external organisations that appeal and are accessible to a diverse range of students.

We are proud that volunteering has become a part of the fabric of University life for Cardiff students, with participation rates increasing each year. Nonetheless, we will always seek ways to improve upon what we do and are committed to seeing further increases in student participation rates in volunteering and to continued investment in an infrastructure to support this.

Aim 5: Ensure the provision of volunteering opportunities that link in with students’ learning objectives through the Student Development Programme.

Aim 6: Measure the impact of volunteering both to the students themselves and the wider community via both qualitative and quantitative feedback from students and internal and external partners.

Aim 7: Celebrate the volunteering achievements of Cardiff University students.

Aim 8: Enhance the portfolio of personal development opportunities provided to students

by Cardiff University Students’ Union.

Aim 9: Be the first point of contact regarding volunteering for Cardiff University Students’ Union, Cardiff University departments and students themselves.

Cardiff Volunteering

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TRUSTEES AND STAFF During 2017/18 the size and composition of the Board of Trustees has increased to include one new External Trustee.

Chair of Board of Trustees Hollie Cooke (Cardiff University Students’ Union President)

Trustees Nicholas Fox (Cardiff University Students’ Union, Vice President Welfare (Appointed July 2017) Steve Wilford (Cardiff University Students’ Union) Jane Goodfellow (Cardiff University) Charlie Knights (Cardiff University Student (Resigned March 2018)

Katie Dougan Volunteering Co-ordinator (from Sep 2017) Geoff Jukes Volunteering Co-ordinator (from Feb 2018) Shaun Thomas Volunteering Co-ordinator Intern (from Feb 2018) Tumi left us in November this year to pursue a career in the music industry. We have been very lucky to appoint Katie and Geoff, two ex-Cardiff University students to the team who have hit the ground running!

Shaun previously worked in the Volunteering Department at Sheffield University and is currently volunteering with us to gain additional experience.

Caroline Alldridge (Cardiff University Student (Appointed July 2017) Joanna Parry (External Trustee. Appointed July 2017) Alexander Hicks (External Trustee (Appointed September 2017)

Staff Michelle Lenton-Johnson Head of Student Development Kelly Marlow Volunteering Co-ordinator Tumi Williams Volunteering Co-ordinator (‘till Nov 2017)

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Cardiff Volunteering Staff Team 2017/18

PARTNERS Cardiff Volunteering has continued to strengthen its partnerships with external organisations during 2017/18 to provide an even more diverse variety of volunteering opportunities for our students.

We have maintained excellent partnerships with Cardiff University - who worked with us on our Discovery, Confident Futures, Grangetown Festival, Waste Not Want Not, Welsh for Adults and GCSE Maths & English projects, and also with our friends at Student Volunteering Cardiff (SVC) who we continue to work in partnership with on our Police Student Volunteer and Environmental Champions projects.

We would like to express our thanks and gratitude to all our external partners listed below, without whom we could not have developed and delivered the fantastic array of projects that we have been able to during the past 12 months:

Partners include: • ACE

• Coed Glas Primary School

• NewLink Wales

• Adamsdown Primary School

• Corpus Christi RC High School

• Oasis Cardiff

• Allensbank Primary School

• Dimensions UK

• Repair Café Wales

• Alzheimer’s Society

• Elite Supported Employment Agency

• Royal Voluntary Service

• Amelia Trust Farm • BEAT • Big Issue • Birchgrove Primary School • Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre • Burges House Care Home • Cadwyn Housing • Cancer Research Wales • Cardiff Council • Cardiff Digs • Cardiff Dogs Home • Cardiff Institute for the Blind • Cardiff Muslim Primary School • Cardiff University • Cardiff University Students’ Union • Cathays Community Centre • Celebrate The Children UK

• EYST • Gabalfa Primary School • Game On Wales • Global Gardens • Grangetown Community Partnership • Greenfarm Hostel • Heath Hospital • Hope Rescue • Huggard • Hybu • Keep Wales Tidy • Kyle’s Goal • Living with Aspergers • Llanedeyrn Primary School • MIRUS

• Run 4 Wales • Salvation Army • Sherman Theatre Cymru • South Wales Police • SOVA • St. Monica’s Primary School • St. Peter’s Primary School • St. Phillip Evans Primary School • Stacey Primary School • Student Volunteering Cardiff • Thornhill Primary School • Thrive • Ty Celyn Youth Group • Ty Gwyn Nursing Home • VCS Cymru • Wales Millennium Centre

Cardiff Volunteering

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FUNDERS & SPONSORS During 2017/18 Cardiff Volunteering were lucky enough to receive funding and support from a number of organisations which directly benefitted both the delivery of existing projects and assisted the development of new projects such as the Periods In Poverty. We would like to thank them all for their support this year:

A special thank you goes to our amazing volunteers, for their incredible fundraising efforts throughout the past year, which amounted to over ÂŁ7,000!

In addition we would like to thank the following sponsors who have amazed us with their generosity during this year in supporting some of our projects and key events:

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A YEAR IN THE LIFE...

It’s been another fantastic year for Cardiff Volunteering … We started the year with a new staff member, Katie – an ex-Cardiff University Neuro Science student! When Tumi left in November he was replaced by Geoff, another Cardiff University student who took over Tumi’s volunteering projects and helped out with lots of big events!

The year again commenced with a bang at the Freshers’ Volunteering Fair – where an incredible 3,000 students signed up to express an interest in volunteering across a huge variety of over 100 different stalls! This year we piloted a new barcode electronic registration system at Freshers which was very successful and definitely cut down on the queues and the paperwork!

collection points for sanitary product donations across campus to re-distribute to those in need), Make A Smile (in which students dress up as story-book characters and visit sick children in hospitals) and the Compassion Initiative (who have devised a teaching programme for delivery to local Primary School children). We are continually amazed and inspired by the incredible ideas that our students bring to us – and really pleased to be able to help make these a reality!

Following it’s set up as an official Registered Body, Cardiff Volunteering have undertaken over 400 Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks this academic year, enabling lots more students to volunteer safely on projects involving children and young people and vulnerable adults. In total this year 1,660 students have contributed an During the year we have run over 70 volunteering incredible 14,264 volunteering hours and as ever, projects each week in the local community, we celebrated their great achievements at the as well as a number of one off events annual Voscars Volunteering Award ceremony! during Student Volunteering Week – such as redecorating a local Community Centre, a We carried out an evaluation in February this warehouse donations sort-out with a local year with students to help us to continue to Children’s Charity and Blind Bowling with improve the volunteering experience we offer... beneficiaries from Cardiff Institute for the Blind. Key feedback showed that students wanted to volunteer both to gain skills, and to meet new We have undertaken a number of fundraising people and have fun in equal measures. Some events throughout the year including two respondents expressed a desire for more HeathStudent Sleep-outs and of course Jailbreak, based volunteering opportunities and we have which between them has raised an incredible taken this feedback on board and are developing £9000! We also launched a new event this new opportunities to launch at Freshers next year “Survival Games” which attracted over 40 year. We were pleased to see that everyone was participants in a Nerf gun battle to the finish! really happy with the service we are providing!

During the year we assisted a number of student-led initiatives – the Safety Walk Scheme (helping students get home safely) and the Waste Not Want Not food redistribution project have gone from strength to strength this year with the continued support of our amazing student volunteers. During Freshers this year we launched three incredible new student-led projects: Periods In Poverty (which has set up

“Cardiff Volunteering is amazing! There are so many opportunities on offer, you can’t help but find something that suits your interests and timetable. It’s a great way of gaining new skills and meeting new people.”

2017/18 has been another incredible year for Cardiff Volunteering – here are just some of the highlights...

Cardiff Volunteering

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SEPTEMBER Freshers Freshers fortnight was an extremely busy time for Cardiff Volunteering. As well as attending every Fair at Park Place and the Heath campus over this period, the team also delivered information talks at every University school’s induction lectures to ensure that everyone knew about the benefits of volunteering !

With the help of our volunteers we hosted our very own Volunteering Fair during Freshers which was very successful, with over 100 different volunteering projects represented on the day and over 3,000 students attending! We had an amazing day and both we and our project partners were hugely impressed with the level of enthusiasm that Cardiff University students showed towards volunteering.

New Student-Led Projects We were really excited to launch three new Student-Led projects this September.

Periods In Poverty was set up by a Physio student to create and run donation points across the campus for sanitary products for local people in hardship, such as people who are homeless / refugees / in family shelters.

Make A Smile was set up by a Medic student.

Student volunteers dress-up as well known characters and visit a range of children’s hospital wards and centres, bringing some magic to their lives and a smile to their faces.

The Compassion Initiative was set up by a Geography and Planning student. The volunteers work with local Primary schools to create and

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deliver bespoke Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT) lessons and workshops that help children to monitor and improve their own mental health.

We are continually amazed and inspired by the incredible ideas that our students bring to us – and really pleased to be able to work with them to help bring their ideas to life.

GIAG Events We delivered a series of exciting Give It A Go one-off volunteering events this year as part of our Freshers programme which helped us to reach out to students who wanted to try volunteering for the first time. There were a diverse range of activities on offer, including a City Centre walkabout with Big Issue Cymru, dog walking with Cardiff Dogs Home and supporting visually impaired people to go bowling with Cardiff Institute for the Blind, which helped to demonstrate to students how interesting volunteering can be.

OCTOBER Cardiff University Half Marathon In October, Cardiff Volunteering helped provide student volunteers for our partners at Run 4 Wales at the Cardiff University Half Marathon.

In total, 147 Cardiff University students volunteered an incredible 1,470 hours at this event in various roles throughout the day.

Clean Up Cathays For ‘Clean Up Cathays’ our student volunteers joined forces with a great team of like-minded enthusiastic people, including local residents, South Wales Police, Keep Wales Tidy and Students’ Union staff to clean up the streets of Cathays post Freshers. We were even joined on the day by “Caddy Man”, the Cardiff Council mascot! In total over 25 volunteers collected an incredible 35 bags of rubbish … you could say they cleaned-up!

in Difficult Situations and Team Briefings, which resulted in the achievement of a Certificate of Personal Development in Leadership in Volunteering. They also undertook training in Risk Assessment and Social Media.

The weekend proved to be a great bonding experience for the Lead Volunteers who went on to become a strong and effective group of ambassadors for Cardiff Volunteering during the year. Feedback showed that they found the sessions very helpful in their role.

“I’ve been able to apply the leadership skills that I have gained from becoming a Lead Volunteer with Cardiff Volunteering, which allowed me to grow as a person and as a Leader. I am proud to say that I have met some wonderful people on this training who are drawn together under the same belief and I would definitely call them friends.”

Lead Volunteer Training Our Lead Volunteers are students who take the additional responsibility of managing a project.

They are the first point of contact for volunteers and manage attendance, plan activities and hold regular project meetings to ensure all volunteers are happy. Our newly appointed Lead Volunteers for 2017-18 took part in a training weekend in October. This training included: Leadership Styles, Problem Solving, Teamwork, Leadership

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Cardiff Volunteering

Student Sleepout No. 1 In November, Cardiff Volunteering held its first Student Sleepout of the year. Students slept out on the front steps of the Students’ Union to raise awareness of the increasing problem of homelessness in Cardiff. Led by the fantastic Help for Homeless society, 9 Students attended and managed to last the whole night. They did a wonderful job of raising money and the grand total amounted to £1,327.37 which helped to fund many Cardiff Volunteering projects within the local community.

“It was hard to imagine how so many people endure a much worse experience than ours tonight repeatedly, in even worse weather conditions, with many suffering from mental illness and personal issues too. Homelessness is an affliction that has the potential to affect any of us, at any point in our lives.”

Cardiff Volunteering

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NOVEMBER We were lucky enough to be chosen as one of the Co-operative store’s nominated charities this year, and in November the Co-operative Community Fund awarded Cardiff Volunteering over £2,000 to help fund our valuable work in local communities. As well as this financial support, our four local Co-operative stores have continued to support us throughout the year with in-kind support and donations – thank you Co-op!

Co-op Community Fund Cheque Presentation

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Cardiff Volunteering

Cardiff Volunteering

DECEMBER Survival Games December saw our first ever Survival Games event. Students joined in teams and then played in a NERF gun battle to end all battles!

The event was hosted in partnership with the NERF Society who kindly donated the Nerf guns and ammo. Student volunteers helped out by marshalling the event and all 40 participants had an amazing time! Next year our Make A Smile project volunteers will be taking on the running of this event as a project fundraiser, and we will support them with the planning and logistics of the event.

Lead Vol Christmas Meal

Lead Volunteer Christmas Meal After an incredible first term, we thought it was only right that we celebrated the great work of our Lead Volunteers by inviting them to a Christmas Meal in The Taf!

Survival Games

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FEBRUARY Student Volunteering Week

The Walk Of Fame

February 19th – 25th was National Student Volunteering Week. We filled the week with lots of great one-off volunteering opportunities and here are some of the highlights:

For student volunteering week the Safety Walk Scheme held a taster session for the Wednesday YOLO shift. Volunteers were offered the chance to come along for three hours, get a safety talk and a briefing on what we do and then go outside and see what being a volunteer is really like.

Five volunteers who had not volunteered on the safety walk before turned up, and three of those volunteers went on to join the scheme as fully fledged volunteers!

Penny and a Doughnut for your thoughts On Monday 19th February we hosted our first Student Volunteering Week event in Y Plas.

The event featured stalls showcasing many of our projects to recruit new volunteers, and even included some furry friends from our Puppy Power project! Students also had the opportunity to provide us with feedback into what type of projects they would like to see Cardiff Volunteering deliver and how often they would like to volunteer.

On Tuesday 20th February we replicated this event at the Heath Campus. The event was particularly useful in helping us to establish how we can make our projects more accessible to Heath Students. In total over 80 students engaged with us over these two days and it was a tremendous way to kick off Student Volunteering Week.

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Clean Up Cathays no.2 Our second litter pick of the year took place during Student Volunteering Week. The event was supported by Cardiff City Council and Keep Wales Tidy. The event was very successful with 14 students attending and over 20 bags of litter collected.

Get Down and Dirty

Paint Party

Students helped to clear an area on the Global Gardens allotment in preparation for erecting a polytunnel, creating raised beds and planting up a soft fruit patch. The students had a great day and achieved amazing results on the allotment on the day.

Students volunteered to help redecorate our local Cathays Community Centre. The Centre is home to lots of great community groups and hosts loads of student society sessions but was in need of an interior make-over! The students worked hard all day to spruce up the reception and main hall areas which gave the centre a new lease of life.

Young Voices

In total, 247 students volunteered an incredible 753 hours during National Student Volunteering Week – having fun and helping their local community!

We teamed up with our partners Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team (EYST)to run a Resilience Project with the local Butetown Youth Forum. The event sought the views of local youngsters on issues such as racism, Far Right extremism, Islamic extremism and sexual exploitation.

Volunteers assisted with set-up and registration whilst supporting round-table discussion groups with the young people.

Sort It Out !!!

Bobath is a Charity that works to improve the lives of children with Cerebral Palsy. They help fund their amazing work through selling donations in a number of local Bobath Charity Shop outlets. This project involved spending the day helping to sort through their main donations storage warehouse in Llanishen: sorting and pricing up the clothes, cleaning and carrying out minor repairs to furniture etc.

Caption (Volunteers at the Bobath’s “Sort It Out” project Cardiff Volunteering

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MARCH Jailbreak Our annual fundraising event, Jailbreak, took place on the 9th to 11th March this year. Nine teams consisting of 23 students took part and managed to raise over £5200, £2953 of which will go towards a variety of Cardiff Volunteering projects, with the remainder going to other local and national charities. Our partners Santander once again matched this funding to the sum of £2500 – bringing this year’s fundraised total for Jailbreak to an amazing £7,700. This year we were also supported by Escape Rooms Cardiff who gave £500 to Cardiff Volunteering, allowing us to buy marketing materials and set up our launch event. This year the Jailbreak Basecamp, who track teams and keep them safe, was helped out by trained support volunteers who were super enthusiastic, even during the long night shifts! This year the winning team made it to Lanzarote and back, with many others getting into Europe. We again organised a ‘home-coming’ celebration and awards evening which this year was sponsored and hosted by Costa.

Lord Mayor’s “Thankyou” Event On 21st March our Environmental Champion volunteers were invited to the Lord Mayor of Cardiff’s Mansion House in celebration of the contribution and hard work they had carried out this year. All the volunteers were personally thanked and received a certificate to commemorate their amazing achievements.

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APRIL Clean Up Cathays no.3 This was the third and final Clean Up Cathays event in our calendar. Run again in partnership with Cardiff City Council, students met at the rear of the Students’ Union and then went on to do a litter pick in the surrounding areas.

The event had lower attendance than previous litter picks due to the time of year but they still collected almost ten bags of litter. Clean Up Cathays has been a very successful and wellsupported event, and we plan to make this a regular weekly project next academic year.

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MAY Student Sleepout No. 2 In May, Cardiff Volunteering held its 2nd Student Sleepout of the year. Once again, students slept out on the front steps of the Students’ Union to raise money for and awareness of the problem of homelessness in Cardiff. Even though they were in the middle of revision, six volunteers swapped a night in the library for the streets of Cardiff and managed to raise a fantastic £335 for our homeless projects.

Voscars On Tuesday 1st May Cardiff Volunteering hosted it’s third Voscars Awards night – a fantastic celebration of the achievements of our volunteers. We celebrated with over 100 of our amazing volunteers and partner organisations who all had an incredible night! The categories and winners this year are below: The Individual Fundraiser of the Year award went to Sumit Mistry who raised an incredible £335.25 doing our first Student Sleepout event this year. Sumit also helped plan the event and took a lead role on the night – making sure everyone was safe and well, and in good spirits.

The Group Fundraiser of the Year award went to Help for Homeless, Student Minds and Nightline who worked collaboratively to host a fundraising pub quiz!

The Most Engaged Club or Society award went to Help for Homeless who always aim to make volunteering the heart of their society: fundraising for multiple charities, raising awareness of homelessness in Cardiff and taking a lead role on our Student Sleepout by devising

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a quiz to keep everyone entertained during the long cold night!

The Best New Project or Event award went to Make a Smile. Set up in the summer of 2017 they have gone from strength to strength, with well over 100 volunteers they bring joy and smiles to the faces of sick children by bringing fairytale characters to life.

The Community Impact award went to the Greenfarm Hostel project. The volunteers contributed to improved community cohesion at the hostel and helped residents build positive relationships with each other. These students have been positive role models for the beneficiaries and are really helping to change lives.

The Most Volunteer Hours Contributed award went to Sam Stainton, volunteering an incredible 380+ hours on the Grangetown Festival project, which a Cardiff University Community Gateway project.

The Volunteer of the Year award went to Catherine Bolton who helped to acquire much needed new equipment for the Waste Not Want Not project to help all volunteers fulfil their role.

She also worked alongside Cardiff Volunteering and other volunteers to design and produce a new logo for the project that has raised its profile.

The Lead Volunteer of the Year award went to Hannah Van Wyk who brought the Periods in Poverty project on in leaps and bounds this year.

She is willing to take on any task and inspires fellow volunteers.

She actively discussed project ideas with volunteers and ensured everyone’s hours and work was recognised - her fellow volunteers have said they couldn’t imagine doing the project without her.

The Cardiff Volunteering Outstanding Contribution award went to Luke Morgan, a familiar face around Cardiff Volunteering. As well as being the Lead Volunteer for the Make a Smile project, he also helped out with our Survival Games and Jailbreak events this year.

As a lead volunteer he is always looking to improve and grow his project, bringing a huge level of dedication and commitment to whatever he does. He puts a smile on everyone’s face.

Periods In Poverty

Cardiff Volunteering

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JUNE June has been a month of nominations and celebrations at Cardiff Volunteering! Two members of the Cardiff Volunteering team (Michelle and Kelly)were nominated for an ESLA Award - “Most Uplifting Staff Member”. One member of the team (Geoff) was nominated for a NIACES Student Staff Member of The Year award, and four of our projects, Make A Smile, Student Safety Walk, Periods In Poverty and Waste Not Want Not were nominated for WCVA Volunteer of the Year Awards. We are very pleased to report that our Student Safety Walk project received the “Group Volunteer Of The Year” award, and one of our Lead Volunteers, Luke Morgan won the “Young Volunteer Of The Year” award … we could not be more proud !

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Cardiff Volunteering

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OUR PROJECTS During 2017/18 Cardiff Volunteering’s main aim was to engage with as many students as possible through the delivery of an increased and varied portfolio of volunteering opportunities, that in turn would benefit the local community and enhance the students’ social, educational and emotional experience. We developed our relationship with existing community partners and created some exciting new local partnerships which resulted in lots of amazing one-off activities for our students as well as over 70 regular volunteering projects being delivered by students under the following six themes:

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Below is a list of all the core projects that we delivered this year:

Project

No. Volunteers

No. Hours

ACE AcTAV8 BEAT Ambassadors Big Issue Cardiff Council Play Schemes Celebrate the Children CIB Buddies Confident Futures Dimension Buddies Discovery Environmental Champions EYST Tuition Club Fab 5 Party Planners Friends 4 U Friends of Amelia Trust Farm Game on Wales Football Leader Game on Wales Marketing Assisstant GCSE Maths/English Global Gardens Project GreenFarm Family Hostel Volunteering Homework Club: Allensbank Hospital Student Volunteering Hybu Student Leaders Kyle’s Goal Student Ambassadors Let’s get Social Living with Aspergers Befriending Living with Aspergers Law Group Make A Smile Mirus Social Group Nightingale House Oasis Cardiff Playworkers Oasis Cardiff Student Volunteers Oldwell Court Day Centre Pave the Way Buddy Scheme Periods in Poverty

1 11 2 9 10 9 14 7 6 10 30 12 6 4 15 2 2 56 13 6 4 33 4 3 5 3 7 185 3 4 17 30 4 10 13

4 242 12 134 24 283.5 169 82 119 98.5 234 284.5 13 110 92 53 28 1073 176 174.15 45 175 17.5 8.5 8.5 14 67 951 30 16 54 474 6 56 96

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Below is a list of all the core projects that we delivered this year:

Project

No. Volunteers

No. Hours

Police Student Volunteering Positive Steps Primary School Tutoring Project SEARCH Puppy Power Repair CafĂŠ SHARE Side by Side Student Friends of Sherman Theatre Student Safety Walk Student Science Superheroes Tea and Company The Compassion Initiative The Festival Project The Learning Club (TLC) Thrive Ty Celyn VOLocity Wales Millenium Centre Volunteers Waste Not, Want Not Wednesday Club Welcome Crew TOTAL

30 2 14 5 43 5 17 4 21 15 4 4 5 5 8 8 11 6 12 18 4 59 850

1827.5 3 165 106 146 82 252.5 25.5 526 495 110 16 70 263 88 185 195 108 155 146 45 2190 12224

In addition to these core projects, we organised lots of one-off volunteering opportunities throughout the year for students to engage in.

In this academic year we have seen 1,660 students volunteer over 14,000 hours across a range of one-off and regular volunteering projects. Here is just a selection of some of the great projects that students have volunteered on this year:

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Greenfarm Family Hostel Volunteering In partnership with Cardiff Council Housing Services, volunteers have the opportunity to engage with people at risk of homelessness at this family hostel. Students visit on a weekly basis in a group to deliver activity sessions which could range from afternoon tea to board games or baking afternoons. The project was very successful thanks to the amazing volunteers and it went on to win the Cardiff Volunteering Community Impact Award. The beneficiaries said they “never want the project to end”.

“The project has not only enhanced my employability skills but has given me life skills and awareness that were underdeveloped a year ago. Greenfarm, and our team, is nothing less than an extension of my home.”

EYST This is a partnership project with the Ethnic Youth Support Team. Our amazing Volunteers provide one to one tutoring for young people aged 10-18 to empower them through education.

Tutoring Maths, English, and Science in a fully supervised, mutually beneficial environment, for one or two hours per week in the Butetown and Grangetown areas of Cardiff.

“It is hard to only pick one aspect of the role that I enjoyed the most, but I think most volunteers, including me, agree that seeing tutees get more comfortable with you, and more self-confident every week truly is rewarding.

Dimensions At dimensions, volunteers buddy-up with adults with learning difficulties and/or autism on a one-to-one basis, providing companionship, motivation and support. Students meet their buddy at their home and then go with them to an activity of their choice e.g. bowling, cinema, coffee etc.

“I volunteer each week and I feel like I make a difference to their life and they make a difference to mine. Having fun and making a difference is the most important thing to me. I feel incredibly supported at Dimensions and that has helped me to gain confidence.”

Side by Side Side by Side is a fantastic new project run in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society that helps people with dementia to keep doing the things they love with the support of a volunteer.

The one-to-one support makes it easier for people with dementia, who might sometimes feel isolated or find it difficult to leave their homes, remain active and feel part of their local community. By doing things like going for a walk, to a football match, or joining a local class together, volunteers support people with dementia to take up hobbies and get out and about.

“Too many people are facing dementia alone and something as simple as a few hours doing something you love can make an enormous difference in providing companionship, stimulation and enjoyment.”

I believe what we have learnt from them, is even greater than what they have learnt from us. We were all just like our tutees a few years ago, and we still remember how hard it was to do work right after school, so we can tell how passionate and motivated they are.”

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Puppy Power

Global Gardens

This popular project has proven a hit again this year. Students volunteer at a local dog rescue centre, helping to walk the dogs, exercise them in purpose built paddocks and grooming them.

We had many volunteers sign up and receive training for this project.

This project involves weekly organic gardening sessions at the Global Gardens allotment site in Heath and a monthly supper at the Embassy Café which aim to support those seeking sanctuary, including refugees and asylum seekers. Volunteers help in the garden or kitchen and get involved in the Embassy Cafe befriending scheme. This project has recently been successful in winning a National Lottery grant of £50,000 to move the project forward and we are excited to work with them in developing the project next year.

“Puppy power has been really great in helping me settle in to university in my first year. Being away from home was so alien for me at the start of the year, but being able to commit to a project and visit the dogs at the rescue centre made me feel that little bit more at home and gave me a sense of purpose aside of doing course work. Coming from a family with 7 pets, I really missed having animals around, so this project was perfect for a bit of home comfort. It’s also lovely getting to talk to the other volunteers and staff members at the home who all have a love and passion for dogs - it’s great to be able to show the dogs a bit of love and care while they wait for a new home.”

32.

Cardiff Volunteering

“The Cardiff student volunteers have helped the Global Gardens Project move forwards this year. With their input, the project has developed the growing space within the garden - we have prepared 6 raised beds and prepared the land ready for our new polytunnel. These spaces will help us cultivate more veg which we can feed into the Global Gardens monthly suppers.

The student volunteer team also helped us successfully win the National Lottery People’s Project campaign. Thanks for all of your hard work!”

Cardiff Volunteering

33.

STATISTICS Since September 2016 we have developed and run 40 regular core volunteering projects under six main themes:

* Children * Environment and the Wider Community * Sport and Recreation * Welfare * Young People Education * Young People Social In addition we have delivered many one-off volunteering events through Give It A Go and Student Volunteering Week. These projects have engaged with 1,660 students this year, who between them have accumulated an incredible 14,264 volunteer hours!

We have appointed 60 Lead Volunteers to our projects and they have all undertaken bespoke training leading to a Certificate of Personal Development in Leadership and Volunteering. In addition many of these Lead Volunteers have gone on to undertake the newly launched Diploma of Professional Development in Leadership.

34.

Cardiff Volunteering

Analysis of Statistics 2017-18

Cardiff Volunteering

35.

Cardiff Volunteering Gwirfoddoli Caerdydd

Thank you for helping us to help others in 2017/18!

Company Registration Number: 09712403 Registered Charity Number: 1168217