Volunteers Week: Spotlight on Athan 31
04 June 2015
4th June 2015
This week is Volunteers’ Week, where charities recognise the volunteers who give their time, energy and skills to support their organisations. With 4.5 million volunteers in the youth and children's activities sector, this week we’re looking at the community and corporate volunteers we have recruited to support our Athan 31 project.
Athan 31 provides young people with the framework and resources to develop skills as a team to improve their youth club and have a positive impact on their community, delivering this themselves alongside the support of a youth worker. This year, we have worked with 47 clubs and 787 young people through the programme.
15 adult volunteers have been supporting youth clubs with their Athan 31 projects over the past year, and we are pleased to say that 10 of these volunteers will be able to stay on and continue to support the youth club beyond the end of the Athan 31 project. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all these volunteers for the time and energy they have spent supporting young people to deliver Athan 31.
In addition, 15 volunteers from Santander through our partnership with City Pitch supported groups in developing their project ideas and preparing for project pitches. Here are some of the things that volunteers who have been involved in the Athan 31 project have said about their time at the club they’ve worked with so far:
“The experience of volunteering on Athan 31 has been very rewarding and challenging: in a good way. The young people were inspiring; they had so many ideas and always shot back new things.” Julia at SE1 United
On why she became an Athan 31 volunteer: “I wanted to be out of my comfort zone and have time interacting with teenagers and got both of these things through volunteering.” Lavoga at Mary's Youth Club
“Seeing the young people present on their ideas and also make a link with Ron of the elderly group upstairs to do their MyCommunity project with was so rewarding, it was great to see their confidence increasing” Rich at Amberley Youth Project
“Volunteering at the club with through Athan 31 taught me about listening to the needs and wants of the young people there and spurred me on to taking on another volunteering opportunity with the Samaritans.” Faye at Baraka Community Association
“This experience has helped my develop patience and to expect the unexpected! The sessions each week are different and I’ve learnt that in one session it may not work but the follow week will all come together” Tom at SE1 United
