Volunteering Can be a Resolution That Lasts Longer Than a Gym Membership

January is often chock a block with well-intentioned resolutions that don’t last, but volunteering can stay the course because it works with real life instead of against it.

Unlike optimistic gym memberships and diet plans that need regimentation – and instant transformation – volunteering is forgiving. It doesn’t need perfection or great swathes of time. It just needs you to turn up when you can and do something useful, which makes it far more likely to survive beyond Valentine’s Day.

This time of year is often a reset point for charities and community groups. Projects that were paused over Christmas resume, new funding comes on stream and rotas that were stretched in December suddenly need filling. Fresh faces aren’t just welcomed, they’re needed.

If you’ve ever told yourself that you’ll wait until things are quieter thought before looking into volunteering, this is that quieter time.

It’s an ideal period to make the leap because many organisations expect new volunteers in January and are geared up for inductions, training or taster sessions. These provide space to ask questions, build confidence and work out whether a role fits around your life.

Beginning the year with an outward-looking habit can be grounding and energising. Volunteering adds shape to weeks and a regular shift creates a rhythm and a reason to leave the house when the sofa and that leftover box of festive chocolates is trying to persuade you otherwise.

Wessex Community Action’s free community portal, Wiltshire Together, is the ideal place to look for volunteering opportunities. Once registered, you can set up a profile with your preferences and search organisations looking for help by area.

Among the vacancies on the portal at the moment is for day club volunteers for Beyond Dementia at its clubs at Scots Lane in Salisbury and Sidmouth Street in Devizes. Time is flexible here because it runs clubs on several days a week and needs helpers to chat and listen to members, join in or leading small activities and help to prepare and serve refreshments. Any special talents like music, knitting or crafts are especially welcomed.

Wiltshire Sight is looking for people to staff its technology hubs across the county, helping people with advice on using their phones, tablets, laptops, smart speakers, talking book players or PCs.

“We are looking for friendly, patient, ‘tech-savvy’ individuals to help unleash the power of technology so that people who are blind or partially sighted can make the most of the digital world, whether that be to access information and learn new things, enjoy entertainment, shop online or to contact friends and family,” said Volunteer Co-ordinator Becs Thurgur.

Volunteering in January is good for the community but it can be quietly good for you too. It can bring perspective when the news and the weather can feel relentlessly grim and instead of vague good intentions that niggle at your conscience, you’ll have something tangible that reminds you that progress comes in different forms.

Sign up and search local opportunities at wiltshiretogether.org.uk.

WCA works with charities and groups to help them support their volunteer training and development, and help them develop links with the community. To find out more, contact Volunteer and Community Development Advisor Stacey Sims at community@wessexcommunityaction.org.uk.

Pictured: Beyond Dementia needs volunteers at its day clubs in Salisbury and Devizes

Press release issued by Meadow Communications on behalf of Wessex Community Action.

For further details contact Gary Lawrence of Meadow Communications on 07866 422308 or gary@meadowcomms.co.uk.