Housing Rights Celebrates Volunteers’ Week 2021

The 37th Annual Volunteers’ Week will take place this year from the 1st until the 7th June and is a time when Housing Rights says thank you to our wonderful volunteers.   

This past year the pandemic has brought challenges and disruptions to our usual volunteer programme, but that does not prevent us from thanking and recognising the fantastic contribution and dedication that volunteers continue to make to Housing Rights and to those who use our services.  

Sonya Bigg, Staff and Volunteer Development Coordinator with Housing Rights explains:  

“I wish to thank our volunteers for their continued commitment to the organisation despite the challenges of the last year, when not all of our volunteers could undertake their roles due to Covid-19 restrictions. Thankfully, as we now look forward, we have renewed optimism for our volunteers to contribute in exciting and innovative ways.”  

In the last three years alone, our volunteers have contributed over 2,500 hours of their time, to further our mission of improving lives by tackling homelessness and housing problems in Northern Ireland.  Volunteers contribute to all areas of the organisation including advice provision, policy and research, service development and business support.  We believe that involving volunteers who reflect the communities in which we all work will ultimately help us to reach even more people in housing need.

Housing Rights awarded Investing in Volunteers Quality Standard   

In October 2020, Housing Rights was proud to become an Investing in Volunteers (IiV) achiever, having been awarded the quality standard for the first time.  This standard is based on four areas of volunteer management:

• planning for volunteer involvement
• recruiting volunteers
• selecting and matching volunteers
• supporting and retaining volunteers. 

It shows that we value our volunteers and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to volunteering within the organisation. 

For many charities the week will be a chance to showcase the range of volunteering opportunities on offer and demonstrate how, through volunteering, many can make a difference to a cause they are passionate about.  

Volunteer with Housing Rights

If you would like to talk about current volunteering opportunities with Housing Rights, contact Sonya, our friendly Staff and Volunteer Development Coordinator. 

• Further information on Volunteers Week and all it entails can be found at the Volunteers Week website.
• Find out about events happening in your local area here.
• For volunteering statistics visit NCVO here.
• NCVO recently published new research, Time Well Spent, on the experience of volunteers. The research is the largest study of the experiences of people who volunteer in over a decade and provides a range of important insights for those involved in volunteering policy, and for organisations who involve volunteers. You can also read the executive summary here.