Housing Rights celebrates Volunteers’ Week

Housing Rights celebrated all the volunteers who help us tackle homelessness and housing problems with a night of ten pin bowling in Belfast.

The celebration took place during Volunteers week which runs until 7 June.  We believe that our volunteers, who reflect the communities in which we all work, help us to reach even more people in housing need.  Our amazing volunteers help in all manner of ways across the organisation from volunteering on our housing helpline to giving us expert help in areas like web maintenance, graphic design and administration work to mention just a few. 

Sonya Nelson, Peer and Volunteer Development Coordinator with Housing Rights explains: “We wanted a fun way to thank all our volunteers for their time, dedication and unique contribution to our organisation.  Our staff and clients recognise the wealth of skills and experience volunteers bring and continue to benefit from their involvement in our work.”

Hundreds of events will be taking place to mark Volunteers' Week. The annual campaign, which was established in 1984, recognises the contribution volunteers make to our communities every day.

Volunteering facts

• In 2015, volunteering output contributed an estimated £22.6bn to the UK economy. This is equivalent to approximately 1.2% of GDP
• In 2016/17, 19.8 million (37%) people in the UK volunteered formally at least once a year and 11.9 million (22%) of people did so at least once a month
• There are 165,801 voluntary organisations in the UK, many of whom rely on volunteers.
• Lots of volunteering also takes place within the public and private sector. For example, there are an estimated 3 million people volunteering in health and care.

If you'd like to talk about current volunteering opportunities with Housing Rights, contact Sonya, our friendly Peer and Volunteer Coordinator.