Names: Harriet Smith and Sophie Moreton
Ages: both 21
What are your roles in the society and what does this involve?
We are the Presidents of Exeter Student Volunteers, which is the university’s student-led volunteering society. Our role is to lead a committee of around 40 students, including a management team and Project Leaders, as well as helping to coordinate our thirteen local volunteering projects. Our projects work in a variety of areas, including with children, the elderly, vulnerable people, the environment and walking dogs for those who are unable to and we support our Project Leaders who run these projects themselves. A large part of our role is encouraging students to volunteer with us and this means having a presence on campus through stalls in the Forum and volunteering fairs as well as on social media where we publicise ESV and our projects via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We also meet with students who have ideas for new projects, we are always open to new ideas and can normally be found in A and V or students can contact us by email. Each week we write and send out a newsletter to our members which details all our upcoming activities including volunteering opportunities with local charities and we often meet local organisations to discuss potential volunteering events and partnerships.
What are your goals for ESV this year?
One of main goals is to increase ESV’s presence on campus so that more students can see what we have to offer and can take advantage of our volunteering projects. We would really love for more students to volunteer on our projects once they have signed up to ESV, especially as volunteering is so rewarding and it makes you really employable so we are always encouraging members to try out our projects! We are also looking into organising a new project that works with the homeless as this is a major issue in Exeter and we do not currently work in this area. It would be great to get this kind of project up and running when we hand over to the new Presidents!
Are there any special ESV events coming up over the coming term?
This term we have Student Volunteering Week, taking place between the 20th to 24th February, where we will have charities on campus giving talks to students and informing them of volunteering opportunities in Exeter. There will also be a variety of one-off volunteering events, with the focus on Good Deeds Day during the week, which is a great opportunity to try out volunteering if you want to get involved but haven’t had a chance to sign up to one of our regular projects! We will also be holding a variety of socials throughout the term including events at the Firehouse, a night out at DSP and bowling. All our socials are a great chance to get to know committee members and other volunteers and to find out more about what we do as a society! We are also very excited about our annual end of year Awards Dinner which normally takes place after exams in May. This is our chance to thank our volunteers and committee members for all the hard work they do over the year and it is always a really fun night.
Are there any specific achievements you are proud of from last term?
One of our proudest achievements as Presidents was gaining 1,000 members in Freshers’ Week which was more than we expected and was a great start to the term! Towards the end of Term 1, our Special Projects team organised an amazing Make a Difference Week which involved loads of volunteering opportunities including gift wrapping at Debenhams with St Loye’s Foundation, working with FoodCycle and a really popular talk given by Alzheimer’s Society about how to become a Dementia Friend. Each of the events was really well attended and that was definitely a highlight of last term! We were also really pleased by the turn out at our Christmas Ball, we had a record number of guests and even had to release more tickets! This was all down to our wonderful Events Officer and we had a really lovely evening celebrating a very successful first term of volunteering.
How have you found the role of leading the Student Guild’s largest society?
Leading a society of 1,400 members and a committee of 40 people has definitely been challenging and has required a lot of time management! However, it has been really rewarding and it’s amazing to see how our projects can help people in the local community as well as providing students with the chance to volunteer on some great projects. Being Presidents of ESV has been a really great experience and we have been able to work with so many lovely people as well as meeting lots of interesting people from organisations outside the university. We would definitely recommend the role to people who love a challenge and who are thinking about working in the charity sector. We have loved every minute of it and have been supported by a wonderful committee.
Where do you see the greatest number of Exeter students volunteering?
Our Dog Walking project, which gives students the opportunity to walk dogs for those unable to themselves due to various medical or physical reasons, is probably one of our most popular projects – most likely because of all those students missing their pets from home! Our Environmental Project is another one of our popular projects, involving volunteers in a number of exciting conservation activities, and as no DBS check or training is required for the project, volunteers are able to get involved straight away. Our annual flagship project, Summer Adventures – a two-week activity camp run in the summer for young carers in Devon, is extremely popular with our volunteers every year and is always over-subscribed! We will be recruiting for a committee to help organise the project as well as volunteers to take part in the camp in the next few weeks – so keep an eye out in the ESV weekly newsletters (which you can sign up for when you join us for free online), as well as on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages! Generally, we find that students are interested in a variety of different areas of volunteering and we encourage students to try out a variety of different projects to find out which area interests them most!
Are there any areas where you’d like to see more students volunteering?
We would love to see more students volunteering with vulnerable people, including those elderly people who may be isolated from society. ESV runs two projects working with the elderly, ActiviTeas and Elderly Connect, the former volunteering with elderly people living in residential and isolated living, the latter working with those in care homes. Of course we always welcome new volunteers in all areas, and in general would encourage more students to get involved with volunteering as it is a thoroughly rewarding experience which changes people’s lives and gives students invaluable employability skills.
What’s your favourite aspect of being part of the society?
Exeter Student Volunteers is a great society to be involved with, mostly because of its diverse nature working with various sectors of the community such as children and young people, the elderly, vulnerable people and the environment. ESV would be nothing without its members, and we believe that ESV members are particularly special people as they choose to give up their time to help others – even amidst the stress of essays and deadlines! Of course another important part of ESV is its wonderful committee, which totals about 40 students. It’s really great working with and getting to know such a lovely group of people who all share the same interest of helping others, and each and every one of them can and should be seen as a credit to ESV and its success.
What advice would you give to students wanting to participate in more volunteering activities over the next term?
The first thing we would advise to those students interested in volunteering is for them to read through all of the various projects we offer (which can be found on our website and various Facebook pages) and to get in touch with the relevant project leaders in order to find a project or multiple projects that interest them. After that, we would encourage them to find out whether the project or projects that interest them require a DBS check and training, and if they do, to complete these as soon as they can in order to start volunteering as soon as possible. DBS forms can be found at the A and V desk (next to Pieminister) and information about training sessions can be found on our website www.exeterguild.org/esv/training/. If students have any questions about ESV or how to get involved then we encourage them to get in contact with us, either by messaging us on Facebook, or emailing us at esv-president@groups.exeterguild.com.
What advice would you give to another university looking to improve its student volunteering services?
We think it is really important for volunteering services to be student-led and free to join, as it makes volunteering more accessible and approachable for students. It is very important that the society is diverse in order to attract a wide variety of students interested in a variety of different areas of volunteering. The society also needs to be engaging as it is important to include students in the running and improvement of the society, for example by listening to suggestions for new projects or ideas – which we thoroughly encourage and invite! (Information about setting up new projects can be found here: https://www.exeterguild.org/esv/projectproposals/)
Give our wonderful promo video a watch to really get a feel for the society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheopLI_5eA