What is Volunteering
Volunteering is any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone, either an individual or a group, who is not a close relative. The key thing is that the volunteering must be undertaken by choice by the individual. Volunteering can include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organisations as well as informal community participation.
The word volunteering is used for a range of activities such as community service, self-help, charity, neighbourliness, citizenship, public service, community action, community involvement, trustee, member, helper.
To some people it is an act of kindness, to others it is a means of achieving a personal goal or putting something back into society. It is also a way of gaining new skills and improving job prospects.
Volunteers come from all walks of life and are active in almost every aspect of society that you can think of - from visiting older people, to sitting on a magistrates' bench, to governing local schools, to performing in a local play or coaching young athletes.
Volunteering opens up a world of possibilities - and volunteers can and do almost everything!
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