Volunteering Relauched at SIG: What’s New and Why It Matters

Volunteering Relauched at SIG: What’s New and Why It Matters

We are delighted to have relaunched our volunteering programme, creating more opportunities for people to contribute their time, skills and experience to support our mission. This marks an exciting step forward for the organisation as we strengthen the role volunteers play in the work we do every day to strengthen communities.

Volunteers Week (1^st-7^Th June) was the perfect opportunity for us to share our new opportunities and celebrate the amazing volunteers who have been committed to supporting our services over many years. We took the opportunity to spotlight the inspiring stories of some of our volunteer team and celebrate the impact of their collective efforts. Volunteers at SIG already give around 172 hours of their spare time each weeks – that’s more than 8,900 hours of support per year above and beyond the efforts of our staff. Given the benefits for residents, participants, staff teams and the volunteers themselves, we have ambitions to grow our existing team and opportunities available to them.

What is new?

We have been working closely with residents, participants, and staff teams to co-design meaningful opportunities for volunteers to contribute and make a positive impact across our services, complementing the support already provided by our teams.

These opportunities are now available on our new volunteering page on the website, where individuals can easily browse roles and apply online through a quick and simple application process.

In addition, our Volunteer Manager has been streamlining our internal processes and investing time in staff training to ensure a consistently positive volunteer experience across our many services.

Why does it matter?

By creating more meaningful opportunities for volunteers to contribute to our work, we can extend our reach and impact, bring in fresh perspectives, and strengthen our connections with the communities we serve. Volunteers are already making a significant difference at SIG, and we are focused on building on this success to unlock even greater potential.

We spoke to Janie, Service Manager at Brighton Women’s Service, about her team’s experience of involving volunteers. She said, “I can’t overstate the value of volunteers in our service.” She continued, “Often we are busy with the tasks required to run the service, but volunteers have time – and that is a very important thing to be able to offer to the people we work with.”

Volunteering brings value not only to the organisation but also to the individuals who take part. It provides opportunities to develop new skills, build confidence, and enhance wellbeing, while making a meaningful difference to others. We are committed to offering inclusive opportunities and particularly recruiting volunteers with lived experience, building on the success of our Peer Mentoring programme in Medway. “Having Peer Mentors is great for our clients. Seeing that they have achieved so much keeps the clients motivated that they too can achieve great things.” – Cyrilia, staff member at Pathways to Independence, Medway.

As part of our relaunch, we marked Volunteers’ Week by sharing stories from our volunteers, highlighting the positive impact volunteering has had on their lives, as well as the important contribution they make in supporting our services. Click here to read their inspiring stories. (link to Instagram once they’re posted)

By investing in our volunteer framework we will enable volunteering to become a cornerstone of how Social Interest Group delivers its mission and builds strong communities. Mark Milton, Social Interest Group CEO says: “As we relaunch our volunteering programme, we celebrate the incredible contribution of those who already give their time, energy and compassion to support our work. Your impact is felt every day across our organisation and communities. Looking ahead, we are ambitious about growing volunteering and creating more opportunities for people to get involved, connect, and make a difference. Together, we can build something even stronger: a culture where everyone feels empowered to give back and be part of meaningful change.”