Positive Futures London volunteers celebrated on International Volunteer Day

On the 5^th December it was International Volunteer Day, and our Hackney-based project Positive Futures London held their festive celebration event, with volunteers and their family and friends coming together to celebrate the work of the volunteers in 2017.

Hosted by local MC HBoss, the attendees began the evening taking part in quizzes and tucking in to a festive feast of snacks and (non-alcoholic) mulled wine.

Guest speaker Jess Reddy, Charity and Volunteer Manager from Deloitte, gave a brief talk about how volunteering is a brilliant way to make your CV stand out when it comes to getting a job. She spoke about how volunteering helped her figure out what parts of her job she loved, and aided her in making decisions when it came to her career.

There was a performance by Alizey Fenton Hoffstead, whose spoken word piece was inspired by her experience volunteering with residents in a local care home, and the hardships they faced when they were young people. Sam Berkson then performed a poem written about urban living in the city of Birmingham, and Jazmae Caprice Cole performed a beautiful rendition of Alicia Keys’ ‘If I Ain’t got you.’

We then celebrated our volunteers with a big round of applause, as they held up their AQA certificates for our five-week, level 3 AQA accredited course, ‘Volunteering Matters: Skills for Youth Volunteering’.

The evening was round up looking back at the highlights from 2017, including the launch of new project Futures East, the inter-generational film club held at Volunteering Matters HQ, the young mums event, and the creative writing library awareness spoken word event. You can apply to be a youth leader, youth volunteer, or ask for more information through our website!