This week marks Volunteers Week 2024. Volunteers’ Week celebrates the amazing contributions volunteers make to communities across the UK. The celebration starts on the first Monday in June every year. It’s a chance to recognise, celebrate and thank the UK’s incredible volunteers for all they contribute to our local communities, the voluntary sector, and society as a whole. This year to mark the 40th anniversary of the week, this year will culminate in The Big Help Out, from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 June, where people across the UK will get the chance to experience a range of volunteer taster sessions.

We at Step Up wanted to celebrate this week anyway, and it has tied in nicely to our upcoming first birthday. Many of you who have engaged with our network or attended an event will have seen many of our volunteers, but not all of them. Most of you will have seen our work from following us on social media, but not all of it and that’s why we bring another #BehindTheNetwork installation of information and news.

1) Our volunteers build strategy.

A week after our launch event, our founding team met at the Pen Museum in Birmingham to map out the strategy for our network. Under the leadership of our Founder and Chair, Ben, guided by the book ‘Traction’ by Gino Wickman, the day involved our volunteers defining our values, vision and our first three years as a network. We also delved deeper into our structure and our first year as a network. This year we are meeting on the 29th June in a hybrid format to review year one and then continue to plan and use our strategy to deliver.

2) Our volunteers turn up and lead.

All of our volunteers have full-time day jobs (or multiple roles), have additional study, have a family or have other commitments (or a mixture of all of the above). Considering this, they turn up at our half termly meetings, respond to emails, lead and manage initiatives and much much more.

3) Our volunteers create a culture.

We are pleased to say one year in, many of our volunteers have become great friends and colleagues. We have attended many events together, socialised together and mainly laugh together. Its great to see when new volunteers come onboard how welcomed they are into our culture.

4) Our volunteers grow and develop.

Many of our volunteers this year have had promotion interviews, taken on new (and wider reaching roles), are studying a NPQ, have had an Ofsted inspection and much more. It is clear to see the empowerment our colleagues have to go on and achieve even more.

5) Our volunteers enable Step Up to thrive.

Our organisation has grown from strength to strength. Hence why we wish to celebrate all that our volunteers have achieved throughout the course of the year. One way we do this is through our #BehindTheNetwork series on YouTube – do watch and subscribe for more content like this.

We are incredibly pleased to see how much of an impact our volunteering team has achieved. Now, a team of 6 has become 29 and we look forward to seeing the impact everyone within our team has on our network, when we reflect in 12 months from now.

Happy Volunteers Week all!