From welcoming visitors to the city, looking after our gardens and open spaces and leading healthwalks, to helping people get online, representing tenant groups and supporting charities and hospitals, volunteers bring enormous benefits to the city.
Volunteering also brings its own reward. It increases people’s wellbeing and connects them to activities and communities in their local areas. It also provides people with new skills and experience.
Celebrating volunteers
To mark this year’s Volunteers Week (1-7 June), 500 of the city’s volunteers have been invited to a celebration at the American Express Community Stadium taking place later this month.
The celebration is being run in partnership with American Express and the city's community & voluntary sector.
Councillor Nancy Platts, the Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, said: “I’d like to thank you to everyone who volunteers in Brighton & Hove.”
“Some residents are giving up their time to help regularly at food banks, or to befriend those who would otherwise be extremely isolated, or to help support park runs and many other community events, or to join in with a litter-picking team. There are even residents who are volunteer sheep-lookerers, watching over grazing livestock!
“By doing all this, residents are providing vital support, and contributing a great deal to life in the city and our general health and wellbeing. This celebration is a small token of our appreciation for the contribution of our volunteers, and I really hope it is a fantastic event.”
The value of volunteering
According to national figures, volunteering contributed an estimated £22.6 billion to the UK economy in 2015. In 2017/18, 20.1 million people in the UK volunteered formally at least once a year and 11.8 million people did so at least once a month.
‘Wanting to do good’ is the most common motivation to volunteer. In 2017/18, 46% of people said that they volunteer to improve things and help others.
To find out more about volunteering opportunities in Brighton & Hove, visit our volunteering in Brighton & Hove page or the Brighton & Hove Community Works volunteering platform.