Volunteering is a great way to make a difference in your new local community. You’ll also get to gain great new skills that employers will love, meet loads of new people, and of course have lots of fun!
Student Volunteering Week 5th – 9th February 2024
Student Volunteering Week will be taking place from Monday 5 February until Friday 9 February. This is the perfect opportunity to find out how you can take action and support a wide range of volunteering projects across Cardiff.
We believe volunteering is something that everyone can get involved in. Throughout the week, we will be offering multiple opportunities to volunteer and telling you more about the projects that we have!
Get involved, have fun and make a difference!
Volunteering at Cardiff Students’ Union
Cardiff Students’ Union offers a wide variety of different and exciting projects to choose from which you can fit around your university schedule, as well as loads of one-off events and summer volunteering opportunities. Whether it’s dog walking at the local animal shelter, befriending an elderly person in a care home or helping at a local school, we are sure you will find something that you will love!
Check out all the amazing volunteering projects that we are running this year below ... and if there is something that you would really love to do that is not on the list, then come and talk to us and we will help you make it happen!
If you would like to take on more of a leadership role - and gain some amazing leadership qualifications, then why not think about becoming a Lead Volunteer on one of our projects? You can find out more about this here
Can't find a project that you're interested in? Why not start your own volunteering project? It's easier than you think! Find out more here Volunteering Start-Up Scheme.
If you are interested in a project which is not currently open just email us for more info.
Contact us
Need a DBS check? Make sure you read our DBS Information
Global Gardens
The Global Gardens Project is about coming together to celebrate ecological and cultural diversity. We have an allotment site where we are cultivating an organic kitchen garden, celebrating crops from around the world.
Global Gardens work with the Trinity Centre, a space that provides support and outreach for refugees and asylum seekers. Through the shared activities of gardening, cooking and eating and the aim is to enable inter-cultural understanding and support community integration, health and well-being.
Our student sessions are held on Saturday mornings, from 11am -1pm
Please make sure you get a ticket if you want to come to a session!
We are looking to recruit a group of regular volunteers who will be able to get to know the gardens and the other volunteers, to get a proper little community going! If you're interested in finding out more about the gardens (with no obligation to sign up to be a regular volunteer if you don't want to!), please come along to one of our regular Saturday sessions to see what we're about - there's no obligation to stay for the full 2 hours if you don't want to!
Knitwits
Knitwits is a free volunteer project for students who can charm the yarn, are itching to get stitching, or are hooked on crochet (get it?) - but who also want to make a real difference within communities.
Knitwits is a fun and safe space where students of all needlework abilities can meet with nursing home residents and the local elderly community for some good, ol’ fashioned knitting and nattering.
As well as this, Knitwits members can also participate in several other fun charitable activities, such as knitting tiny hats for the Innocent Smoothies Big Knit, and knitting blankets and booties to donate to childrens wards or homeless charities!
Not only will this look great on your CV, but you’ll meet some characters with buckets of life experience, bridge the generation gap, and combat loneliness in the elderly, as well as get the oppurtunity to meet several other like-minded yarn enthusiasts! If this sounds like a project for you, you must be a knitwit too!
We will provide materials at these sessions (and tea!), however, feel free to bring along projects of your own.
Make a Smile
Make a Smile - We believe that all children deserve a childhood and understand that illness or disability can make this very difficult for some children.
Our goal is to help these children to enjoy their childhood. We endeavour to be professional, forward-thinking and well trained but hold at the forefront of our practice that fun is the number one priority for both children and volunteers.
There are three different volunteer roles available for this project:
Character: attending events, playing games and interacting with the children as a character
Magic Maker: attending events, playing games and interacting with the children out of character. Often act as supporting staff. (good jumping pad to becoming a character)
Imagineer: an underrated role; not attending events but helping with the general running of the project, organising events and helping with costumes etc. (great for anyone short on time or not wanting to attend events)
To sign up with us, head to makeasmile.org.uk/signin and click 'Register' to receive emails about events and Training!
Events