Volunteering with St John Ambulance

KUSU Volunteering's community volunteers give up an amazing amount of time doing good things in the local community. Volunteering with St John Ambulance is one of these opportunities. Gemma Napaul explains why she got involved with it.  

I’m currently in my third year at Kingston, studying Biomedical Science. Whenever I tell anyone this, and explain what my degree entails they often ask me if I want to work in a hospital, and I’ll always reply, “Well, it would be nice but, I don’t think I could handle the blood.” This was the driving force behind my decision to volunteer with St John Ambulance.

I started training to be a first aider last year and qualified within 6 weeks. Unlike normal first aid courses for work, the training is continuous. I hope the word “continuous” doesn’t put anyone off, it’s just a weekly 2 hour session where they top up your skills. You don’t have to attend every week, just once a month will do! Duties are whenever you’re available. Being from Kingston we regularly help out at AFC Wimbledon and Twickenham Rugby (England vs. Wales this weekend... Can’t wait!). We also attend Wimbledon Tennis and the fireworks when November rolls round.

In fact the picture is of me on my first ever duty at Kingsmeadow, it also happened to be the first fireworks display I’ve watched outside and not from a window! Both fireworks and first aid?! Well and truly conquered my fears that day! The uniform isn’t very flattering but it keeps me safe and means that I’m easily approachable to those in need, plus it’s free and has lots of pockets, who doesn’t love lots of pockets?!

The best part about volunteering, aside from free access to amazing events, is the people I volunteer with. I was slightly intimidated at first but all the volunteers are really lovely and understand what it’s like to be a new first aider so they’re very supportive – they’ll always encourage you to take the lead but they’ll never leave you alone!

No matter the degree you’re studying, St John Ambulance is a brilliant organisation to volunteer for. It teaches you lifelong skills such as first aid, coping well under pressure and good communication (with both casualties and your fellow first aiders). 

I have volunteered for other projects, such as Knit Hats for Babies which Rachael ran last year and the Eel Conservation project which Chris has filled you in on. I tend to opt for the lengthier volunteering opportunities but I would love to do more one-off projects as I really enjoyed volunteering at The Big Bang Science Fair, which was more fun than work!

I think volunteering is extremely important especially as paid work is often too hard to obtain nowadays and, being a student, volunteering offers more flexibility than a part-time job. It’s a great way to, not only bulk up your CV but, become more involved in the community and helping out worthy causes while learning life skills that can’t be taught. It’s great to be able to celebrate all our hard work together as volunteers as you recognise everyone's dedication. 

Student Volunteering Week 2012

Well that's it all over for another year! Student Volunteering Week took place between the 18th-24th February and during that time we had an absolute blast meeting lot's of lovely new volunteers (and some old faces) at our different taster sessions. Here's a run down of what we got up to...

Kingston Hill campus's green space and woodland got a bit of tender loving care as a hard working group of volunteers spruced up a much loved nature trail. You can find a full report on the day and why the work done is so vital over at the Bio-diversity blog!

Walking retired greyhounds at Hersham is one of our regular volunteering opportunities but once a year we make a special trip to give the kennels where the dogs live a fresh lick of paint. It's not all hard work, as well as all the painting the volunteers also got the take the dogs for a walk! Tina gave us a full update on taking part in this project which you can find here.

We also held drop in sessions on campus with Knit for Peace and to make bunting for local community organisations. Both provided a great opportunity to meet new people and take a break from lectures whilst doing something useful for others. Perfect!


You can find all the pictures from the events on our Facebook page. We'd like to thank everyone that came along to one of our activities and also Chris, Christina, Farha, Tina, Natalie and Emma for providing lot's of new volunteer stories for our blog!  

Impact Conference 2012

Last week we bought you the first update from Farah on the Impact Conference. This week Emma Lindner our other successful applicant reports on her time at the conference. 

Emma at the Impact Conference

As a volunteer with the university my experience has very much focused on one-off volunteering opportunities ranging from walking retired grey hounds and building a Santa’s Grotto in Kingston Hospital’s children ward to fundraising for various charities such as Momentum and Great Ormond Street Hospital. But I was interested in going to the Impact Conference to learn more about the volunteer and charity sector.

Impact 2012 aims to be a national conference on Student Volunteering and social action. The conference was organised by two groups: the Impact Committee and Student Hubs. Students and staff involved with volunteering at various Universities all came to Oxford for the weekend to take part in the conference. We all stayed at the Youth Hostel there which was better than it might sound!


The conference itself was held at Oxford Brookes University and included the opportunity to get involved with interactive seminars and discussion groups, some of which took on a more informative role, others were more for debate. I didn't enjoy the debates as much as the seminars as they sometimes got hijacked by those simply wishing to express their political opinions rather than address the question presented. But apart from that, and the temperature (one day it was -10 degrees Celsius!), my time at the Impact conference was a positive one.

Farah and Emma at the conference

The best part of the weekend for me was meeting other students from different universities in the country from Bristol to Leeds and beyond! There was an opportunity for delegates at the conference to pitch ideas for volunteer projects they would like to run in their communities (imagine a dragon’s den scenario but much less scary!) with the winner getting £150 to start up their project.  For me, hearing what other students wanted to achieve was very inspiring.

The main thing I took away from the conference was a desire to find out more about why people don’t volunteer and in turn the best ways to promote and market opportunities available, but most of all the inspiration of seeing what other students just like you and I are doing all over the country to try and improve the lives of people in their communities and society as a whole.

KUSU Volunteers brave the cold for Momentum!

KUSU Volunteer Nicky at a previous Momentum collection

KUSU Volunteers give up thousands of hours across the year to good causes in Kingston. Whether that’s by volunteering regularly and really getting to know a charities work, running their own project or on one of our one-off opportunities. Just because it’s a one off doesn’t mean it can’t have a real impact on a charities work as Natalie a Fundraiser at Momentum explains.

Saturday 11^th February dawned sunny with sub-zero temperatures! However, this didn’t stop several Kingston Uni volunteers from turning out once again to help Momentum (www.moment-um.org) a charity based in Kingston which supports children and their families in South West London and Surrey, who have cancer and life-limiting conditions.

Our request this year was for help to inflate heart-shaped balloons to hand out to passers-by, in return for a voluntary donation to our charity.  The volunteers helped us to collect in excess of £1,300!

This will help us with future projects in the Paediatric department at Kingston Hospital and will also be used to pay for treats and outings for very sick children.

Momentum often has volunteering opportunities at our fundraising events. Next up will be an 80s themed party on Ravens Ait Island in May.  We’ll be looking forward to plenty of help from student volunteers to make the event a success.

For more details on one-off projects and how to get involved see our website.

Impact Conference 2012

Yesterday Farha updated on the volunteering she’s been involved in which led to her attending the Impact Conference. Here she updates on what she thought of the conference.

So what was the Impact conference and why did I go??
Volunteering is something I am very passionate about, and I applied to attend the Impact conference because I want to use this passion productively by ensuring there will be more opportunities available for students in the near future. My ultimate aim is to help promote these opportunities to make more students take them up. It is a fantastic way to learn and gain skills, and a shame that students are missing out.

The Impact conference took place in Oxford this year, and students and staff from over 40 UK universities came together to spend a weekend discovering, discussing and debating about volunteering. There was a range of seminars and workshops and many stalls promoting various local, national and international volunteering and charity organisations, such as Fairtrade. For me personally, it was a good opportunity to network and being given a choice of which seminars and workshops to attend, meant that I went only to those that interested me. My favourite workshops were about ways to fundraise, marketing and publicity, and another about "going green" and creating great environmental projects. I also went to an interesting debate entitled "Rewarding volunteering: is 'incentivised volunteering' in higher education institutions a good development?"

Farha and fellow KU Student Volunteer Emma

The best part of the conference had to be the Saturday evening where everyone gathered at the Student Hub in Oxford and a £150 project prize was awarded to one of ten students who bravely presented their socially innovative project idea to a panel of judges. There were some brilliant ideas and so many of these students were deserving of the financial boost of £150. It was fantastic to see so much passion and energy from the volunteers, and even better to have an insight into their ideas and be inspired to create my own.

What has Impact 2012 encouraged me to do next?

At the conference, I found out about a project called "OxGrow", which is based in Oxford and is open to anyone. OxGrow's basic aim is to grow their own organic foods utilising and encouraging climate friendly growing techniques. What I really liked about this project was how it has created a multitude of benefits without actually meaning to. It has created intergenerational cohesion, generated awareness of issues concerning the environment and our planet, and has influenced community bonding. This project inspired me and when I returned from the conference, I spoke to KUSU Volunteering to discuss how this can be replicated here in Kingston. I found out that it is completely feasible and I will soon be in the process of applying for funding from KUSU in an attempt to make the project go ahead :-)

SV Week Taster Session at Hersham Hounds

We've run a range of taster sessions across Student Volunteering Week for new volunteers to give volunteering a try. Tina Dézart came along to our Hersham Hounds Kennel Paint. 

This week was Student Volunteering Week and I took part in one of the events KUSU Volunteering put on and got a taste of what it’s like to volunteer with the student union.

We were a group of eight girls to head off to the Hersham Hounds kennel on Monday to walk the dogs and paint the kennels.  The shelter takes in grey hounds retired from the race courses and aims to find them a home but some of them are permanent residents.

We started the day by walking the dogs in the field behind the kennel, I was a bit nervous at first as we were told that the dogs sometimes rush after squirrels and could dislocate our shoulder if we hold on to the leash. But all went well and the animals were very sweet although sometimes a little stubborn: When I walked Belle, she decided that the middle of the road was a good place to stop and refused to move for 15 minutes.

Back from the walks we got to feed our companions some treats and cuddle them for a while before we had a snack and started the painting. It was good fun and I think we managed to get more paint on the walls than on ourselves.

It was a great day but it past to quickly, I could have stayed there all afternoon but hopefully I will be going back to the kennel quite soon.

I didn’t know much about volunteering opportunities before Student Volunteering Week, it gave me the chance to learn more about how to get involved and to spend the day doing something different. 

Why volunteering?

Farha was one of two KUSU Volunteers who headed to Oxford for KUSU Volunteering. She explains a bit about the volunteering she has done which led her to apply for one of our conference places...

Farha at the Waldegrave School makeover!

I am Farha, a student volunteer here at Kingston university. This academic year I have been involved with KUSU Volunteering, taking up one off opportunities such as the makeover project at Waldegrave School with Kingston Sport. This involved a group of students and staff transforming the old sports hall by painting it and adding sports murals. It was great fun but admittedly very hard and tiring work, compensated by the feeling of pure satisfaction afterwards! 

Outside of university, the most recent major volunteering project I have undertaken was last summer, when I devoted my vacation to the NCS (National Citizen Service) project. This project is for 16 year old school leavers, and gives them a chance to gain an insight into further education, get involved with their community, make a real difference to an issue they care about and learn new skills. It gives them the chance to do something independent, and since I can remember being lucky enough to have a similar experience when I was a young teenager, I thought it was important for me to give something back and help ensure these young people have a memorable and fulfilling once in a lifetime experience.

Having volunteered for many different projects from a young age, it was no surprise that I wanted to continue when I began my university education. For me, volunteering has enhanced my life as a student. It gives me something to do rather than wasting time. I like to learn and to be kept busy and I love nothing more than the feeling of satisfaction when I know I have done something for somebody expecting nothing in return. I say nothing, but what I mean is no form of payment! Volunteering gives me things other than payment; such as new skills, meeting new people, becoming accustomed to the world of work, and enhancing my people and interpersonal skills. In my opinion it is time well spent for a student, and provides much needed work experience for life after graduation. In this current economic climate it is unfortunately evident that finding work is becoming increasingly difficult, and students who volunteer have that added strength above other graduates, and a more enhanced CV. 

My voluntary work so far has pushed me to apply for the ICS (International Citizen Service) which I have been accepted for, and I am currently being trained to be a gamesmaker at the London 2012 Olympics, where I will be working with the boxing team at the Olympic Village and the ExCel. There will be long 12 hour shifts involved over a period of 14 consecutive days, but I know it's going to be fantasic!

A further installment from Farha on her weekend at the Impact Conference will follow tomorrow...