Bath & North East Somerset Third Sector Group (3SG) has been celebrating its second successful Volunteer Fair, held on Friday, 18th October at the Apex Hotel in Bath. The day championed all things volunteering, and saw over 300 potential new volunteers visit the 43 charity stalls, who were showcasing their amazing services.
Volunteering is one of the most rewarding things a person can do with their spare time. It makes a positive impact in so many ways and can help improve self-esteem, confidence and wellbeing, whilst developing new skills or offering existing ones. The local Third Sector in B&NES relies on people to help support its work, which often adds so much more to statutory services or fills a gap or a need that wasn’t being met. The two biggest asks for Third Sector organisations is securing both sustainable funding and ensuring the organisation has enough volunteers.
Before the High Sheriff of Somerset officially opened the Fair at 11 am, the 3SG team had already been on site for hours - adding an extra event to the day’s schedule. Aiming to better connect local businesses and charities, a special networking breakfast event was held which looked at balancing purpose with profit - and why volunteering time and skills could actually boost productivity and job satisfaction among the workforce. Over 70 people enjoyed breakfast and heard from Paul King, founder of Towards Better, and James Brown, from Off the Record, who spoke about the charity’s successful corporate relationships, before spending valuable time networking.
Becky Brooks, Director at 3SG, said: “We suspect that there are many businesses who are keen to support local charities, but don’t know where to start. We hope that this was the beginning of a much closer dialogue between both the local business community and the Third Sector in B&NES, so that we can have really honest conversations about what is truly needed to do good in communities.
“The Volunteer Fair was hugely successful and we will be looking to see if we can run the event in 2025, building on the progress we have made over the past two events and to see if we can make this an annual event in the B&NES calendar that everyone looks forward to.
“I’d like to say a huge thank you to the charities who came along and created such wonderful stalls - the whole room had a brilliant energy and we hope that you found some fantastic new volunteers.
“3SG is a charity itself, existing to strengthen the Third Sector in B&NES through 1:1 support, advocacy work, events and training. We have a membership network of around 250 local charities, social enterprises and community groups and a staff team of just five.
“We’ll be looking for anyone interested in sponsoring next year’s Volunteer Fair to please get in touch and help support the Third Sector in B&NES.”
As well as the charity stalls, the main event saw various talks and workshops held throughout the day, which included looking at digital technology and volunteering, the power of storytelling; discussing the changing landscape of volunteering, a special Q&A session and the launch of the B&NES Community Awards.
3SG has received fantastic feedback from stallholders who attended on the day. Comments included: ‘The organisation was excellent and the event was very productive for us’, ‘We had a lot of interest’, ‘It was an exceptionally well-organised event. My colleague and I agreed it was the best Volunteer Fair we’ve attended, with great engagement from the public. Thank you, 3SG, for all your hard work!’
For more information on 3SG, visit: 3sg.org.uk If you are a business who might be able to support next year’s Fair through sponsorship, please contact: becky@3sg.org.uk
Huge thanks to the 3SG Volunteer Fair sponsors: Bath Spa University, Riviam Digital Care and our media partners, Radio Bath. Thank you also to the breakfast sponsors: Bath Unlimited and Stone King - and to all of our speakers who took time out of their busy schedules to be involved in the day.
コメント