Shriya, a third year Psychology student, enjoyed helping the local community, from paired reading in a primary school to befriending with Age UK:
“Hi! My name is Shriya and I am a Psychology student at DMU. I first volunteered with DMU Local in 2020, when I participated in a Paired Reading Project with a local primary school. I really enjoyed my experience, it made me feel like I was able to help the local community and so I decided to engage with DMU Local again.
“I am currently volunteering with Age UK as part of the Befriending volunteering project. I am really enjoying it and I think that it is a valuable experience. I wanted to get involved because I wanted to make a positive difference in other people's lives. I also gained an amazing opportunity to meet new individuals and develop my interpersonal skills.”
Imogen, a third year Psychology student, enjoyed working with Learning for the Forth Age (L4A) to support care home residents:
“I volunteered with DMU Local to gain new experiences, work with others and help increase my confidence and skills, which this opportunity most definitely afforded me.
“Within small groups of volunteers, we worked in collaboration with Learning for the Forth Age (L4A) to create activity packs for elderly residents of care homes around Leicestershire to complete. We got the chance to be creative and design our own activities for the packs for the residents to enjoy.
“I feel that I most definitely gained confidence in working with others and within teams as well as developing skills for my employability. Moreover, the experience was extremely enjoyable and helped to develop my creative skills. Gaining feedback from the staff of the care homes and how our activity packs were received was really rewarding, and to know that they were enjoyed by residents especially in light of the pandemic and how loneliness has increased.”