The Student Minds Volunteering Festival

- Vicky Gall, Volunteer Coordinator at Student Minds

We are hugely excited to be organising the first Student Minds Volunteer Festival!

We have an incredible national network of passionate volunteers who are doing a whole host of different things at their university. From campaigning and events to organising conferences and running peer support groups, we believe that the network has the desire and energy to bring about lots of positive change surrounding the state of student mental health.

There are many different hopes pinned upon this exciting Volunteer Festival. Firstly we think that training and learning from the experiences of other groups if vital. At the Volunteer Festival we will be organising a range of workshops on a wide variety of topics facilitated by members of our Exec committee, mental health professionals, Student Minds team members and others… This will provide the platform for our volunteers to attend workshops of their choice, to learn things that will help promote positive change and to meet others who have used their passion for mental health to direct their career and/or further study.

The second hope we have for the Volunteer Festival is that our national network will have an amazing opportunity to meet others from different university groups, to share thoughts and ideas, build meaningful relationships and to facilitate a greater sense of community throughout the country.

We will also be using this opportunity to celebrate the success of groups this year, share the amazing things that have been going on throughout the network and awarding the Student Minds Awards! If you are a member of a Student Minds affiliated group, why not nominate your group for an award now (deadline: 6pm on 19thJune).

What’s the update?

We have a brilliant location booked! Hogacre common provides a brilliant location to relax and unwind in the great outdoors. Workshops will be in bell tents, there is plenty of space for camping and fingers crossed the weather will be on our side. Access to the pavilion gives us the added bonus of catering facilities (we will be providing all meals!), showers, bathrooms and other creature comforts.

We are in the process of inviting speakers and confirming plans for workshops and will be keeping you updated as more plans fall into place!

In the meantime, please do get in contact if you have any questions at all and sign up for a ticket to join us.