The Big Help Out: Wrapped

Bookmark Reading Charity partnered with the Big Help Out recently to raise the profile of, share the importance of volunteering and spread the word about volunteering with Bookmark! We hosted events and participated in several activities over the week including our Story Starter Packing event, library tidies, Story Corner distribution and educational webinars.

The Big Help Out have their impact statistics from this year’s campaign:

Almost 6.5 million people across the UK participated in The Big Help Out on the weekend from the 7^th – 9^th of June 2024.

Apart from this incredible participation number here are some more insights indicating encouraging social connection outcomes across the UK:

79% of participants met someone from a different background to themselves. This included meeting people from different religious, cultural, social and ethnic backgrounds.
79% of participants said they were much more likely to volunteer since the BHO.
For 76% of participants, the Big Help Out made them feel a stronger sense of belonging in their community*

Train pupils to read with younger children

One of our events was to host a webinar about how to train older pupils to read with younger pupils in what we call ‘buddy reading’. The webinar looks at the benefits of buddy reading for both older and younger pupils, how to implement different ideas in school and some set up tips to get schools started. We wanted to share ideas on how to introduce children to volunteering from a young age so they see the benefits of helping others. You can watch the webinar recording below and if you have any questions about the resources mentioned in the webinar, please get in touch with programmedevelopment@bookmarkreading.org

CSR & Employee Volunteering

Interested in setting up a meaningful volunteering opportunity in your workplace? Bookmark offers a fantastic online volunteering role which your employees can deliver from their place of work in just 30 minutes a week over 12-week periods. Watch this video to find out more about Bookmark's workplace volunteering offer of reading sessions with children that fit in the workday.

Instilling the value of volunteering in young minds

Bookmark presented this short webinar for primary school teachers on "Instilling the value of volunteering in young minds". In celebration of The Big Help Out, this webinar provides a brief overview of the rationale for introducing volunteering to students along with ideas of how you can do this from representatives of Bookmark Reading Charity, Guide Dogs, The Linking Network and The Big Help Out.

Want to find out a bit more before you submit your application?

Watch this short webinar to find out: Who Bookmark Reading Charity is, why our work is needed, what’s involved in the Reading Volunteer role and what is required to become a Bookmark volunteer

*Internal data from The Big Help Out.

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