JVN Blog

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When it comes to promoting volunteering, JVN has a literally thousands of ideas.  But the seeds really bear fruit when we work in partnership with others – whether it’s schools, shuls, charities and other organisations.  And a particularly juicy fruit is the inaugural Leeds Jewish Community Volunteering Fair, which was held at the Ziff Centre just over a week ago.

The seed of the idea for the Leeds fair was planted earlier this year at the 2nd JVN Regional Volunteer Coordinator Forum.  After the Forum, Regional Development Manager, Es Rosen, worked closely with the Leeds Jewish Representative Council (LJRC) to bring 20 local organisations together to offer volunteering opportunities – bringing many Jewish and non-Jewish charities in Leeds together for the first ever time. 

Mike's Leeds Volunteering Fair Opportunity booklet

Mike – our intrepid JVN intern – provided a fabulous volunteering opportunity booklet to accompany and, in Es’ absence to celebrate the birth of a new grandson (Mazel tov!), JVN Chair Susan Winton, went along to give our support to the event.

The Jewish Telegraph covered the event, so we don’t have to go into too much detail, but in the words of Sarah Goldstone, one of the fair organisers and JVN’s fantastic supporters, the aim was “to involve people who have never volunteered before… Often a lot of organisations require help for an hour; people have particular skills and don’t realise they can use them. There are so many things people can do and it is really appreciated.”

Hear hear!

Susan was also delighted to report that the fair is just a starting point, with organisations commenting that they had made a lot of useful contacts, and that the fair would surely lead to even greater networking and sharing opportunities in the future.  From a seed, to fruit and then on to new trees.  Fantastic.