Lancaster University Volunteering Unit (LUVU) is offering students the chance to travel further afield to volunteer this summer. LUVU, which in the past has focused its voluntary projects on the local community in the North West, will be sending students to London and India as part of a new global scheme.
The London Voltage project will run early in July, soon after term has ended, and the India project will run in the week commencing 10 September.
In India, students will work with LUVU staff at the GD Goenka Institute, one of Lancaster’s partner institutes in India, to set up a voluntary programme that will be used by other Lancaster University volunteers in the future. Selected participants, along with Indian students, will develop the projects and look into the voluntary schemes that are already set up in local communities. They will also help to develop independent voluntary plans for the future.
The experience is designed for selected students to have the chance to immerse themselves fully into the Indian culture. Students will spend time attending lectures and seminars at Goenka. They will be able to interact with students and staff, and meet with Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).
Only students who will be studying at Lancaster in the 2010/11 academic year are eligible for the trip. This is because, as a follow up to the India visit, students will be expected to carry on with their voluntary work through LUVU. Throughout the year links with the Indian students and staff will be built upon, and students will be actively involved in the planning of a programme to be carried out when the Indian students visit Lancaster next summer.
The trip will be funded entirely by the university, with the cost of flights, food, visa and accommodation all being provided. LUVU are looking for around four volunteers for the project.
The second project is in London, in the week commencing 4 July. It will be run through Voltage, a project that LUVU has managed in the local community for a number of years, and offers volunteers the chance to set up social enterprises with sixth form students.
“Volunteers from Lancaster University will have the opportunity to develop their skills in social enterprise, communication, team work and public speaking in relation to social enterprise,” said Heather Yates, Schools & Events Co-ordinator for LUVU. “This is the students’ chance to shape how Voltage can impact upon young people aged 16-18 and is an opportunity for them to develop a vast range of skills.”
“This is an exciting opportunity for university students to pass on their skills and knowledge to a younger generation. They will have the chance to collaborate, peer-to-peer, with sixth form students to create an innovative and Voltage programme for the coming year. I am very much looking forward to seeing what our university students can bring to the project,” she added.
The trip to London would give Lancaster students the chance to develop programmes that will be used by Voltage project groups in the future. It is expected that between ten and twenty students will travel on the two night residential trip.
Unlike the trip to India this event has run before, and last year’s trip included workshops with John Bird, the founder of Big Issue, and the BBC, amongst various others.
For more information visit LUVU’s website www.luvu.org.uk.
