Volunteers’ Week, 3-9 June
The third of June saw the start of Volunteers’ Week in the UK. Established in 1984, it’s a weeklong celebration recognising the contributions of volunteers to their local communities, and the positive impact volunteering can have on society.
An estimated 14.2m people volunteered through a group, club, or organisation in the UK in 2022*. The British Gas Energy Trust (the Trust) funds 41 money and energy advice projects in charities and social enterprises across Britain, many of whom have volunteers helping them provide much needed support to individuals and families.
Changeworks, Scotland’s leading environmental charity, in partnership with CEMVO Scotland, a strategic partner of the Scottish Government Equality Unit, works with volunteers on their Trust funded project, ‘Energy Saving For All’. The volunteers are helping to reach ethnic minority communities including Chinese, Arabic, Ukrainian, Indian and African through multilingual workshops, tailored advice and leaflets translated into several languages, breaking down access barriers, and increasing cultural understanding and trust.
The support being provided by the 41 Trust funded projects includes:
- Budget planning
- Benefits and income maximisation checks
- Energy supplier and tariff switching exercises
- Negotiating with energy suppliers and resolution of energy debt problems
- Completing grant applications to British Gas Energy Trust and other helpful schemes
- Home energy efficiency surveys and tailored energy efficiency advice
- Advice on subjects including housing, employment, debt and discrimination
- Outreach projects, workshops and advice sessions
One outreach project, the Post Office pop-ups, involves Trust funded organisations attending Post Offices in their local communities to increase awareness of the support they offer, and provide on-the-spot advice. Approximately 60 British Gas volunteers supported the pop-ups, helping reach over 2,400 people in the most recent phase.
One British Gas volunteer said:
“I loved the day, it’s always a pleasure to speak with customers and be able to help and support, this was so much more powerful. We were at Mersey Way Shopping Centre and spoke to more than 100 people and gave out all the bags and leaflets we had. One of the gentlemen we met was a British Gas customer whose wife was living with cancer and not able to live in the home as it was too cold. We managed to credit his prepayment meter so that his wife could return home. We also managed to exchange the meter from prepayment to credit. We arranged for a new washing machine and are currently looking at the British Gas Energy Trust to see if we can remove the debt.”
To find money and energy advice local to you, please click here.