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As part of Volunteering Week 2024, we spoke to Dr Mick Taylor, Lecturer in Mathematics at the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, who volunteers at The Hummingbird Project, a local charity supporting young refugees with their studies. Hear more about the impact volunteers can have on young people’s lives and discover how you can get involved:

I started volunteering with The Hummingbird Project in September 2017, when someone I knew asked if anyone was available to support a young refugee with their studies. At the time, Hummingbird was a fully-volunteer run project supporting young refugees in and around Brighton and I worked with them to set up a weekly Education Space to support young people with their education needs.

Since then, The Hummingbird Project has become a registered charity with a growing team of paid staff, but which still relies on the energy and commitment of a team of dedicated volunteers.

Volunteers help in many ways, but mainly at the Global Social Club, an award-winning youth service that started in August 2017 in response to hearing requests from young refugees to meet more local people their age living locally. Since then, they have welcomed over 400 young people and become recognised as the UK’s first Youth Club of Sanctuary.

The Learning Space is a weekly drop-in educational and language support session with qualified teachers that has been running since September 2017. It has become one of the most successful outcomes of our Global Social Club’s youth-led approach, created in direct response to requests of our young members, and its success is only possible because of many dedicated volunteers who have been involved over the last seven years. Recently, they have strengthened links with the University of Sussex and there is a regular Student Ambassador who volunteers at Learning Space offering support with applying for university or college and can also help with applications and CVs. Whatever subject or level, young people are offered one-to-one support or work in small groups with teachers.

The young refugees who we work with come from a variety of backgrounds, some have had some education before arriving in the UK and others may have never been to school at all. In Learning Space, they have a chance to catch up if they have missed education due to fleeing their home country or language barriers and can learn more about the UK education system.

Despite recently decreasing the time I spend with Hummingbird, I’m still part of the volunteer network and recently I helped a young refugee who was studying Biochemical Engineering at Queen Mary University and was struggling with their foundation maths module. We met weekly online for around six months and in the end, they passed with flying colours!

My time spent working with young people I’ve met through the Hummingbird Project has given rise to some of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I encourage fellow Sussex staff to use their two days of volunteering time for a cause close to your hearts, and that might be a gateway to spending further time volunteering.

Find out more information including how to book volunteering leave.

If you would like to share how you or your team have made an impact using your volunteering days, get in touch with the Internal Comms team at: internalcomms@sussex.ac.uk.