Going Digital: JLGB Revolutionise Volunteering Fairs 

A distinctive tapping could be heard from school halls over the last few months. Fingers drumming on iPad screens and ‘click’ another sixth former has made an on-the-spot connection with a chosen charity. Long gone are the days of laborious form filling as evolve’s sixth form volunteering fairs take a technical twist. Easy to use iPads are providing the perfect platform for year 12 and 13 students to register their volunteering interest directly at the fair.

Volunteering is an excellent way to boost any CV or university application which is why evolve, JLGB’s youth volunteering initiative, has been holding volunteering fairs for 16-18 year olds at schools over the last few months. With a few school fairs still to go, sign ups to the vInspired awards (the next step on the evolve journey for sixth formers) are soaring with a remarkable 515 students across the country already enrolled.

The fairs give 16-18 year olds a chance to talk to a wide range of charities, matching the skills students want to learn and skills they have to give. There are a variety of volunteering opportunities which may be unique to the individual, sector or cause they wish to help and with just a few taps of an iPad the students connect to their charity of choice. This year saw more charities and opportunities than ever before bringing students hundreds of youth and faith friendly volunteering opportunities quite literally at their fingertips. A volunteering revolution that saw hundreds of connections made between sixth form students and charities at a fair held in Yavneh College in November.   

Norwood, a charity who  provides support to children with learning disabilities and their families, were present at all six fairs and got in touch to say: “Thank you JLGB for organising the evolve volunteers fair. Volunteering is so important in helping charities such as ours to continue providing vital services to the people we support. We would encourage all students to get involved in this great initiative and sign up to volunteer at www.jlgb.org/evolve”

None of this would be possible without the support and backing of the Wohl Legacy who supported JLGB to pioneer the evolve youth volunteering and skills platform and which has already enabled over 8,000 young people to access volunteering in the last three years alone.

Thanks to a grant from the Oxford and St Georges Jewish Youth Trust, JLGB were able to purchase 24 iPads. This has been revolutionising JLGB activities across the whole organisation including with DofE, evolve, NCS and at weekly groups. They are taking interactivity to the next level.