Coronation app to be ‘one stop shop’ for thousands of volunteers

A “one stop shop” for thousands of volunteering opportunities has been made available ahead of the Big Help Out initiative on the Coronation bank holiday.

Over 1,500 of Britain’s leading charities - including the Scouts, Royal Voluntary Service and the RSPCA - have made volunteering opportunities accessible through the launch of a new app to mark the King’s Coronation.

Members of the public will be able to sign up to volunteer in their communities on May 8 alongside senior members of the Royal family, who are expected to take part in the day’s activities.

“This is more than about one day,” Matt Hyde, the Scouts chief executive, told The Telegraph, adding: “This is about a legacy of volunteering in this country.”

The Big Help Out scheme marks a formal part of the King’s Coronation celebrations, devised with the country’s top charities in tribute to King Charles’s many decades of public service, and planned with the “incredible support” of Buckingham Palace.

Mr Hyde said: “It aligns so much with what the royal households are passionate about and the causes that they have supported themselves by giving their own time up for so many years.

“So, they are connected to many of the organisations that have been involved in the shaping of the Big Help Out.”

Ellie Simmonds, a volunteer for the Scouts, described the new app as a “one stop shop for hundreds of thousands of volunteering opportunities across the country”.

She said: “It’s all in one place, and easy to search to suit you - your interests and organisations you want to support in your local area.”

It has been launched with just 50 days remaining until the bank holiday, so that people can search for volunteering opportunities using their postcode, the type of activity they want to do and the organisation they would like to work with.

In the run-up to the day, hundreds of thousands more activities are expected to be added to the app.

Charities will also open their doors to host taster sessions for the general public on May 8, including a day of pop-up “scouting” - such as making fires and climbing - and the opportunity to clean rivers and waterways with the Rotary.

The National Literacy Trust, for example, will also be recruiting 10,000 literary champions to read to a child in-person or over the phone and will work with celebrity authors in literacy hub communities across the country.

The taster sessions and volunteering opportunities are designed to encourage people to sign up in the future as well, thereby creating a lasting volunteering legacy from the Coronation weekend.

Volunteering is 'good for your wellbeing'

Stuart Andrew, the Ceremonials Minister, said: “The Big Help Out will shine a spotlight on the power of volunteering to help our communities.

“It is a tribute to His Majesty the King’s lifetime of public service and a wonderful way to begin this new age.

“I encourage everyone to get involved to celebrate the Coronation of Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort.”

Organisers also stressed the benefits of volunteering on an individual’s health, with Mr Hyde saying: “It’s good for your wellbeing, for your skills, for your employability and it’s good to be part of something…to reduce isolation and loneliness.”

Sisters and Optometry students Huda and Alia Hathaf have both volunteered with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) since the summer of 2020.

Huda told The Telegraph that the experience has “opened the door to so many opportunities” and that one volunteering opportunity can “greatly develop you as an individual”.

Alia added: “As a young person, it’s a great honour to represent your generation and to make others proud of your generation.

“It’s so important that younger individuals take up these opportunities to prove to others that we can take this initiative and these opportunities will shape our future.”

She said that RNIB “feels like family now” and that the skills they have learned from volunteering have made them better Optometrists while they study and better people.