Rasyida is an MSc Business Analytics student who tells us about her experience participating in one of our February 22 Social Hackathons. The Hackathon was hosted by Outward, a charity working across 10 London boroughs to support those with learning disabilities and on the autism spectrum. They tasked our volunteers to come up with ways that Outward could better use social media to raise awareness of their work, attract new volunteers and staff members, and help with fundraising.
Tell us a little about your volunteering
In February, I had the chance to participate in one of the Union's Social Hackathon events in collaboration with Outward, a charity organization dedicated to empowering people with learning disabilities. It was a one-off full-day event held in Hackney at Outward's HQ.
How did you find out about the role?
I was casually browsing through the Students' Union website when I stumbled upon the news of last year’s Social Hackathons. I was curious about how the volunteering activity would be for this year, so I applied to the programme. Then, I got allocated to the one Outward hosted on Monday.
Why did you want to become a volunteer?
To me, participating in volunteering activities is a liberating experience. Through volunteering, you get to know new people you would not usually meet and gain valuable insights from them. Throughout my experience of various types of volunteering, the people I met during the activities were always incredible! Perhaps it’s the fact that they are willing to give up some of their time for something that is not directly beneficial to them is what makes them more interesting.
What difference do you feel you’ve made by volunteering?
I think we contributed a little to Outward's cause of helping those with learning disabilities. Through these types of activities, I realised that even a seemingly small act of kindness or just a little help could make a difference in many people’s lives. It is so empowering to know that your small contribution could impact other people's life.
What impact has volunteering had on you?
I think volunteering activities helped me gain more self-confidence. Volunteering helped me believe that I have the power to change something, even through the smallest, seemingly insignificant actions. It helped me believe that my existence matters. Because of the energy I gain from this feeling, I tend to have more motivation when doing more mundane things because I genuinely believe that my contribution matters. For example, whenever I felt helpless because of a situation I found myself in, volunteering activities helped me gain perspective, stay focused on the positives, and not get dragged down by the negatives. I now realise that there is always something that you can do to make your -- and others' -- lives better.
What’s the best thing about volunteering?
I think it’s the fact that you are learning new skills while simultaneously being able to meet interesting new people and learn from them. Stemming from this, I would say that the networking opportunities that volunteering activities offer are already definitely worth the effort.
And the most challenging? How did you overcome the challenges?
I think the most challenging part of volunteering is overcoming your fear of doing something completely new. I must say that volunteering is often not an easy thing to do since you need to ‘force’ yourself to dwell in a domain that you’re (probably) not familiar with. For example, during the Social Hackathon with Outward, I immersed myself in social media and marketing, which I had no prior experience with. Therefore, I had to take the time out and learn the basic concepts of social media marketing to be able to apply it in the context of Outward and in a way that is truly beneficial for the organisation.
Tell us about something memorable that’s happened to you whilst volunteering!
While volunteering for Outward, I had the chance to work in groups of four. Three of us were from UCL, and our fourth team member (let’s say her name is ‘K’), was a person from Outward who had a learning disability. We were tasked to work together and develop a social media strategy to increase donations for the charity. We did this through social media user profiling, channel analysis, and the evaluation of Outward’s current online presence. At first, I must admit, I was hesitant and unsure how to approach K, because I had never met anyone before with a learning disability, let alone work together on a campaign with them in a realm that is also new to me.
As we progressed through the session, it soon became clear that my reservations were completely unfounded. K was a vital addition to our team and a massive help with generating creative ideas. She was really engaged and contributed a lot by giving insider insight - being part of our target audience. She listed activities that made her happy, such as various social gatherings, partaking in team sports training, and friendly competitions. Building on her experience, we were able to build up a strategy that was informed directly by the needs and wants of the target audience.
The Social Hackathon and working with K made me realise the unconscious biases we possess towards people with learning disabilities. These are present because we do not interact with these people. In other words, the general population may make false assumptions about who disabled people are and what they can do. I strongly feel that people like K may have a better chance in society if society realises what they are going through and that this is achievable through simple interaction.
Would you recommend volunteering? If so, why?
Absolutely! Volunteering has many direct and indirect benefits. Not only can you learn new skills and meet new people, but you can make a real difference in other people’s life. There is one thing that I always tell people about volunteering: when you volunteer, it seems like you are doing something for other people because you have given up your time for the benefit of others; but you will soon realise that you are actually helping yourself to be a better person too.
"When you volunteer, it seems like you are doing something for other people because you have given up your time for the benefit of others; but you will soon realise that you are actually helping yourself to be a better person too."
Rasyida