By way of introduction, I am a Professor of Psychology at Swansea University and hold an Honorary Clinical Researcher role in the Community Brain Injury Service at Morriston Hospital.

Outside my university roles, I am involved in a variety of local clubs and societies including kickboxing and wing chun kung fu martial arts, which I enjoy practicing together with two daughters aged 13 and 11.

I am passionate about health and wellbeing and was the past director of research for the Health and Wellbeing Academy, during which time we secured a Guardian Award for Community and Societal Impact and a Swansea University Research and Innovation Award for outstanding impact on health and wellbeing. I have followed the work of the Discovery Charity with great interest over many years and regularly recommend volunteering opportunities to my students including mentees and third year students enrolled on PSY317 (Positive Psychology) . Martin Seligman, the so-called father of positive psychology has described volunteering as the single best way to improve wellbeing. Student (and staff) wellbeing is something that I am particularly passionate about. It is the focus of much of my research activity and my own experience of mentoring undergraduate and postgraduate students has revealed that student wellbeing is deteriorating, against a background of widely reported community disconnection and increasing loneliness. It was this observation that led me to develop my module on positive psychology and wellbeing science, and to encourage my students to explore volunteering opportunities offered by the Discovery Charity.

Critically, research shows that student wellbeing has been deteriorating even prior to the COVID pandemic, and this deterioration has worsened considerably over the last year and a half. I was therefore interested to see a recent blog post by the team at ‘What Works Wellbeing’ in which voluntary work (a social good) was the only ‘mental health promotion programme’ to notably impact on a commonly used measure of wellbeing, the Warwick Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale. Volunteering clearly provides a very important opportunity to significantly enhance the wellbeing of our staff and students at Swansea University and to contribute to building more positive and connected communities.

I am continually impressed by the range of volunteering opportunities that the charity provides to our students. I note with interest that Surfability is one of your partner organisations, which one of my PhD students has been working with to improve wellbeing in people living with acquired brain injury.

My research goals and those of the Discovery charity are clearly well aligned. If I were to be selected for this role, I would bring experience, commitment and passion relating to psychology, wellbeing and mentorship. If of interest, opportunities that I could potentially facilitate include data collection and research to help demonstrate the benefits of volunteering, and identifying additional projects, volunteers and community-based partners through my existing networks within and beyond Swansea University. Regardless, I am intrinsically motivated to support the student-led charity however that may evolve over the next few years if elected as non-student trustee.

My name is Alison Walker and I am a lecturer in Adult Continuing Education in the School of Social Sciences.

I am interested in being a Trustee as I think that student volunteering is an important part of the university’s civic mission and would like to support its development. I work with non-traditional students, many of them studying off-campus in the community and so I appreciate the importance of partnerships with community organisations. One of my teaching and research areas is a pedagogy called service-learning which combines volunteering with academic credit to enhance students’ understanding of social justice issues and develop a graduate identity.

I am passionate about the power of student volunteering to benefit both the student and the community. I was a student volunteer myself, as an undergraduate, and have continued to volunteer through my life, with NACRO, Rape Crisis, Hospital Radio, Homestart and Cylch Meithrin Sgeti where I was the treasurer and a Trustee. I was also chair of the PTA. In my previous job, I ran two service-learning modules which involved working in partnership with over 30 third sector and public sector organisations, who inspired my research interest in social justice education.

I think I would bring to the role a strong understanding of social justice and the power of volunteering to have a positive impact on students and the communities they work with. On a practical level, I am experienced in leading teams with diverse backgrounds and enjoy working as part of a team to develop and maintain partnerships and opportunities. I am an experienced mentor and enjoy helping students to reach their potential in a range of situations. I hope that you will be interested in working with me and look forward to hearing from you.

The people I most respect are those who give up their time and energy to help others. I remember, when my children were younger, taking them to sports clubs and being extremely grateful to other parents giving their time to help coach a team of other people’s kids - my kids. I’m certainly not skilled in sports coaching. However, I do have some experience in committee work, running projects, and general management. For that reason I’m keen to use that “expertise” for the greater good.

The main “greater good” that lights my fire is social justice. Currently, a significant section of our society, through no fault of their own, is left behind, because they don’t have the same opportunities as the advantaged. Not only is this a personal tragedy for each individual concerned, but for society to disregard their skills and potential is a truly dumb way of running a country. What organisation would say to a third of its members “We’re just not going to really bother with you, no matter what you could offer us” ?

I am a Swansea University physics academic where I have been a member of staff for 25 years. During that time I have guided many hundreds of students in their education, supervised PhD students, and led research grants. I am the founder and Director of Oriel Science, a public engagement project which has engaged with 150,000 people since our Pop-Up centre was launched in 2016. We are very proud to have established a long-term city centre exhibition venue which opened in May this year. Amongst its exhibits is one from Discovery which showcases its Covid-related work. In the course of my work with Oriel Science, I have worked extensively with many stakeholders throughout the University and Community, and networked with local charities and the Government at city council and national level.

I’ve been aware of Discovery’s work and some of its projects for some time and have attended an AGM in the past. I am very aware that it is made up of people who give up their time and energy to help others. It would be a privilege to give some of my time and energy to help the charity’s mission by being a Trustee.

I have project management experience whilst working in a previous role as a Sustainability Coordinator and so am confident that I have transferrable knowledge and skills that I can share with regard to task management, budgeting, social media, and impact reporting.

My own philosophies align with the mix of staff and student Trustees, this again demonstrates that students have ownership and responsibility and I would imagine staff provide support and guidance as needed in a collaborative and equal way. I have experience similarly when Line Managing Higher Education Placements on their year in Industry, this for me looked more like a Mentorship role, guiding and supporting the students but enabling and empowering them to be decision makers and make the most of a variety of workplace experiences. Many of the volunteering activities, including work with children/young people and outdoor environmental hands-on initiatives is where lots of my past experience lies and so I feel that I could bring some valuable expertise in these areas.

Bringing to the role, Leadership and management experience, collaborative working/mentorship experience with Higher Education Students, project management and budget management experience, 9 years of teaching experience from Primary age to University age, positive, enthusiastic outlook, proactive, efficient, and creative working style, and first-hand experience of volunteering in different capacities and a true understanding of its powerful capability to boost career prospects and enrich the lives of all involved.

I have worked in Education for the last 8 years in various sectors. I had no idea however, what I wanted to do when I graduated and so made a list of all the volunteering opportunities locally that I could find. My first volunteering experience was with Cheshire Young Carers, I absolutely loved this experience. To gain experience for my PGCE application, I volunteered for 2 years with Cheshire Young Carers and worked voluntarily as classroom support one day a week whilst waitressing full time. Once qualified in 2013, I started out as a Primary School teacher working in Ellesmere Port near Chester and Liverpool. I worked in the mainstream classroom for almost 4 years before I moved into outdoor education in North Wales with the environmental education Charity Field Studies Council. I was teaching predominantly A-Level aged students in outdoor Biology and Geography Fieldwork skills. I moved back to South Wales to be closer to family just as the Covid-19 pandemic worsened in March 2020. I took on some temporary roles within Gower College Swansea as a Pastoral Coach and at Margam Park as Education Team Leader before starting with Swansea University in Academic Quality Services in April 2021.

I am thoroughly enjoying working within the University although this has all been from home so far! What I do miss however, is interacting with students! Although incredibly interesting, Quality Assurance is definitely a behind the scenes role in education and I want to engage with learners again in some capacity and the opportunity of Staff Trustee with Discovery SVS seems like a really good opportunity for this.

As an undergraduate student I volunteered for ‘Swansea Community Action’; at that time, I was one of a group of students accompanying a number of young teenage children from Bonymaen to the then Leisure Centre on a Wednesday afternoon to swim. The opportunity was a way to connect with the local community, to add value to the young teens, deepen connections with my co-volunteers and to also grow my confidence.

In my personal life, I saw the need to connect with others and used my skills and expertise to provide online resources for children who attended our church, linking up with the Sketty Local Area Coordinator to apply for funds from the Greatest Need initiative, to put on online chat sessions and to be able to connect up with the local Food Bank and get my street involved in donating. I also have three sons, two of which are now first year undergraduates. They have volunteered in various guises in their teens and not just because they had to for the dreaded ‘Welsh Bacc’, but because my husband and I, along with youth leaders, have emphasised the great benefits that brings to both parties. So I have first hand experience in supporting and encouraging young people to seek out and reflect on their experience.

I have also been a trustee of a charity (2011- 2017). As deacon responsible for children's work at Pantygwydr Baptist Church I am familiar with the trustee obligations and requirements to deliver activities to support the mission and with responsibility for human resources and financial matters. I was the link deacon to the paid children’s worker, liaising between her and our ‘Board’ on how she was fulfilling needs or areas where she needed more support.

I have also been a volunteer myself for the Church leading or supporting children’s activities there for more than 13 years. I have therefore undergone regular training in safeguarding (completed the last one earlier in October 2021) and understand the issues involved in ensuring the safety of both clients supported and volunteers.

My professional knowledge as a member of Swansea Academy of Learning and Teaching and previously 15 years working in Academic Services means I have a wealth of experience in supporting and being a secretary at various University level committees and working groups and of supporting staff to teach online during the recent pandemic. I have been a key player in our social media presence for SALT, using Twitter extensively and also the Facebook Group (now Page) for the Church until September 2021 where other commitments have forced me to step back. My SALT role involves recruiting staff to ‘volunteer’ to support their colleagues; mentoring or coaching skills are integral to what I currently do and what I previously did as Head of the Quality Office in Academic Service (or Academic Registry as it was then known). I would apply these skills and experience to supporting the student trustees in the operation of the Charity and their personal growth.

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