Volunteering. Volunteering. Volunteering.

Following the announcement of the Conservatives’ plans to create a new National Service, volunteering has well and truly been bubbling up the national news agenda.

While mandatory community service may not be the best way to compel people to support their community, volunteering is a brilliant way of getting involved and making a positive impact.

When individuals choose to volunteer, they often find a sense of purpose and fulfilment that comes from helping others. It can also be a fantastic opportunity to meet new people, build meaningful relationships, and develop new skills.

And at Neighbourgood, we practice what we preach.

Our director Alex has been volunteering with a local arts festival for the last three years.

She fills us in on all the drama...and dance....and music...and speech...and folk dance.

Over to you, Alex.

A big passion of mine has always been the arts. In fact, I often perpetuate a fake Winston Churchill quote..."When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort, he simply replied, ‘then what are we fighting for?’ ".

That passion began from the age of three, when I started with The Donna Whitten Dancers in Portadown, competing in festivals across Northern Ireland and a few in England.

I continued dancing and performing at my university in Liverpool and loved getting involved with anything to do with performing. However, when you begin a career in PR, there are (surprisingly) a lot fewer opportunities to dance - even though I tried to give tap lessons in the office one afternoon...

When I began working in an office, I desperately sought any chance to reconnect with the arts to feed that passion. So, when my mother invited me to assist her on the Portadown Dance Festival committee, I jumped at the opportunity.

In my childhood dancing years, I took part in the Portadown Dance Festival every spring, creating cherished memories, and I’ve been delighted to help be a part of the team that delivers the festival for a new generation of dancers.

My main jobs are organising volunteers to staff the box office and find and manage ticket stewards at the entrances. I also organise people who help backstage, announcing the competitors and introducing their dances.

In this year’s festival, hundreds of children from across Northern Ireland and five different dance schools took part. The whole experience was such a boost to me personally to once again be part of something that I feel so passionately about.

I’m grateful to be a small part of the festival. I am also grateful to The Clearbox Group for creating an environment were giving back to the communities where our employees live is important.

The Clearbox Group’s benefits are shaped to help communities – with unlimited holidays being the main driver to help us all take part in volunteering.

The passion we all have for supporting our communities was the driving force behind the launch of Neighbourgood and I’m excited to take that passion to many brands and businesses across the UK and Ireland to help create more connected communities.

If you want to learn more about how to create impactful volunteering programmes for your employees, get in touch at hello@neighbourgood.net