Janet Inman talks about her path as a volunteer.

I remember the first time I supported others as a volunteer. I was at school and was taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh award. As part of my award I had to do 10 hours of volunteering. I thought about what I wanted to do and asked the PE staff if I could coach one of our junior netball teams. To my surprise they agreed and not only did I do my 10 hours I spend most of my lunch times for the next 2 years coaching hockey, tennis, netball, cricket, athletics and even did a bit of modern educational dance!

At the time I didn’t know it was something I would do for the rest of my life, not just coaching but as an official and then an administrator. BUT without that first step into volunteering and the pleasure it gave to help others improve and enjoy the experience would I have followed the volunteer path to wher I am today?

The Foundation is now running a campaign to support a new generation of young people take their first step on that path. As a sport we lost a significant number of volunteers from the sport during COVID, clubs are desperate for new volunteers to take up a number of roles and this project is hoped to provide some of that missing resource.

How can you help? We are running two fundraising activities at the moment - one is our charity auction, with many interesting pieces of volleyball memorabilia, the other is through a donation on our JustGiving page, every donation will go towards support young people on their volunteer pathway.

If everyone reading this bid on an item in the auction or made a £10 donation we would be well on the way to providing the training, resources and support to the next generation of volunteers.