Partner News, Summer 2026

We’re approaching the summer break for undergraduate students here at the University, so I’m writing to all Warwick Volunteers’ partners with WV team staffing news, an invitation to our summer gathering (and leaving “do” for a longstanding team member), how to be included on our Summer Volunteering pages aimed at students still at Warwick over the next three months, guidance on maximising your recruitment of students with Warwick Volunteers when the new academic year begins in the autumn and an update on the spring cleaning of data we will be undertaking over the next couple of weeks. Read on!

Warwick Volunteers Staffing news

Current Head of Warwick Volunteers, Paul Barlow, has announced his intention to leave Warwick in mid August. Joining the team just weeks before lockdown in 2020, he had the tough job of steering us through the pandemic years at the same time as commissioning our new online volunteer management system. Having weathered both these challenges he added another feather in his cap by securing WV the King’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2024-25. He will be missed by the staff team and student volunteers and we wish him all the best for the future.

Warwick Volunteers Summer Get-Together

You are invited to join the WV team for a drop-in get-together on August 12th in the Green Room, SUHQ North. We hold this event each summer as a casual, drop-in social for student volunteers who remain in the area over the summer and a chance to meet up with our valued Community Partners – and each other – for a chat over a coffee and cake. As the timing coincides neatly with Paul’s departure, this year’s summer get-together will also serve as his leaving “do”. The event will run from midday to 2pm, with a short presentation to mark Paul’s departure at 1pm”

Gearing Up For The New Academic Year

Summer’s a great time for a review and refresh of your volunteering offer; please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.

Welcome week 2026 and beyond
Most students at Warwick will arrive between the last week of September and the first week of October. We are planning a big publicity push for the forthcoming year aimed at both new and returning students, encouraging them to volunteer as a core part of their university experience.

Social media
We have a great student publicity team ready to work their magic on Instagram and other social media platforms; if your organisation is on any, please be sure to link up with us as our students love to take a little peek at the groups we work with!

Send us photo / video content
If you’d like to be included in our social media content, or to have a more exciting and enticing Portal page, one of the best ways to do this is by sending us some photos or videos. Even a quick, 10-second, direct-to-camera introduction to your project makes a massive difference; and don’t worry if video editing is not in your skill set, our team can sort that for you if you send us some original footage. Not sure what to send us? Pop us a line and we’ll arrange a time for a quick chat.

Newsletter promotion
As always, we are on the look out for content for our regular newsletter to student volunteers. It’s on pause over the summer but will return in the autumn. The newsletter is best for one-off volunteer requests, new project shoutouts and “thank yous”, but we’re happy to talk about other requests too. You canfind out more, including deadlines, publication dates and a link to our online submission form on our dedicated Promotion page. For a chat about whether it could support your needs and/or article guidelines, just drop us a line, or sub

Summer Volunteering pages

If you are seeking to recruit volunteers specifically across the period between now and September, please drop us a line; we are hosting a special Summer Volunteering page collecting all the volunteering options actively recruiting the students who are remaining on or around campus across the summer. If you are recruiting for volunteers across this period, please let us know as we’d be happy to add your details.

Refreshing data on the Portal

With so many of our students leaving Warwick for the next phase of their lives, we’re aware that this will leave you with volunteer lists full of names that are no longer in the area around the University. To avoid this and to comply with our GDPR commitments to use data appropriately, over the next week we will:

1. Rename all the activities / volunteering roles you are currently advertising as “ 2025-26”; this will provide you with a historical record of the previous year’s volunteering. Any volunteers browsing our website will no longer see or be able to sign up to this activity.
2. Create a duplicate of all your currently advertised volunteering roles which is identical in every way except that it does not yet have any volunteers signed up to it. This will simply be named “” and students will be able to sign up to it as soon as it is created.
3. We will send a message to all students on our overall mailing list for 2025-26 reminding them to sign back up to activities they want to volunteer with (assuming they are returning to Warwick in the autumn). You might choose toalsosend an email to the mailing list for your specific project/s.

What do I need to do as a Community Partner?

Nothing! We will handle everything from this end, just be aware that you may see “new” activities appearing in your account over the coming week as we create the activities you will be recruiting for in the next academic year. If you have time though, it would be really helpful if you could encourage your students to sign up again to the Portal in the new academic year.

Do existing volunteers really need to sign up again, even if they’re on our own charity’s volunteer management system?

Yes please, we’d really appreciate it if you could encourage them to register their volunteering on the Portal, too. This allows us to keep track of where our students are, and understand what volunteering activities are proving popular with our students. It also allows us to demonstrate to the university and the wider community how many students are volunteering.

I still want to get in touch with volunteers from 2025-26, can I do this?

Absolutely. All the data is still there, you’ll just need to look for your activity with “2025-26” next to it to access your volunteer list from the academic year that’s just finished.

Can I do anything more to encourage last year’s volunteers to sign up to the forthcoming year?

We will write to them, but if you also wish to reach out to them via your usual communication method, that would be great. You may also wish to reach out to them again in late September as a reminder ahead of the new academic year.

What if we’re not recruiting for that volunteering activity in 26-27?

That’s absolutely fine; if you let us know this week then we’ll still retire your activity for 25-26, but won’t create a fresh one to take its place for 26-27. If you decide to close the activity later, or create a new one, you can do this at any time via the Portal.

What if we’re still doing the volunteering activity in 26-27 but the details will change?

You can make any changes you wish to the new activity at any time via the Portal.

I have some new volunteering activities I want to advertise, can I do this?

Yes, you can create new volunteering activities at any time. To avoid duplicating and retiring activities that have only just been created we will put a pause on approving any new ones over the next week, but we will pick this up again as soon as we’ve finished this process.

I have other questions

We’re very happy to help; send us your question to volunteers@warwick.ac.ukand we’ll get back to you as soon as we’re able.

And Finally: Thank You

The Warwick Volunteers staff and student team would both like to share their sincere gratitude to you, our Community Partners, for all the time and effort you put into making student volunteering such a success at Warwick. Your thoughtful support of our students – many of whom have never volunteered before – really sets the standard for them in terms of what good quality, worthwhile volunteering looks like. By giving them such valuable experiences you are making a big difference to their education in ways that the academic world alone can’t support. We literally couldn’t do this without you.

Wishing you a wonderful summer,

Hannah
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Volunteer Development Officer (Partnerships & Brokerage),
Warwick Volunteers
Hannah.Hodgson@warwick.ac.uk