At Outward, we have been assisted by a multitude of amazing student volunteers, who dedicate their time to the people we support and sharing their skills. This week is Student Volunteering Week, an annual celebration that aims to get more students involved in volunteering whilst highlighting those that already do.
We especially wanted to shine a light on one of our volunteers, Michelle Chiu. When she joined us in April last year, Michelle was a final year UCL student majoring in Health Psychology. In that time, Michelle has made an outstanding impact on the Outward. Michelle, in collaboration with another volunteer, Wenyang Li, created the Mindfulness for Outward project, a series consisting of four videos guiding people to do mindfulness practices step-by-step. Each session includes a short introduction to the basics of mindfulness and a mindfulness exercise at the end. Michelle has also volunteered at other events, such as our healthy baking workshop and our celebration in Tower Hamlets.
“My experience volunteering with Outward has been amazing. We created the series because we think that the idea of mindfulness, to become more aware of the present moment, can help us understand ourselves better and feel more connected to the world around us. This would be particularly useful for people we support in areas such as emotional regulation, focusing, and reducing anxious and depressed feelings and thoughts.. I gained a better understanding of the importance of maintaining good physical and mental well-being as well as ways to support people to improve well-being from communicating with them. During the time working on these projects, I have received a lot of support from the volunteer and community engagement team and felt that they value the volunteers and our work in producing resources for people we support. Overall, I am very happy with my volunteer experience at Outward and I’m excited about the upcoming launch of the ‘Mindfulness for Outward’ series.” – Michelle