ACE Volunteers

Aston University has been successful in receiving continued funding under the Higher Education Active Community Fund (HEACF) to build upon its student volunteering activities and to develop further the key role it plays in the local community. The Government's Active Community Fund which includes the HEACF is designed to encourage greater involvement in voluntary and community activities and is part of the Government's wider aim of reaching out to disadvantaged communities to increase participation levels in Higher Education.

The scheme aims to provide local communities with quality volunteers who, through a variety of differing roles, will be able to bring significant benefits to communities suffering from the effects of social and economic deprivation.

Aston University already plays a major part in the local community, through the work of its Outreach Office and the Students Guild. The University already has a strong volunteer culture with a significant number of students involved in voluntary activities. The benefits of volunteering in terms of development and transferable and employability skills are well understood by staff and students alike. The HEACF builds upon the strong partnership that Aston has with local schools.

Under the HEACF, the University has created an element of volunteer activity known as Active Community Engagement, with students having the opportunity to volunteer to join the ACE (Active Community Engagement) Team. As a member of the team students have the opportunity to:

• Volunteer to support a wide range of activities in the local community, schools and colleges
  
  
• Help deliver structured evening and weekend programmes, support community events or support during school curriculum time

Activities are supervised by qualified coaches and teachers and will focus on sport, art, drama and music, giving volunteers the opportunity to support an activity of personal interest.

ACE volunteers will have the opportunity to support regular activities in local schools taking place on a weekly basis and also one off events in schools and the local Birmingham community.

ACE volunteers will be required to work a minimum of 25 hours of volunteering in order to be eligible for a volunteer certificate. (They are of course eligible to work beyond these hours.)

ACE volunteers will be working very closely with the Titan Partnership, in particularly schools which are members of the Partnership.

If you would be interested in support from ACE volunteers in your school and would like more information about the ACE scheme please contact Victoria Allso on 0121 204 4774 or email . Alternatively you can visit the website.