In the section “Why is it good for you?”, we have thoroughly explored what volunteering gives to you and why it is worth joining the BBS Sustainability Network either as a member, or as the owner of a specific project. Now we would like to show you how many ways volunteering appears at our University and what exactly it means. We are sure that everyone will find a way to take part in these fantastic initiatives.
We believe that a well organised, cohesive community with common values is an essential requirement and the main driving force behind BBS’s competitiveness and development. In addition to our nearly 18,000 students, we have a group of approximately 1,000 cohesive, responsible and professionally trained employees. A community of this size has a huge responsibility, but at the same time, the opportunity to be able to make a big impact with its actions. One such effect may arise from volunteering.
In 2018, before we began to co-ordinate BBS’ conscious and organised volunteer activities, we conducted a community-wide survey of how BBS citizens relate to volunteering, what ideas they have, in what areas, within what framework, and how much time they could devote to these activities. Interest in the topic has already been proven by the fact that our survey was completed in record numbers by both students and colleagues. The most important results:
- 70% of respondents have volunteered at some point in their life.
- 76% of respondents would like to volunteer in the future.
- Respondents would most gladly contribute to work which is typically light physical work (80%) and non-professional, intellectual (71%) work.
- Areas identified in relation to volunteering are sport and hobbies (55%), animal welfare (46%), education (45%) and the environment (41%).
- 49% of respondents would devote two hours and 55% 2-4 hours to volunteering.
And what does volunteering mean to us? Most of us are motivated by
- the joy of helping
- a sense of usefulness, and
- gaining experiences!
Volunteering Course
In line with the strategic objectives of a Responsible and Sustainable University, we are pleased to inform students that volunteering can already be completed as a course for credit points, and therefore we can do even more together to strengthen our social impact. In developing the details, the Education Council considered a number of options, one of the most important being to be able to complete the course in a number of ways, tailored to individual needs and schedules:
- Programmes announced by individual BBS units can be joined on a voluntary basis, and in each case these are announced by the Academic Appeals Committee of the respective Faculty and elaborated in detail by them.
- It is also possible to account for voluntary initiatives announced by the Sustainability Centre and the Sustainability Network (e.g. Volunteer Week and other initiatives). More information on current initiatives is available under the Events menu item or on the BBS Facebook page.
- During university studies, it is also possible to be recognised for participation in voluntary programs initiated by organizations registered on civil.info.hu.
All practical and student-related information for completing the subjects can be found HERE on the Students’ Page.
Volunteer Week
Based on the survey, our community would have been pleased to take part in a joint, organized and centrally co-ordinated university movement, so our long-standing dream came true when we announced BBS Volunteer Week in the spring of 2019, which was held for the first time at the University between April 29th and May 5th.
We are proud to have helped others through the selfless collaboration of more than 155 participants at our Volunteer Week, working with 10 organizations!
In the future, we plan to hold such an annually and you will always be able to find current information in the Calendar of Events and of course, on social media! Are you in it too? Last year they were in it too!
Ad hoc Voluntary Tasks
Of course the opportunity to volunteer is not only available for one given week. On several occasions, members of the Sustainability Network, or even our students, approached us with an idea or opportunity in which we managed to involve others as well. A good example of this is during Christmas 2019 (after the food labelling which was organised during Volunteer Week), we organised another joint activity with the team from the Food Bank. Our university also joined the usual Christmas fundraiser and for 3 days we assisted the Újhegy Auchan store to collect durable foodstuffs for those in need. In the end, our weekend was extremely successful: at the of the 3-day collection we had amassed 1,275 kg of donations, and the experience was unforgettable!
BBS for the Community
Our most recent initiative is the BGE for the Community page, which was brought to life by the coronavirus epidemic, but is actually about much more. The bottom line is that we have created a platform to make the existing intellectual products of our inner community available to each other and the outside world, and to collect voluntary personal offerings. It is a huge pride that we currently have nearly 150 free-to-use materials and 14 personal offerings. We were also curious about how members of the inner community helped others during the virus situation, so we did a short survey:
To learn more about the BBS for the Community initiative, click HERE! We hope that from the above summary, everyone can find the form of volunteering that s the best fit for them. If you still feel like you missed something or simply have a good idea that you’d like to share, contact us HERE.