For the past few months, Emmaus Merseyside has been fortunate to receive the support of two fantastic student volunteers. Every week, Faith and Grace visit us to capture, create and share updates on our social media channels. The pair have shared a blog as part of Student Volunteering Week to explain more about their involvement and how they have each benefitted from volunteering at Emmaus.
How Grace got started
My name is Grace and I am currently a second-year student studying Media, Culture and Communications at Liverpool John Moores University. I received an email with the social media volunteering opportunity and within 10 minutes I had a reply offering a day for me to come in and have a look around at Emmaus. Looking at the website and social media it is not hard to understand the amazing work Emmaus does and I was very keen to be a part of the amazing community. When I went to have a look around, I was introduced to multiple people and everyone was so welcoming and lovely. I was so excited to get started with creating content for the Instagram page.
I met fellow volunteer Faith on my first official week at Emmaus and we had a lot of similar ideas so decided it was best for us to go in on the same days as then we can help each other. We both go to Emmaus every week and spend a day taking photos and videos, talking to everyone and gathering information on Emmaus as a whole, as well as some personal details of each individual. I have gained so much confidence working here as it puts me out of my comfort zone, meeting new people as well as having lead control and creativity in everything posted on Instagram.
Grace’s advice to students thinking about volunteering
There is no doubt that my favourite thing about volunteering at Emmaus is the people. All the staff, companions and other volunteers have really taken me and Faith (the social media girls, as they call us) under their wing and constantly ask if we need any help, if they can give us suggestions and always congratulate us when they see a post has been successful.
Some advice I would give to anyone looking to volunteer is don’t be scared. This is something I would have never normally done, the travel from the city centre to Seaforth, going somewhere new on my own and taking control of something that others have worked very hard on. But I can say without hesitation that it is the best thing I have done as it is so rewarding to know me simply taking and posting photos has helped the Emmaus charity Superstore grow to different audiences.
Emmaus is an inspiring and heart-warming place to volunteer and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity. I would say to anyone, if the opportunity is there, take it. There is nothing but good to come from something like volunteering at Emmaus.
Faith’s introduction to Emmaus
I was scrolling through my university emails when I spotted a message from my uni careers team advertising a volunteer role as a social media assistant for Emmaus Merseyside. As a Media, Culture and Communications student, this piqued my interest right away, so I looked into Emmaus and it seemed like something I’d enjoy being a part of.
I hadn’t heard of Emmaus before and I was really surprised to find out scale of the charity after seeing how widespread it is, with communities in 41 countries across the world! This was part of the reason I got involved as contributing to something so vast and impactful, even if it was just helping in one community seemed worthwhile. When I applied, I had started my third year at LJMU a couple of months prior, so experience was something I was seeking out and after being rejected by multiple internships, it was clear that I would need it if I wanted to get anywhere after graduating. Volunteering at Emmaus was the perfect opportunity for this and while I am not certain about which sector of the media I want to pursue after I graduate, since volunteering at Emmaus I have started to look into social media management. My visits to Emmaus have been a great chance to gain some practical experience in this area.
Faith: A day in the life of a Social Media Volunteer
Once a week for about 3-4 hours, Grace and I visit Emmaus and start our day with a warm brew in the common room. After this very gruelling start to our day, we talk over our content plans and begin filming or taking pictures of anything we need to shoot in the house. Next, we head over to the Charity Superstore and film and photograph images of furniture and stock in the eBay room using the lightbox. We like to group stock into collections so we can organise these into individual posts. After we have captured the content we need, we head home and get editing and scheduling our posts on TikTok and Instagram for the next week. After coming up with ideas for our next visit, it’s time to do it all over again the following week!
What Faith has gained so far
Calling it volunteer ‘work’ feels strange as each visit has been so enjoyable and the fact that I’m able to help out while developing skills that I can use on a CV makes it that much more fulfilling. Overall, my favourite part of the experience has been crossing paths with people that I may have never met before. Grace and I have talked about how we were a bit apprehensive of how people would take to two nosy students filming them, but everyone has been so welcoming and supportive and we are now known as ‘the social media girls’. Also, Emmaus has given us opportunities to learn new skill sets as staff have given us access to special training programmes and Canva, a graphic design software.
The main thing I want to get across to other students, or other people thinking about volunteering in general, is that Emmaus provides such a great environment for personal growth. Although the charity benefits when you volunteer, you get so many great benefits yourself from helping out, so if you’re considering it, reach out because there are so many different roles to get involved with.
Over the next month, we have some big plans for Emmaus’ social channels. After chatting with staff, it seems that the community aspect of Emmaus Merseyside is something that needs to be showcased so you can expect a few videos involving members of the Emmaus Merseyside community in the coming weeks!
@emmausmerseyside We’ve had some great items in this week have a look on our eBay shop for more, or stop by our Liverpool shop for a browse! #liverpoolcharityshop #furniture #weirdcore #homedecor #emmaus