Birmingham Volunteering Legacy

This grant of £50,000 to Birmingham 2022 Legacy Charity, United By 2022, was to help secure the future of the Games’ volunteering programme.

The 14,000 people who generously volunteered their time over summer 2022 are credited as the most diverse group of volunteers ever seen in the UK. The grant has supported United By 2022 to work with organisations in the West Midlands to harness this surge in volunteering, and create a plan for a more permanent programme. In addition to the grant, Spirit of 2012 worked with United By 2022 to share lessons on setting up and sustaining volunteering programmes in other places, including Hull Volunteers, which is still thriving, six years on from Hull UK City of Culture 2017.

The Volunteers Collective was launched in June 2023, alongside a consultation report on volunteering at events in the West Midlands. The report explores the motivations of volunteers, in consultation with organisations who engage them, as well as providing insight into how and why events look to engage with volunteers.

The Volunteers Collective connects previous Birmingham 2022 volunteers with new opportunities across the West Midlands, via a portal. Within 24 hours of launching, the portal had over 500 sign ups, demonstrating the appetite from these individuals to further engage with volunteering opportunities in the region. Volunteers have since been involved with events such as Festival 23 and the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Games. United By 2022 aim to open up the platform more widely to those who did not volunteer at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and continue to connect people who want to volunteer with events and organisations in the West Midlands.