VU volunteers ready for virtual V4U Day

Hundreds of students, staff and alumni from Victoria University are getting ready to support their local community by volunteering at VU’s first virtual V4U Day on 30 October 2020.

V4U Day is VU’s flagship volunteering event. Held over a full day every year, this community volunteering event involves hundreds of volunteers taking part in volunteering activities in Melbourne’s west.

Virtual volunteer day a first

Impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria, this year V4U Day will be delivered virtually for the first time.

On this virtual V4U Day, the volunteers will join their project teams online, and complete their projects from home.

Some teams will make face masks and ear protectors for aged-care residents; some will sing in a virtual choir to dedicate a song to COVID-19 frontline workers; some will compile a recipe book to share with the community; and some will have a breakthrough conversation with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre about social justice and people seeking asylum.

Other projects involve making pocket hearts as an act of kindness, creating a mindful walking route in the local community to promote mental health and wellbeing, reading stories to children, and writing letters to people isolated by the pandemic.

Kids to take part

This year’s virtual V4U Day also enables the children of VU to volunteer alongside their parents. These young V4U Day volunteers will draw pictures and make postcards to provide emotional support to aged-care residents, and to express their appreciation to frontline workers.

The pandemic has changed the delivery of V4U Day at VU this year, but the spirit of V4U Day remains the same – to give back to the community and make a difference in the west.

This also aligns with VU’s continuous focus on providing meaningful and high-quality student experiences to help students succeed in formal learning and beyond.