The Centre for Volunteering and Community Action has introduced hundreds of young people to a wide range of volunteering opportunities to suit their interests. Volunteers are both UCLan students and young people from Lancashire and Cumbria. The volunteers work with a range of community groups including school children, disaffected youngsters, young offenders, the elderly and homeless people to help make a difference and improve their lives.

Young people from the Centre have received awards for their
volunteering. In 2003, Phillip Bewley was regional Millennium
Volunteer of the Year, and Marian Yousaf was awarded the HEACF Student Volunteering Award for her work with young women in Pendle.

In 2004, UCLan law student Wajid Khan was awarded the Higher Education Action Community Fund (HEACF) Exceptional Student of the Year Award for his community cohesion work in East Lancashire. This year Winnie Chu and Zahoor Hussian are both finalists in the 2005 Year of the Volunteer Award, and Bob Walley has been nominated as Health Worker of the Year for the Red Rose Awards for his work promoting peer led health education through the Touch Project.

Have you got a volunteering event that you want to shout about? Send it in then! Email us at lancashire@bbc.co.uk.