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This year HandsOn Hong Kong celebrates 10 years of impactful work making volunteering more accessible to people in Hong Kong.

Founded in 2007, HandsOn Hong Kong runs more than 100 volunteer activities each month, working with 70+ nonprofit partners across the community to serve those in greatest need, including children and youth, the elderly, ethnic minorities, homeless people, refugees, people with disabilities, animals and the environment.

So why should we all care about volunteering?

On December 5 the world celebrates International Volunteer Day. But this is not the only reason why we should give thanks and encouragement to all the amazing volunteers out there and think about the contributions we can make ourselves to causes we care about. Listen in to our interview with Sue Toomey, Executive Director of HandsOn Hong Kong and you will find out her answers.

Volunteering in Hong Kong. Look for volunteering opportunities on the HandsOn event calendar here.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How giving back to society impacts the life of the beneficiary as well as your own.
•  The importance of confidence when running a local organisation and how to raise the profile within the eyes of donors and collaboration partners.
• How to make volunteering more accessible.
• Why it is important to measure the impact of your work.

Volunteering in Hong Kong 

We sat down for our recording with HandsOn Hong Kong Executive Director Sue Toomey exactly one year ago. Sue had just made the move from her corporate career at The Economist into the Non-Profit world. Sue loves working with NGOs and corporates, and in her role as Executive Director of HandsOn Hong Kong she is in the bridgebuilder between these players to create the most impact for their volunteering programmes.

“Whether or not you have one day a year, one day a month, one day a week to give, we have an opportunity for you,” Sue shares. 

They are very conscious of the challenges that come with measuring the impact of their work.

The impact question 

In 2016 alone, and with the support of dedicated volunteers, volunteer leaders and community-minded corporations, HandsOn Hong Kong organized 1,600+ volunteer activities, having an impact on more than 28,000 beneficiaries. But it does not stop there. HandsOn Hong Kong is an affiliate of the international HandsOn Network and Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service, with a network of 250 volunteer action centers to inspire, equip and mobilize people to take action that changes the world.

The impressive global impact statistics of the HandsOn Network. Source: HandsOn Network

Recognising contributions of their volunteering community 

One of the things we love most about the work of the HandsOn team in Hong Kong is that they recognise the work of their amazing volunteers and have dedicated a section of their website to tell stories of their volunteers. But not everyone wants to be recognised, as Sue points out in this interview, some people are very low key about their dedication to volunteering.

Hong Kong’s first Serve-a-thon

Earlier this year, HandsOn Hong Kong helped facilitate Hong Kong’s first Serve-a-thon, a 9-day community service marathon, bringing together business and NGO’s and thousands of volunteers serving more than 15.000 beneficiaries.

Looking ahead 

In the future, HandsOn Hong Kong wants to focus more on skills-based volunteering services aiming to help professionalise the NGO space.

“I see our services moving up the value chain as we bring more people into the sphere of volunteering.”

Sue Toomey, Executive Director at HandsOn Hong (right) in conversation with Ann Chu, APAC Partnerships, Bloomberg. Sue shares how HandsOn Hong Kong is bringing more corporations on board to grow the impact of volunteering.

Volunteering is fun! 

The HandsOn Network makes volunteering easy and accessible for local and expat community alike. On the HandsOn Hong Kong event calendar, you find an overview of volunteering activities that you can join completely free of charge.

In this episode, you will also hear from Pia Warburton, who has found a volunteering opportunity with HandsOn Hong Kong a bit over 4 years ago and has been giving back to society ever since.

Pia fell in love with volunteering 4 years ago. Photo Credit: HandsOn Hong Kong.

One of the most memorable moments of Pia’s volunteering experience. Receiving this note of one of her students. Photo Credit: Pia Warburton.

“It was love at first sight,” Pia says about her volunteering experience.

Find out why Pia thinks we should all care about volunteering when she lets you in on her passion for giving back when we caught up with her at the International Volunteer Day Celebration hosted by HandsOn Hong Kong.

Got some time to give this episode a listen? Scroll all the way up and press play and join us when we celebrate International Volunteer Day together with HandsOn Hong Kong and their dedicated volunteers. 

Our learnings from this episode. Have something to add? Get in touch with us here!

# impACT – Some inspiration to make a change. 

• Follow HandsOn Hong Kong on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
• The impact of the HandsOn Network is global. They might just already be operating in your city. Head over to their website to find out.
• If you are based in Hong Kong and want to find volunteering opportunities, you can head over to the HandsOn Hong Kong event calendar. Find it here.
• Take that first step and try out volunteering – even just for one hour. You will be amazed what an impact it not only has on the people that you support but also on yourself.

If you enjoyed this episode you will also love hearing from Samantha Aloysius who lets us in on her experience volunteering for Crossroads Foundation. Listen to our interview with Samantha interview here.