3SG’s Volunteer Fair Draws Record Number of Residents in Celebration of Giving Back

Nearly 400 local residents came to visit the 3SG Volunteer Fair, a large scale exhibition-style event at Bath’s Apex Hotel on 17th October, intending to do good for their local community.

Run by Bath & North East Somerset Third Sector Group (3SG), this is the third year that the charity has organised the event to support its 250+ charity network members, with the aim of finding new volunteers to strengthen the work that they deliver across the area.

With 44 charities exhibiting and a variety of talks and workshops held throughout the day, the event also showcased the amazing work of the charities and celebrated the sector as a whole. This year, there were additional taster sessions for the recently relaunched Wellbeing Courses for B&NES, a variety of free and low cost sessions that can be accessed locally to support people’s wellbeing.

3SG were also joined by a special guest, the Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, Mohammed Saddiq, who officially opened the Fair and met stallholders. The day ended with a special ‘After Party’, an informal networking session with charities and local businesses to encourage greater connection.

Becky Somerset, Director of 3SG, said: “The 3SG Volunteer Fair continues to attract more visitors and benefit local charities - it is an enormous effort for our small team and, as a charity ourselves, we rely on sponsorship to help us deliver this event. Huge thanks go to our headline sponsor, Riviam Digital Care, and to Bath College, Windsor Hill Mortgages, Bath Unlimited and Stone King LLP, who all supported us this year. Thank you also to our brilliant speakers, who took time out of their days to join the conversation around volunteering.

“3SG exists as charity infrastructure - delivering 1:1 support, events, networking, training and advocacy work for the Sector across B&NES. One of our key reasons for existing is to deliver on strategic pieces of work that will mean local charities across our network benefit. Finding new volunteers and identifying sustainable funding are probably two of the most important issues facing charities right now and we are pleased to be able to offer this large scale event to further this aim.

“I’d like to say a huge thank you to the charities who came along and created such wonderful stalls - the whole room had a brilliant energy and we hope that you found some fantastic new volunteers.”

Volunteering is one of the most rewarding things a person can do with their spare time. It makes a positive impact in so many ways and can help improve self-esteem, confidence and wellbeing, whilst developing new skills or offering existing ones. The local Third Sector in B&NES relies on people to help support its work, which often adds so much more to statutory services or fills a gap or a need that wasn’t being met. 

For more information on 3SG, visit: 3sg.org.uk. If you are a sponsor who might be able to support next year’s Fair, please contact: becky@3sg.org.uk

Huge thanks to the 3SG Volunteer Fair sponsors: Riviam Digital Care, Bath College, Windsor Hill Mortgages, Bath Unlimited and Stone King LLP, and to all of our speakers who took time out of their busy schedules to be involved in the day.