At Healthwatch Leeds my role is volunteer filmmaker and animator, however it extends far beyond those titles. My responsibilities have included photographing volunteer and outreach events, editing videos and short films for public distribution, and creating information graphics for instructional material.
I have been volunteering at Healthwatch since November 2025. Healthwatch is a charitable organisation that provides health information and feedback services for communities and health services in Leeds.
Reasons to volunteer
I find volunteering a great opportunity for work that helps people and to feel like you are making a difference. For example, interviewing people about the NHS app made them feel that they were being heard and that their opinions were personally considered.
It is also a great way to meet groups of people you would not usually have contact with, in terms of religion, age, ethnicity and disability. This helps widen your world view and can help you make informed decisions about how to best help people, and how to approach them in an informed way.
Volunteering can open different pathways to skills and careers you may not find directly in education.
It can also open different pathways to skills and careers you may not find directly in education, and therefore looks great on a CV when you apply for jobs and other opportunities.
Self-belief and new interests
Personally, I have found volunteering to have a positive impact on my confidence and self-belief in my abilities.
Through volunteering I have found opportunities with other institutions, and approached them in a much more self-assured way than if I had not been volunteering. Through being at Healthwatch I knew I had skills and experience, and felt like I could rise to any challenge, and could pursue opportunities that are beneficial and interesting.
My confidence has also meant that I ask more questions and can learn from the community I have situated myself in. I have met amazing young people and people passionate about health accessibility, and it has become an intense area of interest for me now that it wasn’t before.
A film with real-world impact
My favourite part of the volunteering experience was a project that I completed over Christmas break, where I edited a video about a carer’s experience with the Accessibility Information Standard (AIS), and why AIS was so important for them and the person they were caring for.
This was made to be an example of the economic benefits of AIS within the NHS, showing that when effective it can save money and time for the service. The original video was a 30-minute interview cut down to around 7 minutes.
At the time I did not have access to my regular editing software, so I used Canva, which I wasn’t very familiar with at the time. However, the necessity of the task encouraged me to throw myself into it and learn whilst making the video.
I worked with two members of staff at Healthwatch who gave me feedback for each iteration of the video and collaborated on aspects like subtitles. In the end we created a video that was sent to Leeds City Council and was then shown to top NHS consultants who were discussing the implementation of AIS.
It was a great learning opportunity and has meant I am confident with managing time and using a range of creative skills for future projects.
Advice for future volunteers
My advice is to pursue volunteering if you can afford to do so with the means that you have. Be honest with the time you have, as having too many responsibilities will mean you cannot effectively engage with any of them.
Also, if you have accessibility needs, aim for you and your volunteering placement to work within these needs to have the most effective relationship.
I would recommend volunteering if you are looking for unique opportunities outside of university, especially if there is a field you want to continue down. Take as many opportunities as you can, as you don’t know what doors will open for you.
More information about volunteering
- Read more student profiles about volunteering
- Find out more about volunteering opportunities as a student at Leeds
If you’re a not-for-profit organisation in Leeds that would benefit from student volunteers, email the Volunteering Team at volunteer@leeds.ac.uk.