Volunteers have been at the heart of ICN since our beginnings in 1998. What started as a small group of friends coming together to support local refugees has grown into something truly special. In the early days, support looked like building friendships, playing volleyball, and helping people learn English. While our work has expanded significantly over the years, that same spirit of connection and care remains at the core of everything we do. Today, the work ICN does is an essential source of support for many people in our local community.
As a small organisation with a staff team of 38, you might wonder how we continue to meet growing levels of need and support through a range of services.
The answer is simple: our volunteers.
Our volunteers are the true heroes behind everything we do, and without them, our work simply wouldn’t be possible.
Since starting my role as Volunteer Coordinator in February 2025, it’s been a real privilege to support our volunteer community and watch it grow and flourish. At that time, ICN had 35 volunteers. Just a year later, that number has nearly doubled to an incredible 73 dedicated individuals, including 6 trustees, all generously sharing their time, skills, and compassion to support others.
Of these, 54 volunteers support us every week, with a further 16 helping on a more flexible, ad hoc basis. Together, our volunteers contribute around 111 hours each week during term time. Over the course of 2025, we estimate that our volunteers have given an amazing 4,630 hours in total, which works out at an average of nearly two hours per volunteer, every single week.
So, what do our volunteers do?
The short answer is: a lot! Our volunteers wear many different hats and support ICN across a wide variety of services. Some volunteers help run our crèche, enabling women with children to safely access English classes. Others support our reading and learning club for children from migrant backgrounds, helping families feel confident in supporting their children’s learning.
We are also supported by volunteers who help deliver English conversation classes, including women only sessions. Additional volunteers provide reception cover at our main office, offer interpreting support, and help facilitate advice drop‑in sessions that provide non‑judgmental support to those facing urgent challenges.
Alongside this, our volunteer teachers and teaching assistants play a vital role in helping people learn English as a second language. We also have dedicated Volunteer Support Workers who provide support to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, during an evening of the week whilst our resident support worker is away.
How incredible is that? It is a joy to see such a compassionate volunteer community offering care, support, and friendship to people who are often deeply isolated and navigating the challenges of settling in a new country. Many of those we support speak English as an additional language, and some face significant barriers to accessing services.
What is particularly powerful is that 23% of our volunteers bring lived experience similar to that of many of our service users, and 17% are currently awaiting decisions themselves. Even while navigating uncertainty in their own lives, they choose to give their time and support to others.
Each volunteer has their own story and comes from a different background. While our 73 volunteers take on a wide range of roles and represent many walks of life, they come together with a shared commitment to care, dignity, and community.
There is real power and strength in this togetherness, in a community of people choosing to show up, support one another, and make a difference. Every hour given, every conversation shared, and every act of kindness contributes to something bigger: a more welcoming, connected community for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants.
We simply could not do this work without our volunteers.
To every person who gives their time, skills, and compassion so generously, thank you. You are at the heart of ICN, and you are what makes this work possible.
If you’d like to be part of this incredible community, we’d love to hear from you. Whether you can give a little time or a lot, there is a place for you at ICN.
If you are interested, please complete our volunteer application form on our website: www.icn.org.uk/support-us/volunteer-with-us/. If you have any questions about volunteering with us, please contact Hannah Kenny, our Volunteer Coordinator, at h.kenny@icn.org.uk.
