This year’s International Women’s Day campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity (you can read more about the theme here) and there’s lots you can do to take action to support women and girls in your local communities. Here’s some ideas:

1. Empower girls to find their voice and make a positive difference in their community with Girlguiding UK.

By volunteering with Girlguiding, you can help girls build their confidence, have adventures, learn new skills and have loads of fun – no matter your experience, your background or how much time you have spare.

Being a Girlguiding volunteer isn't just about campfires and helping girls to get their next badge - although those are special moments! It's also about empowering girls and giving them new experiences. It's being a role model and helping girls to realise their full potential. It's sharing and developing your skills.

Becoming a role model doesn't need a full-time commitment – Girlguiding UK needs volunteers in all sorts of roles. So, if you want to help behind the scenes, at special events or get involved every week, there’s loads of ways to inspire girls with Girlguiding.

Register your interest to find out about volunteering opportunities with Girlguiding near you.

2. Support women and their young children at a Little Village Baby Bank.

Little Village is like a foodbank, but for clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children up to the age of 5. They have grown to be one of the largest ‘baby banks’ in the UK, supporting over 17,000 children since we launched in 2016.  Families are referred to them via a network of over 2,000 professionals such as midwives and social workers.  Little Village’s vision is that every child in the capital has the essential items they need to thrive. 

Although they are a ‘baby bank’, their model is about community as much as redistribution. When possible, families are invited in to choose the items they'd like for their children, enabling Little Village volunteers to offer a warm welcome and additional support e.g. advice and support services.  

Nearly all the parents that Little Village support are women. Many are struggling with loneliness and low confidence. User feedback and an independent evaluation shows that their community-based, volunteer-led approach, rooted in their values of love, solidarity, sustainability and thriving has (a) given women back agency, reducing parental anxiety and increasing resilience (b) encouraged them to return as volunteers to help others and (c) built new social networks across class and cultural divides.

Checking and sorting items is an extremely important part of our work as we are an organisation giving gifts from one family to another, so they should be of the highest quality. This role involves:

• Putting together beautiful bespoke bundles of kit and clothing for families, depending on their specific needs.
• Checking the donated stock that comes in and ensuring items are good enough quality.
• Organising donations, by gender, age, and item type.
• Welcoming families who are coming to collect items in person (dependent on the site and days you attend).

Find out more and register to volunteer with Little Village as a Baby Bank Stock Sorter and Packer.

3. Teach young girls to read with the Doorstep Library.

The Doorstep Library uses books to fuel children’s natural love of stories, fire their imaginations, and encourage their appreciation of reading. The Doorstep Libraries unique home-based service means they are there in person or online, finding the most appropriate books for every child they visit and building a relationship with the whole family. Their projects not only improve literacy and confidence in children, but also increase family wellbeing and bonding through the joy of sharing stories. Doorstep Library volunteers encourage both parents and children to read for pleasure together from a young age. This kind of tailored support enables volunteers to help prepare children for school and broaden their opportunities in life.

With one in four 11-year-olds leaving primary school unable to read or write properly, the Doorstep Library recruits and trains home and online reading volunteers to go into some of the most disadvantaged areas in London to help introduce young children (aged 0-11 years) to the pleasure of reading.

You can join the Doorstep Library by signing up to be a Home Reading Volunteer, or an Online Reading Volunteer.

4. Help women to access top universities with The Access Project.

The Access Project supports students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities. We are looking for undergraduates, postgraduates, staff, and alumni who would be able to tutor a young person aged 14-18, online, one hour a week in term-time Autumn 2023- Summer 2024 to support them with their academic studies.

By signing up to volunteer with the Access Project, you will:

• Support a young person in a subject of your choice to achieve the GCSE / A level grades they deserve and to fulfil their potential.
• Build transferable skills, experience and knowledge through ongoing training and development as part of the role.

Students supported by The Access Project typically achieve a grade higher at GCSE and are four times more likely than their peers to progress to a top-third ranked university.

Sign up as a Volunteer Tutor with The Access Project.

5. Share feminist literature with your family and friends.

The Feminist Library is a large archive collection of feminist literature, particularly Women’s Liberation Movement materials dating from the late 1960s to the 1990s. We support research, activist and community projects in this field.

The Library is also an autonomous feminist community space. The Library is trans-inclusive, welcomes visitors of any gender, does not require registration or membership, and provides an intersectional, non-sectarian space for the exploration of feminism. 

Since the Library’s beginnings in 1975, it has provided a place where women could network and educate themselves, and has become a contact point for women locally, nationally and internationally.

Today the Library continues its drive for inclusion and accessibility. The Library is run by a collective of volunteers, with a management structure committed to making decisions by consensus. 

Although feminism has achieved much, there is still much to fight for. Find out more at King’s Volunteering online.