Volunteering

From Girona Buddies
Revision as of 07:43, 21 March 2025 by Gironabuddies (talk | contribs)

The Girona Buddies volunteering group exists to connect people with volunteering opportunities in Girona and help organize volunteering activities.

It's open to anyone interested in volunteering, including Catalan speakers and non-Catalan speakers.

The WhatsApp group is at https://chat.whatsapp.com/GRO8cijOS4xDBRv0CrqnhV.

This page has a list of volunteering opportunities in Girona for English-speakers.

Litter cleanup

Just an informal litter cleanup (Julia's idea). Take a bin bag and gloves.

Ideas for places:

  • lake Park del Migdia when it’s drained
  • top of hill behind Vista Alegre
  • Parc del Migdia in general

Litter cleanups organised by others

  • FreeAdvenTour: Organized a past cleanup at Gola de Ter. Contact Alex. (no current plans for another event).
  • Brigada Activista del Salabret https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076137530456. They pick up litter from the ground and rivers.
  • Voluntariat ambiental per la conservació de l’espinós a l’Espai Natural Protegit de les Gavarres / Associació La Sorellona https://voluntariatambiental.cat/activitat/voluntariat-ambiental-a-les-gavarres/, They pick up litter, sometimes they do it in Girona
  • XCN (xarxa per a la conservació de la natura) https://xcn.cat/ they might do litter picking?
  • Spogomi Cleanup Competition: Annual litter-picking competition in Girona. Requires teams of three, including at least two Spanish speakers. Only takes place once a year.

Community allotment/garden

Tessa wrote a wrote a proposal for the Ajuntament a few years ago and they offered her a free huerto (kitchen garden) in Santa Eugenia.

Chat with language learners in your native language

Girona Buddies has subgroups for different languages. If you’re a native speaker, you can help by chatting with learners and giving them a chance to practice.

Other volunteering ideas

  • Chatting Bench: Sitting in public spaces and offering conversation to lonely people (Kalpesh's idea)
  • Spending time with elderly residents at retirement homes (although language might be a barrier).
  • Helping homeless people by offering food, clothes, and conversation (inspired by a Barcelona initiative).
  • Helping local businesses or entrepreneurs with skills like marketing, leadership, or fundraising.
  • Volunteering at food waste programs (e.g., starting something similar to Olio, which is a an app for giving away food, books, clothes, and furniture, or lending things in your community for free)
  • Animal shelters: Finding opportunities at animal shelters (walking dogs, assisting with care) like Rodamon (Palafrugell) and CAAS (Tossa).
  • Help each other with problems we have (Stuart's idea)
  • Create a Time bank in Girona Buddies (Paul's idea)
  • Help at Temps de Flors festival.
  • Graffiti removal (especially offensive ones)
  • Promote positive stories through a “Humans of Girona” social media page (Kalpesh's idea)


Volunteering Resources

Summary of the group's activity so far

🗓️ 14 January 2025

  • Group "Volunteering in Girona" created by Paul at the request of Tom.
  • Members start joining via the Girona Buddies community.
  • Paul suggests litter picking as a simple volunteering idea.
  • Tom supports the idea and suggests it as the group’s first activity.
  • Evan mentions an existing local group doing clean-ups.
  • Stuart shares links (e.g. FreeAdvenTour) and experiences.
  • Bea stresses the importance of coordinating with existing efforts to avoid duplicating work.

---

🗓️ 16–17 January 2025

  • Paul contacts Alex from FreeAdvenTour; they did one clean-up but have no current plans.
  • Bea shares links to Girona’s volunteering directories.
  • Mariona (LvE Always Wins) shares a link to an environmental volunteering opportunity in Les Gavarres.
  • New members continue to join.

---

🗓️ 20 January – 10 February 2025

  • Group becomes quiet.
  • On 10 Feb, Paul removes the group from the Girona Buddies community due to inactivity.
  • Mairi suggests keeping it for ad hoc activities.
  • Paul agrees that there are limited options for non-Catalan speakers.
  • He leaves the door open to reactivating the group.

---

🗓️ 20–21 February 2025

  • Julia proposes a DIY rubbish clean-up day at Park del Migdia and other areas.
  • Bea and others suggest checking for pre-existing clean-up events.
  • Stuart and Bea share links to groups like *XCN* and *voluntariatambiental.cat*.
  • Spogomi clean-up competition in Girona is announced.
  • Paul re-adds the group to the Girona Buddies community.
  • A shared editable Google Doc of ideas is created.

---

🗓️ 13–18 March 2025

  • Tessa volunteers to help admin the group.
  • Multiple new volunteering ideas shared:
    • Chatting benches for social connection
    • Helping language learners
    • Community gardening
    • Helping small businesses
    • Litter picking
  • A poll is conducted; top ideas:
    • Litter picking
    • Community garden
  • Mascha and Jamie suggest volunteering with animal shelters.
  • Carrie asks about helping at *Temps de Flors*.
  • Paul launches a wiki page for Girona Buddies: [gironabuddies.com/volunteering](https://gironabuddies.com/volunteering)
  • Bea shares local equivalents to Olio (food-sharing app).

---

🗓️ 19–21 March 2025

  • New members continue joining.
  • Julia updates on the Park del Migdia idea – suggests low-key clean-ups or joining existing groups.
  • Kalpesh suggests starting a *Humans of Girona* project to spotlight positive actions.
  • Some members prefer to avoid social media promotion.
  • Stuart proposes donation-based events (e.g. beach day or cycling).
  • Sonia shares ideas from a UK group that combines fitness and volunteering.
  • Bea and others express interest in removing offensive graffiti.
  • Stuart points to *Brigada Activista del Salabret* as a local group to join.
  • Tessa suggests creating a poll to prioritize activities (more to come).
  • Helen joins and expresses interest in getting involved.
Retrieved from "https://www.gironabuddies.com/index.php?title=Volunteering&oldid=31"