Community Spirit of Leicestershire

Share your story and be in with a chance to win a £50 gift voucher for an independent shop in the county.

VAL are looking for individuals who have volunteered during the pandemic in the City, County and Rutland to share your story on the Community of Spirit Leicestershire link.


Read more about the project below:

Community Spirit of Leicestershire is a community arts project to collect stories and celebrate the work of volunteers during the pandemic in the city, county and Rutland.

Artist & creative producer Ruth Singer following her volunteering at a food bank in Leicester during the height of the pandemic have created this project.

She felt it was so important to gather the stories of volunteering, to record just how vital their work was and to celebrate the amazing support and community building that volunteers have done throughout 2020 and 2021 to support others impacted by covid.

With funding from Arts Council England and Leicester city council community ward funding, Ruth aims to run events and a website to collect experiences and stories about volunteering, during and beyond volunteers week 2022 (1-7th June 2022).

As well as the stories, Ruth & associate artist Mandeep Dhadialla (from Leicester) are running events where volunteers can tell their story in person and make rosettes to form a collective artwork. Materials packs will also be available for volunteers who want to make a creative contribution from home.

These rosettes will be displayed together in community spaces and then eventually the rosettes artwork will be created over the summer and displayed at community venues around Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland in the autumn. After the end of the touring exhibition, the rosettes will be distributed back to nominated volunteers at the end of the project as a keepsake to remind them of the special role they volunteered to do.