Volunteers play a pivotal role at Shannon Trust. Learners are at the heart of everything we do, and our volunteer teams bring a huge range of skills and experience to ensure learners have a positive experience of our programmes.
Our dedicated cohort of around 120 volunteers brings Shannon Trust to life through training and supporting mentors in prison, by acting as reading coaches in the community, and by supporting our work internally and externally.
Our volunteers come from all backgrounds and bring a wide array of skills and lived experience to their role, making a big impact for all our mentors and learners.
In prison, our volunteers support mentors by delivering training to new mentors and supporting existing mentors to develop and deliver our Turning Pages and Count Me In programmes. This role works alongside Shannon Trust facilitators and prison staff to ensure mentors have the guidance and support they need to successfully help those who need it on their learning journey.
Within the community, we have a number of volunteers working as reading coaches with community partners to enhance our support to learners as they leave prison. These post-release learning avenues ensure that anyone who would like to can continue their learning after release, and ensure we reach others in the community in touch with probation services or at risk of offending.
We also have volunteers who help centrally with the charity’s running, including fundraising, HR, IT and communications. These volunteers bring a wealth of experience to support our business operations. As an organisation we value all the qualities our volunteers bring to support our shared vision to ensure nobody is left out of learning.
We celebrate our volunteers and everything they do – including during National Volunteers’ Week in June, which marks the many people across the country who support good causes.
For Shannon Trust specifically, volunteers’ week coincides with our annual Tom Shannon Awards for Outstanding Contribution. These awards were created in memory of Tom Shannon, to recognise all volunteers who go above and beyond to make sure more people experience the positive impact of learning.
This June, the celebration event was held in York. Many of our award winners and nominators attended, along with our volunteer team and the chair of our trustee board, Michael Wemms.
There were six categories’ of 2025 awards, and the winners were as follows:
Congratulations to these winners for their contribution and dedication. During the event, our Chair of the Board of Trustees Michael Wemms talked about how pivotal all our volunteers are in Shannon Trust’s success, and how they continue the work that Tom Shannon and Christopher Morgan started.
Anyone interested in volunteering with Shannon Trust can find out more about the different roles we have available, and what to expect on our volunteer page.
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