Volunteers’ Week is an annual campaign which celebrates the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK.

Up and down the country, individuals and organisations will hold events to celebrate the contribution of volunteers and inspire others to take part. The role of Volunteering England is to promote all this great work, so please do tell us about your Volunteers’ Week events.

You can find the latest information about how to celebrate your volunteers during Volunteers' Week, and find out what others are doing, on these pages, Facebook and Twitter.

The contribution of volunteering

Every year, over 20 million people across England and the UK volunteer, donating more than 100 million hours to their communities every week. It has been estimated that the economic value of this activity is worth in excess of £40 billion to our economy.

Services and initiatives that are vital to the running of our country simply wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for volunteers. This includes the NHS, the Coastguard Rescue Service (3,500 volunteers), the Mountain and Cave Rescue Service (3,500 volunteers in England and Wales), Natural England (2,200 volunteer wardens), the judiciary (30,000 volunteer magistrates in England and Wales) and the police (over 15,000 Special Constables).

Volunteering in 2012

In 2012 the central role of volunteers is even clearer, which means we have lots to celebrate. The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games could not happen without the efforts of 70,000 Games Makers, 8,000 London Ambassadors and countless more across the country.

Celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee will involve tens of thousands in community activities. The Jubilee Hour initiative, supported by organisations as diverse as The Women's Institute, West Yorkshire Police and the Muslim Council of Britain, will encourage people to donate an hour of their time to help others either through an organisation or on a personal basis.

Volunteering and community cohesion

But volunteering has an even greater value than ensuring our essential community services function and national events are a success. Every year, millions of people help others in all sorts of ways, most of which they probably wouldn't even think of as volunteering.

This makes a crucial contribution to binding our communities, building cooperation and trust between individuals, and helping to make our communities better places to live and work.

So we hope that Volunteers’ Week 2012 is going to be bigger and better than ever. We look forward to hearing about what you’ll be doing to celebrate.