Royal expert predicts Kate Middleton’s outfit for Coronation.mp4

Over the weekend, it was reported that King Charles III’s Coronation’s Big Help Out initiative may face difficulties. In the past few years, the numbers donating their time to causes have waned. In 2014/2015, 44 percent of people surveyed by the Government said they had volunteered at least once in the past month, whereas this has now dropped to 34 percent. But the Big Help Out, which is a formal part of Charles’s Coronation celebrations, is hoping to tackle the dropoff in volunteering rates.

According to the Government’s Community Life Survey, around seven million people — or 16 percent — of those questioned in England volunteered at least once a month in the past 12 months in 2021/2022, the lowest rates recorded since data collection began.

But across England, around 21 percent of people formally volunteered at the beginning of the pandemic.

Brendan Cox explained to Express.co.uk that one factor behind the lower rates of volunteering is partly due to the fact that many returned to their busy lives post-pandemic, but stressed that the sense of “community action” was felt by many.

The campaigner, who focuses on community cohesion, is working with the Together Coalition and was involved in the Jo Cox Foundation, set up in the wake of his Labour MP wife’s murder.

The Big Help Out is aiming to provide an easy way for people to explore which volunteering opportunities are available to them on Monday, May 8, with the hope that they will be inspired to volunteer on a regular basis.

Mr Cox said: “What the Big Help Out is designed to do is to recruit this new generation of volunteers and the encouraging thing is that we’ve had tens of thousands of people already pledged to take part in the day.

“We’ve also had now tens of thousands of charities sign up to be part of the big help out. A decline in volunteering over the past few years is exactly what the Big Help Out is trying to address.”

The cost of living has impacted everyone across the country, but Mr Cox said the engagement had, in fact, been huge, stressing that in this time of difficulty, with public services also under pressure, “more people are needing help in different ways”.

He added: “Volunteering makes a huge difference at the community level to how people are feeling, the level of support that they’re getting.

“Not only does volunteering make a real difference to the individual taking part in it, it enables people to meet new people, to make new connections, to make new friendships.”

Charity work is a huge part of King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla’s work. As Prince of Wales, he was patron to over 400 charities and since she tied the knot with the now King in 2005, Camilla is patron or president to more than 90.

“The initiative connects to both the King and the Queen in terms of their own values, their own history,” Mr Cox continued.

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He added: “All their lives they have been supporting and patrons of organisations so it connects with them, but what I think it also does is it connects with their desire to make sure that there is a legacy coming out of the Coronation.

“They didn’t want it just to be a weekend of golden carriages and crowns. They wanted it to have some longer-term meaning in local communities.”

Several organisations such as the Scouts, Royal Voluntary Service, Guide Dogs and thousands of smaller local groups are hoping to recruit volunteers ready for the bank holiday in just under three weeks’ time.

The Big Help Out is a formal part of Coronation celebrations, supported by the Together Coalition, a large group of organisations bringing communities together.

Download the app or head to thebighelpout.org.uk to get involved.

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