Gaining Local Experience in London

As part of Volunteer’s Week 2025, Venus Cheng talks to us about her volunteering experience in the HR Team at CPRE London.

Venus grew up in Hong Kong and has been living in the UK for the past couple of years to experience working abroad. She’s always liked hiking, being close to nature, enjoying the mountains and the seaside. Venus describes ‘islands where you can go island hopping, especially in Hong Kong, there’s a lot of that. And where I lived, there’s a mountain right behind our building. So, it’s always super easy to go for a hike and spend quality time with my family.’

The value of urban green space

As we might expect, there is a significant difference between the geography of Hong Kong and London. Venus now lives in London, where she appreciates the contrast to the ‘concrete jungle’ of Hong Kong. London offers a variety of green spaces, which create a valuable place for connection. ‘No matter which corner I turn, after you walk a few steps there will always be something green and a space you can use as a common area’. In particular, Venus loves Richmond Park. For her, these urban green spaces ‘serve more than just an environmental purpose – it’s also for creating that communal space, and to me community space is really important. I think that’s how society is held together because that’s how you create a sense of belonging and create shared memories. So that’s why I particularly enjoy those kinds of spaces – it has a therapeutic power.’

New Experiences

When she moved to the UK, Venus wanted to gain work experience, find out more about working in a local organisation, and develop her interest in Human Resources. ‘I did a Master’s in Human Resources. I had a Bachelor’s in Psychology, so that’s the root of everything that interests me, and brought me to where I am right now, because human resources is the intersection between the two: business and psychology.’

With some spare time on her hands after her studies, and looking for a way to fulfil these goals, she came across the volunteering opportunity with CPRE London, and knew it was something she wanted to be a part of.

Making a Difference

Administrative roles are incredibly valuable for the work of small charities like CPRE London. Venus describes how the team divides tasks based on their interests and skills. She has worked proactively on multiple projects, including enhancing operational efficiency and reshaping the onboarding experience for new volunteers. ‘What I’ve done in the past few months is to introduce some automation mechanisms in the way we onboard and offboard new volunteers, to make sure they have a really welcoming, friendly, supportive experience from the start but without taking a toll on the time and energy of the small team.’ This has been especially important in the context of CPRE London, as they are in a period of expansion, broadening the scale of their work and welcoming lots of new volunteers in the process. Volunteers in the HR Team have been instrumental in recruiting new volunteers and creating a more engaging experience for them.

Learning from Others

Even after starting a full-time job, the team have been accommodating, enabling Venus to continue volunteering in her role on a more flexible basis alongside her work. The team at CPRE London have been a big highlight of her volunteering experience. ‘The people are really good, super supportive and my team’s amazing. There’s so much to learn from each other as well because everyone has their own experiences and skills under their belt. So, for me, it was really eye opening.’ Through learning from the experience of other volunteers, and using new tools and applications in her role, she has been able to develop new skills and the confidence to use them elsewhere.

Thinking about volunteering?

Venus highly recommends volunteering as an enriching experience, where you can meet new people and contribute to a cause you care about. She emphasises the importance of being transparent about your skills and capacity, and groups would be able to match you with an appropriate volunteering opportunity. ‘If in doubt, you can always reach out to the charity and learn more about what the volunteer experience looks like’.

If you think you’d like to volunteer for CPRE like Venus, take a look at our volunteering pages and current opportunities, or get in touch with us at volunteeringteam@cpre.org.uk. You can find out more about CPRE London here.