Get involved: Serve The City kicks off 13th annual Big Volunteer Week

About 500 volunteers will take part in nearly 75 charitable projects around Brussels this week, as Serve The City organises its 13th annual Big Volunteer Week. The week will include activities ranging from serving meals in soup kitchens to pop-up spa days for those who are living on the streets.

Serve the City is a platform that connects people looking to volunteer with non-profits in their area. The project began in 2005 when founder Carlton Deal moved to Brussels and saw a disconnect between people wanting to get involved and organisations in need of help.

“There were a lot of apparent needs when you walk through the city," he says. "You can see that people are homeless, that there are refugees, that maybe disability access is a little bit difficult.

"At the same time, we encountered many people who we thought would like to do something to help but many people don't know where to start. So, we decided to become matchmakers to allow people the opportunity to get involved."

Deal said he never imagined Serve The City would become this big. The group is now present in 117 cities around the world.

"People really just picked it up like a virus and it became kind of contagious," he says. "I think it's one of those fun viral stories and when people saw what we were doing here in Brussels they thought: 'I could do that.'"

Potential volunteers visiting the website can pick an interest, select their availability and choose how they would like to serve. The end result can have hundreds of different options ranging from working with people with disabilities in a social setting once a week to cooking meals with refugees on a special occasion one time.

Deal says the organisation lives by a series of principles most embodied by the quote: "We know them by need, but what if we knew them by name?"

"It's such a joy to cross the line and get beyond culture and prejudice and find beauty in the life of someone else,” he says.

The Big Volunteer Week runs from 1-8 July. Those interested in getting involved can still sign up on the Serve the City website. "We keep registration open until the last minute so please don't think it is too late, go ahead and register," Deal says.