Do you volunteer?

fleetchris having visited our nearby hospice every day for several weeks last year, thankyou to you special people on reception who greet worried relatives with concern and sensitivity, and create that atmosphere of calmness. It's so reassuring to walk in, wondering what you might face today, to be greeted with 'oh, we thought you would be coming soon. Have you had chance to grab a sandwich? Cup of tea?' I often wondered if the volunteers were there after benefiting from the hospice's care of their own relatives. They certainly do make a hard time more bearable.

I do bits and pieces of volunteering with various charities from stuffing envelopes, collecting money to running a stall at an event or answering the phone at an office. I get contacted to see if I can help out at busy times or when f/t staff are away. I am also a school governor and that takes up quite a bit of time too.
The charity work helps me feel less impotent abut the areas they are supporting and I feel I am contributing , in a small way, to making a positive difference to things i feel strongly about.

I retired 10 years ago at age 65 and since then have volunteered at my local Hospice. I have a regular 4 hour shift on the OutPatient Reception and am also on call for Main In Patient Reception when they are short staffed. In addition to this I also work at 2 of the Hospice Charity shops on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I thoroughly enjoy my volunteering work and feel I am giving something back to the Community, as well as getting out and meeting people and keeping my body and mind active.

I manage a really inspiring charity called Stockport Without Abuse which supports women and children affected by domestic abuse.

We are always looking for volunteers who can spare a few hours either regularly or periodically to support us in so many ways.

Our volunteers can help in the crèche, plan fundraising, support ladies in crisis over the telephone, help a trainer in weekly group work in a variety of admin roles and anything else they can offer.

If any of you live anywhere near Stockport, you'd be most welcome to pop along and have a chat.

I was a volunteer for a greyhound rescue charity for five years. I walked the dogs awaiting homes at a local kennels, transported them to and from vets, organised fundraising events and rattled tins on street corners. I met people from all walks of life and some wonderful dogs along the way including my own.

It did however take over my life and became very stressful, when DHs health began to deteriorate I had to call it a day. Nowadays I just collect and donate raffle prizes for the various greyhound charities that I support.

Previously I had always lacked confidence and I was amazed to discover that I had skills that I never thought I owned.

Going on a 2 day school trip with our local primary school - camping at a Bird study park near Geneva, hurrah

I am a Holistic Therapist & have worked for six years as a Volunteer at a local Hospice Day Care Centre..... I have taken a short break for family commitments & have recently started volunteering at our local MIND treating the service users & carers. I find it very rewarding & they have not had the opportunity to have these treatments before. I am able to go when I can... with flexibility to alter dates if something crops up. It is very rewarding. Anyone with these skills should try it! You will love it!

Public libraries are increasingly dependant on the help of volunteers.
Hopefully by now Getmehrt will be employed somehow, but a good use of IT skills would be as a computer buddy, helping customers to use the public pcs.

I volunteer at a local group connected with the work I used to do with Special Needs children . It means I can maintain my interest whilst, hopefully helping the families of these children with their many and varied problems. Lack of funding means this can now only be for one morning per week ,instead of the 5 ,and then 3,days it used to be.
This gives me a purpose in retirement and a bonus is that I've made some good new friends as well.

I have just begun work as a volunteer at a local National Trust garden, and love meeting the public and working in a team. Last year I trained to be a Gateway Assessor with the C.A.B., having been a volunteer with them back in the 1980's, but I found the whole system has changed and there is very little positive feedback to help one cope with the endless problems so many people encounter in our modern world. Also, being an assessor means I had to pass on the problems unless they were straight forward, so I never had any sense of real satisfaction, although most callers told me they felt so much better for just talking to someone. After three months in bureau, I gave it up - you do have to get something positive from your volunteering. I still feel guilty!
I am a befriender with Age Concern and attended a tea party for my "client's" 90th birthday last week - it was lovely to meet all her family, who live in other parts of the UK.

Both with the elderly and with the local primary school. Great to get to know all the young and old around here and to get involved with the community. Also teach some of the local kids who are struggling.

That sounds a super volunteering position KatyK. I once volunteered at Linley Sambourne House in Kensington where I acted as a room guide or helped catalogue some of Mr S's rather dubious photographs - great fun and learned a lot. In complete contrast I'm now investigating how the lack of toilet access affects Truckers! It's a steep learning curve

Since retiring, my husband has done voluntary work as a tour guide for the National Trust. He loves every minute of it. He wasn't looking forward to retiring very much. He has always had jobs where he has had to communicate with/manage people. He now chooses which days he wants to work, he usually does 2 afternoons. The National Trust trained him and he now knows the complete history of the place he volunteers at. (He has always loved history). He meets people from all over the world. He is lucky enough to be a short bus ride from his place of 'work' and can use his free travel pass. It has helped him greatly to deal with his retirement.

Age UK runs computer classes for older people. use your IT skills to become a tutor with them.

I was a home visiting benefits advisor for over 10 years after I retired using the same skills I used in my career to provide Senior Managers and Directors with all the economic and market data they needed to support their decision making.

have a look at your local authority website. I found one of my volunteer opportunities on the Volunteer page of their website.

I am just training to be a volunteer reader in Schools i think i will find it very rewarding.

Cancer Research UK is always looking for volunteers.
I do things like admin, helping at events like Race for Life and street collections.
I also help at exhibitions.
CRUK tends to be dominated by women volunteers but men are very welcome.
People think I help because my wife died of cancer. This is not correct.
We both got involved because the aerobics group we went to decided to enter or volunteer for Race for Life.
If my wife had passed away with a heart problem I may have continued to support Cancer Research UK as that was my late wife's favourite charity.
Oddly a few people lost their parents through dementia but their parents nominated charity was CRUK or the British Heart Foundation.
People may argue their funeral collection should have gone to a dementia charity but once dementia sets in it is impossible to ask the parent if they want to change their wishes.

Frank

I'd never thought of it as volunteering till I read this thread but I too was on the PTA of my children's schools for many years. I helped reorganise the primary school library, ran umpteen fundraising evenings, helped to organise the float and costumes for the school's entry to the gala day procession as well as helping out on outings. I loved it, I was a stay at home mum till my youngest was nine and helping at play group, primary then high school was a big part of my life even after I began working again.

I plan to retire next year and have begun applying for voluntary work, from the commonwealth games to a local charity. It is a bit like applying for paid jobs so I don't yet know if I'll be accepted.

Hope I've just planted a tree and helped to feed children in Argentina . It all seems too easy.

Here's a volunteering suggestion that I don't think anybody on this thread has raised yet. How about volunteering from your own home, using something called microvolunteering. The micro bit refers to the time it takes to volunteer, which in this case is anything upto 30 minutes.

I've been doing it off and on for quite a while now, and although it doesn't give you that person-to-person volunteering feeling, it's darned useful if you want to do something good / nice without the hassle or commitment of attending an event.

Look at this website:
helpfromhome.org/

Do you know about volunteering with NADFAS? We have branches all over the country. Thousands of us take part in volunteering every week, and we love it.
www.nadfas.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering

Volunteering with NADFAS gives you an chance to learn new skills and make friends with the same interests.

You could help in Heritage Projects, in local museums, galleries and country houses by getting involved in conserving, cataloguing and stewarding and more.

You like being with young people? NADFAS runs Young Arts Projects involving schools and groups. They have such enthusiasm.

We even have Church Recorder groups recording the contents of churches and other places of worship so our wonderful National Heritage is not lost.

And this isn't all....

Look at the website: www.nadfas.org.uk

- come and join us-it's fun!

Hi why not try your local Museum/Archive I did and now run our archive a steep learning curve but well worth it.

Quite agree with kitty, Headway is a brilliant organisation and does some wonderful work with people with acquired brain injuries. The clients all look out for each other as well and there's a really lovely atmosphere at my local branch.Some real characters ! Some of their stories are horrendous and yet they can joke and laugh about their injuries and make the most of life. I've great admiration for them all.

You are so right, Flickety! When you think of the variety of skills that we, just on GN, have, it is clear that we are an extremely valuable resource. The joy is, of course, that we don't have to do anything unless we want to!

Most big towns have a Volunteers Centre and our County Council website has a volunteers wanted section. Through that I became involved in looking after several local historic churches. I also worked for Age Concern (as was) for 10 years as a domicilary Benefits Advisor. Voluntary work these days is a lot wider than pushing trolleys or working in a charity shop.

A couple of my friends in Bristol work for headway