When John retired, he thought that being at home
with his garden and the daily papers and nothing work-wise to worry about would mean that he would be relaxed, stress
free and as 'happy as Larry'. Not so! The weather in the November that he retired was awful. No way could
he get out into the garden in the wind and rain. He'd read the papers inside out and soon boredom well and truly set
in.
In the local newspaper, he saw a story about
an organisation that was looking for drivers. He was a bit apprehensive, but thought he had nothing to lose by
contacting them. John has never looked back.
Now when the weather is bad, he is out on the road driving people to
and from medical appointments, not staring out on his bedraggled garden. He
has always been a good listener and when he hears how some people manage to cope with all kinds of problems, it puts his own
situation into perspective. People being people, he also has many laughs and 'experiences'. John has found his
ideal voluntary job. It's stress free and a winner for everyone concerned.
Laura was in the 6th form at school. She hadn't a clue whether medicine
was really a good career choice for her. Everyone said she was bright enough and she knew that academically she could
reach the required standard for a university place, but she wasn't sure how comfortable she would feel with patients with
disabilities.
When Laura came to us about volunteering opportunities in the community
that might help her make up her mind, she was delighted at the choice. Not only did she find that after the initial
visit to her chosen placement, a school for children with disabilities, she valued each and every student for the person that
they were - their personalities were unique and she found herself forgetting why they were at this school in the first place.
Laura is now in her second year at medical school.
Kevin had been unemployed for a while.
He had been in a job that he hadn't enjoyed, even though it was well paid and brought with it lots of opportunities for
worldwide travel. There was something missing from his life, but he hadn't a clue what that 'something' was.
He was encouraged to visit one of our Volunteer
Centres and was offered a job helping out in our office. At first he didn't want to use the phone, he
was unsure about helping people when they visited the office and the thought of being able to offer information
about placements, when someone enquired about volunteering, was really worrying.
Being a persevering sort of person, Kevin stuck at it.
He now has a job he loves in health care - a people centred role that suits him perfectly. He needed a reference from
a past employer and we were able to provide one, because his last paid job was not recent enough.
And the Kevin who didn't like answering the phone? He is now
a volunteer for a well known support help-line!
Having a high-powered job was something that Jennifer really enjoyed.
She appreciated the fact that her people skills and experience in marketing could help a local community organisation.
We were able to put her in contact with a group that was looking for
a committee member who would look at their PR and help raise the profile of the organisation. She is now able to 'put
something back' and enjoy the fact that her success in the business community is enabling this small charity to achieve more.
Several young women were taking a course in hand massage. They wanted
to use their freshly learned skills to help some of our older local residents.
Because we have a well researched data-base, we were able to suggest
a group that were really grateful for such a lovely offer. The women and the recipients of the hand massage were all
delighted that it worked so well. The volunteers made some lovely new friends and the members enjoyed the pampering.
The manager of this group would like similar offers of help because
it worked so well and the volunteers are able to add details of this work to their CV's.
