Happy Volunteers Week!

What are the benefits of volunteering and what impact can volunteers make? Project Management Officer Emma Cooney shares some volunteering stories to celebrate Volunteers Week, including from our volunteer befrienders and drivers, and looks at why people might volunteer.

MARY was at a loose end and wanted to feel useful. She was a volunteer dog walker, but the tiny creature had developed dementia, and was stopping and staring for long periods of time in the same spot. A second volunteering role had ground to a halt during lockdown, and keen to help during the pandemic, Mary approached a foodbank but heard nothing back.

I work for Kent Coast Volunteering and match people interested in volunteering with volunteering opportunities, and the dog owning friend of Mary left a message on our answerphone asking us to give Mary a call.

Mary and I met, and her face lit up when she talked about books, so I called a charity bookshop and the manager invited her for interview. Mary started volunteering the next day. She was delighted.

People choose to volunteer for all different reasons – feeling useful and giving something back are two of them. It might be a career change, to gain new skills, to meet people or get involved in the community. Regardless of the reasons, the impact volunteers make to people and charities should not be underestimated.

At Kent Coast Volunteering (KCV) we get to hear first-hand the difference volunteers make. As well as matching people to roles with other charities, we run a Good Neighbours Service (GNS), where volunteers visit isolated people aged over 65, and a Community Transport Service, taking people mainly to essential medical appointments.

Our GNS volunteers clock up an incredible 8,781 hours of volunteering a year and receive some lovely comments. Watch our 20 second video by clicking this link.

And equally there are benefits for the volunteer. Christine Williams (pictured above), now a member of staff with the Good Neighbours Service, talks about what volunteering meant for her:

It may not have changed my life, but it certainly enhanced my life – seeing how much we could do for older people and to see their faces smile when you leave. When you enter the house, they are crying or really low. To see them happy and have a befriender that lasts for years – it’s worth everything.
Christine

Watch a 47 second video of Christine by clicking this link.

Recently I was at an event promoting volunteering and bumped into Ken, who has been a volunteer driver with KCV for seven years – he reminded me I had recruited him, and it was such a pleasure to see the results of a match. There he was walking around the event with transport member Pat. If it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t have been able to enjoy a local community event. She even won at the KCV tombola and was delighted!

Peter (pictured above) is also a volunteer driver and has shared why he joined the service and what it means to him.

After I retired early, seven years ago, I decided to look for a ‘hobby job’ to fill my time. For the next three years I was a part-time driver, first for a supermarket then for a dental laboratory. The work wasn’t particularly challenging or satisfying and I was on a minimum wage.

I decided there must be a better way to occupy myself. From what I’d read about volunteering it seemed to be spiritually more rewarding – and it proved to be the case.

I’ve done it for three years now and have made several good friends among my clients. It gives me enormous satisfaction to know I have helped someone to see their doctor or attend hospital when they might have otherwise struggled or even missed their appointment.

Peter

Benefits of volunteering are many, but include increased confidence and boosted happiness, health and wellbeing.

I am currently volunteering as a mentor and at a youth club for Young Lives Foundation, and also in a school as a reading helper for two children with charity Coram Beanstalk. I can report that volunteering is one of the highlights of my week.

I get to do things I wouldn’t normally do and see a bit of the world from a young person’s perspective. I generally find my volunteering a joyful experience and I am glad to help in any way I can. I can only hope that they get as much from it as I do.

Do you live in Thanet, Folkestone or Dover? Are you interested in volunteering? Contact the team at volunteering@kcv.org.uk or search opportunities HERE

Live in Kent? Contact Kent Volunteer Partnership