Tag: community

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Volunteering through adversity: Ruth’s story

Ruth has dipped in and out of volunteering since her late teens, but it wasn’t until 2021 that it started featuring so prominently in her life. Suffering from mental health issues, Ruth had to resign from her full-time job as a hospital administrator back in 2016. The following years were marked by a series of difficulties, including temporary accommodation away from her community and intensive therapy. Ruth managed to continue therapy throughout the pandemic, which she says she’s incredibly grateful for. Ultimately, she would get referred to Volunteering Kingston and start her latest volunteering journey.

Ruth started volunteering with Kingston Snowflakes in February 2021 and has received a different task to execute every week. The group’s ultimate goal is to “make the world a better place” with every small action, and for Ruth it was an opportunity to once again start contributing towards society in a small but accessible way. “I was really, really overjoyed I was able to do something,” she explains. “Especially when things were at their worst this January with lockdown and the new (coronavirus) variants. Being able to make the tiniest bit of a difference and reach out to someone gave me enrichment. Like you’ve got meaning and purpose to actually make a difference.”

Her goal had been to start volunteering with a regular role when her therapy ended back in April, but the experience with Kingston Snowflakes was so rewarding that Ruth soon took up a second volunteer role at the Chatty Café Scheme, where, once a week, she speaks to a vulnerable adult who is experiencing loneliness and self-isolation. She didn’t stop there though. She also started volunteering at the Hogsmill Community Garden and at the Scope charity shop in Tolworth. Very quickly, Ruth was engaging with four different volunteering roles.

“My priorities in life have become a lot more black and white,” she says. “I’m very clear on what’s important to me. I’m not going to leave it behind this time. My time is being filled with meaningful things. I’m still unwell, but I’m starting to stretch my muscles again, getting myself back into a routine – a meaningful routine.”

Overall, she struggles to characterise the experience of volunteering, saying “a positive impact” is possibly not sufficiently emphatic to convey just how much it has transformed her life. “That’s possibly the understatement of the century!” she says with a laugh.

But when it comes to volunteering as a general concept, she’s resolute: “People don’t understand that a lot of jobs are completely voluntary. If people didn’t do them, they just wouldn’t get done. And when you find yourself touched by adversity, you start to see that most of the help you get is from charities and nowhere else. Basically, a lot of the good stuff that happens in this world happens because of volunteers.”

Do you feel inspired by this story? Would you like to volunteer and help make a difference in your community? Check out the current openings here.

 

This article was written by Dany Rubbo, Comms Volunteer at Volunteering Kingston.
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Kingston’s community response to COVID-19

We have all been affected by COVID-19 in some way.   With all the stress, isolation and tragic losses of this time, one thing which has been heart-warming has been the way that the community has rallied round to support the more vulnerable members of society. Whether it’s people starting up local informal groups to hundreds of thousands signing to be an NHS Responder, Kingston volunteers have gone the extra mile.

During a time of crisis, people come together, and close to home in Kingston, we have seen how very quickly groups of individuals organised themselves to help others. This has renewed our appreciation for the people who give up their time to help others.

Are you keen to join the local pool of COVID-19 responders? We need your support now and as we transition volunteering needs for the long term. Here are some of the ways to get involved in your community:

A creative synergy

Specialist groups, such as Sewing for Kingston, have been making essential kits for key workers to help make wearing PPE more bearable. They are also making pairs of hearts for patients in hospitals who cannot have visitors but can feel connected, in spirit, with their family members.

Feeding people in need

Voices of Hope have supported thousands of hungry people during this period. They usually run projects to reduce social isolation through choirs for people dealing with trauma. With the support volunteers, they rapidly transformed into a food hub, preparing over 10,000 hot meals for those unable to do so. They have also provided a delivery service to as many of the 18,000 people aged over 70 in Kingston as possible.

Kingston Foodbank has been feeding people during this period and is always looking for new donations.

Helping our newest Kingston residents

Growababy Kingston has been delivering baby formula, nappies and baby food for those in need during this challenging time.

Kingston Stronger Together

In Kingston, Over 1,200 volunteers have signed up and they are supporting with food deliveries, driving and befriending people by phone.

This astonishing volunteering mobilisation, informal and formal, shows that volunteers are a key part of the response to the crisis.

As we move slowly from the current period into the recovery period, we can take comfort in the instinct that people give their time to help others. We will be telling volunteer stories throughout Volunteers’ Week. Join us in saying thanks to these heroes this Volunteers’ Week, tell us about a volunteer that has made a difference in your community, either an individual, a volunteer organisation or a local neighbourhood initiative. Tag us in your thank you messages so we can share it with others and use the hashtag #TimeToSayThanks.

This post is part of our Volunteers’ Week blog series.

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Trustees’ Week 2019

 

What are Trustees?

Trustees, sometimes knows as directors, board members, governors or committee members, are volunteers who make decisions about how a charity organisation should run; ensuring that it is using it’s resources appropriately and working in the best interest of the beneficiaries and wider community. This means that the skills and experience that Trustees bring to charities are vital to the way that the organisations develop and evolve, making diversity in Trustees very important.

Research published in 2019 shows that diversity in Trustees in the UK could be much improved:

Only 2% of Trustees are young people
92% of Trustees are white
64% are male
​The average age of a Trustee in England and Wales is 59 years-old

These shocking statistics show that the people influencing the decisions made by charities are not reflective of the population and that equal representation in Trustees should be high on the agenda.

Who can become a Trustee?

Anyone who aspires to help a charity organisation achieve their goals and aims can become a Trustee and a huge range of skills could be valuable to the charity. For example, your social media skills could help a charity reach out to the public; or your ethnicity, religion or age may be able to bring a different viewpoint to represent a certain part of the community and ensure equal representation.
Volunteering as a Trustee is a rewarding role but one that most volunteers don’t tend to consider. Each organisation will expect its trustees to spend a different amount of time on the role but most Trustee roles involve meeting the rest of the board four to eight times a year and most trusteeship fits conveniently around work, home and other commitments.

Make a Patchwork – Micro-Volunteering

National Volunteers’ Week is a chance to celebrate all things volunteering. Volunteers play a massive part in the UK economy and we’d like to celebrate this with our very own Volunteering Kingston micro-volunteering community activity.

To show what can be achieved through volunteering we’ll be making a giant community patchwork but we need your help to create it!

Pop along to lend a hand, meet other volunteers in Kingston-upon-Thames and generally have a great time whilst giving back to the community. No quilt making experience necessary!

The quilt will be donated to a local charity for the benefit of their community.

 

We’ll be on Clarence Street in Kingston Town Centre from 12pm – 3pm. We look forward to seeing you there!