Save The World Club’s mission is to encourage positive environmental action and self-empowerment. We achieve this through our three main pillars: Food re-distribution, circulation of second-hand goods, and the mosaic murals all over the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames that we’ve made in conjunction with local artists and the community.
The charity was originally founded in 1986 by Des Kay, who is still a Director/Trustee/Volunteer to this day. We are based in a warehouse we like to call “The Circulatory”, a building whose purpose is to promote a more circular economy to prevent wasting resources and improve the environmental impact of the things we use at the end of their lives.
Why are Trustee Volunteers valuable to your organisation?
Trustee Volunteers are important to our organisation as they play an important role in both, deciding what direction would be most suitable to achieve the charity’s goals, and also as direct leadership on the ground for those who want to help but need to know where to start.
What does the Trustee Volunteer role involve?
The role of Trustee Volunteer with Save The World Club is a varied one.
At its least involved, it could be as little as helping decide high-level planning and direction for the charity and taking part in board meetings once every two weeks for around 2 hours. On the more involved side, it could be to support the direction and needs of one of our teams from finance, HR, administration, food provision & collection, or even outreach. The more involved could be as much as 6-8 hours a day 5-6 days a week.
Training for a Trustee Volunteer is as diverse as the role you chose to take charge of. Taking into account where you’d like to be, and what training that entails, is just as much a part of being a Trustee/Director/Volunteer with us as the training we think you need to do your role well.
What skills or experience are needed to become a Trustee Volunteer?
Patience, an open mind, the ability to step back where needed, and the confidence to step up when something is wrong. While all of these are desirable, a mindset open to learning/developing active and caring leadership to build a better space for everyone is a must.
Do you have any Trustee Volunteer role vacancies currently?
Yes!
We are open to interest in almost any area for our Director/Trustee volunteer opportunities, with a particular interest in becoming a treasurer. While we do have a fundraiser and grants Director/Trustee Volunteer, the applications leave them little time to compile accounts for our financial reflection.
Contact Tariq Shabbeer (Director/Trustee – Secretary General) [Tariq@savetheworldclub.org] or Hugh Williams (CEO) [Hugh@savetheworldclub.org].
What advice would you give to someone considering volunteering for your organisation?
Our roles are very flexible and so long as you have a good mindset, the roles can be both incredibly rewarding and equip you with valuable skills. You get to support vulnerable and local people while also saving both your wallet and the planet together with a fantastic team.
And so 2021 National Volunteers Week is coming to an end. Like the 2020 version, it has had to accommodate the realities of an ongoing pandemic, although that doesn’t seem to have prevented an impressive contribution via social media and digital channels. The 2021 version has had more time to adapt to the limitations of social distancing thus allowing some socially distanced events to also take place.
Here at Groundwork London we have focused all of our National Volunteers’ Week energies on trying to show the incredible level of gratitude to volunteers for the past year. Of course, we could never quite achieve that because the level of gratitude required far surpasses anything attainables immense. June 2020-June 2021 is forever to be known in history as the time of the Covid-19 Pandemic and what has been clear to everyone is how much volunteers have been central to the countries’ Covid Response, both at national and local levels.
Volunteer after volunteer, community group after community group, mutual aid organisation after local sewing club have all stepped up to support people in their time of need. The events across social media and the digital presence throughout this week has reflected the sheer scale of the contribution that volunteering has made to mitigating suffering and pathing the way to return to some form of normality in time. However it will be, new normality will be very different as the immeasurable contribution of volunteers can no longer be taken for granted. Their voices, and the voices of those who support them, have been heard loud and clear this week, and long may it continue.
Volunteering Kingston’s Volunteers’ Week contribution saw us hold pop-up events to say thank you to volunteers. We met with volunteers from Voices of Hope, who transformed from a choir into a food hub and who are now using their skills to support people and communities recovering from the effects of Covid. Volunteers were presented with certificates and had a lovely time in the sun reflecting on the last year and a half. We also visited the New Malden vaccination centre where we were even joined by actor, Peter Egan, who helped us present volunteers giving out certificates and saying thank you to volunteers old and new who have been so essential to our gradual return to normal.
At Volunteering Barnet we have also had a lovely Volunteers Week! On Tuesday & Thursday, VB team members Alice, Rachel and Alice G. visited Gateway Pharmacy, Mango Pharmacy, McParland pharmacy and Barnet Food Hub. It was great for the team to have the opportunity to speak to volunteers and hear how much they have enjoyed giving their time. Alice presented all of them with certificates of thanks and heard from the staff how vital their support has been.
At the Barnet Food Hub, Alice and Rachel had a taste of the hard work volunteers undertake regularly when an unexpectedly large delivery meant they were sorting and packing donated food alongside manager Ollie and the volunteers there! Ollie spoke to us about the impact of the Volunteers and how they have been the driving force of progression behind the project!
Throughout the week, Volunteers’ have shared their stories and experience alongside words of thanks from local organisations, showing just how volunteering has helped careers, mental health, community and the environment. Each volunteer received a thank you card to start the week off and the digital party continued through the week on their social channels.
The VB team shared content from across the borough and their partners as part of this years’ Volunteers’ Week special digital campaign, #atimetosaythanks, celebrating Barnet’s thriving volunteer sector and showing gratitude to the thousands of volunteers that have given their time across the borough!
“Overall, this Volunteers’ Week has been a huge success. We have loved being able to see the amazing levels of commitment and passion our volunteers have delivered across the borough. Thank you to everyone involved, including all our staff at Volunteering Barnet. Happy volunteers week 2021!” – Alice, Volunteering Barnet, Volunteering Brokerage Coordinator
Elsewhere, the Legends of the Forest volunteers in Waltham Forest were treated to surprise visits by the Legends staff team at both the Vaccine Site at Chingford Leisure Centre and the Telephone Check in and Chat call centre at the Magistrates. After many months, our Legends staff finally met our volunteers in person and they could properly congratulate the Legends for their efforts.
850 thank you cards were also sent out accompanied by ‘I am a legend of the Forest’ enamel badges to all those who have volunteered since March 2020 to wear with pride!
Meanwhile, with events ground to a halt since the pandemic began in 2020, the Team Westminster Ambassadors haven’t had the involvement across London events that they are so committed to supporting every year. But they have been very busy delivering their Mentors initiative which started to help alleviate stress and isolation between the volunteers during lockdowns. This Volunteers Week, Team Westminster have been looking back at the virtual activity on Zoom which help keep them connected and maintain their unique Ambassador spirit. To say a big thank you to each of them for their ongoing commitment, Team Wesminsters’ Sophie and Meryl delivered a virtual tea party (Zoom capture below) and presented each volunteer with special thank you card filled with goodies!
Team Westminster Active hasn’t had the chance to be as ‘active’ in the last year either with events cancelled and restrictions still in place for some, however, their continued commitment and support across the community and its’ organisations has not gone unnoticed. Enjoy the Volunteers’ Week video that Westminster Actives’ Anna and the team created below to say a big thank you alongside all the organisations across the borough! Well done Team Westminster!
The new-found understanding in the scale of volunteer commitment over the last 12 months has provided new learnings for everyone across the UK. Volunteers across the country have impacted us all in some form; delivering your food or medicines, supporting your neighbours, your medical professionals, pharmacies, befriending those who were isolated, across the overall Covid-19 relief, and that’s all before the ongoing need for support across the many many charities and foundations who rely on volunteers to keep going day-to-day. What has accompanied that commitment is a bond between volunteer and those receiving assistance like we’ve never seen witnessed as such a public level before. The compassion displayed by those in a position to assist despite their own personal circumstances and challenges presents us all with an inspiring example to follow.
The ongoing challenges of Covid-19 have changed not only the health landscape but also the national psyche, rendering irrelevant forever the stereotypes of what constitutes a volunteer, a professional, or those in need. Class, age, race, gender; whilst all are still important to us in defining and embracing our diversity, volunteers across the board have shown that simple humanity comes to aid when needed, whatever the circumstances that endure.
National Volunteers Week has become more relevant with each passing year, especially when considering the barriers redefined by the pandemic. However, like the way we have overcome the challenges of supporting our communities in both 2020 and 2021, we can, with even more belief in our abilities than ever, make every National Volunteers Week a resounding success!
From Groundwork Londons’ Volunteering Kingston, Volunteering Barnet, Waltham Forest’s Legends’ of the Forest and Team Westminster!
Most regular volunteering activities will have stopped during this time as a result of social distancing precautions. Please check in with your volunteers regularly, especially if they are living alone.
If you are able to include volunteers in some way, please ask them if they’d like to be involved. Having something to do and feeling useful is really important for good mental health, especially during this period of social distancing.
Here are some ideas of things they can do to stay involved:
Proof reading of documents or other admin tasks that don’t involve sensitive data.
Undertake free online training for something that will be useful when current precautions end.
Supporting with social media.
Researching advice, resources and positive things to share with service users during the current crisis.
Film themselves providing training for a skill – for example cooking, home-based exercise or basic DIY. This could be shared with service users if appropriate.
Film themselves talking about the value of being a volunteer and ask others who can volunteer to give their time.
Volunteer by video call.
If your volunteers don’t use the internet or are not tech-savvy, they could:
Write about being a volunteer and encouraging others to volunteer.
Come up with ideas for future fundraisers, trips, activities etc for when the current precautions end.
Write thank you cards (obeying hygiene precautions) for funders or people volunteering now.
If they have been volunteering for a long time, they could write a history of the organisation and how things have changed. This could be posted on the website.
Become a penfriend or phone buddy.
Volunteering with other organisations:
If you can’t involve them and they want to volunteer, advise them to contact Volunteering Kingston and we will try and find the right role for them.
Let us know if you have any other ideas or would like any support.
Come and meet the team at our Volunteering Kingston drop-in session for Volunteers at Kingston Library. Find out what support is available to you and how we can meet your volunteering needs. We offer advice and support on searching and applying for volunteer roles, preparing for interviews and any other volunteer related questions you have.
Come and meet the team at our Volunteering Kingston drop-in session for Volunteers at Kingston Library. Find out what support is available to you and how we can meet your volunteering needs. We offer advice and support on searching and applying for volunteer roles, preparing for interviews and any other volunteer related questions you have.
Come and meet the team at our Volunteering Kingston drop-in session for Volunteers at Kingston Library. Find out what support is available to you and how we can meet your volunteering needs. We offer advice and support on searching and applying for volunteer roles, preparing for interviews and any other volunteer related questions you have.
Come and meet the team at our drop-in session for Volunteers at Hook and Chessington Library. Find out what support is available to you and how we can meet your volunteering needs. We offer advice and support on searching and applying for roles, preparing for interviews and any other volunteering related questions.
Come and meet the team at our Volunteering Kingston drop-in session for Volunteers at Kingston Library. Find out what support is available to you and how we can meet your volunteering needs. We offer advice and support on searching and applying for volunteer roles, preparing for interviews and any other volunteer related questions you have.
Come and meet the team at our Volunteering Kingston drop-in session for Volunteers at Hook and Chessington Library. Find out what support is available to you and how we can meet your volunteering needs. Get advice and support on searching for roles, applying and preparing for interviews.
Come and meet the team at our first Volunteering Kingston drop-in session for Volunteers at Kingston Library. Find out what support is available to you and how we can meet your volunteering needs. Get advice and support on searching for roles, applying and preparing for interviews.
850 thank you cards were also sent out accompanied by ‘I am a legend of the Forest’ enamel badges to all those who have volunteered since March 2020 to wear with pride!
