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Report transcript in: Volunteering in three different roles.
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Volunteering in three different roles.
Please Report the Errrors?
tell me a little bit about your volunteering role,
and
my immediate answer would be which one.
But I know that you are very busy being. You do a lot of volunteering, don't you?
Yeah.
Well, at
the moment, I'm currently doing three different volunteer work roles,
and one of them's only about twice a year, which is the, uh, the funky club nights.
It's a nightclub for people with disabilities,
and I'm one of the people in charge of doing the advertising and,
um, on the compare on the nights.
Fantastic.
Lots of hard work there, I bet.
Yeah,
in the in the lead up to a club night, it can get quite busy. And then it's just a case.
Well, I wouldn't say just the case, but, uh,
after that, it's more
ho hoping that the night goes smoothly and everyone has a good time.
Brilliant.
And what about your other roles?
Um, on Tuesday mornings, I volunteer at a charity shop,
H,
which stands for A
and the
Children's hospice.
I'm I'm usually based on the shop floor, keeping it tidy,
stacking the stacking the shelves,
answering questions from customers when I can,
and if not, then
then pushing them towards someone who might be able to help. I, um
recently been more doing more
more cleaning and stacking the shops been
refurbished and needs needs a bit of attention
to keep it nice and smart,
but yeah. So I've been working there for,
I think, six years this year. Wow.
And I really enjoy it.
And what about with your work for CBS?
Right. Well, I
write articles for the blog,
um, all to do with
volunteering and
different aspects of that. Um,
so I've written articles before about things Like
how,
How,
How
volunteering can challenge stigma
the
way people
might perceive,
perceive, um,
and others. Well,
the UN here, basically, um,
I've, um
my my, my
my latest articles about
like, um,
they, um,
benefits of volunteering.
Um,
I've, um,
written about kind of like how to get into volunteering in the first place. So
kind of all the things that you might need to do when you're looking for
for voluntary work,
things like that.
And then there's the coffee. The online coffee mornings, which is usually when
someone does it. Someone from an organisation does a presentation,
and, uh, about what? What
what they do. What? Their work. What? What? What the um,
the organisation does
and, um,
what they
want
what they want from volunteers. Basically so
volunteers, which they usually are.
They talk a bit about what they'd like people to help with. And, uh,
if,
um,
sometimes people come to
those
online for those to, uh,
because they're looking that they want to find volunteer work.
And
in some ways, it's a bit like matchmaking
in
that
sense.
But
some people, sometimes people come from other organisations as well. And that can
form
network to do to do a bit of a
brilliant
lots of lots of volunteering. You've found
a
real busy bee, don't you?
So how did you start getting into volunteering?
It was some years ago, that's for sure. Um,
I was about to mention, uh from somewhere that called
called volunteers. Plus where I found out a few things about volunteering. But
it was so long ago that I barely
I don't remember much about it.
Except that III I found out about
other companies through other places.
I can I could volunteer at that time like, uh,
there was a
There was There was a company called Youth Action,
which had various projects that people could get involved in volunteering with.
And,
um,
I did some I did at least two
different
different projects with them.
Um,
so I don't know. I guess I just kind of tried out a few things at
the time. I was looking for
a
career in admin.
Um,
so I was trying to, um,
do volunteer work. That would kind of put me towards that.
Um,
yeah.
In the end,
I realised that I'm more of a people person than sitting behind desks doing
part
of the phone kind of person.
Not I'm knocking that at all, but it's not really what I'd want to be doing.
That's really interesting. So doing that volunteering kind of,
you know, maybe you decide what path you wanted to be on
and what you wanted to do.
Yeah,
I. I enjoy what I do so much that
I, uh I wouldn't want to give anything up.
And what do you enjoy most about volunteering?
Yeah, I like talking to people. I like helping people.
Um, I like, um,
being helpful
and things that are
doing things that are constructive and
positive. and productive.
Brilliant. I
think that's probably it in a
That's probably it. In a nutshell. I just
enjoy doing it. And
and I like,
um,
being able to kind of
in one way or another make a difference to
whether it's somebody's experience of shopping or
just generally in life. You know,
like, for
example, the funky club is a great way to meet people.
So
it gives people who come to the club nights a chance to
make new friends or just enjoy a night night out dancing.
Yeah, it sounds like you're volunteering is amazing and
you're really helping people, and it must be so rewarding for you.
II. I like the way it's more flexible than paid work.
Obviously, you have to still have to
show up on time, and
you know all the sorts of stuff that you do
with with other work. But
in some ways it's more flexible.
So I say, I don't know if you need.
If if if I need any time, night time off, for whatever reason,
I only have to ask, and usually that would be
fine. There's not. There's not like a
how
procedure that you have to go down, which you might do with other
not as
not as formal.
Yeah,
people can work around you.
And what you what time you want to give, so Yeah, much more flexible. You're right.
Have you got a particular highlight?
Anything? Any particular memory or highlight of your volunteering work
in the past, and hopefully we'll do again.
I've been helping out with Thai chi glasses. Oh, wow.
Fantastic.
Yeah, I've, uh, basically like, um
uh, what's the word? Demonstrating
some of the exercises and stuff.
So, um
yes. So my
the teacher does most of that, but being the being the
But when me, as the class assistant would sometimes
demonstrate the things with her or just be in in the
group with the others and show just show how it's done.
Really
amazing. That's brilliant. So, yeah, again, really varied. All your roles are,
you know, completely different, aren't they? Fantastic.
Um,
so what would you say to someone who didn't
wasn't sure about whether to volunteer or not,
Def Definitely. Go. Definitely. Go for it.
E. Even though you you don't get paid for volunteering, you get rewarded with, um,
usually a usually a thank you
so sometimes, uh,
satisfaction.
Knowing that you've helped you've done something
for somebody else can feel rewarding.
It can really build Build your self confidence.
Absolutely.
Well,
thank you so much for taking time to talk to me today.
I mean, you just sound so busy and so positive about Vol.
Volunteering
so
that you you know, you've been fantastic for answering my questions.
Thanks very much.
Pleasure.
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