Chris's Volunteer Story

really pleased to be talking to Chris, who is one of our volunteers. Epilepsy action. He has been volunteering with us for around 15 months, and he's a befriender. And he's recently just started, um, to take on more responsibilities and become a virtual talk and support group leader

So Hi, Chris. Hi. Just wondered if you wanted to tell us

Tell me a little bit more about what you actually do in your volunteering roles. Uh, in my volunteer roles, I do be So I support other people with S, and it's really, uh, uh about listening and being able to help raise their confidence and things such as being able to build a good rapport and maybe increase their independence so they can go out and about and meet other people as well. So that's what we do is a befriending service

An idea? So how do you do that? Do you? Is it a telephone call or it's It's either telephone or they can. They can choose to do it through zoom. So either of those ways we do it

Yeah, so that's just kind of like having a chat with them and just Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah. No, that that's great. And it Well, you just started doing your virtual, um, talk and support group leader

So that's, um what? W When you actually start doing that role, what will you be doing in that role? I'll be, um, helping at the start after I've finished training to host and co-host uh, meetings virtually with other people and it, uh, with epilepsy. And it's things like virtual group work so they can talk about their own epilepsy or other interests and stuff. And it's more peer support work as well

OK, that's great. So it's just it's like kind of like befriending but more in like a group context. So you're working with more people rather than 1 to 1

That's that's brilliant. So obviously you really like supporting people. That's what I'm getting from that

So what kind of difference? Um, do you think your volunteering roles make um, to people? It makes me feel a lot happier and better about myself, and I find it rewarding to be able to support others and build my confidence and also build their confidence. And it keeps me busy and, uh, gain new skills as well. And training and supervision

Uh, for example, when I've, uh, been befriending and got really good feedback from clients. It's been really good to hear the feedback saying that they've enjoyed working with me and they feel better about themselves. Yeah, that's Yeah, that's amazing

Yeah, I know. You get very good feedback, so it's great to hear that. You Yeah, that you're getting that feedback you're hearing about it, So that's brilliant

And do you think volunteering in general has an impact? What kind of impact do you think volunteering in general has on either yourself or people in general? Well, for example, for people I've worked with and supported, they've been able to feel better about themselves, and they've volunteered. They feel they're able to get out about more and meet new people. So, yeah, it's had that kind of impact on them when I've helped them to get into doing more, volunteering for themselves in the community, like things like cleaning a local beach shop or working in a charity shop and all different areas of volunteering that they've chosen to go into or when they've volunteered for epilepsy action as well

Great. Some befriending themselves. All right, so some of the people

So some of the people you have, um, volunteered with they've actually gone on to become volunteers themselves. Is that right? OK, so that's having, like, a massive impact, then, isn't it? It's kind of you're volunteering, but then they're becoming involved in volunteering as well. So that's Yeah, that's that's amazing

That's great. Brilliant. Ok, well, um, that's that's it's been really great talking to you, Chris

Um, to hear about how, um, you know the difference. Um, volunteering is made to you and to the people that you work with. Um, so that's that's great

Really good to talk to you. Um, thank you very much. Thank you

Bye bye..