All kinds of volunteering can make a difference to society, but opportunities like these have community enrichment at their core.

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Wednesday May 04, 2011

More from the gas yard

Changes

I started with Chest Heart & Stroke Northern Ireland but I only actually did one day due to personal circumstances and it being too far away from where I was staying while my house was being put back together (it was flooded)  I will be starting there again doing admin now at the beginning of May so hopefully it will go better the second time round.

What I did manage to keep going most days was volunteering at the Gas Yard.

Due to all the bad weather we had 'Operation Snowball' where gas yard staff and volunteers all took a hand in helping those who couldn't get out and about due to bad weather by either bringing them meals or taking them shopping or bringing shopping to them; even just befriending people who couldn't get out, which worked so well and seemed to such a need in the bad weather that it will probably be in place for next winter too.

Training

To help me with my volunteering and to expand and my learning during February and March I completed an A Level or FETAC Level 5. (If you're from Republic of Ireland) in Community Leadership. For this we had to keep journals on what we were doing every week as well as plan and run an event; this helped me so much as it got me more involved and improved my confidence as well as meeting people my own age from both sides of the border.  I didn't realize how much it was going to help me. It led onto more training which I'm in middle of with people of my own age group too which is always good.  Training I'm doing now is all about Campaign & Lobbying which I recently started although could be tougher than I thought; as I have to do a campaign about the best way of learning - I'm sure it will come together.  I'm also doing 'RAPP' which is Reconciliation And Peace Programme again is worth an A Level or FETAC Level 5 which  I just started and it's so far so good; the first  weekend was about team building and getting to know each other. We also talked about what we know about conflict and different issues - local, national and worldwide.  So really I should probably be watching the news right now.

Looking back to St Patrick's Day, the Gas Yard had a Family Fun Day which was great and I used it as my project for my Community Leadership course.  To do this I was part of planning and gathering volunteers for the day; on the day I was on the door collecting entrance fees and telling people what was happening during the fun day. It was a busy time and everyone got Irish Stew which was lovely. On Good Friday we had an Easter Family Fun Day with lots to entertain from Face painting to Easter Bonnet making to Sports  Day and the weather was good which was handy as I was sat outside again at the entrance doing the same job as I'd been doing for St Patrick's Day - the only difference was it was very warm, and windy which is not good when sheets of paper decide to take flight!

I'm really busy now and I believe my volunteering has kept me going through a tough time even though some of it had to be put on hold for a while and it has led me as usual into things I wouldn't of dreamed of doing.  Why not give it a try?

Posted by Moira ( 9:37 AM )
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