Health and social care is one of the largest volunteering sectors in the UK. This includes organisations like the NHS and charities which improve the wellbeing of people of all ages. So what do helpers actually get involved with? The opportunities are more diverse than we imagined as our bloggers reveal.

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Tuesday May 11, 2010

I dont believe in Charity. I believe in Solidarity

Thursday was a significant day for a lot of you because it was the day you got to go and vote. I did the same but that’s not the only thing I did on Thursday. I was volunteering again (although after I proudly went into the voting booth and crossed my piece of paper and whispered thank you to Emmeline Pankhurst!)

Homeless people can vote, the parliament Uk website says that a homeless person can vote if they register using a declaration of local connection. So, how do you go about doing that? Well you can visit your local Electoral Registration Office and fill out a form saying where you would live if you were not homeless and where you have lived in the past plus you have to detail where you spend most of your time, in a day shelter, on the streets etc.. This helped clear up in my mind the common misconception that homeless people cant vote.

They don’t make it easy though and I wasn’t surprised that the majority of the guests at the shelter hadn’t voted. (Well, out of all the guests I spoke to).

So that’s what I learnt on Thursday.  Pretty interesting stuff.  A friend of mine, Clive, who is homeless and spends a lot of time in Old Street station with his dog Bilo didn’t know he could do that. So, just goes to show how publically available that information is.

Anyway, back to volunteering. The atmosphere was that of Christmas Eve in the kitchen. The other volunteers and I voicing our concerns over a Conservative government and had practically convinced each other that no one in their right mind would vote conservative and we were full of anticipation for would happen that night and I think it had a good effect on dinner. It was delicious! We even had apple crumble and ice cream for afters. The funniest part of the night was looking over at the TV area where about 15  men were sitting watching Grease the musical. 15 men. Sitting. With blank faces and not a smile between them. But not one of them changed the channel. It was incredible and im sure they left it on because they were enjoying Sonia, another volunteer, sing out of tune and dance to the songs! J

I also spent a long time talking to one of the guests who bought in his beautiful dog Tara. It was really interesting listening to his story and I went home feeling lucky. Lucky my life so far has been relatively easy and that I haven’t had to face the challenges other people have had to. But I also went home feeling positive. He’s a positive person and his energy is catching.

As Eduardo Galeano once said: "I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people."

I found my Thursday incredibly educational, and yet another thing I have learned thanks to giving up my time to volunteer.

Posted by Jenni ( 9:45 AM )
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Tuesday May 04, 2010

Bokbokbok

This Thursday at the shelter seemed fraught and was fast paced. Im not sure if it was the storm brewing outside that had an affect on everyone feeling hot and bothered and edgy but everyone seemed a little fed up. When I mean everyone, I mean the kitchen volunteers in particular. It didn’t help that we were deboning and skinning chicken for an hour and a half . Hey! Who says volunteering isn’t glamorous?!

But were not phased easily and it was wonderful seeing how some people cope under pressure. Tammy made me laugh and joked about the whole chicken disaster and Ed, a new volunteer took everything in his stride. I spoke with a volunteer who I hadn’t had a chance to speak to before and I learnt a lot about her. By the end of the evening we had the giggles and the stress of it seemed to have disappeared.

It reminded me of boring maths classes at school when I would sit in the back row and giggle about the ridiculousness of maths equations with one friend or another.

But what do you do when you have stress in the “volunteering place”? Well, we did what we would do in any work place. We approached the Volunteer Manager, Louis. Louis is great, he seems to have a whole heap of energy and it really rubs off on the people around him. He motivated us and made us feel good about what we were doing. He encouraged us to continue. As a volunteer manager in my paid non-volunteering job I know I can learn a lot from Louis.

So, volunteering doesn’t just allow me to say “I can help cook meals for a lot of people” on my CV it also allows me to say I can cope under pressure, I can work with people from different backgrounds and who work differently to me and it means I can say I understand how volunteers feel and the importance of excellent volunteer management, because I have first hand experience!

So what was for dinner? well it was surprisingly delicious chicken and mushroom sauce and rice. We even got ice cream for afters, although I may never want to see another chicken. Ever.

Posted by Jenni ( 3:57 PM )
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