VCSE Power showcase - Day 4: Volunteering (a win-win)

Bradford District and Craven

Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice

Blog: I always come away feeling good about myself

This blog was originally posted at https://www.sueryder.org/blog/i-always-come-away-feeling-good-about-myself

Paul from Leeds has been a volunteer at Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice near Keighley for nine years. Here, he talks about his personal reason for supporting the hospice, as well as the many benefits of becoming a volunteer.

Paul is part of a small volunteering team who look after the hospice grounds

An emotional attachment

“My mum was admitted into Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice about 10 years ago and unfortunately she was terminal and passed away but the staff, the facilities and the support were just tremendous.

“The dignity and quality of life that they gave her until the end always stuck with me. So I have an emotional attachment and I always felt like I owed this place something.”

Giving something back

Paul was initially a fundraising volunteer, but the Coronavirus outbreak in 2020 meant that he was unable to carry out his usual activities such as helping out at fundraising events.

“When the government restrictions started to ease I got an email from the hospice asking for some help with grounds maintenance and I thought it was a great opportunity to get back into giving something back.

“You are made to feel so welcome”

“Maintenance volunteering is a very different experience to fundraising as you have more of a set pattern and you know what you’re doing each week.  With events you have to think on your feet and you could be doing anything from working behind the bar to giving out water to participants during a cycling event.

“Because I am a keen gardener myself, it’s familiar territory so I feel I can add some skills. I'm left alone to get on with my tasks, but I also like that there’s a team of volunteer gardeners so I can also talk to people and get to know them a bit better. You listen to their stories and personal reasons for being here and you are made to feel so welcome.

“Any spare time that people can give through volunteering is so greatly received because it all adds value”

“Most people get a spark from a nice garden or wildlife, so we try and add a little bit of colour to the grounds and encourage birds into the garden for patients to spot when they look out of the window.

“Family, friends and other visitors might also want to walk around the garden and reflect, and if you can just make that just a little bit better for someone, then that's an immense feeling.

“Any spare time that people can give through volunteering is so greatly received because it all adds value and helps keep this place going. Everyone is busy in their own lives, but when I’ve given patients and families my time and energy I always come away feeling good about myself because I've done something that has potentially made someone's life just a little bit better. Even if it's just a fleeting moment, that’s enough for me.”

Leeds

Touchstone support

Leeds Mental Wellbeing Volunteer:

TCV Hollybush 

Every year, we celebrate all of our volunteers with the TCV Hero Awards and turn the spotlight on a chosen few who are nominated as winners. We love to use this opportunity to showcase what TCV volunteers achieve: for their own health and wellbeing or learning and skills, and for their community and the environment.

Community Champions / Covid Grants

Community Champions are people, or organisations, who care about keeping their community informed about how to stay healthy and well.

There are 3 Community Champions roles:

Community Champion – sharing key public health messages such as vaccinations, COVID with family and friends. This can be done remotely from home.

Community Engagement Champion – sharing key public health messages with the local community as a volunteer on location responding to a rapid or urgent need to support a local priority area. There will be different locations and call outs for volunteers at short notice.

Community Champion Organisation – organisations pledge to support Community Champion health and wellbeing priority messaging. They support staff to sign up and volunteer as Community Champions to support the sharing of health messages, including around COVID-19, and vaccination uptake amongst staff, service users and communities. Organisation in Leeds that might suit this role are; third sector organisations, local businesses, educational establishments including grass root groups, constituted groups and residents’ associations.

Read more about the community champions (pdf)

Barca Leeds

Volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic: Mary's Story

Set up at the end of March 2020, Barca-Leedsrecently set up the Bramley and Stanningley COVID-19 Hub, helping residents in our community with prescription pick ups, food parcel deliveries and more. One of our volunteers, Mary, shares her MyBarca Story during these unprecedented times.

Read Mary's story (pdf)