Volunteering... help restore my faith!

[Arlanymor]

Off the back of a different thread where someone was whinging about being well-off but not AS well-off as others...

Can you tell me your lovely volunteering stories please? Firstly so I can tell you how marvellous you are, because volunteers make the world go around, and secondly because I think there are so many people who do FA in terms of giving back and maybe we can encourage a few more people to get involved?

My story - I work for a charity and speak to volunteers daily - in fact one lady yesterday brought me to (good) tears talking about her experience of joining her group post-COVID. Outside of work, I am a trustee of a local charity and give about 8 hours a week to the cause. I have made new friends, done new things I would have never done before through my volunteering, and made a little bit of a difference in my corner of the world. I am nowhere near the level of some uber volunteers, not remotely, but I do my small part to help.

I help in a hospice inpatient unit and, perhaps surprisingly for some, it's a really lovely place to be usually. Great people and a privilege to give a little help and support during their most challenging of times.
I also volunteer within the criminal justice system. More challenging, sometimes rewarding, definitely needed.

I used to be a Homestart volunteer and on the school PTA. Currently am on the fundraising committee for DD's dance school, am a volunteer chaperone and also help run a support group for parents of children who have the same disability as DS.

For the last 2 years I’ve volunteered in RSPCA shop of the local branch and I love it. I do 8 hours per week.
I do it to give something back as I adopted my cat from them, and saw 1st hand the fabulous work they do.

I volunteer at a Repair Cafe, it's as good for the menders as it is for the customers (or at least for me). Have met lots of people with interesting backgrounds and skills, plus loads of locals through mending their stuff. Would recommend to anyone.
I also walk a dog once a week through Cinnamon Trust, can't have one of my own so that's rather exciting imho!

I help with collecting funds for the Royal British Legion and the RNLI. I also help out at our local heritage railway. This year I joined the team who pick up toads, frogs and newts from the roads during breeding season and take them down to the ponds. I love volunteering and have met some lovely people doing it.

Nope. It’s about knowing your worth. Want my time and my skills? Pay me.

I’ve done volunteering but it’s a bit hard to commit many hours when you have to work to live also. It’s fun in retirement or if you’re rich

I"m a Good Neighbour.
I visit a housebound person once or twice a week for a natter and a cup of tea.
Takes an hour or so of my time and makes a big difference to them

In the past I've helped out at cubs/scouts and was a City Host when my city was European City of Culture.
When Im properly retired I'll probably help out at the library and allotment committee

I am a trustee for 2 charities. One runs a food bank and a lunch club for people who would otherwise eat alone. The other is a history group which has brought a neglected 17th century building back into public use as a history hub. Last month we ran our second event and sold out in 12 hours and hosted a finds evening for the portable antiquities scheme and were handed a solid gold Boudica era coin. It was such a privilege to see it and hold it.

I also volunteer my other skills from time to time. I'm currently writing a funding and grants strategy for my local parish Council to see if we can raise a million pounds for a community centre. The councillors are all lovely and hard working but this isn't a skill set they have and it's good to use my skills for my own community.

I also volunteer as a mock interviewer in a school and recently even did an assembly for year 8s. I do a lot of public speaking in my job but year 8s are a tough audience! I spoke about my own squiggly career and why you don't have to know what you want to be when you're a grown up as I apparently am a grown up and I am still working it out!

I help out at a local primary school when they go on external visits - I can't do anything regular because of other commitments but the secretary sends out an email of dates and visits to the volunteer list and just reply yes or no.
I get far more out of it than I put in (I research the venue beforehand) and if the children don't ask a question then I will ask something.

It definitely is hard however I found because I volunteered with animals which I'm passionate about it gave my life more purpose and I didn't struggle combining it with work, kids etc

I volunteer with girlguiding. I enjoy arranging and doing activities and trips with the girls. We give them some great opportunities and it’s lovely to see them enjoying themselves and developing skills.
It’s also social for me - I’m friends with other leaders and am part of Trefoil Guild which is basically socialising for adult leaders without the kids.
Volunteer role does take up time (lots of planning, paperwork, training not just 90 mins a week session) and some parents are surprised it’s unpaid and I have a pretty full on professional job too.

When I first retired (I was a teacher) I worked on a farm for 5 years taking groups on farm tours and teaching about the animals. They were mostly school groups but also Young Carers and women's groups from different cultures.

During Covid I volunteered stewarding and booking in at a mass vaccination centre and did that for about 2 years.

I now volunteer for a Foodbank but don't seem to have had the problems others have mentioned above. I talk with a lot of people with very different lives to me and have learned a lot of things most people don't know about.

I volunteer one day a week at a local charity shop. It's really hard work but I love it.
I also volunteer with a local Brownie pack. I can't tell you how rewarding it is. I absolutely love all the girls. It's brilliant.

I charge my clients handsomely so that Ican afford to volunteer as much as possible. I run two community sports clubs and invest my own money into covering kit and membership fees for kids on low incomes. I also volunteer 2 days a week for my professional body. In my spare time I advocate for women being treated shittily at work. I'm an employers worst nightmare for grievances.... I pretty much work to pay my basic bills and cover the joy of volunteering.

I genuinely think volunteering is kind of a bit selfish because I get so much more back than I put in.

I volunteered for three years to read with Year 6 Primary school kids, and organise and run their school library. Loved it. They would come into the library so eager to look for a good book, and I loved hearing them read and explaining words and concepts to them, or the background to a story. So many kids aren’t read to.

Stopped because we are doing a lot of hiking and want to be away during term time, and I always said I’d finish when DS finished school, which he now has after A levels. Could happily do it again at some point.

I'm on the committee of two small local charity run organisations (think village amenities). It's not a huge commitment, meetings every couple of months and pitching in at the odd local event etc. but you'd be surprised how hard it is to find people to volunteer even for that low-level of commitment, without which these well-used amenities could not function. I'd urge anyone in a village to give what is literally an hour or two a month to such a cause and help keep your village community spirit alive!

In involved in a small charity that provides Christmas presents to children who wouldn't otherwise get one in my local county. I started volunteering on collection days nine years ago through a work initiative and then I stayed with it.
We went for charity status last year as donations are understandably dropping and I needed a way to apply for larger grants.
I spend a few hours a week emailing, calling and identifying funding streams and then from Nov my house resembles Santa's grotto with all the gifts donated.

I love it, it's hard work, it's hard getting funding when there are so so many other worthwhile charities out there, but we helped around 2000 children last year and women in the locals women's refuges.

I've also done PTA when my DD was at primary.

I volunteer on a combined world veterinary services and mission rabies project. The project has several objectives 1. Vaccinated dogs for rabies to reduce the number of deaths of children from rabies in south east Asia 2. Neutering program for dogs to aid population control 3. Teaching the neutering surgery to vet students and recent grads. I am a volunteer surgical instructor carrying out the training working with a wonderful group of Thai vets. I go for two weeks a year. The Chiang Mai area of Thailand is now rabies free and they are now working in Phnom Penh.
it is a one health project.

During Covid I signed up to a scheme to call people who may have felt isolated.

I got matched with a person around my parents age through a shared interest and started calling once a week. Over time we built a really nice friendship and it was definitely a two way conversation. Always enjoyed catching up especially if either of us had been away or to an event in the week.

The calls didn't stop and went on for several years until I got a message from their spouse to say they had died. I avoid funerals if I can but decided to go. It's amazing how well you can know a person without ever actually meeting them

I'm a chair of school governors for a large primary (nearly 1000 pupils) in a deprived area of the city I live in. It can feel like a second job some days but the support governors give the staff, and children is very rewarding. I have built a good relationship with the head, challenging him but also supporting when the school has been through tricky times. I have huge respect for all school staff having seen what goes on behind the scenes. I also do occasional volunteering at sports events which is much more light hearted but I always have a smile on my face so great for my wellbeing.I'd love to do more and this thread has inspired me!

As well as official volunteers, I think there are plenty of people who are good neighbours. Picking up other peoples litter, adding a few tins to the food bank collection point, supporting an elderly neighbour with getting to hospital or the shops… All these come under the same bracket of civic mindedness, even if people need to work full-time.

I volunteer a lot at my sons primary school - pta, library and outdoor play - I love it. I can see how overstretched and underfunded schools are and so anything I can do to help really makes a difference. It’s great to spend time with the children and the staff are all amazing too. When we put on a pta event and I look around and see everyone enjoying themselves it’s like, wow, we did that.

There are frustrating sides too - getting enough parent volunteers is a challenge for example.

Actually it is ... marvellous. Bloody marvellous in fact!

I'm jealous of all of these wholesome volunteering stories and roles. I have volunteered various times in the past, and so often I've been left fairly dejected at it all.

School reading, morphing into essentially an unpaid TA half a day a week for more than a year - chair of the PTA and another doing a similar role to me but longer serving given public thanks at Christmas, but not me. I don't need thanks in itself, but it's hard not to take stuff like that personally. I was eventually moved to a different class without being told just dropped on me when I turned up one day, which that teacher let just fizzle out. There are lots of potential reasons I do understand, but it shows I wasn't valued enough for someone to even chat to me about it.

A few hours a week in one of the offices of a big charity. I more than pulled my weight and my skillset made me a fairly valuable volunteer, head of dept made a point of telling me so etc. I went above and beyond for them. Then there was a restructure within a few departments and the nice manager left. New one asked me to come in an extra day to hand over something I had worked on, but then seemed annoyed I actually turned up. Then he just never arranged my next day, and by then I was not inclined to chase them as if they could do me a favour!

I help out after hoc with various stuff as it comes up still because that's just my nature, but I don't think my self esteem is tough enough for a more regular role again 😆 I'm really pleased to hear that it works out nicely for so many though.