Blog by Robert Wearn
At the start of the month, we published several posts in support of International Volunteers Day (IVD) on Sunday 5 December (you can view our posts on our Twitter feed by following the link here). IVD is an opportunity to celebrate and thank people all around the world who dedicate their precious time and efforts to voluntary service. For me volunteering is a chance for us to learn and help our community grow which leads to creating new opportunities for others.
My experience
At the start of my professional career, I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer in three different areas, which included: Air cadets, an event organiser at an elderly residents’ home and lastly, as a support worker with Yellow Brick Road All three gave me very different and valuable experiences of volunteering.
Within these roles I spent the longest time as an air cadet within the 1237 squadron. My key role involved raising funds via food sales (e.g., cakes and hot dogs) or supporting event days where we taught people how to march, rifle handling and how to talk over radio to each other. I particularly enjoyed visiting local residential homes, mainly the ones that focused on caring for veterans, as it gave us a chance to learn of the sacrifice and hardship that people had to go through. It was a privilege to hear first account about their experiences and not just from a newspaper or a textbook.
During my time as an event’s organiser, I mainly looked at improving the resident’s day-to-day life or making a positive difference to their mental health. This led to me volunteering with Yellow Brick Road as a support worker because I learnt about how much I can gain from a supporting role which allowed me to help people in unfortunate circumstances make their way through different systems via paperwork, phone calls or being someone to listen to. The role would help get them move towards a more secure living arrangement and hopefully the tools in place to keep that momentum of improving.
Volunteering has enabled, me to gain amazing experiences in unique environments. In return the organisations I supported got someone who was enthusiastic about the projects they were involved with and there was more capacity and support for service users.
What I took away from this
I can say that if it wasn’t for my time in volunteering, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, I got to learn so much from so many different life stories from very brave and strong people who I wouldn’t have previously had the opportunity to engage with. Furthermore, I got to see how communities come together and help push towards a common goal. Therefore, Volunteering Day is important to me as it promotes the experiences and stories of a range of different people and shines a light on life changing events that can have a huge impact on people’s lives.
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