HELPINGHAND

CHRISTMAS EDITION

DECEMBER 2012

‘Tis The Season to be Giving

Leeds’ Leading Magazine for Volunteers

“My Month inMalawi,”

An Unforgetable Volunteering

Exprience

How You Can Get Involved in Community

Christmas Funraising

Find Out What Kind of

Volunteering Best Suits Your

Personality

Give the gift of Christmas to

a Child Less Fortunate than

You

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This year volunteering couldn’t be easier. Marie Curie Cancer Care is appealing for volunteers

to help with their Christmas collections in supermarkets across Yorkshire.

The money raised by the collec-tions will help to pay for Marie Curie home nursing services over Christmas and New Year. Volunteers are being asked to spare two hours of their time packing bags and standing with collection boxes at the doors of supermarkets. Every £20 raised will pay for one hour of Marie Curie home nursing care in West Yorkshrie.

Kathryn Cordrey, Marie Curie community fundraiser says: “We are helping people be in their place of choice at the end of their life. Most people would rather be at home surrounded by their loved ones, but sadly only a small percentage gets this wish. For every one person

we care for, there are three that we can’t.”Collections are being held in Sainsbury Arndale Centre, Headingly and Sainsbury’s White Rose Centre, Leeds. As well as In Wakefield at Lidl, Morrison’s in Huddersfield town centre, and in Pudsey at Marks and Spencer’s.

Last year over 1,300 people in Yorkshire with terminal cancer and other illnesses were helped by Marie Curie Nurses in their homes over the Christmas period.

According to Cancer Research UK statics are now as high as ‘more than one in three people in the United Kingdom will develop some form of cancer in their life time’.

Local volunteer Rebecca Swan, helped with Marie Curie’s first Christmas collection outside Sainsbury’s in Headingly. Dressed in the charity’s signa-

ture yellow colours and a Santa hat, Swan says: “Christ-mas is all about giving, so what better time to donate a couple of hours, or spare that pound coin from your shop-ping trolley to help someone a little less

fortunate than you.”

Once donations have been counted, volunteers will receive a letter of thanks from Marie Curie telling them how much money they have raised.

If you are interested in volun-teering and think you can help, contact Katherine or Claire on 01274 386 191 or email Kather-ine.cordrey@mariecurie.org.uk.

HAVE A MARIE CHRISTMAS WITH CANCER CARE COLLECTIONS

Above: Christmas collections in Headingley

Fundraising Samantha McGarry Helping Hand

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“Most people would rather be at home sur-rounded by their loved ones, but sadly only a small percentage gets this wish. For every one person we care for, there are three that we can’t.”

Christmas is about spending time with your loved ones and Marie Curie Cancer Care helps terminally ill to do just that.

Above: The White Rose

The nation has gone eco-crazy, everyone is reducing their carbon footprint and trying to

save the planet one recycling bin at a time. But have you ever considered recy-cling your left over paint?

At Seagulls Re-use on Kirkstall road Leeds, volunteers do exactly this in order to benefit their community.

Seagulls aim is to: “Tackle the issue of waste in the area by finding positive and effective ways to encourage people to re-use, with a focus on community participation offering training , support, volunteering and job opportunities for local people.”The founders of the non-profit organisation, Cat Moore and

Kate Pearson met whilst vol-unteering around Leeds when they came up with their idea for the project.

Run as a social enterprise, a busi-ness which exists to address social or environmental needs, Seagulls has built three main strands within the organi-sation. The Paint store, ReDecorate and Mosaic.

At the paint store unwanted and leftover paint is mixed and resold by volunteers as a value alternative for low income cus-tomers. They collect and reuse over 90 tonnes of paint per year. Seagulls say: “There are no half empty paint pots on our shelves and the paint has gone through a controlled process to ensure it

is of good quality.”

ReDecorate offers a high quality and affordable paint-ing and decorating service, where volunteers can help with community and environmental projects, with benefits built into its daily operations.

Mosaic provides workshops, where volunteers become involved with schools and com-munity groups to make mural projects and site specific public arts for the community.

“Volunteers promote mo-saic making and other artistic activities to support local devel-opment and improve people’s quality of life” Says Seagulls.

To date, seagulls have saved and reused over 400 Tonnes of paint, which would otherwise be treated as waste.

WASTE NOT, WANT PAINT Above: Seagulls Re-use

Volunteer and Recyle Samantha McGarry Helping Hand

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“There are no half empty paint pots on our shelves and the paint has gone through a controlled process to ensure it is of good quality.”

All it takes is a lick of paint for Seagulls Reuse. Recycling left over and un-wanted paint, with community spirit at the heart of their social mission.

In February of this year, a survey was conducted by ‘Inside Housing’ revealing a 40% increase in the number

of rough-sleepers in Leeds alone.

Simon on the Streets, located on the outskirts of Leeds, is an independent street based char-ity that works with the home-less and vulnerable in Leeds, Huddersfield and Bradford.

Director of Simon on the Streets, Clive Sandle says: “We focus on those with issues relating to rough-sleeping and leading a street lifestyle. We aim to bring these people, often leading solitary, harmful lives in from the margins of society.”With the help of volunteers, full time support workers Spend over 900 hours on the streets engaging with those in need and have supportive contact with over 50 people each month.

There are currently 20 volun-teers working for the homeless charity assisting the full time support workers. Due to the nature of the work Simon on the Streets offers, they do not have a high turnover of volun-teers. However the work that the volunteers do is invaluable.Sandle says: “With the help

of the volunteers, the support workers can say I’m not just a lone voice that thinks you are decent person who deserves a

fair crack at life, look at all these other people who don’t earn any money who choose to spend some of their time with you,’ which is a hugely powerful message.”

Street outreach programs and soup-runs are some of the activities for volun-teers at the homeless charity to get involved in.

Tom Muller, a street outreach volunteer says: “I expected to be met with a certain degree of hostility for the first couple of sessions. However, I felt more welcomed by some of our clients than most of the stu-dents I have met when walking through the door of most Hyde Park house parties.” Muller added: “Handing out

coffee and listening these people’s stories, is doing more for me than the people I am helping.”

Programs like the soup-run, where volunteers circle the streets of Leeds city centres, are not designed to feed the home-less. They are there to engage with those that need help. Sandle says: “Our service users are not the sort of people who would say ‘I’m going down to the soup-run for some quality time with people who care about me’, they say they are coming for some soup. But we all know the former is usually the case.”

Each Year Simon on the Streets organise sponsored ‘Sleep-over’ where people sleep out in the open air for the night and get the chance to learn more about the work the organisation does. This year the event was held in Millennium Square. Ex Rough sleepers tell stories about their experiences on the street and event raised over £5000.

WINTER WARMER FOR THE HOMELESS IN LEEDS

Above: Simon on the Streets Campaign Poster

Volunteer with Homless Samantha McGarry Helping Hand

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“Most people would rather be at home sur-rounded by their loved ones, but sadly only a small percentage gets this wish. For every one person we care for, there are three that we can’t.”

Homeless charity, Simon on the Streets, offers soup-runs and street outreach work this Christmas

Tucked away on a side street, sandwiched be-tween a Cathedral and the hustle and bustle of

city shoppers, you will find the Volunteer Centre, Leeds.

Part of Voluntary Action in Leeds, the Volunteer Centre is based in the city councils One Stop Centre.

Accredited through Volunteer England,Voluntary Action in Leeds is one of a number of accredited volunteer centres throughout the United King-dom.

The volunteer centre acts as a brokerage service for volunteer-ing placements. The service offers a database of over 500 opportunities throughout Leeds and its surrounding areas. Volunteering development manager at the centre, Natasha Mort says: “New opportunities crop up weekly from a number of different organisations with Leeds postcodes.”

A handful of advisers are available by appointment at Voluntary Action Leeds, to discuss the different types of volunteering roles the centre of-fers. Mort says: “It only takes 15 to 20 minutes to find suitable options that meet the needs and interests of the person who wishes to volunteer with us.”

Last year the Volunteer Centre helped over 11,000 people to volunteer. Some of these were

through the ‘Do it’ website, a national database where volunteering opportunities are uploaded, but mostly helped by the advisers.

In 2010, the government conducted a survey sent out to a random number of house-holds, to record the number of people volunteering in Leeds. The survey showed that only 19% of people in Leeds volun-teered. Mort says: “We were not entirely happy with this figure as it was below the national average, and so we launched the Leeds year of volunteering.”The year of volunteering cel-ebrated the work done by vol-unteers in the city and its surround-ing areas. At the end of the year, an independent evaluation showed the number of people volunteer-ing had risen to 26%.

The evaluation also showed that the work done by Voluntary Action Leeds amounted to £38 million a year, which would otherwise have to be funded by Leeds City Council and local business.

There is no legal guideline of what volunteering is but the definition Volunteer England give is ‘Volunteering work is freely given’. Mort says: “Nobody should be forced into volunteering. It is about ben-efiting the community but also

benefitting yourself.”

The work that the volunteer centre does attempts to remove boundaries and make all opportunities accessible for everyone who wishes to take part. Mort says: “We believe volunteering should be open for everybody in the city. Peo-ple with mental health issues or criminal records may find par-ticular routes to be stressful for them and CRB (criminal record bureau) checks are sometimes needed. We encourage people to think outside the box some-times with their volunteering choices.”

The people that volunteer reflect the community of Leeds, and there is no longer a typical volunteer Mort says: “Volunteers used to be people like my mother. A typical volunteer was usually retired

or a stay at home mum that wants to give back to her com-munity.”

Now, there are more people from the ages of 18-30 who want to get involved in volun-teering.

The recession has had an im-pact on third sector organisa-tions, but Mort insists it has been a positive one. The centre has seen a rise in the number of people that are out of work, looking to volunteering as a

THE ONE STOP SHOP FOR VOLUNTEERING

Volunteer Centre Samantha McGarry Helping Hand

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“It only takes 15 to 20 minutes to find suitable op-tions that meet the needs and inter-ests of the person who wishes to volunteer with us.”

way to fill their time and in turn, improve their CV. “The experiences that can be taken from Volunteering are seen as valid skills for increas-ing knowledge and employ-ability.” Mort says: ”When I was doing my CV, I would only include volunteering in my hobbies section. Now people are putting it in amongst their working experiences.”New Health and safety regula-tions have also had an impact on voluntary work, making it more difficult for organisations like Voluntary Action Leeds to place volunteers in certain roles.

This is especially true with people that want to volunteer over Christmas. Organisations are unable to afford the costs of training people up for one day a year over. However some charity’s do offer seasonal vol-unteering placements, because they are aware that people want to be involved in something over the Christmas period. This kind of volunteering is

now very rare says Mort: “It used to be the case that you could turn up on the 25th De-cember at a soup kitchen and offer yourself as a volunteer. Now there is train-ing to go through; CRB checks and safety briefs.”

Although a lot of the work Volun-tary Action Leeds do is based in the city centre, rural areas around Leeds also make up a large part of the work available through the centre. For example in Gipton the vol-unteering roles are, are different to the roles in Mooretown and the needs of the community. Mort says: “Volunteering also completely depends on the person. My list of reasons to volunteer will be different to other peoples. I am a working mum, whose desire to volun-teer is base purely around my interests and available time.”

While working at the Volun-teer Centre Mort has seen the effects of volunteering on those in need: “The main thing is if you spoke to a hundred people

about the times they needed sup-port, most of them will have got this from non for profit organisations and charities.” Mort continued: “I think what people forget is that if every single volunteer in the

united Kingdom downed tools tomorrow, then the social im-pact would be enormous”.

Mort stressed that outside of their organisation, people are volunteering without even knowing:“There are thousands of people that volunteer. They help out in their community. They are the people that do the shopping for their elderly neighbour to the mothers that help out at sports clubs. These are the unsung heroes of today.”

Above: Natasha Mort Volunteering Development Manager at The Volunter

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“It used to be the case that you could turn up on the 25th December at a soup kitchen and offer yourself as a volunteer.”

With opportunities for everyone, Leeds Volunteer Centre offers support, training and guidance for anyone looking to get involved. Natasha Mort tells Helping Hand how easy it can be to take part.