Personal experiences

Did you know that getting involved with volunteering could help improve your employability?

Many volunteering opportunities can offer benefits including:

• Gaining practical experience

• A chance to test new career paths

• Learning new skills

• Accessing training  - which could lead to a recognised qualification

• A chance to show commitment and reliability

• Increasing confidence and communication skills.

If you would like to find our more about volunteering, contact Nicola Shaw on

01327 358264 or email nicola@snvb.org.uk.

Alternatively, you can browse the current opportunities in your area on the national volunteering database,

www.do-it.org.uk

Chris Mayers is the new Volunteering Development Officer at Stowe Landscape Gardens. After volunteering for more than five years, he escaped from a career in accountancy to become a full-time employee with the National Trust. This is his story:

“I started volunteering when I was 16 as part of my Duke of Edinburgh Award. As part of the residential aspect of Gold Award I completed the National Trust’s first working holiday designed for younger people. It was at a property called Craflwyn in North Wales. We spent a week chopping down and burning rhododendron and maintaining the footpaths around the estate.

It was fantastic fun and the leaders were brilliant. After the holiday I joined the Trust’s Youth Involvement Forum - which looked at how we could encourage more young people to be involved with the Trust.

Over the next couple of years, I joined in more and more working holidays until the Trust trained me to become a working holiday’s leader. The course was run in partnership with the Institute of Leadership & Management, so I received a qualification from it as well. As part of the course we went over to Northern Ireland to see how the Trust works in different parts of the country.

After leaving school I started training as an accountant in Liverpool, but continued to volunteer with The National Trust. At the 2007 AGM I was invited to take part in a live debate around the issue of climate change. From that we created a group called You, Me and The Climate which trains and supports young people, so they can start their own climate change discussions.

After being involved with the Trust for five years and having loved every moment I decided that I would love to work for them. The best way to get enough experience to be able to apply for the job I wanted was to become a full time volunteer.

So in early 2009 I said goodbye to accounting and moved to the Lizard Peninsular in Cornwall. I spent four months working as a volunteer warden before moving to Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland I was responsible for the regeneration of a walled garden back into a kitchen garden. The project was completely volunteer run and when my time came to an end we had recruited and trained 25 volunteers to help with the restoration.

After my year as a full time volunteer I applied for a job with the Trust to become their Volunteering Development Officer at Stowe Landscape Gardens in Buckingham - and got it! I’ve gone from working holiday volunteer to member of staff and loved everything in between!”

Digging To Make A Difference!

Winter woollies were teamed up with wellies when young volunteers got digging to make a difference on a very snowy February day!

The team of teenagers from Northamptonshire Voluntary Youth Action (NVYA) braved the freezing weather to dig over the Tudor Rose Garden in Brackley as part of a long-term project to restore the site to its former glory.

They were joined by three US recruits from RAF Croughton who also wanted to get involved with the scheme and didn’t let the famously bad British winter put them off.

Organiser of the Tudor Rose Garden Project, Elaine Dixon, said: “It’s fantastic to see them all turn out in this weather! It’s been brilliant to have them here and their help will move the project on in leaps and bounds!”

Thirteen-year-old Ceri Blackford said: “It’s cold but good fun and I will definitely do more volunteering because of this.”

Robert Reynolds from RAF Croughton said: “This is a great chance for us to help out and to volunteer. It’s good to get involved with the community.”

Volunteering Your Christmas Spirit

HAVE you ever wondered what it would be like to skip the usual Christmas ritual and spend the day volunteering? Every year many people offer their time on Christmas Day to help others and last December, volunteer Terry Sutton decided it was time for him to take the plunge!

Terry, from Greatworth, Northants, contacted us in early December to say that he was ready and willing to help on the big day in whatever way he could. We put him in touch with the organisers of the annual festive dinner, held at the Chantry House in Towcester, where he joined a band of around six other volunteers helping guests to celebrate in style.

He said: “This was my first time in formal volunteering and I really enjoyed it! I thought I would just be slogging in the kitchen, but I was made to feel part of the group and everyone was very friendly. The time went by very quickly and I would have been happy to do more, it was lovely. I would definitely recommend volunteering at Christmas or any other time to other people!”

If you would like to find out more about volunteering at Christmas, or at any other time, contact Nicola on 01327 358264 or email: nicola@snvb.org.uk. Please also get in touch if you would like to tell us about your volunteering stories. We would love to hear them!