Having been made redundant after 14 years, I felt that, rather than sitting at home feeling sorry for myself, I attended the Rockspring Centre Open Day and enquired about volunteering for the furniture scheme. I was placed with them on work experience 14 years previously, and they taught me a lot, and helped me gain confidence, and I felt this would be a perfect opportunity to give something back.

My first volunteering morning I (apprehensively) arrived at the Centre, where I met Maria, who took me under her wing, and showed me around the building, introducing me to everyone who works there. Everyone was very friendly, and I soon forgot about my nerves and started enjoying a new experience, and learning new things.

I next had a meeting with Serena who is the volunteer co-ordinator. She asked me a few questions about what I thought I would like to volunteer for and together we decided that admin, filing and answering the phone at Rockspring Centre and helping out at the Renaissance Centre would be ideal. Together we filled out a form (name, address, medical history etc.), which I then signed and hey presto I was now officially a volunteer. The whole process had taken just half an hour of my time.

I have now been a volunteer since July, and am finding it very interesting and rewarding. I volunteer for however many hours I want to, and at the same time I am keeping my brain active by learning new skills and refreshing many that have not been used for a while, whilst I search for new employment.

This has been altogether a very good experience for me and I am grateful to everyone for giving me this opportunity.

I WOULD RECCOMEND BEING A VOLUNTEER TO ANYONE

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October 10, 2012