Meet Emma
Emma is a volunteer at Glow and has written about her volunteer journey.
Hi, my name is Emma and here is a little bit about myself. I am a mum to two amazing children who are now all grown up and have left the nest; my daughter has just completed a Psychology degree and moved in with her boyfriend and my son has just finished his first year studying Zoology.
So, I am now at a time in my life where my priorities have changed, and I have been able to focus on what ‘I’ would like to do. I am just about to start the second year of my counselling diploma at Staffordshire University which has stretched me academically and has been a challenging rollercoaster of personal emotional discovery and growth.
With more time on my hands, I investigated volunteering and VAST were so helpful in matching me with a vacancy that suited my skill set and interests. For the last 18 months I have been a volunteer for a local charity called GLOW where I have had the privilege of being a Domestic Abuse Volunteer for the Recovery Hub which supports victim survivors to rebuild their lives.
I am so blessed to volunteer for the Recovery Hub, the staff treat you as such an integral part of the team, there is no sense of ‘them’ and ‘us’, you really do feel genuinely needed and respected. As co-facilitator on the group programmes I recognised the huge need and desire within the customers to better understand their emotional wellbeing and growth.
“I would like to say how important our volunteers are to our organisation, without their amazing work, passion and commitment we would not be able to provide the service that we do”
I have such a passion for books and really see them as such a useful tool to support children to talk about challenging topics and for us adults to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and how to increase our capacity to cope with life.
Supporting the victim survivors at GLOW can be emotionally challenging and immensely rewarding. We recently celebrated Volunteers Week at Glow, and we were all given a keyring to say thank you and acknowledge all that we do. Little things like this definitely make you feel appreciated and it all worth while.
Every Thursday afternoon, from 1-3, I also run a garden project at Heath Community Centre. This gives anyone in the community the opportunity to come down and connect, to talk or to escape and enjoy the peace and quiet. Green exercise can reduce stress and depression and help to increase self-esteem, mood and wellbeing.
I do not have green fingers but am able to plant a few plants and pull a few weeds. It has been lovely to meet new people. I am not sure what they have planned for me when this is finished but know the next step will be a collaboration of where their need is and how I want to support. That is the great thing about volunteering, it doesn’t matter what your skill set is, there is always some way you can be of use!
If volunteering is ever something you have been meaning to do, thought about or would like to find more about my advice to you would be to just take the plunge and DO IT. There are a million reasons why people become volunteers, often because they want to give a little something back, but I think what most people do not expect is how much you as an individual are impacted.
In fact, you are the one that ends up receiving, you meet amazing people, you get pushed out of your comfort zone, you grow, your true potential is recognised, appreciated and invested in.
