Submitted by colette.bradley... on
Community Response Volunteer, Helen Hopkins
Helen Hopkins was a Community Response Volunteer (CRV) for Action Together. A Community Response Volunteer supports the local community when facing crisis or in need of emergency support.
"I volunteered with the purpose of gaining work experience. I was hungry to be out of the house and doing something in my community. The Food Bank and the volunteers had to cope with me whilst I was studying through exams and assessments. They helped me to keep calm prior to an exam or an assessment, as I find exams and assessments that are timed a little stressful. Volunteering helped to distract me from my studies which, with doing a Medical Administration Diploma, was at times stressful. One of the volunteers, who was a teacher, gave me tasks I could practice in preparation for a proofreading task I had to do as part of one of the assessments. The other volunteers at the Food Bank also helped me through the challenges I was facing, during the pandemic and especially throughout the third lockdown. It was wonderful to be able to help people and be out of the house. It was a good feeling to be described as a Social Care Worker when it felt like all I was doing was doing was packing bags of food for people in need."
"Volunteering with Action Together at the Vaccination Clinics, especially at the OBA Vaccination Clinic, second-dose Pfizer in April, has indirectly got me a job. It enabled me to be accepted at the interview stage for the NHS work-based academy, that was in partnership with The Manchester College. I know for the intake of the NHS work based academy that I was part of over 100 who attended interview. Out of the 100 who were accepted and had passed the Maths and English assessments, 27-28 people got to the stage of doing the Health and Social Care course which was classroom based and the qualification attached to the NHS work based academy programme, which was also in preparation for the work placement. At interview I was able to give real exapmles from my time at the Vaccination Clinic, last April. This led to the pre-employment coordinator at MFT Manchester Foundation Trust, allocating me a work placement in the Eye Hospital of Manchester Royal Infirmary. After just 20 days of placement at the Eye Hospital they decided they liked me and are willing to train me up more, but this time on the bank and in a paid capacity."
"My desire is that people should view volunteering, especially those that are not working, to see volunteering as part of looking for work. Volunteering is more than work preparation. It gives people examples that they can use in application forms and most importantly at interview. Just job searching and looking for work does not give those examples. The value of volunteering is very much and sadly underrated. Every hour doing volunteering will, for that alone, have been worthwhile! Thank you for the experiences.