The RCT Source

The 'Welcome Friends' project is 'Big Lottery' funded and is two years into a five year grant. It’s run under the umbrella of RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteers Programme) which in turn is an arm of CSV.

Welcome Friends can:

• Discuss volunteering opportunities with you
• Arrange volunteer placements with ongoing support
• Provide limited personal insurance cover during your volunteering
• Offer personal development opportunities

Volunteers are offered initial training by the organisation, which also arranges DBS checks and expenses incurred as direct result of their volunteering activity can be reimbursed.

Volunteers are needed to:

• Offer one-to-one befriending in an individual’s home
• Offer time-limited support to an older person as they prepare and join new activities in their local community
• Help to introduce older people to new interests e.g. the use of IT
• Set up new activities in community settings

The project will be able to assist by supporting people whose local Community Day Centre will be closing to find alternatives. They also work with a number of older people who have lost confidence and need low-level, time limited support to introduce them into social activities that will not only reduce their dependence upon statutory services but also increase their overall feeling of wellbeing.

It is proven that volunteering brings benefits not only for the people in receipt of the support volunteers can provide, but also for the volunteers themselves. For instance, volunteers retain feelings of self worth by continuing to contribute to the lives of others and their communities after they have retired from paid employment.

Maureen Winter

Mobile number: 07776140585

Email: mwinter@csv.org.uk

Diane Matheson

Mobile number: 07788310445

Email: dmatheson@csv.org.uk

Current volunteering opportunities within Rhondda Cynon Taf include the following:

• Volunteers are needed to assist with the delivery of training/adult education
• Volunteers are needed to assist with the delivery of training/adult education courses at a drop-in centre for adults with mental health problems
• Volunteers are needed to help with fundraising

For information on Volunteering or to apply for the above go to:

http://www.volunteering-wales.net/

Volunteering can be described as giving your time and energy freely and by choice without concern for financial gain. It can describe hundreds of different activities that people choose to do to benefit or support others in the community. The word volunteering is used for a range of activities that can include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organisations as well as informal community participation.

People volunteer at different times of their lives for different reasons:

• they may feel they want to give something back to their local community or a particular group which helped them at a difficult time in their life
• they might want to meet new friends
• they may be unemployed/looking for a new career direction/ have been made redundant so want to learn new skills and keep themselves active
• they may have experiences and skills they'd like to pass on to others

You may have very different reasons to those listed above for wanting to volunteer but it really doesn't matter.  Volunteering is totally flexible - you can decide why you want to volunteer and how much time you can give to volunteering taking into account the other commitments in your life.

Although you won't be paid, there are other rewards for volunteering:

• building up confidence and self-esteem
• meeting people in similar circumstances
• learning transferable skills
• trying out new experiences
• helping others as well as yourself
• and very often, having a lot of fun!

There are many training opportunities you can access as a volunteer, it shouldn't affect your benefits and many volunteer organisations offer out-of-pocket expenses......and it looks good on your CV!  Many employers look very favourably on volunteering experience.