We recently caught up with Ray who is one of our most active volunteer users for Turning Tides, a fab charity whose mission is to support and care for the homeless in the West Sussex area. Since joining in April, Ray has been a part of Turning Tide’s befriending programme and as covid restrictions were still very much in place, his volunteering journey with the charity had a slower start than usual. As Ray wasn’t able to physically meet up with his befriendees, Ray explained how his first telephone befriending assignment actually lasted over an hour and a half! “I listened to his story and the problems he has and offered possible ways to help him gain confidence and connect with others”.
Since then, the two have kept in touch and were even able to arrange a couple of meet ups at his local beach for a swim.
“We had a lovely time swimming in the sea. It was good to see how much it meant to him. I have found in the latter part of my life great satisfaction in helping those in need”
We are always keen to find out exactly what motivates volunteers, we hope in doing so we can do more to help the sector. For Ray, he told us that in early life, he suffered greatly with low self esteem, shyness and a lack of self confidence, until his mid 40’s when he started visiting his local spiritualist church. He went on to say that the love, friendship and support that he received during this time had a huge impact and he eventually began to take on different voluntary tasks within the church. Ray is now Vice President and confidently able to chair services for up to 50 people! An amazing achievement that he may not have been able to previously do before starting his journey.
“I hope to continue to be able to volunteer in other local charities, one being restoring a local patch of land into a haven for plants and wildlife”.
On top of his work with Turning Tides, Ray also volunteers weekly to collect boxes of food from the local vegan food bank and deliver to struggling families. When he hasn’t got his hands full with helping others, he’s playing and singing songs at local folk clubs/open mics! He even runs his own monthly acoustic/ folk club in his nearby village hall.
We were also super excited to hear that Volunteero has been a useful tool in Ray’s volunteering activities. “I have found the Volunteero app helpful for the quick access for reporting and help and advice should you need it”.
A big thank you to Ray and his astounding volunteering efforts! If you'd like to know more about how your charity can improve the experience for your volunteers and save a great deal of time in the process, please get in touch or book a demo.
