To help celebrate Volunteers Week, our friends at the SSVCA (South Somerset Association for Voluntary & Community Action) dedicated some space to community groups across South Somerset on their social networks. Their first featured organisation was the Chard WATCH Project coupled with a short interview by volunteer Matthew Barnes. (As much as Matthew would like you to think he was chosen specifically, he was actually the only person within reach of the phone at the time!)
This is what he had to say:
“My entry into The WATCH Project as a volunteer is slightly more unorthodox than most; I first began as a member when I was referred there by the mental health team and left after six months when I felt I no longer needed it’s support.
Having experienced first-hand how effective the project was in my own recovery, I later contacted the Project Manager and asked if I was welcome back in a new capacity. It’s not exactly Batman in origin, but the WATCH helped me, now I help them!
My time here has helped empower me so much, I’m sure more recent members would never believe I use to buy a newspaper before attending (on the self-service till, naturally) in order to hide behind it as a distraction! Now, I greet people on the front desk, mentor other members, manage minutes for meetings, yell at the office printer and help deliver peer training to strangers across the county. The change is remarkable and the hats are many – it’s very rewarding work.
If you’re looking for a fantastic learning experience and confidence booster, I really can recommend trying something similar.”
We’d like to give a massive thank you to Katherine Nolan and everyone at the SSVCA for taking the time to share what we do here at the Project.
You can see the full post on the Facebook here or check out their twitter.
