Voluntary Work

In response to a question made in my comments, I thought I'd tell you about the voluntary work I do.

I volunteer for the charity Scope and the project I am involved in recruits and trains volunteers who have lived with experience of disability, to mentor people who have a disability, learning difficulty or long term health condition to achieve their personal goals.

This is a picture of us when we first started (about 4 years ago, I was still at university), the project has grown alot more and I think at the last meeting we were told there are about 40 mentors now.

So far I have been matched with 4 people (called mentees) over the years and what we do depends on what their goal is. It can be difficult at times (Clare the development worker will agree with me on that!) but quite rewarding at times. Plus I feel I have learnt alot about other forms of disability and made some friends along the way. Because I don't work in this area anymore, I find it helps me to still feel useful and put my skills to some use!

I'd highly recommend anyone to look into voluntary work if they don't work and need some direction in their life. Voluntary work is alot more flexible than a job and there is not as much pressure. I only do a few hours a month if that, it just depends on what's going on!