Making A Difference Volunteer Update

Our first staff away day of 2023 was held this week, we invited some of you to join our staff team for a day of fun activities, learning and training.

We learnt about the exciting new initiatives coming up. It was also a fantastic opportunity to catch up with some of our volunteers, discuss their experiences, and thank them for all their support.

We hope to see more of you at our other away days later this year, to thank you all personally for your help at Communities 1st. We run these away days a couple of times a year, and we will let you know of the next one coming up in due time. 

We are looking for volunteers to get involved with our weekly Creative Community Café project.

Do you enjoy arts and crafts, knitting, drawing and other hobbies? If so this is the volunteering role for you! If you have a hobby you would like to share with others, please get in touch. 

Each week you can get involved with creative activities, make new friends, and enjoy chatting over a coffee and free refreshments. These sessions can be an important opportunity for members of the community, allowing them time each week to socialise, get out of the house and try new things. 

Join us every Monday from 10:30am-12:30pm, at Windsor Hall, Borehamwood, with more locations to come!

If you would like to learn more about this volunteering role, please click here.

Please email us, or give us a call on 01727 649900 to speak further about this with a friendly member of the team.

We are looking for 4 volunteers to help us at an event we are hosting in our Aberford Hall Community Centre (Borehamwood, WD6 1PL) on the 29/03/23 between 12pm and 4:30pm.

This event will be helping to inform members of the public who will be dropping in to the event throughout the day. 

The role would entail the following:

-Set up and clear up hall and move furniture at the beginning and end of the event.

-Make and serve hot drinks, cakes, biscuits etc throughout the afternoon.

-Stand on the door to greet members of the public, take a count of the numbers of attendees, hand everyone a survey to complete on arrival, direct organisations to their stall, provide signposting throughout the event.

If you would like to help out at this event, or would be interested in hearing more, please get in touch with us by email or give us a call on 01727 649900. All help will be greatly appreciated. 

The Multiply project aims to improve people's numeracy skills, to help them in their every day life, by offering maths boosting courses. These will include shopping on a budget, make do and mend and make do and cook.

We are looking for volunteers to become Number Ninjas. Number Ninjas will help us:

• Identify the learning needs of local residents
• Engage and refer suitable candidates for tailored tutoring support.

If you are interested in this opportunity, email us or telephone 01727 649950.

We are looking for some donations of bikes, helmets, hi-vis vests and any bike related equipment like padlocks and locks for asylum seekers living locally.

The specification for the bikes are as follows:

-Men's bikes

-Straight handle bars

-In a suitable condition for reuse

We know how important it is to keep fit and active, and a bike can also be so helpful for aiding people in getting around when they do not have a car.

If you have some bikes and equipment that you would like to give to a new home, please contact us on 01727 649900 and let us know. We can support you in donating this equipment. 

Our New Hospital at Home project is being delivered in the Welwyn and Hatfield, Broxbourne, East Herts, North Herts and Stevenage areas of Hertfordshire with the support of volunteers. This project will help individuals stay at home while monitoring their vitals, rather than attending appointments every day. This can relieve pressure on the NHS, as well as keeping clients comfortable at home.

We are looking for volunteers who can devote some time out of their day to attend home visits with individuals in the community who need some help using their Doccla kits. These kits can monitor vitals, and allow patients to be monitored from home, rather than attending time consuming medical appointments. Each client will need one or two visits a day, for up to two weeks including weekends, and this task can be shared amongst multiple volunteers to allow everyone to work this activity around their schedule.

These will be individuals who have been recently discharged from hospital or who are being closely monitored by health professionals, and need a little bit of help. 

This kit is very simple to use, and we will give you full training on how to help individuals use it. Volunteers will need to be DBS checked and we can arrange this. If you might be interested in this activity please get in touch via email or give us a call on 01727 649980.

We have recently been supporting new international NHS arrivals in Bishops Stortford and Welwyn Garden City. This role comes with some new forms of support, and we are looking for volunteers who would be able to be matched with new arrivals as a one to one buddy.

Activities you could support the new arrival with could include meeting them at their accommodation and supporting them with checking in, meeting with them soon after they arrive and showing them around the town centre, helping them register with health services like a GP and dentist, guiding them on how to use public transport like buses, and supporting them in their search for long term accommodation by attending estate agents meetings with them, and generally offering them a helping hand as they settle in. 

We are also looking for volunteers who would be able to support us in our search for short term accommodation for the new arrivals. We need individuals who can attend house viewings to ensure they are suitable (we will guide you through what you are looking for in these properties, do not worry).

We would cover all your expenses for these activities, such as parking when showing people around, or mileage reimbursement if you drive to a viewing. 

If you would like to know more, or are interested in helping these new international arrivals, please do email us or give us a call on 01727 649970. 

With another year passed, it is time for our annual survey for clients. This survey allows us to check in with our clients, as well as monitor feedback which we can then use to inform and improve our services. 

In order to complete this survey, we need some help calling everyone. If you have some spare time, and would be happy to call some clients and conduct a short survey with them, please give us a call on 01727 649900 or email us. 

We will give you all the training you need for this role. This activity would need to be completed in our main office (1st Floor, Ver House, Park Estate, Frogmore, St. Albans, AL2 2WH), and we will have a full desk set up and landline for you to use.

You will be surrounded by friendly staff members who will be more than happy to support you or answer any questions you have. Just drop us a call now if you would like to know more!

With Spring just around the corner, we are aiming to have our handy person project back up and running again. 

Can you

-Support clients with odd jobs around the house like painting, fitting light bulbs, hanging curtains, and other similar small DIY jobs?

-Help around the garden, doing things like mowing lawns, weeding, potting plants and cleaning up over grown shrubbery and other garden based tasks?

Whether your interest lies in gardening, or if you prefer interior DIY, or even both, let us know by emailing us or call us on 01727 649950, a staff member will be happy to explain this role further to you.

If you have a few hours to spare, consider becoming a volunteer office administrator in one of our offices.

You will be helping us with important tasks such as volunteer recruitment and arranging shopping deliveries.

We are also looking for people with website design skills to come in to the office and help with developing websites for our member organisations. Whether this is one of your passions, or something you have experience in from your career, we would appreciate your skills to help with this. 

If you're interested in this role, please email us or call 01727 649950.

Training courses are available to our volunteers all year round. You can learn about all the topics we cover and register for dated sessions by clicking here.

New Volunteer Expenses Claim Form

We have a new volunteer expense request form. If you don't have it, please email us and we will send it to you.

For Shopping Delivery and Prescription Collection Expenses

• To claim expenses, please sign up to our dashboard and upload your expenses there. Click here to create a login using the same email address that you originally signed up with. You will then see a list of your completed and pending activities.
• Please submit expense claims the same week that you carried out your shop, and if appropriate, provide a photo of your receipt. If an expense is not claimed in a timely manner it can lead to a client going into arrears, which can cause them stress and confusion. We appreciate your help with this.
• If this is your first shop, you will first need to email us your bank details  so you can be reimbursed.

For Drivers, Litter Pickers and Other Roles' Expenses

• You will have been sent an expense claim form when you confirmed your job. To claim your expenses, please complete this and return it to the sender.