Strengthening communities through building connections
“What I like to do is make connections. I enjoy talking to people, thinking about connections, and then putting people in touch with each other,” Colin told me when I asked him about his experience of volunteering with Communities 1st. “For example,” he continued, “I belong to a Rotary Club, and we were returning something of a jungle back into a garden for the local Age Concern, New Apton Centre. I chatted to a lady who I knew was a passionate gardener. I told her about our project and the New Apton Centre. As a result, today, she continues as a green fingered volunteer and become a great stalwart for the Centre. I also got her to join Rotary!” Colin also spends a lot of time telling people about Communities 1st.
Colin Woodward has lived in Bishop’s Stortford since 1982. Before that he lived just across the border in Saffron Walden, Essex. Now in his early seventies, he has always led a very active life. He worked in Human Resources, chiefly with large retailers, but became active in the community and in local government as a councillor at town, district and county levels. He was mayor of Bishop’s Stortford twice. He retired at the age of sixty in 2012 and, in his words, “entered probably one of the best decades of my life.” One of the reasons his life is so fulfilling is that he became a volunteer and involved in community groups. “I don’t think I have ever been busier,” he commented.
During the COVID epidemic in 2021, Colin became a volunteer with Communities 1st and helped at the Vaccination Centre and supporting a GP surgery. He worked with and co-ordinated the outdoors team – stewarding and helping people, who were sometimes worried about what was happening. “I responded to the general call out for volunteers because I thought it important to help.” He has also involved the Army Cadets in community activities and the local Police Cadet unit which he had previously instigated setting up. “Again, making connections.”
International recruits
Today, Colin has helped with the International Recruits project, co-ordinated by Communities 1st. The international staff are often working at Haymeads Hospital. He explained “Communities 1st will ask me to meet and welcome the recruits when they arrive in the country. Sometimes I show them around the town. I might show them the way to get to the hospital. I will answer their questions.” Clearly, Colin knows Bishop’s Stortford like the back of his hand, so he is a good person to answer questions.
Volunteering is part of his very varied life
Colin has become very active as a volunteer with English Heritage at Audley End. He is a room guide and helps with the second-hand bookshop. He speaks very enthusiastically about his volunteering with the horses at Audley End. “This is a new experience which I had never thought I would do! I help groom and muck out the horses and will also get to drive a pony carriage! It’s so different from anything else I do – I love it.”
Colin is involved in several local groups. He is vice chair of a residents’ association, has successfully campaigned for there to be a defibrillator at the local shops, and is an unpaid director of the King Edward VI Almshouses in Saffron Walden. He is a trustee of the Community Initiative in Bishop’s Stortford.
Since he retired, Colin feels he has never been busier, and he is thoroughly enjoying life. “Volunteering,” he explained, laughing, “is like working but not working. You’re doing it out of choice and not necessity.” He enjoys meeting people and enjoys the fact that “you never know from one day to the next who you’ll be encountering.” Always plenty of scope for making those connections!
Strengthening communities and enriching lives
“Volunteering is important in so many ways,” Colin argues. “Through volunteering people take more control over their communities. Volunteers can improve the environment. But at the end of the day, we can’t do without volunteers because statutory services can’t do everything. But it is so much more than simply doing a job. So often volunteers give part of themselves and their experience and so enrich other people’s lives – as well as their own!”
A champion for Communities 1st
Colin likes to champion Communities 1st and he will often tell people about the services that are offered. He is a strong believer in groups working together. He concluded, “I’m pleased to tell people about the work of Communities 1st. It is a wonderful organisation and is well organised. I’m keen to help promote it whenever I can.”
I was left in no doubt that Colin will “make the connections.” He will always bear in mind the possible role of Communities 1st. A true ambassador, indeed.
Written by: Chris Cloke, Communities 1st Volunteer