Jane's Experience Volunteering at St Michael's Waddington Wellbeing Hub

Transcript Preview Speaker 1 0:00 Hi, Jane, thanks for being willing to share your story with us. What is it that you do here? Speaker 2 0:06 I've got more than one job, but principally, I suppose, I'm just a volunteer within the community outreach that St Michael's Church does. More formally, I'm a licenced lay minister or a reader, if you if you understand that, but my principal role Speaker 1 0:22 is with the community here. Tell us more about the volunteering. Speaker 2 0:25 It's important that if you're going to be part of of a community, you need to build up something called social capital. That's what the people who study these things call it, and it's connecting with other people. This is really good for our mental well being and therefore for our physical well being as well. If you live in isolation and don't interact with people, you will eventually become less than you could be. So in terms of outreach and just engaging with people generally. I've always had jobs where I've been out and about meeting new people on a regular basis, and I just love sitting down listening to other people's stories them, telling them me about their lives. It goes back to childhood. I used to love listening to my grandmother and my mother telling me all about when what things were like when they were little girls. And it's just carried on through the jobs I've had in the industry. I've had a fabulous career. I've met loads of super people. I'm now not in paid employment, but I call myself a full time volunteer because I'm involved in so many groups. I don't do anything more complicated than bake a jacket potato or make a cup of coffee, but the opportunities that gives you to listen to people is enormous, and you can actually see people grow and appreciate that you're providing them with hospitality, which isn't just physical hospitality, but it gives them it's almost a rest for their brain they can offload to You, and that is so valuable. I just don't understand why we don't do more of it. Speaker 1 2:06 So given that you said you don't understand, why do you think we don't do more of it? And do you think there are ways we can do more of it? How would we encourage it? Speaker 2 2:15 Yes. How would we encourage it? I think people need to understand that if you're volunteering in your community, you get more out of it than you put in. It's definitely a win win for the volunteer in terms of why don't people do more of it? I suppose you've got the pressures of everyday life, and they feel they haven't got time, but even if you've only got an hour a month, you can still do something and you can do something valuable that will pay you back so many times over. It's fabulous. Yeah, I get a bit annoyed with some of the hoops you have to jump through, all the forms you have to fill in, and the training courses you have to do, but it's all being done for good reason. If you if you look at society in general, we've got to keep everybody safe. We've got to keep everybody well. So you've got to make sure your volunteers understand all these things. So yes, I don't like it, but I do it, and I think that could put some people off. But again, I think if they just pushed themselves a little bit and had a go, I think they'd find it was worth the effort. You've got to put something in to get something out, haven't you? Yeah, Speaker 1 3:19 of the volunteering roles that you do do here. Which one is your very favourite? Speaker 2 3:25 Oh, that's really hard. I suppose I love my work with the warm welcome that we do on a Monday here, partly, I think, because I help set it up in the very start. So I feel as though it's my baby. I've now handed it over to our managers and wellbeing officer. They do all the running around and do all the hard work, and I just enjoy what what's happening now. So yes, I think that's probably my favourite, where I get most from it. Speaker 1 3:53 And what's so beneficial about the warm room for the community, it's somewhere Speaker 2 3:58 for people to come on a Monday, people like regularity, like, like the fact that we're here. They can pop in for 10 minutes, or they can say for six hours. We really don't mind. Friendships built up. People come on a regular basis. They know they're going to meet their friends here, the people that they've met recently, they get fed. What's not to love, really? Speaker 1 4:21 So do you think food or kind of that kind of hospitality, it is a key to most things, to bring more people in and to serve the community? Do you think it's really important? Speaker 2 4:37 It is for me, but then I've had a career in the food industry, so I suppose food sort of top of my list, isn't it? But I suppose, yes, it does, because I think sharing a meal, sitting around a table being served a very simple meal, it's nothing complicated. And also, if you live on your own, you cook food for yourself and sit down and eat it. If somebody else has done the cooking and serves you, that's. Quite nice, isn't it to be served by other people. So I think there's something quite special about that. So yes, food's important, but sometimes it's just a biscuit. Doesn't matter. I think it's, it is central to our being. And you know, it's nice to share our good fortune. We've got, we've got the ability, through the funding that the church gets, to actually share our good fortune with other people. So, yeah, Speaker 1 5:23 excellent. One of the things. So Waddington is classed as a rural area. Do you think that makes a difference to what goes on in the area? And does it help? Is it a hindrance? Speaker 2 5:35 I suppose it helps on the basis that most people that come here live within walking distance of the church. So they are neighbours as well as, you know, using this community space. But some people come here by bus. Some people come out of Lincoln to come out here because they found us. One guy just found us by accident, you know I mean, and he's now been a regular, and we worry if we don't see him on him anyway. Does it make a difference? Now, I think whether you're a city person or a rural person, we all need other people, so I don't think it makes a big Speaker 1 6:07 difference. Got it? Jane, is there anything else you would like to share with us? Speaker 2 6:12 Yeah, I think I'd just like to try and encourage other people to come forward and volunteer, even if you're still in full time work, even if you're looking after children, even if you're looking after an elderly parent, just an hour an hour a month, to come along and get involved. Who knows, you may end up making new friends and find yourself with more support for what you're doing in the rest of your life. It's a great way to meet new people, and I just encourage more people to do it Speaker 1 6:40 cool. Jane, thank you very much for sharing your story with us. Speaker 2 It's been a pleasure. Thank you, Mel and.