A thousand years of volunteering for Cobalt
We have been celebrating the 35th year of Volunteer’s Week. Throughout the week, 80 volunteers have attended the charity to upcycle cards. Collectively they have given 1,000 years of volunteering throughout their service to us. Their careers when they were employed have spanned over several industries including financial, insurance, teaching and engineering.
The week is a time for charities and local communities to celebrate those who give up their valuable time to help local causes. Cobalt benefit from the support of over 100 volunteers and like many other charities, rely heavily on them to help run their events calendar. Volunteer’s Week sets out to recognise, celebrate and thank volunteers across the UK.
Kirsty Bradbury, Fundraising Engagement Officer, Cobalt said: “We have been celebrating Volunteer’s Week and thanking our wonderful volunteers who donate over 10,000 hours each year to Cobalt. Volunteers are vitally important to Cobalt helping us to run events, raise funds, and help in the office. We also have creative volunteers that bake or knit, there’s such a wide range of activities – something for almost everyone. Often volunteers join us at a turning point in their lives, sometimes after they have experienced ill health, but also perhaps upon retirement or losing a loved one.”
Volunteering can be a great way to create a sense of belonging, improve wellbeing and mental health or combat loneliness and it’s not just for people seeking work or those in retirement. Volunteering can be just as rewarding for those in employment.
Clare Shearer works full time as a Sales Director and is a Cobalt volunteer. When asked what advice she would give to someone who thinks they can’t possibly find the time to volunteer for a charity, Clare said “I would say you can! You can make it fit, especially if its weekend events. Not all of them take hours and hours. You can dip in and out. You can do it for an hour on a Saturday afternoon. You can fit it round taking your kids to football on a Saturday morning or doing the weekly shop. It’s not as onerous as people think. It can be flexible. It can part of your weekend. You get so much out of it. It’s the best thing, the feeling that you get when you know you’ve helped raise money for a charity”.
Volunteering should be a positive experience. That’s why Cobalt’s volunteer manager Kirsty makes sure they dot all the i’s and cross the t’s with a comprehensive document that explains why they are needed, what support they will be given and by whom. This makes sure that volunteers are clear what they can expect from Cobalt and how the charity are committed to supporting them.
We are interested to hear from anyone with time or skills to offer. Anyone with spare time and an interest in volunteering for Cobalt can contact Kirsty on 01242 535922 or fundraising@cobalthealth.co.uk.