Volunteering has always been part of my life from an early age and for me it changed the path of my life and career. I have met so many great people through my work. I believe the younger you are engaged in volunteering the more it becomes part of your everyday life.

I started volunteering at a local youth club when I was 14 years old and a group of us were trained as peer educators. We would create workshops to deliver to young people in the local community. I really enjoyed it and I continued with the group until I was 19. During this time I trained as a nursery nurse and went in to the childcare profession. I realised that I wanted more from my career and I really wanted to work with the local community and volunteers. So that is really where the change began, I applied for university to do a BA in health studies and since graduating I have been working in the voluntary sector ever since.

My role at Haven House is to recruit volunteers from the local community into a variety of different roles. I also develop new volunteer roles and support with the training and development of volunteers. I am sometimes the first interaction that a person has with Haven House or indeed a children’s hospice, so for me it is important to engage people and explain to them fully about the work that we do.

Every day is very different I could be interviewing a new volunteer at one of our four charity shops, attending a volunteer recruitment fair, processing a volunteer application, dealing with volunteer enquiries or running an induction or training session. I absolutely love my job; I get to meet so many great people. Nothing makes me happier than when a volunteer comes back to me and tells me how much they enjoy volunteering at Haven House and how passionate they feel about this fantastic place.

I also love it when staff come back raving about a great volunteer that they have met. When that happens I know that I am doing well in my role. It is all about motivating people to get involved and then connecting them to the relevant people in the organisation.

Each year more than 350 volunteers get involved with us in some way - and we always need more help. You could become a Haven House champion and help us at a fundraising event. We also do monthly bucket collections at train stations, locally and in the City, and we are always looking for volunteers to help us ‘hold a bucket’ for two hours per month.

You could help to place our Red House collection boxes in local businesses and shops or help us connect with schools and community groups.

We also need volunteers to help manage stalls at our Summer Fair on 1 July

The volunteering opportunities are endless and by giving your time; even a couple of hours a month; you can help make a big difference to life-limited children and their families.

So please get in touch with me today as I would love to hear from you or you can visit our volunteering page for more information.

Andrea Thorogood
Volunteer Development Manager
07584 212307