Volunteer with Scope

My daughter volunteered with a Scope shop when she was at university in Liverpool, and loved her time there. On returning home after getting her degree Remploy found her work experience with a local M&S store due to her voluntary work. She did so well that when her work experience was over they found her a more permanent job at another store in the clothes department. 

While she is contracted for 12 hours a week she works a lot more and loves it most of the time, especially dealing with customers despite being autistic. She now helps to train up new staff and I know her bosses would love to start her on the ladder towards management though she does not want this at the moment. She has a great work/life balance and has done things I never considered at her age.

I hear a lot detractors regarding voluntary work, why work for free being the main one. There is a lot to be gained from volunteering.

While I was unemployed for nearly ten years I volunteered on the board of our Tenant Management Organisation. It gave me the opportunity to improve and learn new skills and do things I never thought I would and to access courses that would not have been open to me otherwise.  For the last four years I have been fortunate enough to be paid a decent wage for work I love doing which would never have happened except for what I learned in those ten years. While paid work has made it difficult to continue my voluntary work by moving to condensed hours this has allowed me to continue giving back to the community which has given so much to me.

Voluntary work, like anything else in life, gives back as much as you are prepared to give. For both myself and my daughter this meant pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zones and are reaping the rewards, financial and otherwise, we never saw or looked for when we began.

Not every volunteering opportunity is right for an individual. For a while I volunteered for St Mungos, the homeless charity. I went on a trial period as a receptionist but knew by the first morning it was not for me. I was fortunate that they then tried me in the volunteer department doing admin work which I loved, something I did not expect. There are many reasons why a particular volunteering role may not be right for you, but there is likely to be somehting somewhere that is right for you. Even a failed placement does not mean you have failed. I learned from the above example that working in a reception area would not be a good match for me, in itself important when JSA was pushing me to apply and get any job.

There are no scope shops near me. I would love it if some opened up in Scotland, but even going on where I stay I would still not be able to volunteer due to where I live and my carer commitments. I think it is a great thing, where we are the schools put the kids in 4th year and upwards in to work experience for a week each year, I think this could be used by a lot of young people as a place to learn about others needs, as well as work experience. Maybe if younger people get an idea of the difficulties disabled people face from an earlier age they would be more understanding in the long term.