Case Study: The benefits of Volunteering in Our Kind of Stockport
One Stockport’s latest campaign – ‘Our Kind of Stockport’ – celebrates Stockport’s community of volunteers who are doing good things throughout Stockport.
It also highlights the importance of Volunteering and how it can benefit both the volunteers and the organisations who are so appreciative of their work.
Since the start of the pandemic, those in need within Stockport have benefitted from the generosity of people giving their time for free, to help others.
Many organisations were already doing great work with volunteers but since March 2020 Volunteering took on new meaning. People were offering to do shopping and pick up prescriptions for others, help deliver meals to those unable to leave the house. Those who were isolating were making friendly phone calls to others self-isolating and young people were walking dogs for those who were vulnerable. Two years on and Stockport now has a Volunteer Hub of over 600 people not to mention organisations such as Healthwatch, Arc, Walthew House, Beechwood Cancer Care, Together Trust and the many others, who all co-ordinate their own volunteers around the borough.
Case study: Volunteering at Together Trust
Between April 2021 and March 2022, volunteers made a significant contribution to the success of Together Trust: 100% of their service areas are supported by volunteers; they have dedicated 149 event hours and 16 volunteers sit on their board of trustees and generously donated 1,380 hours of their time.
But it isn’t all one-way traffic – the volunteers also benefit from their roles: 89% gained useful experience, 56% increased their social interaction and felt part of a community, 78% gained self-confidence and 75% said that volunteering at Together Trust improved their quality of life – impressive results!
“It’s a lovely place to volunteer. I am treated as part of the team and have learned so much.”
Volunteers at Together Trust support every service area including education, residential and community services, fundraising, communications, organisational development and their events programme.
Three literacy support volunteers help individual students at Inscape, listening to them read and helping them to work towards tailored reading targets. Teachers supporting the volunteers have reported that students are more engaged and willing to read as a result.
“Having someone different to read to read too has supported learner engagement
in reading tasks that were previously avoided.”
Together Trust invest in their volunteers
Together Trust appreciate the time volunteers donate is precious and it is important they feel supported and engaged. Their clear, supportive and robust processes ensure a sustainable volunteering programme. Their recent Volunteer Satisfaction Survey showed a good response rate, excellent engagement and satisfaction scores.
“Together Trust is so welcoming and appreciative of its volunteers and the volunteers are giving lots of training, help and support with transferable skills gained that would be suitable for any workplace.”
If you would like to know more about the benefits of volunteering, please download Together Trust’s Volunteering Annual Report HERE
