At Innovate Trust, we love to see how our Volunteering Hub helps people find exciting new opportunities.
We are very pleased to share the story of Liam, a gentleman with a learning disability, and how he has found new ways to get involved.
Guess what? Liam found lots of new chances to volunteer using our Volunteering Hub!
Discovering the Volunteering Hub
Liam and his dad had been looking for more activities for him, as staying at home too much was affecting his wellbeing.
Liam has made good use of our Volunteering Hub to find new opportunities and take positive steps to feel better.
We met with Liam and helped him explore Insight and the Volunteering Hub, and to create his own account.
Liam’s friend, Owen, who also volunteers with Innovate Trust’s Secret Garden Project, uses Insight and the Volunteering Hub regularly.
The two friends talked about how helpful the Volunteering Hub is, which encouraged Liam to download the app and create an account.
Once set up, Liam quickly got used to Insight! He added a new profile picture, wrote a couple of posts, and shared some pictures within the Volunteering Hub.
Getting started with Insight
About a month later, we met with Liam and his dad again. We gave them both a more detailed demonstration, now that Liam understood the basics of Insight and the Volunteering Hub.
We helped Liam log into his account on one of our tablets. Then, we showed him some videos on the Volunteering Hub and helped him look through the ‘information and guides’, ‘stories’, and ‘volunteering opportunities’ pages. Liam even tried out the screen reader setting for us!
Liam’s dad, Dave, was very pleased to be included in the demonstration.
This meant he could then support Liam to explore the Volunteering Hub once a week in their own time.
Including parents and carers in this way has been important for helping individuals to successfully engage with the Volunteering Hub.
Trying something new: The Secret Garden history group!
After looking through the opportunities listed on the Volunteering Hub, Liam decided to try the History group.
This was very different from any group Liam had joined before, and he didn’t know any of the current volunteers.
Liam shared that he felt nervous about meeting new people, but he was also very much looking forward to trying something new.
Liam attended his first history volunteering session at the Glamorgan Archives. He arrived on time and did not seem nervous at all!
In fact, he quickly made a connection with George, and they worked and chatted together throughout the session.
Liam engaged brilliantly, asked many questions, and shared lots of ideas too. He told us he would be back!
Liam’s positive reflections
Liam thought about his first session and said: “I like this group. It’s something new. I met loads of people today. It’s nice to make new friends. We’ve been looking at maps of St Fagans and learning about the past.”
Attending this first opportunity helped him step out of his comfort zone and realise that meeting new people can be a good thing.
Liam also had positive words to say about the Volunteering Hub: “The Volunteering Hub is good for finding what you want to do. It was good because it helped me.”
We were very happy with Liam’s progress and shared a post highlighting his story on the Volunteering Hub.
This way, others can see the benefits of trying something new and be inspired!
