ubu encourages and advocates for all the People We Serve to be active in their community and to engage in voluntary work throughout the year.
When we heard about the Big Help Out campaign we jumped on board to ensure that the people we serve were actively involved and the teams too as we all know how important the community is to each of us and we decided that we complete this over a number of days including the national day of the 8th May.
We started by having local events to share our culinary delights of Victoria sponge cakes and coronation quiches across all our regions.
We had further celebrations on Saturday through to Monday where we worked to help local charities including:
The People We Serve and staff volunteered by litter picking and baking homemade cakes and cupcakes that they shared with their local nursing homes. They collected and donated food for their local food banks, and donated clothes. They volunteered to help their neighbours clean their gardens after the Coronation, walked their dogs and joined other local coffee morning community gatherings to support their community.
Across the five areas we cover, we provided approximately 43 hours of support to our local communities and charities.
Here are some quotes from those who were involved:
Simon Lincoln – I really enjoyed knowing speaking to those in the local area and collecting food for the food bank, some people really depend on this and this experience helped me get to know some others.
Tim - I help out every week at a local charity that helps with getting homes ready for people who have been homeless it has helped me develop my skills and also I am a lot more confident.
Kim – I volunteer every week and really think it makes a difference to others who I work with btu also it has helped me too. It gives me a reason to get up and have a routine on my good days, I feel that I bring value to the team I volunteer with and it has helped me to begin and get out more and the confidence to go further afield.
Michelle – I love dogs but can’t really have one myself at the moment so I enjoy helping to local dog charity to walk the dogs they have. It means that they can get used to being out and about on a lead and still go for long walks and are not in one place all the time. I don’t like being in my flat all the time so I get as much as they do from this.
Vera - I sorted through my stuff at home and decided to have a declutter and then take this to the charity shop so they could then sell this on and raise some money to help others. I didn’t know I had so much that others could use and it made me smile that some of my stuff would be used by others.
Jillian - We have had a wonderful day celebrating the bank holiday with a Coronation party and the big help out picking up litter in the community.
Vicky – Hi, my name is Vicky and I live in Spalding. I wanted to do my bit for the community and donate food items to the local food bank in Spalding. On Sunday 7th May I collected items from my cupboards and told my enabler I wanted to help others in need.
I chose the Lighthouse Pentecostal church charity; they have been supporting the local community for many years. This project provides a minimum of three days non-perishable emergency food to local people in crisis.
Susan - As part of the big help I wanted to join in and be part of the Wombles Group - which are a group of volunteer’s who are dedicated in keeping our local area clean, tidy and a nice place to live.
On Monday 8th May, I went out with my enabler and started picking up litter near where I live ‘every little help’s. It was a bit windy, but we managed to clean up a small section of my avenue which was littered.
Taka a look at the photos from all the different supports.
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