This episode of Volunteering Discovery takes listeners behind the scenes of volunteering in health and social care in Norfolk and Waveney, focusing on About With Friends, a charity supporting people with learning disabilities. We hear from dedicated volunteer Su about her volunteering journey and staff member Abby tells us why volunteers are so important to the charity.

To discover more about the work About with Friends do visit https://aboutwithfriends.co.uk/

Visit the Volunteering Discovery page here https://improvinglivesnw.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering/volunteering-discovery-podcast/

Or get in touch using jules.alderson@nhs.net

Volunteering Discovery is a Hospital Radio Norwich production for Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System.

Sarah (host): Hello and welcome to Volunteering Discovery.

This is a podcast which takes you behind the scenes of volunteering in health

and social care in Norfolk and Waveney.

Volunteers enhance the experience of people accessing health and social

care in a huge variety of ways, in our hospitals, our communities, and even

from the comfort of their own homes.

In each podcast, we'll be hearing from those who give their

time supporting others and the people who work alongside them.

I'm your host, Sarah, a volunteer coordinator working in the NHS.

There are 1.

5 million people with a learning disability in the UK.

People that have a learning disability tend to have fewer chances to get

involved in leisure activities and may have difficulties getting equal

chances for healthcare, education, employment and social activities.

In today's episode, we'll be meeting members of the team at About With Friends,

a charity based in Cromer, Norfolk.

About With Friends supports people with a learning disability to get

more involved and connect with their community, and volunteers

form an important part of that team.

Abbey, a staff member with the charity, introduced us to About With Friends

and what they offer to their members.

I'm Abbey, um, I work at About With Friends in Cromer.

So I am the marketing and volunteer coordinator here.

So, um, I oversee the volunteer team, um, and ensure that I

do my bit to keep them happy.

About our friends, we're a Cromer based charity.

So we work with children, young people, and adults with learning disabilities.

Our mission is to provide people with learning disabilities opportunities

that they're entitled to.

We support our members, giving them the life that they would like to

live and choose, so, um, we develop their skills and confidence to And

we help them to build friendships and be part of their local communities.

The charity itself was actually founded over 20 years ago, um, by Helen Dalton

Hare, who's our executive director.

The idea of the charity came through her work in social care.

So she discovered that there was a real lack of places for people

with learning disabilities to actually hang out with each other

and have that social interaction outside of sort of day services.

She gathered a few friends who were also volunteers.

And between them around the kitchen table, they began the work on building

the charity that we know and love today.

Without volunteers, there wouldn't be About the Friends.

That is kind of how important volunteering is to an organization like us, because

that is how, how it all started.

Um, basically without Helen giving up her time, um, and, and the few

friends that she gathered together, it just wouldn't have ever started.

So it's really at the foundation of what we do.

And that's why we showcase our volunteers so much because it's

It's paramount that we have them.

It wouldn't have started without them.

It's as simple as that.

You can come along and volunteer on the leisure service.

So that's social activities that runs in the evenings and on the weekends.

But we also run a work skills service that offers members to come in during the day

and they do a full working day with us.

So the idea is that they come in and gain working skills.

Hopefully that would then lead to employment.

For some of our members, that might not be the case, but, uh, we have a craft area,

we have woodwork, we have a gardening service, so we go out into the community

and do, um, gardening with the guys.

We offer a salon, so we do hair, nails, you know, all that kind of thing as well.

We've got a home skills area.

So it's learning about those independent living skills as well.

There's loads at the shop.

We have a shop in town.

Um, so everything that's made and produced in craft is then sold in shop.

Um, we also have a community cafe in town as well.

Um, so we have volunteers that come in and help on that.

We've got a wide range of availability with the Work Skills Service, that

would be volunteering during daytimes, whereas the leisure tends to be more

evenings and weekends, but we've really got something to suit any timeframe or

anyone's availability we could cater for.

Sarah (host): It sounds like you can do just about anything as a

volunteer with About with Friends.

Learning how much the volunteers do and how much they are involved

in, we asked Abby how important she feels the role of volunteer is.

Volunteers make a huge impact on the charity, so a lot of what we

offer, especially within the leisure service, it just simply couldn't be

undertaken without the volunteers.

Because they provide us with so many extra hours, it means that we can take

bigger groups of members out and about.

And because some of our members require more of a one to one, a support member

of staff would be with that one to one.

So if we've got a volunteer with us, it means we can just bring more, more of the

guys along to enjoy the group activity.

They really are so important to what we do.

We couldn't do what we do without volunteers really.

Sarah (host): To find out firsthand what it's like to be a valued

volunteer with About With Friends, Abbie introduced us to Sue.

Who took the time to join us and share her volunteering journey.

Sue is our super volunteer.

She works alongside our support staff on our leisure service,

which offers social activities to our members throughout the week.

And she also comes along with us on all our respite breaks.

Uh, my name is Sue and I'm a volunteer with the adult leisure and

social part of About With Friends.

I saw an ad at my last job, which was in the sixth form college, supporting people

with some sort of learning difficulties, dyslexia and such like, saw an ad

advertising for volunteers for About With Friends and I thought that would be quite

nice to do when me and my husband retire.

So, you know, that was in a few couple of years time.

He didn't make it, but.

Sort of after a little while after it died, I thought, I'll give it a try.

I'm still here.

When I was in my mid fifties, oh gosh, I thought, oh gosh, I'm too old to do this.

But since I started, I knew I wasn't, age doesn't come into it.

I think you can be 20 and volunteer, you can be older than 50.

And volunteer, you know, as long as you're prepared to join in,

age doesn't make any difference.

I think my other anxiety would be, would the members like me?

You know, I think you always sort of feel a bit, you like

to think that people like you.

And I think that was maybe one of my anxieties.

And I think then, because I started volunteering with the youth.

It was a different setup, so I sort of knew what was happening

before I went into the adult group.

So then, I sort of went on respite breaks with them, different places.

I just love it.

I just love it.

I just love being with the members.

I just love just having fun.

I think, I suppose initially, because I was going through bereavement, I

think I felt I wanted something to do.

I felt I wanted to give something.

I knew I wasn't, sort of, couldn't go into a hospital and do anything

there, but I felt that this was my way of giving back to the community,

what I felt perhaps the hospital had given to my husband and supported him.

And I felt this was one way I could perhaps do something.

In his memory, but yeah, I just love it.

I just love being with the members and having fun things, doing fun

things, doing things that perhaps otherwise I wouldn't have done.

Sarah (host): We are grateful to Sue for sharing her very personal story

of getting started as a volunteer.

It was fantastic to hear how much Sue enjoys the activities she helps out with.

And the chance to try new things too.

We asked Abby and Sue to tell us more about how the activities are organized

and what Sue has helped out with recently.

We have a

jam packed social activity, um, calendar.

So it goes out every two months and then the members can perform to the

activities that they'd like, but they are.

Um, very much involved in how the timetable is formed.

So it's very much their choices and opportunities of what they would

like to be doing socially together.

Um, that is very much what it's about.

That's what we're here for, for them to make those choices and

for us to make it happen, really.

We want our guys to be able to.

Go out and enjoy everything you or I would want to go out and enjoy, um,

and having volunteers there means that we can just do that in a, in

a bigger group and really enjoy it.

Last night it was swimming, going out for meals, bowling, cinema,

disco, day meals, going out and about because I'm, I'm volunteering

in the adult social and leisure.

We go out and about.

We do things at the base, sort of bingo and quizzes, games nights.

We're very much into, you know, it's a very big favorite with the members.

So, um, spend quite a bit of time in the chill out.

We have chill out before a meal, before our tea, and then

the activity starts afterwards.

So in the chill out.

Very often we'll have quite a few members like to play that, which is quite good.

Courage is the recognition of sort of numbers, sequence, colors, sharing,

taking turns, things like that.

Just things that we perhaps would just take for granted that some of

the members find more difficult.

So that's just a means of pleasure and fun with a behind the scene reason for it.

Does that make sense?

I was very often joined in.

With whatever it is, so if we go to disco or go up on the dance floor and

dance with them, if it's bowling, if we have the opportunity, we'd bowl,

going out for a meal, you'd have a sit around with the members and have a meal.

I very often run the craft session and, um, bake off, so

I'll sometimes lead on that.

When we have a bake off sort of day, the members learn cooking skills, baking

skills, rather than cooking skills.

They do that here anyway, so I tend to do more fun cakes and biscuits

and, you know, nice things like that.

Perhaps like last time I did cheese scones.

I did a pre afternoon tea session.

So we had cheese scones, we had jelly, and then we had flapjacks.

So everybody made, and then had sat together and had Afternoon

Sarah (host): tea.

Wow.

Afternoon tea sounds delicious.

The ways in which a volunteer could support some of these activities

was more obvious than others.

For example, do you need to get wet to help at a swimming session?

Sue talked us through it.

We

all went to.

A certain place to go swimming.

And then I went in, obviously in the girls changing rooms, see if anybody

needed, we all got changed together, decided if anyone needed any help, making

sure they were decently covered and such like, then went in the pool with them.

Played around, we usually play ball in the pool.

We don't do a great deal of swimming.

That's much more fun session than actual, it's not a swim in the length, you know.

And then just make sure that, um, when we came out, people were able

to get themselves showered or change dress sort of correctly and put on,

say, put on everything and being ready sort of in a fairly quick turn line

time, because we then had to drive back to the base for a certain time.

So that would be one thing.

Bingo, I might sit with a member and check the numbers with

them if they weren't too sure.

Bowling, sometimes somebody might need the ramp, might need help either carrying the

ball or just getting the ramp out ready.

So it'd be being involved in doing the same activities as them, you

know, or just help supporting them.

It's not helping them, it's supporting them to do it themselves.

Sarah (host): It certainly sounds like Sue is ready and willing for anything.

We asked her whether she finds any parts of her volunteering difficult.

At one time I was perhaps fearful of doing it wrong or, or, or saying it wrong

or using, um, maybe a wrong expression.

I think as you get more involved and you've been there longer, you sort of

know the things that are a okay thing and things that we don't encourage.

We would discourage somebody from swearing.

We'd say that we don't have that here.

It's, you know, perhaps putting that out, trying to make, you

know, Make sure, keep in your eyes, that it's a safe place to be.

Nobody's going to sort of take the mickey out of somebody.

Just be in there to discourage

Sarah (host): that.

If you've listened to previous episodes of our podcast, you'll know

that most organisations offer an induction for new volunteers to make

sure they can get started safely.

This is no different to About with Friends and Abbey explained the process to us.

We've got a very robust kind of induction process, so, um, when you

come to us, because you're working with a vulnerable adult group, you do have

to fall in within safer recruitment guidelines as you would if you were staff.

We do have robust provisions in place for that.

You would be expected to fill in full application.

It would be an interview, there would be references taken, and obviously you would

expect to have full DBS check as well.

But with regards to sort of supporting volunteers, really it's meeting with

people regularly, offering training.

So we do offer ongoing training to our volunteers to ensure that they feel that

they are equipped with that knowledge to know what to do in situations like that.

But with all our volunteering, they're in a group setting.

It's very much our support staff are.

Obviously trained what they do.

They know what they do.

They know our members in and out.

They work as a team.

It's not, you wouldn't be expected to be left to deal with

things like that on your own.

You would have that support network around you and you would

be supported within your role.

But I think the more volunteers come in, they get to know the members.

The members get to know them.

We are not just.

Bringing in people, kind of willy-nilly, they become part of the

team so the members are comfortable with them and then the volunteers

are the same with the members.

So it works really well.

Sarah (host): It is clear that volunteers are a hugely important part of the

team about with friends Abby and Sue shared with us the difference they

think that volunteers make when they help out with swimming afternoon tea,

or any of the many other activities.

So I've learned the volunteers bring many benefits.

Um, both sides, as I say, to the organization, but also to the volunteer

themselves can help develop your organization, um, but also for a

space to be part of something bigger.

And many people are looking to upskill or have something that they can call

their own that they do outside of work, maybe, or a lot of our volunteers

volunteer in more than one place.

I think the impact of volunteering on people's mental health can also be huge.

We have several volunteers here that have gained a lot of confidence and then

actually come on as members of staff.

So we have a lot of stories like that, where we have people that come on

and they're not sure what it's going to be about, how it's going to be,

and they just fall in love with it.

And it's really lovely to see somebody walk through the door as one person,

just completely abloom, I guess.

Um, and we've done that a lot.

We've got lots of volunteers that have come on that are now members of staff.

Um, Sue was exactly the same.

She started here as a volunteer and she also came on as a member of

staff for quite a while, didn't you?

And then she has gone back to being a volunteer because

it gives that flexibility.

I think it is incredible to watch people evolve.

To the members, it's just having another face to chat to, another person

to, to help you, another person to, for, to listen to what they want to say,

they might want to tell you about their family or their, their dog, their new

puppy, their cat has died, or granny has died, and it's just somebody else

to talk to, and I think with the staff.

The staff know that if a situation arises, then there's always somebody

else there who can maybe help distract the members from what

is going on, something like that.

So it's another pair of eyes, another pair of hands, just another person

there, which keeps people safe.

Just being there, just being with the members, um, just having fun, just

listening to them, hearing their news, they like to share, as I say, their news.

And it's just knowing that I'm encouraging somebody, especially, perhaps a new

member comes in and is quite shy or not very socially experienced, and

you're just there to sort of be a helping hand, just to support them.

I think some of the things I've done is encourage some members to write,

somebody couldn't write their own name.

And we sort of sat with them quite a bit of time and practiced writing their name

or just tying your own shoelaces up.

Things, what seem trivial, are quite big, perhaps, to somebody who can't do it.

For me, I think that About the Friends has got so much to offer, because it's

not just the leisure side, which I'm involved in, but obviously the members who

come, who are part of About the Friends, have the opportunity to, Work in shops

with support, do work placements, they work in the cafe, they go gardening,

but they restore furniture up in the, up in the work skills, but there's so

many different opportunities for them.

That I think a long time, a long time ago, people would just be sitting at home,

twiddling the fingers and just sitting.

Whereas now things have changed so much and there's so much opportunity for

people, which is absolutely brilliant.

Sarah (host): Amongst all the many experiences Sue has had over the

years, We asked her if there were any particular moments that stand out to her.

Having, like, this.

Somebody made me some bracelets.

They very, tried very hard to get mine.

That's how I spell Sue.

Um, second one didn't quite get it, but it's just making that.

It's receiving a Christmas card from one of the members

at Christmas is really nice.

Going out on respites, seeing people able to do things and be

willing to try new experiences.

Okay, so not such a good thing would be having a member sit on the coach

behind you, you know, that sort of thing is not, these things happen,

then you have to get on with it.

Having one of the members actually cooking some food and giving it to you

to try, I mean, it was just amazing sort of seeing more in the kitchen,

sort of learning to cook their own meals rather than when we do in baking, when

we do cakes and things, just seeing somebody grow socially, confidently,

it's just amazing, really amazing.

And being part of that, being part of that team, it's not just me,

it's the team, the staff, we, we work together to do it together.

And one day some of these members, they have, um, sort of

gone into managed homes, houses.

Seeing that happen, being able to live apart from mum and dad and knowing

that their future, they might need support still, but there's a lot of

things that they can now do themselves through help people being there for

Sarah (host): them, believing in them.

We ended our conversation with Sue and Abbey by asking them for

any words of advice for someone thinking about volunteering.

Do it.

That would be my hands down advice.

Absolutely do it.

Every volunteer brings something different to our organisation.

Tapping into that talent can be a fantastic resource.

Volunteering offers a chance for people to help others, but also meet

new people and make a difference.

I think volunteers actually get a lot out of it as well because

they're building extra skills.

It works both ways, really.

If Sue was to leave, very much knowledge would go with her.

And I think that's just invaluable.

I just think if anyone's thinking about it, do invest in it, because

I really do feel like it works well for the organization, but

also works well for the individual.

It's just great fun.

I think this charity is a really fun place to be.

If you're looking to gain new friendship, to gain some experience

maybe, and working alongside people with learning disabilities, or

simply just to go out and have a bit of social fun with other people.

And this is definitely a charity for you, can find out more about our positions

on the Get Involved Norfolk website, but also you can just call into the office or

email us on volunteeringaboutourfriends.

co.

uk and I'd be happy to talk to anybody that's interested in joining the team.

Just go for it.

You'll either like it or not like it.

Don't think about it.

Just go for

Sarah (host): it.

Simple as that.

We hope you enjoyed today's episode of Volunteering Discovery.

We would like to thank Abby and Sue from About With Friends for coming to talk to

us about the charity and volunteering.

If you are interested in finding out more about the charity or how you can volunteer

with them, please visit their website www.

aboutwithfriends.

co.

uk Please don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast.

It all helps people find us and spread the word about volunteering.

This podcast was produced for the Norfolk Waveney Integrated Care

System by Hospital Radio Norwich.

Hosted by Sarah Briggs.

Producer was Jules Alderson.

Original music composed and performed by Philip Aldred.

Interviews by Sarah Briggs and Jules Alderson.