We love our volunteers!

In 2015-16 our individual volunteers dedicated more than 20,000 hours of their time, and corporate groups volunteered an additional 2,477 hours. What an amazing contribution!

Our corporate volunteer program continues to grow and we’re seeing many different groups wanting to lend a hand in our packaging businesses or help out at our accommodation services cleaning up gardens, painting or de-cluttering.

We are so thankful for all of these generous people who play a big part in helping our customers live a great life. Here are just a handful of our great volunteer stories from the last few months.

Holly and Kate

Holly is a lovely young lady who was looking to volunteer with House with No Steps (now Aruma) to help support someone with a disability in any way possible. She was matched with customer, Kate who wanted to start going for short walks to increase her physical fitness and lose weight.

“I am still meeting Kate for our weekly afternoon walks. She is a lovely person to spend time with. She wanted to get into the habit of regular exercise but also enjoys the company and having someone to chat to. We never run out of things to talk about”, said Holly.

Kate said she really likes Holly and they always have fun together plus she is much faster at walking now.

“Kate has made a lot of progress since we first started walking and we have significantly reduced the time it takes for us to walk our regular route. Kate’s positive attitude has given me a lot of perspective in my own life and she teaches me new ways of seeing things every week I see her. We spend a lot of time laughing. (It’s good for the core muscles as well!)”, said Holly.

Equinix

In August a team of 14 corporate volunteers from Equinix, a global data storage company, donated their time to help clean up the gardens at one of our Sydney group homes.

Equipped with great attitudes and smiling faces, the group was ready to tackle the overgrown mess of a garden. They certainly weren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty and completely transformed the space, clearing out all the over growth and replacing it with beautiful new plants.

The residents were overjoyed with their new garden with the support manager even remarking that the fantastic result will encourage the residents to spend more time outside. A few have already put their hand up to maintain their lovely new space.

Ashurst

International law firm, Ashurst visited our Head Office in September and got to work painting the outside of our Belrose Support Services Hub. They arrived ready for anything and quickly made a plan, designated a leader and got stuck into it.

The finished product was amazing and gave the hub a really fresh and modern feel. Staff, families and customers have all commented on how much they love the new look of the space.

Volunteering truly does bring out the best in people! Giving back to your local community and doing something you don’t normally do can fill people with a great sense of accomplishment and self worth. So really, it’s a win-win situation!