Volunteers get a helping hand

Monday August 2, 2010

One of the borough’s biggest charities that encourages local residents and businesses to volunteer in the local community has been given £120,000.

Hammersmith & Fulham Volunteers Centre (HFVC) in King Street has been running in the borough for over ten years and every year works with more than 1,000 residents through various community groups and schemes. Much of its work is focussed on getting unemployed people into volunteering locally, to continue using their job skills and keep getting experience, so that when they do return to work, their knowledge is up-to-date.

Marion Schumann, director of HFVC, who is in her tenth year at the helm, said: “We get as many people as we can in H&F to volunteer – that includes businesses, local authority staff and residents. We get businesses to enable voluntary organisations through using their skills – that might be an IT expert helping a community group set up their website, for example. We have Disney employees who go into school and read to the children every few weeks – that gives the teachers a bit of a break.

“We’ve seen an increase of volunteers in the past 18 months, partly due to the recession and with people having lost their jobs. I am grateful that we got some funding – it wasn’t quite what we asked for but we know that getting this money shows the council is behind us; that it appreciates what we do. We are constantly fundraising, but what we bring in is returned to the community and we do this so that we can bring jobs and money into the local economy.”

The centre is currently running an inter-generational project with young people, aged 16-25, and older people, to try and bridge the gap between the different age groups. The next project is to create and record a compilation of songs from the 1940s, which were popular during the Second World War, as a way of educating the younger generation about the war. Another venture has seen local residents and business employees create fantastic flower and planting arrangements for gardening competition, Borough in Bloom.

Marion added: “We also work closely with Citizens Advice Bureau, we go around old people’s homes, visit estates and schools and work with the asylum team at the council – we never stop really and there’s never a dull moment! We focus on areas such as employment, training and education and are really pushing the skills-based volunteering, especially as many voluntary organisations are cash-strapped right now.”

The latest grant will help pay for staff, rent and training and core services that the centre provides to volunteers and residents.

Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of H&F Council, said: “The Volunteer Centre has been an integral part of the borough and community for so many years. Marion and her team work tirelessly to help voluntary groups, residents and businesses, and over the years they have helped people back into employment, given training to thousands of volunteers in H&F and, perhaps most importantly, shown that volunteering can be hugely rewarding and enjoyable. We are thrilled that we can support the centre and that they in turn will support so many other groups in H&F.”