Celebrating Volunteers
Last week marked the 40th annual Volunteers’ Week, and to honour the hard work and difference our volunteers have made to the lives of staff and service users alike, BCHC Charity hosted a celebration event at the MAC Birmingham on Wednesday 5th June.
BCHC Charity became an active charity in 2016, with the mission to make a real difference for patients, their families and the staff who treat them within Birmingham Community Healthcare services. Throughout this time 241 volunteers have provided over 689 hours to help maintain and enhance green spaces across our sites, support at BCHC Charity events, assist in the delivery of patient specific projects such as packing winter support bags, and much more.
The celebration event gave BCHC Charity the chance to offer a sincere and heartfelt thank you to those that have helped spread some sparkle across the Trust over the years. It also gave volunteers time to reflect on the impact they have had across the Trust, with presentations from partners and volunteers, fun activities, and networking.
Birmingham Voluntary Service Council’s Rebecca Isaac said: “I heard about the BCHC Charity eight months ago through work, where I found out about the variety of ways that volunteers can make an impact within community services. BCHC Charity have been supportive of Birmingham’s Vision for Volunteering and have provided insight from volunteering professionals ‘on the ground’ which has helped to form and shape further work. Thanks to Vanisha Mistry, Sarah Binks and the team, I was also able to help the Summit Learning Trust get involved with corporate volunteering.
Rebecca reflected on how volunteering is not just for charities benefit; “Volunteering benefits people in so many ways. It increases their social connections, helps them to gain new skills and experiences and gives them a sense of purpose. Spending time doing something meaningful helps improve wellbeing and is a source of motivation, particularly for employee volunteers where it can boost job satisfaction and productivity.”
“Volunteers create spaces of hope and bring hope to people in challenging times. They use their voice, energy, time, skills, and experience to make a difference to many local people and causes. Birmingham wouldn’t be the city it is without its amazing volunteers!”
Anup Mistry from Allianz Insurance was first introduced to BCHC Charity at the Volunteer Expo in 2022. “Allianz have been involved in a variety of volunteering opportunities across BCHC. We first participated in their open day at the MAC where we helped with several tasks, including CPR training. We also took part in preparations for the NHS tea party within BCHC, which was then followed by our own in our office, in which we raised over £500 for the Charity. More recently we have done some green space volunteering at Moseley Hall Hospital and West Heath Hospital over four occasions. With being office based, it has been great to get out in the open air, particularly as there is lots of pressure within our industry. Volunteering at BCHC has really improved the morale and mental health of our teams and they have all have enjoyed it very much."
“I was on a career break and wanted to do some volunteering that was flexible around my family life, so I attended an event at the NEC where I met BCHC Charity,” says Alex Sambrooks. “Over the past year I have been involved in lots of opportunities such as the Big Tea and other patient and visitor projects, as well as being able to volunteer alongside various organisations such as Mitie. Since doing so, I have a sense of fulfilment and have made many connections, and being able to care and give back is so enriching. I have been able to exercise my brain and get a whole new perspective of the services you provide and help others in doing so.”
Volunteering with a charity is a great way to give back to your local community whilst learning new skills and gaining valuable experience of the way charities work to make a difference, and BCHC Charity cannot thank our volunteers enough for their time and energy over the years. The celebration event included a quiz which provided volunteers with information and statistics on how volunteers have been such a huge support to the NHS generally, and to BCHC specifically, over the years. Anup said, “Learning about the different ways our volunteering helps BCHC, it gave a more tangible reason as to why volunteering is so important. It was a really lovely idea to invite the volunteers in to celebrate what we have done.”
Unfortunately, we are currently unable to take on individuals for volunteering as we are only able to work with groups; if you would like to do a group volunteer day with your work or university, please get in touch, or visit our Volunteering For Us page for more information.