Our volunteers received the following email today from our chair, Jen:
Hi Everyone
It’s Volunteer Week. I was just listening to Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 and they had a lovely item about a woman who volunteers by providing nursing care to homeless people.
Last week I joined a Zoom meeting with Volunteer Coordinators (standing in for Jane Ryan) hosted by Peterborough Council for Voluntary Services (PCVS) about how best to harness the overwhelming numbers of people stepping up to help during this awful pandemic. We talked about the differences between formal and informal/neighbourliness volunteering. It was a very interesting discussion and hopefully our ideas will be fed back to the local council. Volunteer Week is a great opportunity to recognise what people do and how brilliant it is that people from all walks of life come together to carry out a huge range of diverse roles in our communities. The coronavirus crisis has really drawn attention to the work of volunteers and provided lots of opportunities for both new and existing volunteers – I’m sure many of you will have found ways to help.
Missing our April meeting this year has meant that we have not had an opportunity to recognise the important contribution that you make. So I’m very pleased that Volunteer Week provides the chance to reflect on that. People at the prison will be missing us and it’s at times like this that we need to recognise what you all do and how important it is to continue, even if we don’t really know when that will be.
I hope you are all keeping well and able to take advantage of a slight relaxation of the lockdown rules.
Very best wishes
Jen