Bexley Mencap members Joshua and Liam received awards at the annual BVSC Volunteer Excellence Awards on Thursday 12 June.
Joshua won first prize with an Inclusive Voluntary Award and trophy for overcoming barriers to become engaged in volunteering and Liam was commended in the same category.
Joshua has been volunteering for 3 years at the Friends of Bexley charity shop. His job is anything from sorting the bags that come into the shop from donations, to tidying the shop floor. It also includes putting clothes back onto hangers, making sure things are in the correct order and place. At the end of the month, he does a ‘clear out’ of the things that have been available for over 3 months and place them onto the sale rail.
Joshua is assisted in his role by Bexley Mencap’s Support Worker, Di Hayes-Holgate
She says that Joshua has grown in confidence with the staff that work there and the other volunteers. He enjoys the banter that goes on in the shop, especially if we have a quiet period. He even enjoys making the tea for everyone. There are some regulars that pop into the shop that chat to Joshua when they are there.
“It is great to see Joshua in a workplace setting enjoying all aspects of daily life there, from making the tea, sorting the clothes and chatting about the latest film at the cinema.”
‘I’m pleased to get the award,’ said Josh. ‘It’s a friendly place and I’ve learnt a lot of new skills since I joined,’ he added.
Liam is a volunteer in a British Heart Foundation shop. One of his jobs is to steam the clothes with a special iron to get rid of creases before they can be presented for sale on the shop floor. He also sorts out the book donations into various categories and helps with putting on price labels for various goods such as clothes and dvds.
‘I like helping out,’ says Liam. ‘Every week we get new bags of donations and so I have to go through what we get and sort them out into different groups.’
As well as volunteering, Liam is no stranger to helping out in other ways as he has acted as a Quality Checker, being supported to visit local care and support services and complete reports on how local services could improve to better help people with a learning disability. He’s also appeared in health awareness videos in GP services as part of a campaign to improve take up of annual health checks and promote better access to health care services in general. |
