It’s Volunteers’ Week – thank you to our wonderful volunteers for your support

It is Volunteers’ Week (1st – 7th June 2023) and we want to thank our lovely volunteers for sharing their time and skills to help us provide information and support to unpaid family and friend carers. We are in need of more volunteers, so if you have some time to spare occasionally or regularly, please get in touch with our Volunteer Service.

Alex Daar, our Volunteer Manager, said: “We have an incredible team of hard-working and dedicated volunteers, and many, around 40% help us around a caring role. We wouldn’t be able to support as many carers without you and appreciate the time you give to help us ensure unpaid carers are identified, informed, supported and heard.”

Alex explained that carers often tell us how they value the support provided, with compliments such as “Thank you for the time and opportunity to talk to someone and discuss my options of support, I now feel less isolated.”

For Volunteers Week we are celebrating and thanking our volunteers with a cream tea on Monday 5th June 2023 (which is also the start of Carers Week). We are also planning a Volunteer Recruitment Event in our Hertford office on Thursday 13th July 2023 – contact us if you are interested in attending this.

If you don’t already volunteer with us, but are interested in supporting us, your help is needed. Some of the roles can be done at home, such as providing telephone bereavement support and making Keep in Touch calls and others such as mentoring in person near to where you live or over the phone.

We are also looking for Hub Leaders or joint leaders for our carers’ groups in Berkhamsted, Bishop’s Stortford, Borehamwood and Chorleywood and Rickmansworth.

Some of our volunteers have kindly shared their experience of volunteering with us, to give you an idea of what being a Carers in Hertfordshire volunteer is like.

Douglas, who helps register carers and has supported us in making Keep in Touch calls to carers, said: “I enjoy volunteering a couple of hours each week. Talking to and helping people is rewarding and a good use of my time as I’m retired. Volunteering has helped my mental health and provided some structure to my week, although there is flexibility too. I feel valued and appreciate the ongoing support and training that is available.”

Linda, who has been caring for a relative for 10 years and volunteering with us since 2021 and currently provide bereavement support, said: “I enjoy volunteering. I’m learning all the time and get information that may be of use for my caring role or to pass on to others.”

For more information about volunteering with us please email volunteer@carersinherts.org.uk or call us on 01992 58 69 69. You can also visit our volunteer pages to learn more.