Volunteers’ Week takes place 1-7 June every year. It is a chance to recognise the fantastic contribution volunteers make to PROPS and the communities we work in … and to say thank you.
At PROPS we have a small and loyal volunteer team, some provide specialist advise and others support all of the team to be able to provide the best that we can for everybody who uses our service.
As with the rest of the PROPS team, our volunteers kept going throughout lockdown…. in a remote way.
Peter was on hand to provide technical support while we not only navigated a new way of working because of Covid-19 but at the same time started to find our way around our new data base.
Lesley, as always, was available to answer any questions and give advice regarding money and financial issues. As we were all working away from the office, Lesley offered to take any incoming phone calls on the main line for one day a week – as the tedium of lock-down set in it wasn’t long before she offered to take on an additional day. And that’s not everything …. Lesley continued to stay in contact with the carers who were regulars at the PROPS fortnightly ‘Library group’ to ensure they still had support and advise when they needed it.
Claire found new and imaginative ways to provide counselling on-line to ensure that this service continued to be offered during a time when people were facing additional worries and anxieties.
Muriel maintained contact with the North Tyneside peer support group, ringing them regularly to let them know that she and PROPS were still around for them and was available if a group member needed to talk.
And we shouldn’t forget our dedicated Board of Trustees, Sue, Denise, Alastair and Lynne, who work endlessly and quietly behind the scenes providing guidance, support and encouragement to ensure our charity, now in its 25th year, continues to be the service that is trusted to deliver the highest level of service to every carer and organisation we work with.
We had a new volunteer join us, Fatema. Fatema will be facilitating a new group in Newcastle, more information will be given about this soon, and despite not being able to meet people face-to-face we have used the time to plan the work in readiness for the group starting.
Andrea, who has supported PROPS for a long time, decided that she liked us so much she wanted to take it up a notch and was successful in securing a part time job, very quickly this became a full-time role.
The number of words written doesn’t reflect nearly enough the amount of work the volunteers do for PROPS.
It just leaves me to once again say Thank You on behalf of PROPS to each member of the volunteer team for their energy, enthusiasm and commitment and most importantly the time they donate to support PROPS and our carers.
As a small token of PROPS appreciation volunteers received a hamper of goodies.
Thank You!
Helen Thompson