Last week a group of eight volunteers completed their introductory training and are now fully fledged Wirral Ways Volunteers. The cohort received their training from Wirral Way’s Service User Involvement and Volunteer Lead, Mellissa Scarlett.
Mellissa said: “Volunteers are an integral part of the service we deliver. Our volunteers are committed to helping us build an organisation that respects the values and the diversity of everyone who accesses our service regardless of an individual’s protected characteristic.
We believe in people, and it is my passion to see individuals grow personally and professionally.”
Varied roles and responsibilities
The volunteers will join a variety of teams, from the Outreach to the Medical Team. Some will also be joining the team in Nightingales Recovery Café, working to prep food and provide support and advice to those in need.
Joining our Nightingales Café team are Bev and John. John, an ex-service user, said: “It was very interesting to know a lot of things that go on that we didn't know about and I'm just looking forward to helping out.”
The value of lived experience
Our volunteers play a massive role within Wirral Ways. Without them, the service wouldn’t run as it does. Our volunteers have often been through our services themselves and this is the next step on their recovery journey. This sets them up in the unique position of being able to able to use their first-hand experience to provide support and advice to service users. Our volunteers can also set new service users’ minds at ease as they know the process and how the service works.
David, a new volunteer within the Academy team, said, “I've been through the service, through the academy, so it'd be nice to give them a bit of knowledge I've learnt back to other individuals.”
Jackie, who’s going to work with the team who runs our Health Huddle, added, “I've learnt some very valuable information, new things. It was delivered very well indeed, very professional. I feel grateful and I can't wait to grow with Change Grow Live.”
Training and accreditation
All our volunteers have an accredited induction and accredited training courses before they commence any role at Wirral Ways. Candidates must also be willing to have a DBS check to ensure we are following all our safeguarding policies. We place very high importance on issues around safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults.
We have a variety of different roles, so watch out for our next recruitment round in 2023.
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