Join the army of volunteers

The Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) says Covid-19 has seen vast numbers step up to the plate to help the NHS and their communities, writes Ray Philpott

During its long and proud history, the RVS has consistently proved to be one of the UK’s leading volunteering organisations, and never more so than during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Founded in 1938 as the Women’s Voluntary Service for Air

Raid Precautions, it has once again shown its worth at the country’s hour of greatest need.

The charity successfully recruited 437,000 NHS

Volunteer Responders to play a vital role in keeping health services going, a welcome and much needed addition to its existing 18,000 voluntary workers. RVS volunteers have been playing a vital role during the crisis, stepping into the breach to help people and communities disproportionately affected by Covid-19.

They provide vital support services, such as delivering medicine to the housebound, running telephone companionship services for worried and isolated people, and driving patients to and from busy hospitals.

Rising to the challenge

Rebecca Kennelly, RVS Director of Volunteering, says: “Our core aim is simple: to find as many volunteers as we can to support vulnerable and struggling individuals and groups and make it a rewarding experience for everyone involved.” A big challenge during the pandemic has been ensuring our volunteers and clients are able to interact safely within the government guidelines.

Understandably volunteer roles have had to adapt and

By February the RVS had…

l made more than 286,357 welfare and companionship telephone calls l made more than 15,225 essential grocery and prescription drops l distributed over 20,234 free food packs to vulnerable people and NHS teams l made over 4,406 safe, socially-distanced home and garden visits l undertaken 18,010 home library doorstep deliveries to keep Britain reading l carried out over 7,100 patient and community transport journeys l distributed over 34,154 activity packs to help people keep themselves and their children entertained and active at home.

The Covid pandemic had a disproportionate impact on some communities

change, and new blood has been needed to step into the shoes of those unable to continue for personal, safety or health reasons. “While we haven’t been able to offer the public our usual face-to-face support, we’ve still provided socially-distanced services like shop and drop, and home library doorstep deliveries and collections.”

Kennelly adds: “For practical purposes a lot of our support has become phone-based, such as the hugely popular Companionship service. Some has moved online like our Virtual Village Hall, which helps 32,000 home-based followers stay connected and healthy

The Queen attending a reception given by the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service in London through weekly live and pre-recorded yoga, keep fit and chair-based exercise classes.”

Supporting the NHS

The charity’s role in supporting the NHS has been critical. Kennelly says: “We’ve strongly supported the NHS since it was created, but the pandemic dramatically increased demand on our services, such as delivering essential testing and monitoring equipment to people’s homes and collecting and dropping off essential prescriptions and food for them.”

The new army of NHS Volunteer Responders has acted as a UK-wide safety net for the NHS and really made a difference. They field calls for help and support through the scheme’s Community Response service, contact concerned and isolated people via Check-in and Chat and provide vital transport services for NHS patients and staff, while around 74,000 are vaccination stewards.

Coming from all age groups and diverse communities and locations around the UK, they have completed around 1.6 million volunteering tasks during the pandemic. “The response has been amazing, and we think that’s partly because it’s opened up a new, more flexible way of volunteering,” Kennelly explains. “NHS Volunteer Responders can work the hours they want, when they want because we recognise people have a lot of competing pressures on their lives.

“This approach has changed the volunteering landscape and going forward, we’ll be offering more flexible and micro-volunteering opportunities to make it easier for people to fit voluntary work into their lives and encourage more to step forward.”

Photos: Alamy, iStockphoto

The Duchess of Cornwall visiting the RVS Cornhill Centre

Rebecca Kennelly, RVS Director of Volunteering

“Volunteers often describe their work as a rewarding, life-changing and uplifting experience”

Become a volunteer

Kennelly says that volunteers often describe their work as a rewarding, life-changing and uplifting experience – with some saying its effect is similar to the release of endorphins during exercise.

“The health benefits are well documented and show, for example, that volunteers have enhanced physical, mental and even emotional health and are more likely to have lower blood pressure, be more mentally agile and even possibly live longer,” she explains.

“As we hopefully move into the post-Covid recovery, we’ll continue to need suitable volunteers from all age groups and locations, albeit in different roles, to meet changing needs. So, no matter who you are, or what your experience, skills or personal strengths are, there’s always voluntary work that will be right for you.”

If you would like to volunteer with the RVS or make a donation to support its valuable work, please visit royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk or call 0330 555 0310. n

Two volunteers share their uplifting experiences Here to chat

For Maz Chefakar, being an NHS Volunteer Responder working on Check-in and Chat is both a highly motivational part of her life and helped her get through the pandemic. The Birminghambased, married mother of two joined the RVS in response to a national TV appeal at the very start of the pandemic in March 2020.

As an experienced, semi-retired call centre operator, she’s ideally suited for the Checkin and Chat service. Maz holds friendly and reassuring phone conversations with people who are distressed, anxious or lonely due to the pandemic, referring them to the NHS for appropriate help if needed.

She says: “I’d never volunteered before but I’m experienced in telephone work and a bubbly person who loves speaking with people. It makes me very happy to know that just talking with an anxious person who needs to hear a reassuring voice really makes a huge difference to their lives.

“You have to be prepared to give up your time, but having the flexibility to work the hours that are best for me means I can easily integrate it into my life. To be honest, I’d say it helped to get me through Covid, because being positive with so many has helped me to be positive too and helped to put my own situation in perspective.”

Book dedication

Delivering and collecting books for isolated and vulnerable people in small towns in North Tyneside has been a longstanding passion for retired GP Gillian Parkinson.

She never looked back after joining the Home Library Service in 2006 and was promoted to Volunteer Co-ordinator for a team of 10 volunteers in 2016. Gillian says: “As a GP my job was about interacting with people and I wanted to use that skill to continue providing a valuable service to local communities.”

Prior to the pandemic, an intrinsic part of the Home Library Service involved lots of interaction and chatting with the 10 or so people on each of her monthly rounds.

“Come rain or shine, we ensure customers get their books but it’s the relationship-building that makes it really fulfilling for everyone,” she says. “You get to know all about them and their families and, if you’re happy to share, they’ll take an interest in your life, too.