Keeping Up With Our Volunteers!!

Last Wednesday we had our first semi social event for volunteers. Kesgrave Social Club very kindly offered us a partitioned area by the bar - the area at the far end of the photo, partitioned by closing the large gap, to the left of the radiator, with the built in roller partition. That’s not us in the photo though – we were all seated giving intense thought to our future programme of publicising the scheme, with just the occasional refreshment to lubricate the process and encourage a creative flow!

It was a really useful session as we were able to swap notes on various things, remind ourselves of the big list of jobs we agreed to complete to move things forward, and refresh ourselves on some of the protocols, and the minimal but essential bureaucracy, that comes along with a scheme of this sort. Most importantly we were able to get to know each other a lot better which not only fulfils part of the social side but is a great help to phone holders to make a better match between those neighbours needing a bit of help and those volunteers offering to give it. It also reminded us what a diverse, practical, proactive, creative and helpful bunch we were – the enthusiasm to be effective Good Neighbours, and the practical skills backing it up was clearly demonstrated!

Since we launched the scheme with our founding group of nearly 20 volunteers, we have several more coming forward and feel that we should devote a meeting every quarter to new volunteers. This would involve a brief induction process for new volunteers including CRB checks, ID card photos and some training on phone and “visiting” protocols. And of course tea, coffee and home made cakes too!

Many thanks to Kesgrave Social Club for letting us use their facilities – one of the pleasures of getting involved in a community scheme like this is finding out so much more about all the great facilities and organisations already available in Kesgrave. 

Volunteers, please put the next date in your diary - Wednesday 28th November at 7 30pm, Kesgrave Social Club, Edmonton Road – we’re aiming to make this a regular fixture for the fourth Wednesday of every month.

Good Neighbour Schemes Forum

On Friday we were lucky enough to be invited to a Good Neighbour Schemes Forum, by Suffolk ACRE, who helped us set up our scheme and the 29 schemes before us. It started with a “do it yourself lunch” (where we all brought a plate of food), a description that belies the excellent spread and the work that went into it. Some were better DIYers than others and the home made bread sandwiches and locally made pork pies were particular highlights!

Over lunch we got to know the members of some of the other schemes and after lunch we all gave a brief report on the highs and lows of the year, or since the newer schemes started. It was very reassuring to learn that our path, so far, is very like most of the other schemes when they were in their infancy, particularly in the time it takes to establish trust in the scheme and spread the word. We agreed that many people who needed help were, like us, reluctant to ask for it and many of the more established schemes felt it was important to be active in the community and seek out (obviously in a discrete and sensitive way) those that might need a helping hand. We hope that, as our volunteers forge individual links with other local organisations, word will spread and we will connect with more of those that need us. It’s started already and we’ve had a steady flow of calls in the last couple of weeks.

We were also updated, very clearly and concisely,by SAVO. on various important changes impacting on the administration of the scheme, notably changes that the government is making to CRB checks. This need not bother our service users at all, or our volunteers very much (and not just yet) but we will be producing a couple of new pages for the volunteer manual in due course to reflect best practice. We were all very grateful not to have to reinvent the wheel ourselves – fortunately for us, SAVO had condensed a huge unwieldy bit of draft legislation, on which they were consulted, into the essential facts (and the normal legislative grey areas) that were relevant to us.

October News

We had a busy but very enjoyable meeting last night at Kesgrave Community Centre. After a quick recap on news over the last month and a report on our stand at the Kesgrave Community Showcase on Saturday, one of the founders of the Wickham Market Good Neighbour Scheme came to talk to us about their history and experiences. Their scheme started in 2007 and has gone from strength to strength to be one of the most successful of the Suffolk Schemes. It’s easy to see why as they obviously put a lot of hard work in at the beginning and continue to do so. Heading towards 1,000 calls per year, it was great to hear how they had got started, maintained momentum and how the scheme had developed according to the community’s needs. Our Chairman was busy scribbling down all the tips and we hope to put most of them into practice!

After some organisational/administrative business, including drawing up a new phone rota to take us up to after the New Year, everyone agreed that it would be a good idea to have a monthly semi social get together to swap ideas and just to meet up with fellow volunteers. Kesgrave Social Club have kindly offered us a partitioned area (near the bar!) for the fourth Wednesday of every month so we will be there from 7 30 to 9 pm on Wednesday 24th October and look forward to seeing as many of our volunteers and friends as possible. Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer or just wanting to know more about the scheme might find this to be the ideal environment to do so.

Find Out The Latest News On Wednesday 3rd October

It’s just a few weeks since our launch date and there’s been lots of progress. Existing volunteers can find out what’s new and potential new volunteers can find out a little more about us. We’re hoping to have a volunteer from the Wickham Market Good Neighbour Scheme to come and tell us how they’re scheme has progressed since they started it up, quite a long time before ours, and we’ll be discussing how best to forge stronger links with other community and help groups. Tea, coffee and perhaps some cake too if we all put our baking aprons on! Our scheme covers all age groups and our volunteers come from all walks of life so it’s also a great opportunity to meet some more neighbours.

Our meetings generally last about an hour but there’s plenty of time to chat afterwards if anyone wants to collar a committee member, or just wants to chat with their neighbours!

Kesgrave Community Showcase

It was great to be able to take part in the first ever Kesgrave Community Showcase last Saturday. Not only did we have a chance to chat to fellow residents about what we might be able to offer them and vice versa, but we also got to talk to all the other great organisations that exist to make Kesgrave community life better and more interesting. From lace makers to sporting clubs and everything else in between.

Pictured are two of our committee members examining the goodies inside the Rural Coffee Caravan bags!