Volunteering to feel at home

Where I grew up, in the Soviet Union, ‘volunteering’ was a word we hated. It wasn’t voluntary but more like forced labour — such as mandatory unpaid work on collective farms harvesting potatoes.

When I came to Britain in 2015 with my family, language and cultural differences meant a sense of isolation and difficulty in getting work. I tried joining various clubs and learned that volunteering was something quite different from what I knew. It could be varied, fun, a force for good and above all optional.

I started by contacting the Thornbury Volunteer Centre to see if there was some way I might make use of my languages. They put an advert in the local paper and I ended up volunteering in three very different situations — interpreting and translating for a school in Bradley Stoke, helping at a social club for adults with learning disabilities in Alveston and serving lunch at a luncheon club in Thornbury.

This did wonders for my confidence. My English improved and I began to feel part of the local community. Volunteering led to paid work and I stopped volunteering for a while but then in May 2019 I gained some spare time and could start again.

I called back into the Volunteer Centre. They offered me a role as a volunteer co-ordinator. This involves me in contacting organisations via phone and email and updating the details we have on file. I publish new volunteer opportunities on the national volunteering database and the Centre’s website and maintain the records. This has helped me become more confident on the telephone and develop a more colloquial way of speaking. The people I work with are very friendly and make me part of the team.

I’m fully part of Thornbury society these days. It was volunteering that did it.