Therese, Volunteer with Nottingham City care Partnership, St Ann’s Health Centre.
My name is Therese , I am currently volunteering with Nottingham City care Partnership at St Ann’s Health Centre once a week, and my role is to provide administrative support to the teams.
Since starting my volunteering placement at Nottingham CityCare, I have greatly enjoyed the skills and knowledge I have gained through a variety of tasks, including communicating and meeting new people. Not only is the placement greatly beneficial, but also the process of applying and interviewing for the role has meant I have now built-up confidence when applying for new jobs.
Having a disability myself, I am particularly impressed with Nottingham CityCare and the way they promote being a Disability Confident company and the way they pride themselves on their key values – Kindness, Respect, Trust, and Honesty.
In my daily life, I communicate with spoken English language and primary and visual British Sign Language. Because of this, it is so important for a workplace to show inclusivity and to care and support with the ways I communicate.
Sign Language promotes the social inclusion by breaking down communication barriers and maintains good connections on both sides. Wearing my cochlear implant means I can hear advanced sounds, including communication tones and understanding what individuals and groups are talking about.
Furthermore, I have noticed the way Nottingham CityCare aim to include all staff and offer great support. CityCare had even provided me with British Sign Language’ interpreters, so that they interpreted to translate into the sign language for me to access the information in the meeting and training. I can say that because of this, I have felt settled and so happy in my role as a volunteer at Nottingham CityCare.
I had started volunteering at St Ann Health Centre last October 2023, and I am still in my role today. I gained great experience with the administrative work, effective communication skills with the team, and the inclusive environment that the staff have worked hard to make for someone with a hearing disability. The team are brilliant to work with, they show great empathy, and they do everything they can to make communicating easier for me.
The volunteering placement at Nottingham City Care Partnership exceeded my expectations with what I have learnt in administration. Thanks to CityCare, I believe there is no stopping and holding me back where I can go, especially with my disability and language. I now recommend to any individuals who have disability, who are deaf, hard of hearing or with language barriers, to volunteer with Nottingham City care.
Thank you Nottingham CityCare, for showing a great standard of values, behaviours, and following equality of opportunity. We are all working together to improve equality, diversity, and inclusivity.
Lauren, administrator for St Ann's District Nursing team spoke about Therese and her impact on their team.
My team and I have a great Volunteer, Therese who supports in St Anns one day a week. Therese makes an enormous difference to our team; she offers lots of help with administration and fits perfectly into the community nursing team.
Since starting my role in January, I have helped to expand Therese’s knowledge on computer skills by answering and supporting with any question she has. Furthermore, as Therese has hearing loss, we have both worked on effective ways to communicate with each other to ensure we can complete and understand the task at hand.
I find supporting a volunteer extremely rewarding, knowing I am helping someone extend their knowledge and skills which can be massively beneficial in helping them look for other jobs in the future.
I couldn’t recommend being a volunteer supervisor enough. Being able to help and support a volunteer and contribute to them learning and developing new skills and build confidence is so rewarding.
In my case, supporting Therese who has a disability has been even more rewarding, as it has also improved my problem solving and communication skills. The time spent with Therese has now meant I think about how I communicate with others differently and has developed skills on how to implement teaching in a new way.
Date published: 5 June 2024
Lauren (left) and Therese (right)